摘要:It is a hot, still afternoon, and God (whatever that linguistic construct might occupy at the moment) is on the side of the Israelites. God is always on the side of the Israelites. lie considers it to be his job, getting them together in the first place, sending them out into the desert to suffer and starve, burnt with hunger and devoured with burning heat. Moses is dead (has apparently died undiminished, his eyes still bright and his 'natural force' - does that mean his virility, his ability to get it up? - unabated despite his one hundred and twenty years), and God is doling out territory, Canaan, the land that he promised, first to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to Jacob. The land stretches from Lebanon as far as the great river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the land of the great sea. This land is already occupied, but God has promised it to the Israelites, under the command of Joshua, every place that the sole of his foot will tread.