308 Yair Zakovitch
the Bible’s sanctity, who cannot see the human document, will miss the hu-
mor that spills from the pages. Th e devout reader will fail to notice how the
story of the prostitute Rahab (Joshua 2) is mocking Joshua, who, dispatch-
ing two inexperienced spies to Jericho, seeks human assistance despite the
fact that divine salvation was already promised him (in chapter 1) and who,
in the end, learns his lesson only through Rahab, the prostitute who knew
enough to quote from the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:15 – 16) in her words,
“dread of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land are
quaking before you” (Joshua 2:9). Joshua should have known to do what
was clear to the small-time Jericho prostitute: to rely on God rather than
placing his faith in spies.18
Th e story of the origins of the Moabites and Ammonites (Genesis
19:30 – 38) is, in fact, an Israelite joke that derides those nations as having
descended from a union tainted with scandalous incest. It is comparable
to the story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38), a tale that originated in the
kingdom of Ephraim (the Northern Kingdom), which recounts the shame-
ful origins of David from the tribe of Judah and the House of Perez. Gen-
esis 38 traces Perez’s conception to an incestuous encounter and intimates
even more: by recounting how, during the birth, Perez steals the fi rstborn
status from his twin brother, the story insinuates that, following a “like fa-
ther like son” pattern, David likewise stole the kingdom from the House of
Saul.19 Examples of parody are not diffi cult to fi nd in the Bible: the story of
the capture of Saul in order to crown him king (1 Samuel 10:20 – 21) is based
on the tale of the capture of the criminal Achan son of Zerah son of Zabdi
of the tribe of Judah in Joshua 7:14 – 18 — this, in order to insinuate that Saul
is, himself, a criminal.20
Acknowledging the human dimension helps readers to detect how
the Bible criticizes — sometimes covertly — its own heroes, patriarchs and
prophets included. Because of Abraham’s decision to descend to Egypt
when there was famine (Genesis 12:10 – 20), his descendants are punished
with slavery in Egypt (as pointed out explicitly by Nahmanides in his com-
mentary on Genesis). Likewise, Elijah’s insistent condemnation of Israel
before God at Horeb (1 Kings 19), the place where Moses had vigorously
defended Israel aft er the sin of the golden calf (Exodus 32 – 33), explains
why God dismissed Elijah from his duties as prophet: he ceased to qualify
for the position.21
Th e courage to acknowledge this criticism, to shake off the aura of sanc-
tity that separates the reader from the text, and to recognize the Bible’s co-
vert polemics against its heroes rewards the reader with hidden treasures.22