74 A History of Judaism
fury; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his
foes’. In the biblical book of Proverbs, fear of the Lord is true
wisdom.^6
For Israel, it was both comforting and terrifying to believe that the
nation had been singled out for a special covenant by such a majestic
power. On Mount Sinai, according to the Torah, God had revealed to
Moses the laws by which all Israel should live, and the people had
accepted their special status and the responsibility it laid upon them:
‘Moses ... set before them all these words that the Lord had com-
manded him. The people all answered as one: “Everything that the Lord
has spoken we will do.” ’ In the biblical narrative, acceptance had been
followed almost immediately by disobedience, when Moses’ return
from the mountain was delayed and the people persuaded Aaron to
produce a golden calf for them to worship, saying to him, ‘Make us
gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought
us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of
him’; this disobedience was followed rapidly by punishment through
plague. In the fifth book of the Pentateuch Moses is portrayed as laying
out in stark terms the implications of the covenant: ‘If you obey the
commandments of the Lord your God ... then you shall live and become
numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you ... But if your heart
turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray ... I declare to you
today that you shall perish.’ Moses tells them to ‘choose life so that you
and your descendants may live’. The curses that will come on Israel for
not observing all the Lord’s commandments and decrees are laid out in
chilling detail: ‘The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustra-
tion in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish
quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken
me.’ There was no excuse for disobedience: ‘Surely, this commandment
that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too
far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to
heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?”
No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart
for you to observe.’^7
The power of this special relationship between God and Israel dom-
inates the biblical worldview. The idea of a special covenant found in the
Pentateuch seems to reflect both the form of international treaties in the
Late Bronze Age (c. 1200– 1000 bce) and loyalty oaths in the Assyrian
empire in the time of the kings of Israel and Judah, which focused on
the penalties for disobedience. God is shown intervening at other times