Covenant Blessings and Curses (26:1–46)

Do not . . . set up . . . a sacred stone (26:1). At Bethel, Jacob set up a stone as a pillar to mark the place of his dream and dedicated it to God by pouring oil on it (Gen. 28:18). From very early times, other ancient Near Eastern people also set up religious standing stones, called maṣṣēbôt in Hebrew. For example, in the Negev and Sinai Deserts, archaeologist Uzi Avner has identified and documented many prehistoric sites that contain such stone pillars. Avner has demonstrated that some of these maṣṣebôt represented groups of deities, just as groups of gods were depicted in sculpture throughout the ancient Near East.279

While maṣṣebôt and idols differed in that the former represented deities abstractly without attempting to portray physical likeness, standing stones “were objects of veneration and worship, conventionalized aniconic representations of a deity.”280 So it is no wonder that Israelite law prohibited their use. However, while Jacob earlier set up his stone as a sacred maṣṣēbâ to mark the spot where the Lord had appeared to him (Gen. 28:16–22; 31:13), there is no hint that he regarded the stone as an object of worship.

Do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it (26:1). Because this kind of idolatrous practice appears only here in the Bible, its nature has been obscure. However, comparison with an Assyrian text has led V. Hurowitz to propose that the “carved stone” is a stone slab placed in the ground, possibly in a doorway, decorated with engraved divine symbols and bowed down upon, enabling the supplicant to kiss the ground with the purpose of having his or her wish granted. We may translate it as “decorated wishing stone.”281

Gezer standing stones

Z. Radovan/www.BibleLandPictures.com

If you follow my decrees (26:3). These blessings and curses conclude the treaty between God (as the superior party) and Israel recorded in Exodus–Leviticus (cf. Deut. 27–28). In the ancient Near East, blessings and curses (or curses and blessings) could be appended to a law collection in order to encourage obedience.282 They were also among the components of treaty formulations, such as those given by Hittite emperors of the second millennium B.C. (fourteenth and thirteenth centuries) to other rulers subordinate to them.283 Following are the most prominent components, not all of which were present in every treaty:

Introduction of the speaker

Historical prologue

Stipulations

Statement concerning the document

Divine witnesses

Curses and blessings284

Blessings and curses, usually with an emphasis on curses of increasing severity, combined to form a powerful tool of persuasion that encouraged faithfulness and discouraged disloyal noncompliance with treaty stipulations by placing positive versus negative results in vivid contrast.285 An Egyptian hymn of praise to the god Amun-Re encapsulates this dynamic: “Who extends His arms to the one He loves, While His enemies fall to the flame.”286

You will pursue your enemies (26:7). In the ancient world, as in modern times, military protection and victory was a crucial benefit commonly sought from deities. For example, in the Inscription of Zakkur, king of Hamath, the god Baʿlshamayn (“Lord of Heaven”) encourages the ruler: “Do not be afraid! Since I have made [you king, I will stand] beside you. I will save you from all [these kings who] have besieged you.”287 In the Inscription of Mesha, this king of Moab claims that his god Kemosh has provided military guidance, deliverance, and victory for the Moabites (against Israel).288 Divine protection that is explicitly conditional on obedience to treaty stipulations, as in Leviticus 26, also appears in the Hittite treaty between Muršili and Duppi-Tešub.289

I will set my face against you (26:17). The negative impact of divine displeasure was keenly felt throughout the ancient Near East. Thus king Mesha viewed the anger of Kemosh against his land of Moab as the cause of her earlier subjugation to Israel.290 An Egyptian complaint links violation of divine plans to resultant chaos and suffering.291 Conditional curses in the Aramaic inscription of Hadad-Yithʿi on an image are devastating because they call for basic divine rejection, which can negatively impact every aspect of life:

Whoever removes my name from the furnishings of the house of Hadad, my lord, may my lord Hadad not accept his food and water from his hand, may my lady Sûl not accept food and water from his hand. When he sows, may he not reap.292

The sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze (26:19). The idea of this conditional curse is that heaven will bar any rain from getting through to earth; consequently, the land will dry up and become hard like metal. Deuteronomy 28:23 reverses the metals. Likewise, curses in the Succession Treaty of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon call on the gods to “make your ground like iron (so that) nothing can sprout from it. Just as rain does not fall from a brazen heaven, so may rain and dew not come upon your fields and meadows.”293

I will send a plague among you (26:25). Compare a prayer of Muršili II, in which the king assumes that a lethal plague on his Hittite people is vengeance from the gods because his father killed a man.294 In the epilogue to the Laws of Hammurabi, a curse on any who disrespect the royal pronouncements calls on the goddess Ninkarrak to “cause a grievous malady to break out upon his limbs, an evil demonic disease.”295

Clay tablet from Ugarit with imprint of the stamp seal of King Muršili II

Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, courtesy of the National Museum, Damascus, Syria

Ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven (26:26). K. L. Younger places this curse formula alongside close parallels in the Tel Fakhariyah Inscription (c. 850–825 B.C.), the Sefire Treaty (c. 760–740 B.C.), and the Bukān Inscription (c. 725–700 B.C.), all of which emphasize lack of grain by speaking of multiple women baking bread in one oven. However, whereas the extrabiblical texts describe failure to fill the oven, Leviticus focuses on not having enough to eat. Younger concludes that “there were some stock West Semitic curse formulae that could be drawn from in the composition of curse passages and that these could be adapted to the particular needs of the ancient writers.”296

You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters (26:29). Ancient Near Easterners turned to cannibalism only as a desperate last resort to prevent imminent starvation (2 Kings 6:24–30). Frightful curses of cannibalism also show up in Deuteronomy 28:53–57 and in Assyrian treaties of Esarhaddon.297

And I will remember the land (26:42). Some historical passages outside the Bible, such as the Moabite inscription of King Mesha and the Mesopotamian “Sun Disk” Tablet of Nabû-Apla-Iddina, also mention cessation of divine anger.298 Unlike Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 30:1–10, these do not explicitly identify repentance as the pivotal factor in restoration of the divine-human relationship.