IN THE WILDERNESS (EXODUS 11-18)

                                                       In the Wilderness (collage, 1989)

 

 Exodus 11-18 is a little difficult to fit into a neat literary scheme, and part of its structure has to be deduced by a process of elimination from the other symmetrical organizations found within Exodus. The overall theme of this section is easy to comprehend; of the seven occasions of Israel's rebellion against God identified by the Talmud, five appear in this section. (Ashley)

Fokkelman offers a detailed breakdown of the crises in this section comprising Exodus 15:22-18:25:

                a. Crisis of water (15:22-27)

    b. Crisis of food (ch. 16)

                c. Crisis of water (17:1-7)

                d. Crisis of war (17:8-16)

                e. Crisis of leadership (ch. 18)

From what has already been seen in terms of other biblical organizations, units (a) and (c) look to be suspiciously parallel to one another. Not only do they both involve Yahweh's provision of water for the people, but in both passages “Moses cried to the LORD” and the LORD “proved” the people. Working outward from this point, we should naturally search earlier in the book for a possible parallel to Unit d. In fact, the major story preceding this section is the encounter with the Egyptians at the Re(e)d Sea. That story has in common with 17:8-16 (a) the only two appearances of the archaic Yah as a divine name in the book and (b) the use of Aaron's lifted rod by Moses to supernaturally defeat an enemy.

That leaves, by logical extension, the Passover episode as a possible parallel to Unit e. Both of these passages involve a combination of narrative and legislative material. In addition, there is a correspondence of sorts in that the first born of Israel are preserved in the Passover story while Moses' first born is restored to him in ch. 18. So the final form of this section is proposed to be that shown below. This literary structure may provide an explanation as to why the events of Exodus 17:8-18:27 are given in that location rather than where they should appear chronologically, according to both Propp and Durham.

Figure 1: The Organization of Exodus 11-18

A. Passover narrative and regulations (11:1-13:16)

B. Crisis of war (13:17-15:21)

C. Crisis of water (15:22-27)

D. Crisis of food (ch. 16)

C'. Crisis of water (17:1-7)

B'. Crisis of war (17:8-16)

A'. Teaching the statutes and judging the people (ch. 18)

Hunt perceptively notes that perhaps God does not punish the people for their murmuring/grumbling described in sections C-D-C' since (a) these instances involved basic human needs and (b) occurred before the Sinai Covenant.