John C. Endres, S.J.Prayer of Moses (i:ig-2i)After God's promise of a blessed future, Moses prays to God for his people
(w. 19-21), that God not forsake them or deliver them into the power of their
enemies (v. 19). He begs God to show them mercy^21 and "create for them a
just spirit" (v. 20a). Moses also prays that "the spirit of Belial not rule them"
(v. 20b). As if God requires motivation to act, Moses reminds the Lord that
"they are your people and your heritage whom you have rescued" from
Egyptian power. Near the end of his prayer the words "Create for them a
pure mind and a holy spirit" remind the hearers of Ps 51:10. The final wish is
that they not be caught up in their sins forever (v. 21). In the second temple
era, to ask God to grant a spirit of holiness may be a way of expressing the no
tion of a spiritual transformation of God's people "at the eschaton," since
speaking of the spirit of holiness "denotes a new spiritual disposition im
parted by God to individual Jews."^22 They need these gifts to guard their
freedom from the spirit of Belial. Moses asks God for mercy, a notion that
may point forward to the "kindness" of the Lord in the Jubilees Apocalypse
(23:31). The mention of the (maternal) notion of "mercy" here may resonate
with "kindness" in the later text.
Response of God: Recapitulates
the Pattern of Sin and Return (1:22-25)God tells Moses that he knows the sinful past and ways of this people, but
later they will return to God "in a fully upright manner and with all (their)
minds and all (their) souls" (v. 23a). Most important, God will "cut away the
foreskins of their minds and the foreskins of their descendants' minds"
(v. 23b). To circumcise "the hearts of the Israelites and their descendants" is
an act intended to eliminate "all possibility of future apostasy."^23 The divine- This term appears several times in Jubilees, including three times in Rebekah's
blessing prayer for Jacob, 25:2, 19, 23 (where it is translated by VanderKam as "(my) affec
tion"). The word mehrat has connotations of "compassion, pardon, mercy, pity, clemency,"
and may relate to the Heb. rhmym. In the Ge'ez Bible this term mehrat and also its cognate
forms appear frequently, often in reference to the deity. - B. Smith, " 'Spirit of Holiness' as Eschatological Principle of Obedience," in Chris
tian Beginnings and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. J. Collins and C. Evans (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2006), 75-99 (here 76). - Smith, "Spirit of Holiness," 77.