183 THE CONTINUITY OF THE NON-PRIESTLY NARRATIVE spoke to you out of the fire [...] he declared to you the covenant[...] since you saw no shape at Horeb out of the fire [...]”. Later in the chapter the same idea is expressed: “as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes [...] from the heavens he let you hear his voice” (Deut 4,34-36). And following directly on this iden- tification of the current generation with that of the exodus, Moses states: “Because he loved your fathers, he chose their heirs after them; he himself, in his great might, led you out of Egypt”. If the ad- dressees are the ones who came out of Egypt, as is clearly the case here, then “your fathers” can refer only to the patriarchs. So too in Deut 7,8: “It was because the Lord favored you and kept the oath he made to your fathers that the Lord freed you with a mighty hand and rescued you from the house of bondage”. Again, if Moses’s ad- dressees were the ones whom God freed from Egypt, then the ref- erence to “your fathers”, and the oath made to them, can refer only to the patriarchs and the patriarchal promises. And so again in Deut 29,12: “to the end that he may establish you this day as his people and be your God, as he promised you and as he swore to your fa- thers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. Two promises are described here: the promise to the generation of addressees, and the promise to their ancestors, the patriarchs. Even if the names of the patriarchs were not mentioned here, they are the only possible referent for “your fa- thers”, since the first promise described in Deut 29,12, “to you”, must refer to the generation of the exodus — the same generation that is standing in the plains of Moab. This conclusion is only bol- stered by the beginning of this Mosaic speech, in 29,1: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt”. For the majority of Deuteronomy, it is assumed that the generation of the exodus did not die in the wilderness, but are the same gener- ation that stands before Moses to receive the laws on the border of Canaan. Their fathers to whom God promised the land, therefore, can only be the patriarchs. Additionally, although it is sometimes claimed that D refers only to the promise of land, this is not true. Certainly the vast majority of promise passages in D mention only the land, which is only sen- sible, since virtually all of D centers on the impending Israelite pos- session of the promised land. There are two, however, that refer to the promise of increase directly. In Deut 1,11, Moses says, “May the Lord, the God of your fathers, increase your numbers a thou- sandfold, and bless you as he has promised you”. And in Deut © Gregorian Biblical Press 2012 - Tutti i diritti riservati