This week we are reading a double Torah portion. The reading portions are called Nitzavim and Vayelech, and together they cover Deuteronomy 29:10–31:30. They capture Moses’s final charge to the assembled Israelites as his life nears its end. For the last time as their leader, Moses exhorts them to commit themselves to an enduring covenant with God. Moses transfers leadership to Joshua and arranges for the written law to be preserved alongside the Ark of the Covenant.
Although much of God’s covenant with his people was revolutionary, the literary framework in which Moses presented it was familiar to the Israelites. In fact, the covenant was arranged in a format that any nation in the ancient Near East would have recognized. This understanding, that the covenant is following a common format, is something relatively new to biblical historians. Only in the last century have we learned a great deal about bilateral covenant-making in the ancient Near East.
In 1906, archaeologists working in central Turkey unearthed the royal archives of the Hittite Empire. The archive contained over ten thousand clay cuneiform tablets dating to the Late Bronze Age. This is every archaeologist’s dream, total paydirt. As scholars began to study and classify different types of documents, they found numerous treaties and pacts between Hittite kings and their vassal states. In each case, imperial scribes followed a consistent six-part legal formula. Hittite treaties always opened with a preamble identifying the king by his formal name and titles. Next came the historical prologue, recounting every benevolent act the king had performed on behalf of the vassal. Then came the stipulations and obligations regarding tribute and border defense. Scribes included specific instructions to deposit the treaty text in a sacred temple and read it aloud publicly at regular intervals. Finally, the treaty summoned the gods as cosmic witnesses and closed with a stark catalog of blessings for obedience and curses for rebellion.
In 1954, biblical scholar George Mendenhall recognized that the same formula found in the Hittite treaties matched Deuteronomy’s structure. Deuteronomy reproduces the full six-part treaty model. Deuteronomy begins with a preamble (1:1–5). Moses gives a detailed historical prologue (1:6–4:49). The bulk of the book, from chapters 5 through 26, Moses lays out the covenant stipulations—all the laws covering family, religious, and civic life. Moses also includes explicit instructions to write these words on plaster-coated stones and read the entire Torah publicly before the assembled community (27:2–3; 31:10–11). He calls upon heaven and earth as perpetual witnesses (30:19; 32:1).
While Deuteronomy adopted this Hittite legal structure, God completely subverted its purpose. What was revolutionary about the treaty between God and his covenant people was the idea of reciprocity in a covenant between God and man. God chose these specific people, yet they had to choose God as well. Coercion could not be a piece of the puzzle, even if we are talking about the creator of the universe. The covenant is mutually beneficial if the people stay faithful. If they break the covenant and follow other gods, they can return, but only with repentant hearts. God can only ask that they come to him and commit to his ways out of their own free will. He will not force that relationship.
In contrast, Hittite treaties were transactional. They were not about a mutual relationship. Instead, their sole aim was extracting revenue, food supplies, and military conscripts for the empire. The common people were collateral subjects on the fringes of power.
In Deuteronomy, God bypassed the royal courts and elite ruling classes entirely. He entered a direct covenant with every single citizen of Israel. In Deuteronomy 29:10–12, Moses looks out over the crowd:
You stand assembled today, all of you, before the LORD your God—the leaders of your tribes, your elders, and your officials, even all the men of Israel, your children, your women, and the aliens who are in your camp, both those who cut your wood and those who draw your water—to enter into the sworn covenant of the LORD your God.
The other difference between the Mosaic covenant and the Hittite treaties is that pagan kings demanded fearful submission. God demanded heartfelt love. In Deuteronomy 6:4–5, Moses declares the central pulse of the Torah: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” No pagan emperor ever asked a conquered vassal to love him.
The Nearness of the Covenant
In his farewell speech, Moses also reminds the people that what God has laid out for them is not an impossible standard. What God has revealed about himself and his character is not an unattainable mystery.
Moses says:
Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe. (Deut 30:11–14)
The Hebrew phrase translated “not too hard” (lo-niflet hi) means not beyond human grasp, incomprehensible, or wondrously impossible. In ancient Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt, the divine will was considered hidden, unpredictable, and capricious. They relied on omens, divination, astrology, and priestly classes to discover what the gods required. This was the religious culture in Egypt, and they would also encounter it in Canaan. Moses wanted to dismantle that worldview. He was telling them that the one true God’s will does not require an ascent to the heavens or a hazardous journey across the sea. The real revelation at Sinai brought divine wisdom down to earth in clear, human language.
God did not deliver an abstract philosophical puzzle or an impossible ascetic regimen. The Torah’s demands are practical and doable in everyday life.Israel cannot claim that God’s standards were too distant to find or too complex to understand. Because the covenant is accessible to every level of society, the responsibility to choose life and walk in obedience rests squarely with the people.
Moses knows and understands that once they enter the land and grow comfortable, they will be tempted to look for God elsewhere rather than in the covenant faith of their forefathers. They will be tempted by the idols of the Canaanites. In exile, many will admire the glamour of the Babylonian empire. In the Second Temple period, Hellenism and its culture and lifestyle will be so tempting that it will split the people. Only the word of God, constantly put before them, can remind them of who they are as a people committed to him. Their God is accessible, having made himself known to them, their ancestors, and their children. But God leaves the choice of obedience with them.
This is why in the last part of the treaty, Moses calls heaven and earth his witnesses. He tells the people:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. (Deut 30:19)
Unlike the Hittite treaties with vassal states, God was inviting his people into a life-giving relationship. The king of heaven did not demand taxes or armies; he asked for wholehearted love, justice in the gates, and mercy for the vulnerable.
Pagan treaties, if broken, promised total annihilation for the rebellious vassal. Moses already understood in Deuteronomy that a day would come when they would break the covenant, and God would have to punish them with exile. However, unlike the Hittite treaties, God’s covenant included the opportunity to repent and return. They could choose life again and again and God would be there to receive them back.
That’s it for this week. If you would like to get the study questions that go with the reading, please visit our website at www.thejerusalemconnection.us.
Shabbat Shalom.
Study Questions
1. In Deuteronomy 29:10–12, Moses gathers the entire community—leaders, elders, children, women, resident aliens, woodcutters, and water carriers—to enter into the sworn covenant with God. How does this universal inclusion contrast with ancient Near Eastern Hittite treaties that were made only between emperors and elite puppet kings, and what does this reveal about how God views the dignity and accountability of everyday individuals?
2. Moses emphasizes in Deuteronomy 30:11–14 that God’s word is not impossibly far away in heaven or across the sea, but is near: “in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” The apostle Paul quotes these exact verses in Romans 10:6–10, applying them directly to faith in Jesus. How does the incarnation and message of Jesus fulfill Moses’ declaration that God’s righteousness and presence are accessible to everyday believers rather than distant or unattainable?
3. In Deuteronomy 30:6 and 31:16–21, God reveals that despite the law being clear and attainable, Israel will succumb to spiritual amnesia and unfaithfulness, ultimately needing God himself to “circumcise your heart.” How does Jesus address this inner condition in the Gospels (such as his teachings on the heart in Matthew 15:18–20 and the promised work of the Holy Spirit), and why is inward spiritual transformation necessary to sustain the call to “choose life”?