Bible/King James/Documentary Hypothesis/Deuteronomist source/Secondary Deuteronomist Additions/Threats and Promises

<Bible, English, King James, According to the documentary hypothesis | Deuteronomist source

According to the documentary hypothesis, the Torah is composed from a number of originally independant sources joined by a redactor. One of these supposed sources is named the "Deuteronomist", due to it composing the vast majority of the text of Deuteronomy.

In the documentary hypothesis this source is believed to have been written in two editions, the second edition making changes so that it explained how king Josiah's positive qualities failed to prevent God from punishing Judah via the Babylonian Empire after Josiah's death. The bulk of the changes thought to have been added to the text in the second edition are threats by God to destroy Judah and Israel for excessive idolatry, and promises to restore Judah and Israel from such destruction if they repent.

The numbering does not necessarily reflect that in the original source, but instead exists simply to make life easier for the modern reader

Threats

First threat

(from Deuteronomy 4:29-31)

1 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

2 When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days,

3 If thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

4 (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;)

5 He will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

Second threat

(from Deuteronomy 8:19-20)

1 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them,

2 I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

3 As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish;

4 Because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.

Third threat

(from Deuteronomy 28:36-37)

1 The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known;

2 And there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.

3 And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.

Fourth threat

(from Deuteronomy 28:63-68)

1 And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you;

2 So the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought;

3 And ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

4 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other;

5 And there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

6 And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest:

7 But the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:

8 And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:

9 In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!

10 For the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

11 And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again:

12 And there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.

Fifth threat

(from Deuteronomy 29:21-28)

1 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel,

2 According to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:

3 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land,

4 Shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;

5 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein,

6 Like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

7 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?

8 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers,

9 Which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

10 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:

11 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:

12 And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation,

13 And cast them into another land, as it is this day.

Sixth threat

(from Deuteronomy 31:16-18)

1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers;

2 And this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land,

3 Wwhither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

4 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them,

5 And I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them;

6 So that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?

7 And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.

Promises

First promise

(from Deuteronomy 4:25-28)

1 When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves,

2 And make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger:

3 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it;

4 Ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

5 And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.

6 And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

Second promise

First half

(from Deuteronomy 30:1-10)

1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee,

2 And thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,

3 And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day,

4 Thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;

5 That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee,

6 And will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

7 If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:

8 And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it;

9 And he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

10 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed,

11 To love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

12 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.

13 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.

14 And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand,

15 In the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good:

16 For the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:

17 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God,

18 To keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law,

19 And if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

Second half

(from Deuteronomy 30:14-20)

1 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

2 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

3 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways,

4 And to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply:

5 And the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

6 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

7 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land,

8 Whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

9 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing:

10 Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

11 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him:

12 For he is thy life, and the length of thy days:

13 That thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.