This study examines the
Pentateuchal account of Israel’s preparations for entering Canaan, appearing
within the concluding section of the Book of Numbers. Literary-critical
analysis reveals that each of the passages that comprise this account is the
product of several stages of composition, with each literary stratum reflecting
the ideological tendencies of the authors responsible for its creation. It
emerges that ideological disputes that raged in Judea of the Persian period,
when these texts were composed, manifested themselves in historiographical
accounts describing a much earlier time – that just prior to the entry into
Canaan. The wilderness period, seen as decisive for Israel’s past, and the
notion of the Mosaic Torah believed to have been given during this formative
era, along with the obvious parallel to these Judean authors’ own days, those
of the return from exile, led them to depict the events at the end of Moses’
time in ways that addressed the burning questions of Yehud of the Persian
period. The textual and historical analysis reveals that a previously
unrecognized substratum, running throughout the account, has been augmented by
several editorial additions. This recognition in turn sheds new light on the
Pentateuch’s formation and on the historical circumstances reflected in its
composition.
