Online Texts for Craig White's Literature Courses

Deuteronomy 7 [In contrast to the standard immigrant story, the Jews do not assimilate to the Canaanites—God forbids them to intermarry or share religious practices. Instead, the Jews displace or destroy the previous occupants of the country (primarily the Canaanites, another Semitic people). Parallels: European immigrants and American Indians; the creation of Israel in Palestine in 1948]

 ¹When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

 ²And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them:

 ³Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

 ⁴For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

 ⁵But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

 ⁶For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

From Deuteronomy 11

  . . .

 ⁸Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;

 ⁹And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD swore unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

 ¹⁰For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:

 ¹¹But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:

 ¹²A land which the LORD thy God careth for [reminiscent of dominant-culture tributes to the American land and people as blessed]: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. . . .

 ¹⁶Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

 ¹⁷And then the LORD's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.

 . . .

 ²⁶Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;

 ²⁷A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:

 ²⁸And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

 . . .

 ³¹For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein.

from Deuteronomy 12

 ¹These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth.

 ²Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:

 ³And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

from Deuteronomy 34

 ¹And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,

 ² . . . unto the utmost sea,

 ³And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.

 ⁴And the LORD said unto [Moses], This is the land which I swore [promised] unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.

[cf. Martin Luther King (3 April 1968), the night before his murder, “. . . I've been to the mountaintop. . . . Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!]

 ⁵So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.

 ⁶And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.