06_Biblica_AN_Leuchter_269_279 15/07/14 12:22 Pagina 275 275 INTER-LEVITICAL POLEMICS 275 galski has recently made a compelling case that this (among other pieces of evidence) points to Levite scribes as the redactors of the Book of the Twelve 33; it would therefore seem that this liturgical formula was strongly associated with Levite tradition and was infused into the Book of the Twelve to reinforce that tradition within the Jerusalem temple curriculum of which the Book of the Twelve eventually became a central feature 34. Its presence in Neh 9,17 points to a similar circle of Levite tradents stand- ing behind the prayer in an earlier period. The second feature strongly suggesting Levite authorship is the manner in which Israel’s monarchic-era rebellion is characterized later in the prayer: And they took fortified cities, and a fat land (hnmX), and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, and olive- yards, and fruit trees in abundance; so they did eat (wlbayw), and were filled (w[bXyw), and became fat (wnmXyw), and luxuriated in thy great goodness. Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their back [...] (Neh 9,25) Not only the tenor but the wording of these verses recalls the Song of Moses, a Levite-composed liturgy which castigates its monarchic-era au- dience in startlingly similar terms 35: Curd of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, with the kidney-fat of wheat; and of the blood of the grape thou drankest foaming wine. But Jeshurun waxed fat (!mXyw), and kicked ― thou didst wax fat (tnmX), thou didst grow thick (tyb[), thou didst become gross (tyXb)! And he forsook God who made him, and contemned the Rock of his salvation […] (Deut 32,14-15) The thematic overlap between Neh 9,25 and the Song of Moses are obvious. Not only is the agrarian imagery typical of old Levitical mytholo- gy 36, but the threefold litany highlighting the gluttonous consumption of 33 J.D. NOGALSKI, “One Book and Twelve Books: The Nature of the Redactional Work and Implications of the Cultic Source Material in the Book of the Twelve”, Two Sides of a Coin. Juxtaposing Views on Interpreting the Book of the Twelve/Twelve Prophetic Books (eds. E. BEN ZVI – J. D. NOGALSKI) (Analecta Georgiana 201; Piscataway, NJ 2009) 11-46, here 40-46. 34 The work was already presupposed as such by Ben Sira in the early 2nd century BCE (Sir 49,10). 35 M. LEUCHTER, “Why is the Song of Moses in the book of Deuteronomy?”, VT 57 (2007) 295-317, here 314-317. 36 COOK, Social Roots, 78-81; LEUCHTER, Samuel and the Shaping of Tradition, 28-31.