The Song of Moses is the

poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

which appears in

Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...

of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Moses' death on

Mount Nebo Mount Nebo (; ) is an elevated ridge located in Jordan, approximately Height above sea level, above sea level. Part of the Abarim mountain range, Mount Nebo is mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised L ...

. Sometimes the Song is referred to as Deuteronomy 32, despite the fact that Deuteronomy chapter 32 contains nine verses (44–52) which are not part of the Song. Most scholars hold that it was composed between the tenth and eighth centuries BCE, although dates as early as the twelfth century or as late as the fifth have been proposed.

Biblical narrative

According to verses 16–18 of Deuteronomy 31,

YHWH The TetragrammatonPronounced ; ; also known as the Tetragram. is the four-letter Hebrew-language theonym (transliterated as YHWH or YHVH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four Hebrew letters, written and read from right to left, a ...

met with Moses and his nominated successor

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

at the " tabernacle of meeting" and told them that after Moses' death, the

people of Israel Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

would renege on the covenant that YHWH had made with them, and worship the gods of the lands they were occupying. YHWH told Moses to write down the words of a song and teach it to the community, so that it would be a "witness for Me against the children of Israel." Verse 22 states that Moses did as he had been instructed, and in verse 30 he then "spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended". The Song opens with an exordium (verses 1–3) in which heaven and earth are summoned to hear what the poet is to utter. In verses 4–6 the theme is defined: it is the rectitude and faithfulness of YHWH toward His corrupt and faithless people. Verses 7–14 portray the providence which conducted Israel in safety through the wilderness and gave it a rich and fertile land. Verses 15–18 are devoted to Israel's unfaithfulness and lapse into idolatry. This lapse had compelled YHWH to threaten it (verses 19–27) with national disaster and almost with national extinction. Verses 28–43 describe how YHWH has determined to speak to the Israelites through the extremity of their need, to lead them to a better mind, and to grant them victory over their foes. In a

Torah scroll A Sephardic Torah scroll rolled to the first paragraph of the Shema An Ashkenazi Torah scroll rolled to the Decalogue file:Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Interior, Tora Cases.jpg">Torah cases at Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue, Mumbai, India ...

the song is written with a special layout, in two parallel columns.

Critical view

The parallelism is unusually regular. The general plan of the poem resembles that of

Psalm 78 Psalm 78 is the 78th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Give ear, O my people, to my law". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations of the Bi ...

105 105 may refer to: *105 (number), the number * AD 105, a year in the 2nd century AD * 105 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 105 (telephone number), the emergency telephone number in Mongolia * 105 (MBTA bus), a Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority ...

, and

106 106 may refer to: * 106 (number), the number * AD 106, a year in the 2nd century AD * 106 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 106 (emergency telephone number), an Australian emergency number * 106 (MBTA bus), a route of the Massachusetts Bay Transpor ...

, and the prose of Ezekiel 29, as well as the allegories of Ezekiel 26 and 33. The poem opening verse is also echoed in the opening of Isaiah.

Scholarly views

According to the modern

documentary hypothesis The documentary hypothesis (DH) is one of the models used by biblical scholars to explain the origins and composition of the Torah (or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible: Book of Genesis, Genesis, Book of Exodus, Exodus, Leviticus, Bo ...

the poem was an originally separate text that was inserted by the

deuteronomist The Deuteronomist, abbreviated as either Dtr or simply D, may refer either to the source document underlying the core chapters (12–26) of the Book of Deuteronomy, or to the broader "school" that produced all of Deuteronomy as well as the Deutero ...

into the second edition (of 2), of the text which became Deuteronomy (i.e., was an addition in 'Dtr2'). The poem, cast partly in the

future tense In grammar, a future tense ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that generally marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future. An example of a future tense form is the French ''achètera'', mea ...

, describes how

Yahweh Yahweh was an Ancient Semitic religion, ancient Semitic deity of Weather god, weather and List of war deities, war in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Judah, Judah and Kingdom ...

is provoked into punishing the Israelites due to their

apostasy Apostasy (; ) is the formal religious disaffiliation, disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous re ...

, resulting in the Israelites being destroyed. Dtr2 is believed to have been produced as a reaction to the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...

being sent into its

Babylonian exile The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The deportations occurre ...

, and thus to Dtr1's (the hypothesised first edition of Deuteronomy) positive outlook, and suggestion of an upcoming golden age, being somewhat no longer appropriate. Consequently, the poem fits the aim of Dtr2, in retroactively accounting for Israel's misfortune, and, indeed, may have been composed at a similar time. Though both Jewish and Christian sources have traditionally attributed the Song to Moses, the conditions presupposed by the poem render the Mosaic authorship of it impossible according to critical commentary. The Exodus and the wilderness wanderings lie in the distant past. The writer's contemporaries may learn of them from their fathers (verse 7). The Israelites are settled in Canaan (verses 13–14); sufficient time has passed for them not only to fall into idolatry (verses 15–19), but to be brought to the verge of ruin. They are pressed hard by heathen foes (verse 30); but Yahweh promises to interpose and rescue his people (verses 34–43).

Dating the Song

There are differences of opinion as to precisely when and by whom the song was written. George E. Mendenhall from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

assigns it to the period just after the defeat of the

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

at the battle of

Eben-Ezer Eben-Ezer () is a location that is mentioned by the Books of Samuel as the scene of battles between the Israelites and Philistines. It is specified as having been less than a day's journey by foot from Shiloh (biblical city), Shiloh, near Aphek ...

, and its authorship to the prophet

Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...

: :"The poem cannot have originated at any time than after the destruction of Shiloh" and "... there is an impressive number of linguistic correlations in this text with the language and idioms of the syllabic texts from

Byblos Byblos ( ; ), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, Lebanese Arabic, locally ), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited ...

; those correlations also cluster around Exodus 15, Judges 5, Deuteronomy 33, and Genesis 49". When all of Deuteronomy 31:14–23 was referred to JE, the poem was believed to be anterior thereto, and was believed to be contemporary with the Assyrian wars under Jehoash and

Jeroboam II Jeroboam II (, ''Yāroḇʿām''; ; ), also referred to as Jeroboam son of Jehoash, was the successor of Jehoash (alternatively spelled Joash) and the thirteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, over which he ruled for forty-one years in ...

(c. 780 BCE). To this period it is referred by

August Dillmann Christian Friedrich August Dillmann (25 April 18237 July 1894) was a German orientalist and biblical scholar. Life The son of a Württemberg schoolmaster, he was born at Illingen. He was educated at the University of Tübingen, where he became ...

, Schrader, Samuel Oettli,

Heinrich Ewald Georg Heinrich August Ewald (16 November 1803 – 4 May 1875) was a German orientalist, Protestant theologian, and Biblical exegete. He studied at the University of Göttingen. In 1827 he became extraordinary professor there, in 1831 ordinary pr ...

Adolf Kamphausen Adolf Kamphausen (10 September 1829 – 13 September 1909, in Bonn) was a German Protestant theologian. He was known for his liberal views in regard to Biblical exegesis.

and Edouard Guillaume Eugène Reuss. Kuenen and Driver, who believe that the expression "those which are not a people" in verse 21 refers to the

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

ns, assign the poem to the age of

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

and

Ezekiel Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him. The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied ...

(c. 630 BCE); while Cornill, Steuernagel, and Bertholet refer it to the closing years of the Exile, i.e., the period of the second Isaiah.

Similarity to other places in the Old Testament

Isaiah 1:2 begins similar to Deuteronomy 32:1 by calling on heaven and earth as witnesses, making Isaiah's introduction in the style of the Song of Moses. Psalm 50 in Psalm 50:1 and Psalm 50:4 will also begin the same as Deuteronomy 32:1, making that Psalm poetically also in the style of the Song of Moses.''Psalms for Preaching and Worship, A Lectionary Commentary'', 2009, editor: Roger Van Harn, p. 167

Musical settings

:''Disambiguation; for Cantemus Domino see

Song of the Sea The Song of the Sea (, ''Shirat HaYam''; also known as ''Az Yashir Moshe'' and Song of Moses, or ''Mi Chamocha'') is a poem that appears in the Book of Exodus of the Hebrew Bible, at . It is followed in verses 20 and 21 by a much shorter song su ...

''. * Audite cæli quæ loquor, grand motet, S.7 by

Michel Richard Delalande Michel Richard Delalande e Lalande'' (; 15 December 1657 – 18 June 1726) was a French Baroque composer and organist who was in the service of King Louis XIV. He was one of the most important composers of grands motets. He also wrote o ...

. * Audite caeli by

Francesco Provenzale Francesco Provenzale (25 September 1632 – 6 September 1704) was an Italian Baroque composer and teacher.Fabris 2016. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. Notably Provenzale was the teacher of famed castrato 'i ...

. Both Songs of Moses, as with Habakkuk 3 (Domine Audivi), and 1 Samuel 2 (Exultavit Cor Meum) are counted as

canticle In the context of Christian liturgy, a canticle (from the Latin ''canticulum'', a diminutive of ''canticum'', "song") is a psalm-like song with biblical lyrics taken from elsewhere than the Book of Psalms, but included in psalters and books su ...

s in church use.

References

External links

* Michael S. Heiser
Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God
{{DEFAULTSORT:Song Of Moses Texts attributed to Moses Book of Deuteronomy Canticles