Deuteronomy chapters 3 and 4

 After reading chapters 3 and 4:

*In chapter 3, Moses retells the story of the defeat and decimation of the territory of Og, King of Bashan, told in Numbers 21, but with embellishments. The Deuteronomist emphasizes the great physical size of the people the Israelites encounter, much more than the author of Numbers did. Next, we are again told of the division of the land East of the Jordon to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Mannaseh, in return for their help in conquering Canaan for the rest of the Israelites. Then, it is reiterated that Moses will not cross into the promised land, instead Joshua will lead the Israelites in the conquest of Canaan.

*In chapter 4, Moses tells them to remember what happened at Baal Peor. That story is found in Numbers 25. That was a lesson to teach them to obey all of Yahweh's commands when they enter the promised land. Supposedly,  it will make all the other nations think the Israelites are special snowflakes and their God is the specialist snowflake of all. Then he asks them to remember when they stood before the lord at Horeb and recieved the ten commandments. There is one problem here. It was 40 years ago. Everyone alive in this chapter would have been under the age of twenty at that time, many not even born yet. Yahweh wasn't speaking to them at Mt. Horeb, but their parents and grandparents, and they are dead because of god's decree that none of them would live to enter the promised land, except Joshua and Caleb.

*Next, Moses reminds the Israelites that God is a jealous God and he will tolerate no idolatry of any kind. If they should practice idolatry, they will "quickly perish," be destroyed, and scattered among the nations so that only a few survive. (Here is one reason to think this book was put together after the exile, prophecy written after the fact.) There they would worship idols that do not see, hear, eat, or smell, instead of Yahweh, who also doesn't see hear, eat, or smell. However, later they would turn back to Yahweh and obey him, so that it would go well with them and they would live long in the land. The Israelites are asked,"has any other God taken a nation for himself by miraculous signs and wonders like Yaweh?" Apparently not. Then we are again told of the cities of refuge, one for each of the three clans that will be living on the east side of the Jordan. This ends the first speech of Moses in Deuteronomy.

*The stories of Balaam, and the slaughter of the Midianites, along with the keeping and distribution of the Midianite young women, are skipped.

Edited.