5
Elsewhere, I-Thou language is common in Gods instruction to Moses [=thou] on how to
build the tabernacle (Exodus 25-31). Similarly in Leviticus 1-7, like the central core of the book
of the covenant, consists primarily of impersonally formulated laws concerning sacrifice, but the
narrator personalizes these laws by the second person formulation in the introduction at Lev 1:2
9
that shows that the whole corpus is Gods message to Israel mediated by Moses, by a highly
personal section at Lev 4:4-16 where the 2
nd
person predominates,
10
and by a few isolated cases
where the 1
st
person is used in reference to God (Lev 6:17; 7:34) or the 2
nd
person singular is
used in reference to Israelites (Lev 6:21). All this serves to remind the reader that this is
Yahwehs personal message for Israel.
11
In addition to I-Thou language, there is also implied Us-Them language in the law and its
surrounding narratives that emphasizes how "We," the Israelite readers, should be separate from
"Them," the nations
12
as a result of their relationship with God as "Thou." This Us-Them
dichotomy can be discerned in Exodus 19-24. In Exod 19:5-6, God promised Israel that if they
"obey my voice and keep my covenant," that is, if they maintain the covenant by following the
laws, Israel would be set apart from other peoples as Gods special possession, as a "kingdom of
priests and a holy nation." In the Decalogues prologue Israel is reminded how God separated
the Israelites from Egypt physically, and the cultic laws emphasize that they must be separate
spiritually as well by avoiding idolatry of any sort, and by keeping the Sabbath (Exod 20:2-6, 8).
The pagan practices of outsiders, such as sorcery and idolatry, were punishable with death (Exod
22:18, 20). Canaanites in particular must be driven out of the land of promise and their cult
9
[Yahweh to Moses:] "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ,,When a man from among
you [pl.] wishes to present an offering to Yahweh from the livestock, you [pl] may present your
offerings from the herd or the flock." (Lev1:3)
10
You [sing.] occurs in Lev 2:4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15; you [plural] in v. 12.
11
After Watts, Reading Law, 63.
12
Bernard S. Jackson, "The Literary Presentation of Multiculturalism in Early Biblical Law,"
International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 7.23 (1995):183.