04_Biblica_AN_Bar_Layout 1 16/12/13 12:27 Pagina 568 568 SHAUL BAR fruits that are warmed by the sun. Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac 1040- 1105) interpreted it as the precious fruits, which are sweetened by the rays of the sun. The second part speaks about crops that are influenced by the moon. There is word play here with months (~yxry) and moon (xry). Therefore, it can refer to different crops ripening in the different months of the year or to the influence of the lunar cycles on plant growth. How- ever, there is poetic parallelism with the word sun; thus the word moon is preferred here. According to Rashi there are some fruits which the moon matures, such as cucumbers and pumpkins. A similar idea is echoed by the Roman author Apuleius in words spoken to the moon goddess: “You who […] nourish the joyous seeds with your moist fires” 10. A Sumero- Akkadian hymn credits the moon god for fertility of crops 11. A similar interpretation is also found in the Sifre: “And for the precious things of the fruit of the sun” (33,14). Verse 15 speaks of the bounty (meged) of hills; this refers to agricul- tural products of the mountains and hills. Several biblical passages de- scribe the mountains as a source of wealth and abundance. They are covered with fruit-bearing trees (Ezek 17,23; 36,8; Pss 72,16; 104,13; 147,8). The mountains shall drip with wine and the hills shall flow with milk (Joel 4,18; Amos 9,13). This imagery of the wealth of mountains has a long history and is mentioned in the Ancient Near Eastern literature 12. In the epic of Gilgamesh we read: “The yield of hills and plain they shall bring thee as a tribute” 13. The theme of fertility continues in verse 16 which mentions the bounty (meged) of earth and its fullness. This is a blessing for the fruitfulness of the plain as distinct from the mountains and hills. This is a summary of the previous blessing. The heavens above and earth below give all the conditions for the development of the fruits: moisture, the sun, the moon, the mountains and hills, and the soil. It is possible that this comprehensive list, with its mythical overtones, was intended as a polemic against pa- ganism. In other words the passage from Deuteronomy comes to proclaim that the bounties of heaven, earth, the deep, the sun, and the moon are all blessings from YHWH whom Israel as a nation encounters by the burning bush on Horeb, the mountain of God. 10 Apuleius, Metamorphoses (ed. J.A. HANSON) (Cambridge, MA 1989) 11.2. 11 ANET, 386a. 12 N. WALDMAN, “The Wealth of Mountain and Sea: The Background of a Biblical Image”, JQR 71 (1981) 176-180. 13 ANET, 84a.