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Israel Will One Day Ask the Nations Where Their Gods Went

The nations gave their gods armies, taxes, and the fat of sacrifices. Rabbi Yehudah said a reckoning was coming and the gods would have nothing to show for it.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Investment That Created an Obligation
  2. The Challenge Israel Would Issue
  3. The Complaint From the Other Side
  4. Moses Wondered Why Israel Suffered Most

The Investment That Created an Obligation

The nations did not worship their gods cheaply. They maintained their gods the way governments maintain armies: with consistent funding, dedicated personnel, and the full institutional weight of their societies. Armies were conscripted, officers were assigned, taxes were levied, and the fat of the sacrifices, the best portion of everything the people produced, was burned before the idols. This was not casual religion. It was a comprehensive national investment.

Rabbi Yehudah, teaching in Roman Palestine during the second century CE, read Deuteronomy 32:38 as establishing an obligation from that investment. The nations gave their gods recruits, and officers, and taxes. That giving created an expectation of return. The gods were maintained as powers, fed as powers, served by personnel as powers. The question that would eventually be asked was: where is what you paid for?

The Challenge Israel Would Issue

Rabbi Yehudah imagined a future confrontation. Israel would turn to the nations and ask: where are your consuls? Where are your commanders? Produce the powers you invested in. Show us what you got for what you spent.

The question is precise in its form. It is not a theological argument. It is an audit. You claimed these gods were real. You allocated enormous resources to maintain them. You taxed your people, conscripted your armies, burned your best animals. These are not acts of imagination. They are records. The gods received this. Now produce what you purchased.

The gods will have nothing to show. The idols that received the fat cannot defend the people who sacrificed it. The powers that were maintained with military-scale investment cannot deliver military-scale protection. The nations poured their resources into a hole, and Israel, in that future moment, would hold the receipts.

The Complaint From the Other Side

The tradition preserves a different voice alongside Rabbi Yehudah's confident challenge. Sifrei Devarim also records a cry that sounds less like an accusation and more like grief: not as the authority you give them is the authority you give us. When God grants power to the nations, the nations use it to kill, burn, and crucify Israel. The same text that imagines Israel eventually auditing the nations also preserves the lament of a people who watched the nations exercise their power brutally and could not understand why God gave that power to such hands.

These two voices sit in the same tradition without resolving each other. The future accounting is real. The present suffering is also real. The nations' gods will fail the audit. Israel's God has permitted enormous cruelty in the interval before the accounting. Both things are true, and the tradition held them together without forcing a premature reconciliation.

Moses Wondered Why Israel Suffered Most

Moses, after fleeing Egypt, sat beside a well in Midian and the first question that occupied him was why Israel suffered more than all other nations. This is not the question of a man who had lost his faith. It is the question of a man who believed in a God who governed history and could not understand the distribution of suffering within that governance.

Rabbi Yehudah's future audit is an answer to that question, decades and centuries downstream from where Moses sat by the well. The suffering is real. The nations' power is real. But power that has been invested in nothing durable and accountable is power that runs out. The consuls and commanders will not be able to produce what they were paid to deliver. Israel's God, to whom no comparable investment and no comparable demand was made, will still be present when the accounting comes.

IsraelNationsIdolatryEnd Of DaysDeuteronomyMidrash AggadahTheodicy
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Sifrei Devarim 323:6Sifrei Devarim

Sifrei Devarim turns to Written and Oral Law of Sodom.

What does that mean?

The text dives right in: "Not as the authority you give us is the authority you give them." It’s a stark statement about perceived injustice. When God grants authority to other nations, the commentary argues, they often treat the Jewish people with cruelty. The text pulls no punches: "they kill us, burn us, and crucify us." A brutal assessment of historical realities, isn't it? It’s a cry of pain, etched in ink and passed down through generations.

The commentary then hones in on the phrase "our enemies are judges." It points to a fundamental principle within the Torah itself. (Numbers 35:23) states that someone who isn’t an enemy, someone who doesn’t seek to do evil, should be the one to judge. So, the question becomes: How can God, the ultimate source of justice, allow enemies to act as judges over Israel? It feels like a direct contradiction, doesn't it? Like a betrayal of divine promise.

This isn't just abstract theology, either. It’s about real-world suffering and the search for meaning in the face of oppression.

The final line offers a different angle, linking the verse to the infamous city of Sodom. (Deuteronomy 32:32) continues, "For of the wine of Sodom is their wine." Here, we find two rabbinic opinions. Rabbi Yehudah interprets the "wine of Sodom" as referring to Israel, while Rabbi Nechemiah sees it as referring to the other nations.

What's the significance of Sodom? It’s a symbol of moral decay, of societal corruption. So, is Israel being compared to Sodom? Or are the nations? The debate itself reveals a tension. Is the problem internal – a failing within the Jewish people themselves? Or is it external – a consequence of the actions of others?

Perhaps, like so many things, the truth lies somewhere in between. Sifrei Devarim doesn't offer easy answers, but it does offer a space to wrestle with difficult questions about power, justice, and the often-perplexing relationship between God and humanity. It forces us to confront the uncomfortable realities of history and to ask ourselves: How do we find justice, even when it feels like our enemies are the judges? And what does it truly mean to be a light unto nations, especially when that light seems to attract darkness?

Full source
Legends of the Jews 4:97Legends of the Jews

You pour your heart into helping them, only to see them repeat the same mistakes. That feeling isn't new. It's as old as…well, as old as Moses.

Moses, right after fleeing Egypt. He’s not just worried about his own hide. No, his heart aches for his people, the Israelites. Ginzberg, in Legends of the Jews, paints a picture of Moses riddled with questions. Why, he wondered, did Israel suffer more than all other nations? It's a question that echoes through history, isn't it? Why do some groups seem to face disproportionate hardship?

Then something shifted. An angel, Ginzberg tells us, whisked Moses away – forty days' journey from Egypt, a distance so vast it banished all fear from his mind. But distance didn’t solve the problem. Instead, being among the Israelites, he witnessed something that shook him to his core: talebearing and backbiting. Can you imagine his disappointment? He began to question: Did this people deserve to be redeemed? The very people he was destined to save were exhibiting behavior that made him doubt their worthiness.

The situation wasn’t pretty. The Israelites, at that time, weren't exactly model citizens, spiritually speaking. They turned a deaf ear to Aaron and the five sons of Zerah – prophets who were actively trying to guide them toward the fear of God. They just wouldn’t listen. It was their own impiety, their lack of reverence and faith, that, according to the tradition, allowed Pharaoh’s heavy hand to press down on them even harder.

It's a harsh reality. Sometimes, our own actions contribute to our suffering. As the story goes, it was only when God had mercy on them, despite their failings, that Moses was finally sent to deliver them from Egyptian slavery.

So, what does this tell us? Maybe it’s a reminder that redemption isn't always about deserving. Sometimes, it's about grace. About God's unwavering commitment, even when we, like the ancient Israelites, stumble and fall. And maybe, just maybe, it's a call to examine ourselves. Are we listening to the voices of wisdom around us? Are we contributing to a community of support, or one of division? Because the path to redemption, it seems, begins not just with divine intervention, but with our own willingness to turn toward the light.

Full source
Sifrei Devarim 328:1Sifrei Devarim

Sifrei Devarim turns to Israel Challenges the Nations About Their Commanders.

He suggests that in some future reckoning, Israel will turn to the nations and demand, "Where are your consuls and your commanders?"

What does this mean? It's not a literal call for personnel records, but rather a challenge. A pointed question about the supposed power and influence of these other nations' deities.

The text continues, elaborating on the phrase "who ate the fat of their sacrifices." Rabbi Yehudah interprets this to mean that these nations gave their gods “recruits, and officers, and taxes.” These nations weren't just offering symbolic gestures. They were investing heavily – perhaps even enslaving themselves – in the service of their gods. They were giving of their substance, of their very selves. According to R. Yehudah, they gave their gods the best of their armies and treasures.

So, the question “Where are your consuls and your commanders?” becomes even sharper. If these nations poured so much into their gods, where is the return on investment? Where is the divine leadership? Where is the promised protection?

It's a powerful indictment, isn't it? A challenge to the very foundation of other belief systems. A statement of faith, perhaps, that true power and protection come from somewhere else entirely.

Full source