CHAPTER 20

THE LOST LAWS OFTHE 1SmELITESTHE EXODUS AND THE TENCOMMANDMENTS

K

ing Josiah came to Judah's throne when he was onlyeight years old. According to the Second Book of

Kings, Josiah grew up to be a just and good king. In the18th year of his reign, he decided to repair the old templethat King Solomon had built in Jerusalem 300 years earlier.He hired carpenters, builders, and stonemasons for the job.As it turned out, these workers did more than restore God'stemple. In the course of their labors, they discovered ascroll, a rolled document, that had been lost or hidden therefor decades, perhaps centuries. According to the SecondBook of Kings, when they showed it to the high priest, he

was overjoyed and said: "I have found the Book of the Law

in the temple of the Lord."

Historians believe that this scroll was part of the Book

of Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Hebrew Bible. Deuter-

onomy lists many, many laws that the Israelites

believed God had given to their early leader

Moses. When Josiah's secretary read the

book aloud, the king was terrified

and tore his clothes to show how

upset he was. He knewthat the Israelites hadforgotten God's laws.

This oil lamp has eight openings

for eight wicks. Biblical writers often

mentioned lamps, such as this one,

giving light in tents, caves, homes, and

in the Temple, where theirflickering light

symbolized the sacred spirit.

@ THE BOOKOF SECOND KINGS,EXODUS, ANDDEUTERONOMY

Il Kings, Hebrew Bible

126 THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN WORLD THE LOST LAWS OF THE ISRAELITES 127

Il Kings, Hebrew Bible

Exodus comes from theGreek word exodos,

which means "departure. "

The word is related tothe English word exit.

Exodus, Hebrew Bible

Fearing God's fury, he declared, "Great is the Lord's angerthat burns against us, because our fathers have not obeyedthe words of this book."

According to the Book of Kings, Josiah decided that hehad better give a public speech. "He went up to the templeof the Lord with the men ofJudah, the people ofJerusalem,.all the people from the least to the greatest. He read... thewords of the book, which had been found in the temple."The king promised to keep God's laws, and all the peoplewho listened that day agreed to follow God.

The hero of Deuteronomy is an Israelite named Moses,but his story actually begins in Exodus, the second bookof the Hebrew Bible. As Exodus begins, Abraham's great-grandson Joseph has died, and the Israelites have lost favorwith the Egyptian pharaoh. In fact, by the time of Moses'birth, Pharaoh had enslaved the Israelites. Despite the hardwork they were forced to do, the Israelite tribe grew so largethat Pharaoh got nervous. He commanded the midwives,who helped women during childbirth, to kill all of theinfant sons born to Israelite women. According to theHebrew Bible, Pharaoh said: "If it is a son, you shall killhim, but if it is a daughter, she shall live."

The Book of Exodus tells how one Israelite womanmanaged to hide her newborn son for three months. Then,desperate, she "took a basket made of bulrushes ... and putthe child in it." She set it afloat on the Nile River. WhenPharaoh's daughter "came down to bathe, . she saw thebasket among the reeds and sent her maid to fetch it." Theprincess adopted the child and named him Moses.

The Israelites believed that God had chosen Moses tolead them out of their slavery in Egypt. The Book of Exodusdescribes how Moses, when he grew to manhood, stood upto the Egyptian ruler and demanded, "Thus says the Lord,the God of Israel, 'Let my people go."' When Pharaohrefused to release the Israelites, God rained down punish-ments on the Egyptians. The Nile River turned to blood. Aswarm of gnats and flies infested the earth, and the peoplebroke out with sores all over their bodies. Finally a swarmof locusts, large grasshopper-like insects, "covered ... the

whole land, so that the land was darkened, and they ate allthe plants ... until not a green thing remained." Desperateat last, Pharaoh begged Moses to take all the people, thecattle—everything—and leave. "Get away from me," hepleaded, "never see my face again."

For Jews, the Exodus is a central event in their history.

The escape from Egyptian slavery demonstrated God'scontinued connection to the Jewish people. It is also apowerful symbol for all people showing the importance of

freedom that has lated throughout the ages. Every yearJewish families remember the Exodus during Passover. In

In this early Christian mosaic, Moses has parted the waters of the Red Sea.

The Israelites cross on dry land, but Pharaoh's soldiers, chariots, and horses

drown in its churning waves.

E J E W 1 S 14

before 1500 BCEAbraham leads

Hebrews to Levant

around 1200 BCEMoses leads Israelitesfrom Egypt to Levant

around 1020 BCESaul's reign begins

around 1000 BCEDavid's reign begins

around 960 BCESolomon's reign begins

922 BCEIsrael divides into two

kingdoms

722 BCEAssyrian conquest

of Israel

598-597 BCEJehoiachin of Judah

reigns

587 BCEFinal Babylonian

conquest of Judah;Babylonian exile

begins

539 BCEJews allowed to return

to Jerusalem

128 THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN WORLD

Deuteronomy, Hebrew Bible

Moses—played by Charlton

Heston in the 1956 movie The TenCommandments—holds the twostone tablets on which the lawswere written.

their ceremony they rededi-cate themselves to the causeof freedom for all people.

According to the HebrewBible, Moses led the formerslaves on their journey fromEgypt into Canaan. Alongthe way, Moses received amessage from God as hestood at the top of a moun-tain in the wilderness. Godpromised that if the Israelitepeople would obey his com-mandments, he would pro-

tect them and take care of them. Moses announced to thepeople these ten laws, expressed as God's will:

1. I am the Lord your God who brought you out ofEgypt.... You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall not make ... any graven images[idols].... You shall not bow down and worshipthem..

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord yourGod in vain...

4. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy.... Sixdays, shall you labor and do all your work, but the

seventh day is a Sabbath unto your God..

5. Honor your father and your mother...

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery [by being unfaithfulto your husband or wifel.

8. You shall not steal.

THE LOST LAWS OF THE ISRAELITES 129

9. You shall not bear false witness[tell lies].

10. You shall not covet [be jealous].

The people believed that God wrote these laws, knownas the Ten Commandments, on two stone tablets. Thesecommandments were absolute

laws—no ifs, ands, or buts.

Absolute laws never change.

The Israelites believed that if

they followed the laws, they

would have long life, good health,

many children, and prosperity. But

if they disobeyed God's laws, hewould be angry and punish them.

Josiah seems to have been mostworried about the commandment that

tells the Israelites not to worship anygods other than God. Some Israelite people

had begun to worship the gods of theirCanaanite neighbors, so the king pulleddown the altars and destroyed all the tem-ples to other gods. Then he told the peopleto celebrate the Passover, which recalledthe time when the Israelites escaped fromslavery in Egypt. And Jews have celebratedthe Passover holiday every year since then.

The discovery of the Book of Deuter-onomy had a major effect on the Israelitepeople. It reminded them that they shouldworship just one God. It gave them lawsto follow in their relationships to oneanother as well as to God, and it gave

A god holds a shield in one hand and raises his

sword in the other, ready to attack his enemies. Thestatue may represent the god Baal, whom theCanaanites worshiped.

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132 THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN WORLD

HOLY NAMES

To English-speaking Jewsand Christians his name is

God or Lord. In Hebrew, hisname is Adonai; in French,

Dieu, and in German,Gatt—and many othernames, depending on thelanguage of the believers.

flourished. Wise people read the laws and wrote comments

about them. Others read these Commentaries, as they were

called, and expanded on them. The importance of living

under a set of laws became a basic principle of all Jewish

and Christian societies and, later, of almost all modern

countries.

We know about the Israelites' beliefs about creation,

their early leaders, and the histories of their kings because

they are recorded in the Hebrew Bible. These are part of the

sacred writings of the Jewish people that were passed down

orally from one generation to the next until they were put

into written form.

Scholars think that the Hebrew Bible began to be written

down around the time of King Solomon in the 10th century

BCE. Then, for six hundred years more, people continued to

collect and write accounts. Scholars can tell that this hap-

pened because the authors wrote in different styles. Those who

wrote later often mentioned people and events from their

own times. And various authors used different vocabulary.

Imagine a play written by Shakespeare and then a book by

J. K. Rowling. Even if bits of each one were put together in

the same book and the authors' names were left out, you

would still know that they were written by different people.

The same is true of biblical writers.

No matter who wrote down the words, the Israelite

people came to believe that there was the only one God and

that he ruled over all peoples. Monotheism, belief in one

God, was one of the Israelites' most important contri-

butions to world history. Both Christians and Muslims

later adopted monotheism, too. Today Jews, Christians, and

Muslims all worship one God, though they call him by dif-

ferent names.