Understanding Yhwh's Threats through Modern Politics—and Vice Versa

Abstract

Divine violence in the Hebrew Bible is regularly cited as primitive, irrelevant, and possibly unintelligible within a modern context. This paper presents a structural analogy between Yhwh's threats of destruction against Israel in Deuteronomy and threats against the disloyal made by the modern state. Deuteronomy expresses Yhwh's relationship with Israel in ancient Near Eastern suzerainty terms that reflect an unchallengeable demand for the vassal's undiluted loyalty. As in the treaties, this demand is backed with threats of destruction for the disloyal. Such threats are difficult to comprehend within a modern framework where loyalty demands and threats are largely illegitimate. However, the modern state provides a useful analogy because harsh state reprisals are legitimate against disloyal citizens. Contemporary examples from modern American responses to treason in the "Cold War" and the "War on Terror" illustrate the analogy with Yhwh's threatened destruction of disloyal Israel in Deuteronomy.