Friday, January 7, 2022

The "New Gods" in Judges 5:8 having Ontological Existence like those in Deuteronomy 32:8-9 (DSS)

  

In [Judges 5] verse 8, we are told that Israel was left defenseless after having “chosen new gods,” or “a new god” (‎ʾĕlōhîm ḥădāšîm), a phrase not otherwise found in the Bible. These are not the stereotypical “other gods” of Deuteronomistic writing, but the phrase does point to individual commitments between peoples and deities, perhaps of the sort envisioned in Elyon’s apportionment of nations to gods in Deut 32:8-9, with Yahweh taking Israel (the closest comparison may be Deut 32:17, also calling gods “new,” perhaps confirming the context suggested by Deut 32:8-9 . . . ). (Daniel E. Fleming, Yahweh Before Israel: Glimpses of History in a Divine Name [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021], 127)