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22 Dating the Book of Job year theory is actually able to resolve a hitherto unresolved issue – the description of the “Feast of Ingathering” occurring at the “end of the year”. The last of the sections which potentially present counter evidence to the six-month-year theory is Deuteronomy 1:3. The event associated with the date given in Deuteronomy 1:3 is Moses’ last speech to the children of Israel. Most of the rest of the book of Deuteronomy is presented as one long dictation apparently given over the course of a single day. In Deuteronomy 31:1-2 Moses says, “I am one hundred and twenty years old today”. In Deuteronomy 32:48-52 the LORD tells Moses that he must die for his trespass just as his brother Aaron died. Deuteronomy 34:8 then indicates that the Israelites mourned for Moses for thirty days. We are then told that Israel crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month (Joshua 4:19). – Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him as commandments to them. (Deuteronomy 1:3 NKJV) – Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel. And he said to them: “I am one hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer go out and come in. Also the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’ ” (Deuteronomy 31:1-2) – Then the LORD spoke to Moses that very same day, saying: “Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho; view the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel as a possession; and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people; because you trespassed against Me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not hallow Me in the midst of the children of Israel. Yet you shall see the land before you, though you shall not go there, into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 32:48-52 NKJV) – And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. (Deuteronomy 34:8 NKJV) – Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. (Joshua 4:19 NKJV) It is doubtful that the Israelites would have waited many days after they had finished mourning to cross the Jordan and take their promised land. Subtracting the thirty days of mourning from the date they crossed the Jordan puts them in the eleventh month of the previous year as indicated in Deuteronomy 1:3. On a six-month calendar, however, the subtraction would indicate the fifth month of the previous year. Interestingly, Numbers 33:38-49 indicates that the Israelites left Mount Hor bound for “Acacia Grove in the plains of Moab” across from Jericho on the first day of the fifth month. Numbers 20:23-29 speaks of the death of Aaron which occurred at Mount Hor. Numbers 21-31 then details the events that happened to the Israelites at Mount Hor and afterward. Note that Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom requesting passage through their land while they were still at Kadesh – before they had gone to Mount Hor (Numbers 20:14-17). – Now Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardship that has befallen us, how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians afflicted us and our fathers. When we cried out to the LORD, He heard our voice and sent the Angel and brought us up out of Egypt; now here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border. Please let us pass through your country. We will not pass through fields or vineyards, nor will we drink water from wells; we will go along the King’s Highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left until we have passed through your territory.’ ” (Numbers 20:14-17 NKJV) – Now the children of Israel, the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh and came to Mount Hor. (Num-
Dating the Book of Job 23 bers 20:22 NKJV) – They moved from Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the boundary of the land of Edom. Then Aaron the priest went up to Mount Hor at the command of the LORD, and died there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month. Aaron was one hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor. Now the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel. … (Numbers 33:37-40 NKJV) – And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying: “Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the water of Meribah.” … So Moses did just as the LORD commanded … Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. … The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. So Israel made a vow to the LORD, and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” And the LORD listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah. Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. (Numbers 20:23-21:4) While they were still camped at Mount Hor, the Israelites fought and defeated the king of Arad (Numbers 21:1-4). After they left Mount Hor, the Israelites fought and defeated Sihon king of the Amorites (Numbers 21:23-24), Og king of Bashan (Numbers 21:33-34), Balak king of Moab, and the five princes of Midian (Numbers 31:6-8). Note that the Israelites were already at Acacia Grove when the Balaam incident and the subsequent war with the Midianites occurred (Numbers 25:1). If a twelve-month-year was being used by the Israelites at the time, then it took the Israelites about six months to win these victories – from the fifth month of the fortieth year to the eleventh month. But if the Israelites were using a six-month-year, then the Isrealites won these victories in about a weeks time (it could have been as much as a month longer if the thirty days of mourning overlapped the entrance into the promised land). From the brevity of the details about the conflicts that are given in Numbers 21-31, the shorter time span seems more reasonable. Notice that chapters 28 and 29 of the book of Numbers are wedged, out of context, into the middle of the story about the war with the Midianites. The Midianite incident begins in chapter 25. As a consequence of the Midianite incident, the LORD struck Isreal with a plague. Partially as a consequence of the plague, a new census was taken (Numbers 26). The census lead to some debate about inheritance issues among women (Numbers 27). The inheritance issues are tangentially related to marriages and vows which are discussed in Numbers 30. Chapter 31 then resumes the recount of the war with the Midianites. That they occur out of context supports the theory that the festivals commanded in Numbers 28 and 29 were retroactively inserted into the storyline. Notice also that there is no mention of Joshua throughout the course of the war with the Midianites as detailed in Numbers 31; but the details of Joshua’s inauguration are given in Numbers 27:15- 23. It appears that the inauguration of Joshua happened after the war with the Midianites but before the events detailed in chapter 32. It may be that the block of text that is in Numbers 28-29 was inserted after the fact and that this editing caused Numbers 27:15-23 to be shuffled just in front of the insertion. If Numbers 27:15-23 is moved after chapter 31 but before chapter 32 and Numbers 28-29 are omitted, then Numbers 27:12-14 meshes neatly with the opening verses of chapter 31. – Now the LORD said to Moses: “Go up into this Mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel. And when you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered. For in the Wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to hallow Me at the waters before their eyes.” [These are the waters of Meribah, at Kadesh in the
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