Mountains in the Book of Deuteronomy

In today’s exploration of what religious texts say about mountains and hills, I am looking at the fifth book in the Jewish Torah and the Christian Bible: Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy is the final book in the Pentateuch. It is often referred to as the “Second Law” because in it Moses revisits the stories and laws from the first four books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers). Deuteronomy serves as a recapitulation in which Moses restates the laws, commandments, and ordinances god has given him.

As you might expect, many of the symbols, tropes, and metaphors about mountains that appeared in earlier books reappear here in Deuteronomy. However, Deuteronomy presents some new ideas pertaining to mountain worship. Most notably, Deuteronomy restricts the location of worship. Whereas the Israelites previously worshipped god on mountains, high places, and in mobile temples like the tabernacle, god now designates one specific location of “his choosing,” a place where he “puts his name.”

These new ideas or “revisions” in Deuteronomy develop within the context of the book’s composition. Scholars believe that Deuteronomy was written much later than the other books. Some suggest it was composed during the rule of King Josiah of Judah and therefore reflects the king’s religious reforms.¹

If this historical context is accurate, then Deuteronomy’s approach to mountains and high places takes on added significance. The book becomes a bridge between older traditions that celebrated mountain worship sites and newer religious practices that concentrated divine presence in a single location.

Leaving One High Place for Another

Deuteronomy begins with Moses recounting god’s instructions, ordering Moses and the Israelites to leave Horeb and “take possession of the land that I swore to your ancestors.”² In Deuteronomy, as elsewhere, the Promised Land is often referred to as the “hill country.”³ God effectively instructs Moses and the Israelites to leave one high place for another.

Mount Sinai is referred to as Mount Horeb in Deuteronomy. Scholars hold these names to be synonymous. As we saw in Exodus (Part 1 and Part 2), Sinai is the preferred name. As we will see, the word “Sinai” appears only once in Deuteronomy, in Moses’s final blessing to the Israelites before his death on Mount Nebo.

This hill country, this Promised Land, is again described in Deuteronomy as abundant. It is

a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper.⁴

Later, the Promised Land is referred to as a “land flowing with milk and honey.”⁵ The abundance trope is so prominent in Deuteronomy that one passage is worth quoting at length:

For the land that you are about to enter to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by foot like a vegetable garden. But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, a land that the Lord your God looks after. The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. If you will only heed his every commandment that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul—then he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill.⁶

God here is described as providing (or withholding) rain. The association between water, rain, and mountains should be remembered.

Revising the Encounter on Sinai

Deuteronomy also contains a retelling of the Ten Commandments, yet with an interesting revision. Moses tells the Israelites that god “spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire. At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the words of the Lord; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.”⁷

Yet, as we saw in Exodus, the reason the Israelites didn’t ascend the mountain was because god forbade them from doing so on pain of death. They didn’t speak with god “face to face” but instead heard god’s word mediated through Moses.

Destroying the Mountain Altars of the Dispossessed and Restricting Worship

God instructs Moses and the Israelites to destroy all the altars and sites of worship of the people whose territory they conquer. These sites are described as being on mountains and other high places. The very fact that this is brought up suggests mountain worship or worship on high places was common throughout the region. In addition to ordering the destruction of high temples, god also instructs the Israelites to no longer worship him in this way, but instead to worship him in the place of his choosing.

You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places. You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways. But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there, bringing there your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks.⁸

God’s new and approved location “of his choosing” for sacrifices, where god “puts his name,” is a new statute offered in Deuteronomy.

Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see. But only at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes—there you shall offer your burnt offerings and there you shall do everything I command you.⁹

Even sacrifices, when done for spiritual purposes, must be presented at the approved location: “But the sacred donations that are due from you, and your votive gifts, you shall bring to the place that the Lord will choose.”¹⁰

Deuteronomy doesn’t explicitly state where this place of his choosing is within the larger Promised Land, but it is explicitly mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament. For instance, 1 Kings 14:21 refers to Jerusalem as “the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there.”

A Mountain Ceremony Before Entering the Promised Land

When entering the “land flowing with milk and honey,” god commands the Israelites to perform a ceremony on Mount Ebal. The ceremony involves setting up large stones covered with plaster upon which the commandments are to be written. Furthermore, god commands them to build an altar of unhewn stone for a sacrifice.¹¹

After the ceremony, Moses divides the twelve tribes into two groups and sends one group to the summit of Mount Gerizim and the other to the summit of Mount Ebal, where they are to receive a final set of orders.¹²

The Song of Moses

After Moses writes down the law and creates the book of the teaching, but before detailing the succession of leadership, Moses sings a song that reflects on Israel’s history and its future.

The song uses metaphors we are familiar with: god is described as a mountain or sky god and, as such, associated with abundance and fertility.

The song refers to god as “The Rock” on several occasions. The symbolism of being a “rock” here makes sense given that El Shaddai is the god of the mountain. It also makes sense because it is used as a metaphor for stability, reliability, permanence, and strength.

The Death of Moses

Deuteronomy concludes with Moses’s death. God calls on Moses to

Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession; you shall die there on the mountain that you ascend and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor… although you may view the land from a distance, you shall not enter it.¹³

The Blessings of Moses

Before his death, Moses offers blessings to the twelve tribes. To that of Joseph, Moses says:

Blessed by the Lord be his land, with the choice gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that lies beneath; with the choice fruits of the sun, and the rich yield of the months; with the finest produce of the ancient mountains, and the abundance of the everlasting hills; with the choice gifts of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of the one who dwells on Sinai.