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Main Article Content
God, Our Rock (Deut 32:1–43): Reading the metaphor in its Pentateuchal context
Abstract
The metaphor of God as the Rock, with its nascent imagery of stability, strength, and protection, is a popular refrain in the Hebrew Bible, especially in the book of Psalms, and with some interesting additions in the book of Deuteronomy. The analysis here focuses on the Song of Moses (Deut 32:1–43), where its associated text and imagery portrays God, who is represented as the Rock, as a source of faithfulness and righteousness, who gives birth to Israel, judges her, and saves her. Such attributes belong to God and not to the metaphorical rock. Using the cognitive approach to metaphors, this article offers an understanding of God our Rock and of the poet’s intended reorientation associated with the use of the metaphor. The article finds the origins of the metaphor of the rock, as in Deuteronomy 32, in the Pentateuchal context of the desert leitmotif and the events at Horeb/Sinai. This conclusion challenges the view that the metaphor and its associated attributes was borrowed from Canaanite mythology.
