Commentary on Parashat Eikev, Deuteronomy 7:12 - 11:25
Questions
1. Moses told the children of Israel that if they follow God’s commandments, God would remove all the sickness and evil diseases they had in Egypt. What would become of those diseases?
2. Moses realized that the people were afraid to fight against nations who seemed strong and numerous. To allay their fears, what did Moses tell the people to do?
3. Moses tells the children of Israel that even after they defeat all their enemies, there would still be some hiding out and ready to defeat the Israelites. What did Moses promise would happen to these people?
4. The children of Israel were told to be most careful not to adopt the gods of the nations. How were they to dispose of the idols which they found?
5. Moses anticipated a future danger for the children of Israel when they become wealthy and satisfied with their position in the land. What did he say could happen?
6. For what reasons were the children of Israel allowed to possess the Land?
7. When God saw, time after time, how wicked and stiff-necked the children of Israel were, He offered a new deal to Moses. What was it?
8. Moses fasted 40 days and nights to prevent God from making good on His contingency plan. What was Moses’ argument that convinced God not to destroy the people?
Answers
1. God would lay them upon those who hated Israel. (7:15)
2. Moses told them to remember what God did to Pharaoh and all of Egypt, and that He would do the same to the nations the people would encounter. (7:17-19)
3. Moses told them that God would send hornets that would chase the stragglers out into the open. (7:20)
4. They were told to burn the idols with fire, being careful not to remove the gold and silver. (7:25)
5. Moses said that the people could forget all that God had done for them, and say in their heart, “my power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.” (8:17)
6. They were allowed to possess the Land because of God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and because of the wickedness of the people already living there. Moses emphasizes that it is not because the children of Israel were righteous–in fact, they had defied God time after time. (9:5)
7. The new deal was that God would blot out the children of Israel and make a new, bigger, and more holy nation from Moses. (9:14)
8. Moses argued that God had redeemed the people from Egypt and taken them into the desert. If God were to destroy the people, the Egyptians would say that God had not been powerful enough to take them into the land, and that He hated them so much, He took them into the wilderness to destroy them. (9:26-28)
Provided by special arrangement with the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.
