Building Houses and Planting Vineyards: The Early Inner-Biblical Discourse on an Ancient Israelite Wartime Curse

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) Notions of building and planting have profound significance in the discourse of biblical literature. One important indication of this is the inner-biblical discourse of a wartime curse, which threatens Israel in the following words, "You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not harvest its fruit" (Deut 28:30). A survey of biblical literature reveals that this particular curse held an especially prominent place in the discourse of ancient Israel and early Judaism.1 Over a dozen biblical texts contain formulations of, or allusions to, this particular curse and its imagery (Amos 5:11; 9:14; Isa 5:1-17; Zeph 1:13; Jer 6:9-15; 29:5,28; 31:4; Deut 20:5-6; 28:30; Isa 62:6-9; 65:21; Ezek 28:26; 36:36). The following study traces the origins and early inner-biblical discourse of the curse in the eighth and seventh centuries E.C.E.2 Placement of the early biblical occurrences of the curse against certain historical moments allows one to see the ways in which various historical processes influenced its different biblical formulations. A study of the historical motivations behind the curse's literary history also points to its attractiveness as a persistent motif in biblical literature. I. NEO-ASSYRIAN MILITARY TACTICS, SIEGE WARFARE, AND THE BACKGROUND OF THE CURSE IN BIBLICAL DISCOURSE Scholars have long noted that the threat of war forms the background of the present curse. It is during wartime that the fulfillment of one's labors, such as the harvesting of a vineyard, is thwarted. Assyrian textual and iconographie sources, however, suggest that a more specific, and interrelated, aspect of Assyrian siege warfare stands behind the curse's imagery. One of the major developments that accompanied the increasing Assyrian presence in the southern Levant during the eighth century was the rise of siege warfare as the dominant mode of battle.3 Assyrian sources indicate that siege warfare increasingly displaced open-field battles beginning in the eighth century. Assyrian iconography of this period increasingly depicts the Assyrians laying siege to a well-fortified city, as opposed to meeting an enemy in an open field. The advent of siege warfare brought with it new military tactics and battle techniques, many of which are alluded to in Assyrian and biblical sources. One of the most devastating military tactics that the Assyrians employed during a siege was the destruction of the agricultural support systems.4 Several Assyrian iconographie sources depict Assyrian soldiers chopping down trees, orchards, and other vegetation surrounding an enemy city. Such imagery is paralleled in the Assyrian textual sources, which often describe the king or the military destroying the vegetation of their enemies. For instance, in the Suhu annals of Shalmaneser III, the king boasts, "We will go and attack the houses of the land of Suhu; we will seize his cities of the steppe; and we will cut down their fruit trees."5 In the Nimrud Monolith, Shalmaneser also boasts, "Ahuni, son of Adini... I shut up in his city, carried off the crops of his (fields), cut down his orchards."6 Such descriptions of the destruction of orchards and other types of vegetation are found in many other Assyrian inscriptions. Scholars have long sought to understand the exact purpose behind the Assyrian destruction of agricultural support systems. Several studies have claimed that the destruction of trees and other vegetation enabled the Assyrians to build additional equipment during a prolonged siege.7 Other scholars have argued that the destruction of vegetation was a "face saving device employed in a report about an uncompleted siege."8 More recent studies, however, argue that a close examination of the order of events in the iconographie sources suggests an alternative explanation. These studies emphasize that the destruction of agricultural support systems in the iconographie sources always occurs during or directly after the successful destruction and looting of a city. …