Oh, and One More Thing

In the traditional layout of a Torah scroll, an open paragraph begins after the eleventh verse of Deuteronomy 7. The preceding line is left partly or wholly blank, and verse 12 begins on a new line. Masoretic codices and later printed editions mark this inherited division with the letter פ, petuchah, “open.”

Everything through verse 11 belongs to parashat Va’etchanan, read last Shabbat. Everything from verse 12 through the end of chapter 11 is the portion read this coming Shabbat, and that portion takes its name from its first weighty word.

The word is עֵקֶב. You may recognize it as cognate with Yaakov, Jacob, named for emerging with his hand around the heel of his brother, Esau.

וְהָיָה עֵקֶב תִּשְׁמְעוּן אֵת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים הָאֵלֶּה וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם וְשָׁמַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְךָ אֶת־הַבְּרִית וְאֶת־הַחֶסֶד אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ

And it shall be, ekev you listen to these rules and keep them and do them, that the LORD your God will keep for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your ancestors. (Deuteronomy 7:12)

Verse 11 has just said “keep the commandment, the statutes, and the rules that I command you today to do them,” and verse 12 says “and it shall be, when you listen to these rules and keep them and do them.” One sentence finishes the thought of the other, yet the parasha cycle cuts it up.

Rashi comments:

אִם הַמִּצְווֹת קַלּוֹת שֶׁאָדָם דָּשׁ בַּעֲקֵבָיו תִּשְׁמְעוּן

If you will listen to the light commandments that a person tramples with his heels. (Rashi on Deuteronomy 7:12)

He hears the anatomy inside the conjunction. עקב is the back of the foot. The commandments in question are the ones underfoot, the cheap ones.

Nachmanides is not persuaded that this is the plain sense. He opens his comment on the verse by naming the parallel Rashi passed over.

טַעַם עֵקֶב, כְּמוֹ בַּעֲבוּר, וְכֵן עֵקֶב אֲשֶׁר שָׁמַע אַבְרָהָם בְּקֹלִי

The sense of ekev is “on account of,” and likewise “ekev Abraham listened to My voice.” (Ramban on Deuteronomy 7:12, citing Genesis 26:5)

Ramban then traces the etymology. Hebrew calls the beginning of something its “head” and its end its “heel,” borrowing the shape of the body. From there he gathers the root’s crooked and circling senses—עָקֹב הַלֵּב, “the heart is crooked,” and וְהָיָה הֶעָקֹב לְמִישׁוֹר, “the crooked shall become level”—before closing the circuit: Jacob is also called Yeshurun, the straight one, because the opposite of crooked is level.

The parasha, in other words, is cut at the heel: the last thing, the low thing, the crooked thing, and the body part our ancestor entered the world holding.

עֵקֶב used as a causal word is rare.

The first is spoken by the angel to Abraham on the mountain, immediately after the knife is stopped.

כִּי־בָרֵךְ אֲבָרֶכְךָ וְהַרְבָּה אַרְבֶּה אֶת־זַרְעֲךָ כְּכוֹכְבֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם וְכַחוֹל אֲשֶׁר עַל־שְׂפַת הַיָּם וְיִרַשׁ זַרְעֲךָ אֵת שַׁעַר אֹיְבָיו׃ וְהִתְבָּרְכוּ בְזַרְעֲךָ כֹּל גּוֹיֵי הָאָרֶץ עֵקֶב אֲשֶׁר שָׁמַעְתָּ בְּקֹלִי

I will surely bless you and greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand on the shore of the sea, and your seed shall inherit the gate of its enemies. And all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your seed, ekev you listened to My voice. (Genesis 22:17–18)

The second is spoken to Isaac at Gerar, explaining why the oath sworn to his father still stands.

וְהִרְבֵּיתִי אֶת־זַרְעֲךָ כְּכוֹכְבֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם וְנָתַתִּי לְזַרְעֲךָ אֵת כָּל־הָאֲרָצֹת הָאֵל וְהִתְבָּרְכוּ בְזַרְעֲךָ כֹּל גּוֹיֵי הָאָרֶץ׃ עֵקֶב אֲשֶׁר־שָׁמַע אַבְרָהָם בְּקֹלִי וַיִּשְׁמֹר מִשְׁמַרְתִּי מִצְוֺתַי חֻקּוֹתַי וְתוֹרֹתָי

And I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and give to your seed all these lands, and all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your seed. Ekev Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My teachings. (Genesis 26:4–5)

Both times עֵקֶב arrives immediately after the promise that all nations will be blessed through Abraham’s seed. Grammatically it may ground the entire promise (land, descendants, victory, and blessing) but its placement gives the universal clause special weight.

Deuteronomy now re-addresses Abraham’s word to Israel. At 7:12, עֵקֶב introduces the promise for listening; at the end of the next chapter it introduces the consequence of not listening.

כַּגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר ‘ה מַאֲבִיד מִפְּנֵיכֶם כֵּן תֹּאבֵדוּן עֵקֶב לֹא תִשְׁמְעוּן בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם

Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you be destroyed, ekev you do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 8:20)

Israel, listening, receives what Abraham was promised. Israel, not listening, receives what the Canaanites receive. The negative verse takes Abraham’s idiom, שָׁמַע בְּקוֹל, and reverses it. What Abraham did, Israel can fail to do, and the failure has a named consequence: כַּגּוֹיִם, like the nations.

Read Deuteronomy 7:12–13 next to Genesis and you’ll see the parallels are abundant.

וְשָׁמַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְךָ אֶת־הַבְּרִית וְאֶת־הַחֶסֶד אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ׃ וַאֲהֵבְךָ וּבֵרַכְךָ וְהִרְבֶּךָ ... עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ לָתֶת לָךְ

The LORD your God will keep for you the covenant and the kindness He swore to your ancestors. He will love you and bless you and multiply you ... upon the soil He swore to your ancestors to give you. (Deuteronomy 7:12–13)

עקב, then listening, keeping, oath, blessing, multiplication, and land: the order of Genesis 26:3–5. Deuteronomy appears to recast the paragraph that explained how a promise passed from one man to his son, addressing it now to a nation about to receive that promise and participate in its transmission.

Ibn Ezra identifies “the covenant” as God’s covenant with Abraham. Sforno adds that Israel must keep it מֵאַהֲבָה, “out of love,” rather than for reward. The promise is inherited; the posture that makes a people fit to hold it must be produced fresh each generation.

That is the second half of the chapter. The prior half is about conquest.

כִּי יְבִיאֲךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־אַתָּה בָא־שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ וְנָשַׁל גּוֹיִם־רַבִּים מִפָּנֶיךָ הַחִתִּי וְהַגִּרְגָּשִׁי וְהָאֱמֹרִי וְהַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַפְּרִזִּי וְהַחִוִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי שִׁבְעָה גוֹיִם רַבִּים וַעֲצוּמִים מִמֶּךָּ׃ וּנְתָנָם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְפָנֶיךָ וְהִכִּיתָם הַחֲרֵם תַּחֲרִים אֹתָם לֹא־תִכְרֹת לָהֶם בְּרִית וְלֹא תְחָנֵּם

When the LORD your God brings you to the land you are entering to possess, and dislodges many nations before you, the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and the LORD your God gives them before you and you strike them, you shall utterly proscribe them. You shall not cut a covenant with them and you shall not show them favor. (Deuteronomy 7:1–2)

Then intermarriage, and the reason given for the prohibition.

וְלֹא תִתְחַתֵּן בָּם בִּתְּךָ לֹא־תִתֵּן לִבְנוֹ וּבִתּוֹ לֹא־תִקַּח לִבְנֶךָ׃ כִּי־יָסִיר אֶת־בִּנְךָ מֵאַחֲרַי וְעָבְדוּ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים וְחָרָה אַף־יְהוָה בָּכֶם וְהִשְׁמִידְךָ מַהֵר

You shall not intermarry with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, and his daughter you shall not take for your son. For he will turn your son away from after Me and they will serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and He will destroy you quickly. (Deuteronomy 7:3–4)

Then the cult objects, and the reason given for their destruction.

מִזְבְּחֹתֵיהֶם תִּתֹּצוּ וּמַצֵּבֹתָם תְּשַׁבֵּרוּ וַאֲשֵׁירֵהֶם תְּגַדֵּעוּן וּפְסִילֵיהֶם תִּשְׂרְפוּן בָּאֵשׁ׃ כִּי עַם קָדוֹשׁ אַתָּה לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ

Their altars you shall tear down, their pillars you shall smash, their sacred posts you shall cut down, and their images you shall burn in fire. For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 7:5–6)

The last time God warned Israel against covenants with the inhabitants of the land and against their daughters, Moses had just come down a mountain a second time, because the first tablets were in pieces at the bottom of it.

הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ פֶּן־תִּכְרֹת בְּרִית לְיוֹשֵׁב הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָּא עָלֶיהָ פֶּן־יִהְיֶה לְמוֹקֵשׁ בְּקִרְבֶּךָ׃ כִּי אֶת־מִזְבְּחֹתָם תִּתֹּצוּן וְאֶת־מַצֵּבֹתָם תְּשַׁבֵּרוּן וְאֶת־אֲשֵׁרָיו תִּכְרֹתוּן ... וְלָקַחְתָּ מִבְּנֹתָיו לְבָנֶיךָ וְזָנוּ בְנֹתָיו אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהֵיהֶן וְהִזְנוּ אֶת־בָּנֶיךָ אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהֵיהֶן

Guard yourself lest you cut a covenant with the inhabitant of the land you are coming upon, lest it become a snare in your midst. For their altars you shall tear down and their pillars you shall smash and his sacred posts you shall cut down ... And you will take from his daughters for your sons, and his daughters will whore after their gods and will make your sons whore after their gods. (Exodus 34:12–13, 16)

The three verbs arrive in the same order, on the same three objects: altars torn, pillars smashed, sacred posts cut. The covenant prohibition, the snare, the daughters, the sons turned. Deuteronomy 7 is quoting the covenant God made the second time, after the calf.

Parashat Eikev itself will retell the golden calf two chapters later. Israel is warned against Canaanite religion by a speaker who will shortly remind them that they built an idol at the foot of the mountain where they heard God’s voice. The danger is not exposure to something Israel has never done.

The back half of the chapter has a second source. In the covenant shaped at Sinai, God had describes the conquest of the land.

אֶת־אֵימָתִי אֲשַׁלַּח לְפָנֶיךָ וְהַמֹּתִי אֶת־כָּל־הָעָם אֲשֶׁר תָּבֹא בָּהֶם ... וְשָׁלַחְתִּי אֶת־הַצִּרְעָה לְפָנֶיךָ ... לֹא אֲגָרְשֶׁנּוּ מִפָּנֶיךָ בְּשָׁנָה אֶחָת פֶּן־תִּהְיֶה הָאָרֶץ שְׁמָמָה וְרַבָּה עָלֶיךָ חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה׃ מְעַט מְעַט אֲגָרְשֶׁנּוּ מִפָּנֶיךָ עַד אֲשֶׁר תִּפְרֶה וְנָחַלְתָּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ ... לֹא־תִכְרֹת לָהֶם וְלֵאלֹהֵיהֶם בְּרִית׃ לֹא יֵשְׁבוּ בְּאַרְצְךָ פֶּן־יַחֲטִיאוּ אֹתְךָ לִי כִּי תַעֲבֹד אֶת־אֱלֹהֵיהֶם כִּי־יִהְיֶה לְךָ לְמוֹקֵשׁ

I will send My terror before you and throw into panic every people you come among ... and I will send the hornet before you ... I will not drive him out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field multiply against you. Little by little I will drive him out before you, until you are fruitful and inherit the land ... You shall not cut a covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me, for you will serve their gods, and it will be a snare to you. (Exodus 23:27–33)

Now Deuteronomy, in order.

וְגַם אֶת־הַצִּרְעָה יְשַׁלַּח יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בָּם עַד־אֲבֹד הַנִּשְׁאָרִים וְהַנִּסְתָּרִים מִפָּנֶיךָ ... וְנָשַׁל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת־הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵל מִפָּנֶיךָ מְעַט מְעָט לֹא תוּכַל כַּלֹּתָם מַהֵר פֶּן־תִּרְבֶּה עָלֶיךָ חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה׃ וּנְתָנָם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְפָנֶיךָ וְהָמָם מְהוּמָה גְדֹלָה עַד הִשָּׁמְדָם׃ וְנָתַן מַלְכֵיהֶם בְּיָדֶךָ

And the LORD your God will also send the hornet against them, until those remaining and hidden from you perish ... And the LORD your God will dislodge these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to finish them quickly, lest the beast of the field multiply against you. And the LORD your God will give them before you and throw them into great panic until they are destroyed. And He will give their kings into your hand. (Deuteronomy 7:20, 22–24)

The cluster is unmistakable: the hornet, “little by little,” the nearly verbatim wild-beast clause, panic, divine delivery, the covenant prohibition, and the gods as a מוֹקֵשׁ, a snare. Even the rare verb וְנָשַׁל, “dislodge,” opens Deuteronomy 7 and returns at verse 22 to close the frame.

Exodus is spoken almost entirely in the divine first person: I will send, I will drive out, I will deliver. Deuteronomy hands the verbs over. You shall strike them. You shall not cut a covenant. You shall not show them favor. You shall tear down their altars. You shall not covet. You shall not bring the abhorrent thing into your house. The same conquest, with the grammar transferred from God’s mouth to Israel’s hands.

Between the conquest at the front of the chapter and the conquest at the back sits its purpose.

כִּי עַם קָדוֹשׁ אַתָּה לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּךָ בָּחַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִהְיוֹת לוֹ לְעַם סְגֻלָּה מִכֹּל הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר עַל־פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה

For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You the LORD your God chose to be for Him a treasured people out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy 7:6)

This is a recombination of the two verses God spoke at Sinai before a word of law had been given.

וְהִיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָּל־הָעַמִּים כִּי־לִי כָּל־הָאָרֶץ׃ וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ־לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים וְגוֹי קָדוֹשׁ

You shall be to Me a treasure, segulah, out of all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, goy kadosh. (Exodus 19:5–6)

Deuteronomy fuses סְגֻלָּה from one verse with קָדוֹשׁ from the next, then changes גּוֹי קָדוֹשׁ, “holy nation,” into עַם קָדוֹשׁ, “holy people.” Israel is put grammatically inside the category from which it is distinguished: one am among the amim, holding a different assignment.

Then the chapter blocks the reading that election invites.

לֹא מֵרֻבְּכֶם מִכָּל־הָעַמִּים חָשַׁק יְהוָה בָּכֶם וַיִּבְחַר בָּכֶם כִּי־אַתֶּם הַמְעַט מִכָּל־הָעַמִּים׃ כִּי מֵאַהֲבַת יְהוָה אֶתְכֶם וּמִשָּׁמְרוֹ אֶת־הַשְּׁבֻעָה אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶם הוֹצִיא יְהוָה אֶתְכֶם בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וַיִּפְדְּךָ מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים מִיַּד פַּרְעֹה מֶלֶךְ־מִצְרָיִם

Not from your being more numerous than all the peoples did the LORD desire you and choose you, for you are the smallest of all the peoples. Rather, from the LORD’s love of you and His keeping the oath He swore to your ancestors, the LORD brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:7–8)

Ramban reads חָשַׁק, “desired,” through the silver bands fastening the Tabernacle’s pillars: God “bound Himself to you with a strong binding.” Rashi turns Israel’s smallness into a disposition: God desires Israel because it does not make itself large when blessed. Election begins not in Israel’s power but in divine love, the ancestral oath, and redemption from Pharaoh.

Ten verses later the chapter gets psychological.

כִּי תֹאמַר בִּלְבָבְךָ רַבִּים הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה מִמֶּנִּי אֵיכָה אוּכַל לְהוֹרִישָׁם׃ לֹא תִירָא מֵהֶם זָכֹר תִּזְכֹּר אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְפַרְעֹה וּלְכָל־מִצְרָיִם

If you say in your heart, “These nations are more numerous than I; how can I dispossess them?” Do not fear them. Remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:17–18)

Its language recalls the scouts’ fear—“it is stronger than we”—and will soon name the sons of Anak outright (Numbers 13:31–33; Deuteronomy 9:1–2). Israel must hold a truthful estimate of its own power together with the memory of Pharaoh: it cannot conquer by itself, but it has already seen what God can do.

The chapter then moves from fear of the nations to desire for their things.

פְּסִילֵי אֱלֹהֵיהֶם תִּשְׂרְפוּן בָּאֵשׁ לֹא־תַחְמֹד כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב עֲלֵיהֶם וְלָקַחְתָּ לָךְ פֶּן תִּוָּקֵשׁ בּוֹ כִּי תוֹעֲבַת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ הוּא׃ וְלֹא־תָבִיא תוֹעֵבָה אֶל־בֵּיתֶךָ וְהָיִיתָ חֵרֶם כָּמֹהוּ שַׁקֵּץ תְּשַׁקְּצֶנּוּ וְתַעֵב תְּתַעֲבֶנּוּ כִּי־חֵרֶם הוּא

The images of their gods you shall burn in fire. You shall not covet the silver and gold on them and take it for yourself, lest you be snared by it, for it is an abhorrence to the LORD your God. And you shall not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, and become proscribed like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is proscribed. (Deuteronomy 7:25–26)

Between the two prohibitions runs one continuous verb chain, and it is entirely interior and domestic: seeing, then coveting, then taking, then carrying home, then becoming. No army appears in it.

And the status it warns him about is the status he was told to impose on somebody else. Verse 2 commanded הַחֲרֵם תַּחֲרִים אֹתָם, “you shall utterly proscribe them.” Verse 26 says וְהָיִיתָ חֵרֶם כָּמֹהוּ, “and you will become proscribed like it.” חֵרֶם does not sit still. It is contagious, and it moves toward whoever reaches for the thing.

Joshua turns that clause into the plot of Achan. Before Jericho falls, Israel is warned that taking from the חֵרֶם will make the whole camp חֵרֶם (Joshua 6:18–19). One man takes, Israel is defeated at Ai, and God describes the result in a sentence built from Deuteronomy 7:26:

וְלֹא יֻכְלוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לָקוּם לִפְנֵי אֹיְבֵיהֶם עֹרֶף יִפְנוּ לִפְנֵי אֹיְבֵיהֶם כִּי הָיוּ לְחֵרֶם

The children of Israel will not be able to stand before their enemies; they will turn the back of the neck before their enemies, for they have become proscribed. (Joshua 7:12)

Deuteronomy 7:24 had promised לֹא־יִתְיַצֵּב אִישׁ בְּפָנֶיךָ, “no man shall stand before you.” Joshua 7:12 records the promise running backwards. Israel is now the side that cannot stand.

Then Achan speaks, and his confession is Deuteronomy 7:25 in the first person, in order, with the verbs unchanged.

וָאֵרֶא בַשָּׁלָל אַדֶּרֶת שִׁנְעָר אַחַת טוֹבָה וּמָאתַיִם שְׁקָלִים כֶּסֶף וּלְשׁוֹן זָהָב אֶחָד חֲמִשִּׁים שְׁקָלִים מִשְׁקָלוֹ וָאֶחְמְדֵם וָאֶקָּחֵם וְהִנָּם טְמוּנִים בָּאָרֶץ בְּתוֹךְ הָאָהֳלִי

I saw among the spoil one fine mantle of Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and one wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, and I coveted them and I took them, and they are buried in the ground inside my tent. (Joshua 7:21)

Deuteronomy says, “You shall not covet … and take for yourself.” Achan answers, “I coveted them and I took them.” The silver and gold match; the forbidden object enters his tent; the status crosses from object to person and from person to people. The narrative does not merely illustrate the law. It reveals the law’s governing claim: Israel does not remain outside the category it imposes.

Solomon supplies the public, royal version of the same collapse. His story opens with a near-verbatim citation of Deuteronomy 7:3–4, as close as the Bible comes to a footnote.

וְהַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה אָהַב נָשִׁים נָכְרִיּוֹת רַבּוֹת ... מִן־הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר אָמַר־יְהוָה אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֹא־תָבֹאוּ בָהֶם וְהֵם לֹא־יָבֹאוּ בָכֶם אָכֵן יַטּוּ אֶת־לְבַבְכֶם אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהֵיהֶם בָּהֶם דָּבַק שְׁלֹמֹה לְאַהֲבָה

King Solomon loved many foreign women ... from the nations of which the LORD had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not come among them and they shall not come among you; surely they will turn your heart after their gods.” To these Solomon clung, in love. (1 Kings 11:1–2)

Deuteronomy 7 had warned that the foreign spouse would turn the son מֵאַחֲרַי, “from after Me.” Kings shifts the turning to the king’s heart and repeats it four times across verses 2–9.

Two words in that account settle the matter.

The first is דָּבַק, clung. The last verses of parashat Eikev command exactly this verb, with exactly one permitted object: לְאַהֲבָה אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם לָלֶכֶת בְּכָל־דְּרָכָיו וּלְדָבְקָה־בוֹ, “to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to cling to Him” (Deuteronomy 11:22), a phrase the portion has already used at 10:20, וּבוֹ תִדְבָּק. Kings reports Solomon performing the portion’s two central verbs, loving and clinging, on the wrong object.

The sharpest echo comes from Deuteronomy 7:26, which commands שַׁקֵּץ תְּשַׁקְּצֶנּוּ, “you shall utterly detest it.” Kings turns that verb into the noun for the gods to whom Solomon built shrines.

וַיֵּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה אַחֲרֵי עַשְׁתֹּרֶת אֱלֹהֵי צִדֹנִים וְאַחֲרֵי מִלְכֹּם שִׁקֻּץ עַמֹּנִים ... אָז יִבְנֶה שְׁלֹמֹה בָּמָה לִכְמוֹשׁ שִׁקֻּץ מוֹאָב בָּהָר אֲשֶׁר עַל־פְּנֵי יְרוּשָׁלִַם וּלְמֹלֶךְ שִׁקֻּץ בְּנֵי עַמּוֹן

And Solomon went after Ashtoreth, god of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the detestation of the Ammonites ... Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the detestation of Moab, on the hill facing Jerusalem, and for Molech, the detestation of the children of Ammon. (1 Kings 11:5, 7)

The action Israel was commanded to perform becomes the object Israel’s wisest king builds altars for, in sight of the Temple. Three centuries later Josiah tears them down, and Kings joins Deuteronomy’s two abhorrence-roots in a single inventory: שִׁקֻּץ and תּוֹעֲבָה (2 Kings 23:13).

Achan took the silver and gold of a conquered city and hid it under his tent floor. Solomon took the alliances of an empire and built them a view of the Temple Mount. The private version and the public version of the same verb.

Which returns us to the fifth occurrence of עֵקֶב, and to what Deuteronomy is willing to say about its own people.

וְהָיָה אִם־שָׁכֹחַ תִּשְׁכַּח אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְהָלַכְתָּ אַחֲרֵי אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים וַעֲבַדְתָּם וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתָ לָהֶם הַעִדֹתִי בָכֶם הַיּוֹם כִּי אָבֹד תֹּאבֵדוּן׃ כַּגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה מַאֲבִיד מִפְּנֵיכֶם כֵּן תֹּאבֵדוּן עֵקֶב לֹא תִשְׁמְעוּן בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם

And it shall be, if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and bow to them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish, ekev you do not listen to the voice of the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 8:19–20)

וְהָיָה עֵקֶב תִּשְׁמְעוּן at 7:12; עֵקֶב לֹא תִשְׁמְעוּן at 8:20. The portion opens and closes its first movement on the same word with the sign reversed, and the second version supplies the equation the first left implicit. Israel’s category is held by listening, and the alternative category is already named and already occupied.

Chapter 7 had said as much in miniature at verse 4, about intermarriage: וְחָרָה אַף־יְהוָה בָּכֶם וְהִשְׁמִידְךָ מַהֵר, “the LORD’s anger will burn against you and He will destroy you quickly.” הִשְׁמִיד is the chapter’s own verb for what happens to the seven nations at 7:23–24, עַד הִשָּׁמְדָם, “until they are destroyed,” and עַד הַשְׁמִדְךָ אֹתָם, “until you have destroyed them.” The chapter uses one verb for both parties. And at verse 10 the principle is stated as a rule about God rather than a threat about Canaanites: וּמְשַׁלֵּם לְשֹׂנְאָיו אֶל־פָּנָיו לְהַאֲבִידוֹ, “and He repays those who hate Him, to their face, to destroy him.” Rashi, characteristically, makes it more uncomfortable: בְּחַיָּיו מְשַׁלֵּם לוֹ גְמוּלוֹ הַטּוֹב, כְּדֵי לְהַאֲבִידוֹ מִן הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא, “in his lifetime He pays him his good reward, in order to destroy him from the world to come.” Prosperity is not evidence of standing.

The rest of the portion says the same thing three times, in three interior monologues that Moses puts in Israel’s mouth and then answers. The first is fear: כִּי תֹאמַר בִּלְבָבְךָ רַבִּים הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה מִמֶּנִּי, “if you say in your heart, these nations are more numerous than I” (7:17). The second is self-congratulation about strength: וְאָמַרְתָּ בִּלְבָבֶךָ כֹּחִי וְעֹצֶם יָדִי עָשָׂה לִי אֶת־הַחַיִל הַזֶּה, “and you will say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand made me this wealth” (8:17). The third is self-congratulation about virtue: אַל־תֹּאמַר בִּלְבָבְךָ ... בְּצִדְקָתִי הֱבִיאַנִי יְהוָה לָרֶשֶׁת אֶת־הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת, “do not say in your heart, by my righteousness the LORD brought me to possess this land” (9:4). Each is answered with the same fact.

לֹא בְצִדְקָתְךָ וּבְיֹשֶׁר לְבָבְךָ אַתָּה בָא לָרֶשֶׁת אֶת־אַרְצָם כִּי בְּרִשְׁעַת הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מוֹרִישָׁם מִפָּנֶיךָ וּלְמַעַן הָקִים אֶת־הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע יְהוָה לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ לְאַבְרָהָם לְיִצְחָק וּלְיַעֲקֹב

Not by your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you coming to possess their land; rather, by the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is dispossessing them before you, and in order to uphold the word the LORD swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. (Deuteronomy 9:5)

The wealth verse says the same, in the same syntax: לְמַעַן הָקִים אֶת־בְּרִיתוֹ אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ, “in order to uphold His covenant that He swore to your ancestors” (8:18). Whatever Israel possesses is being held in the name of three ancestors men who were promised it.

Joshua does not execute Deuteronomy 7 as a formula, and the two exceptions it records are the most instructive part of the record.

Rahab is inside Jericho when the חֵרֶם falls on Jericho. She survives, and the text tells us why in her own words, spoken to two spies on a roof.

יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־נָתַן יְהוָה לָכֶם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ וְכִי־נָפְלָה אֵימַתְכֶם עָלֵינוּ ... כִּי שָׁמַעְנוּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר־הוֹבִישׁ יְהוָה אֶת־מֵי יַם־סוּף מִפְּנֵיכֶם בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם ... וַנִּשְׁמַע וַיִּמַּס לְבָבֵנוּ וְלֹא־קָמָה עוֹד רוּחַ בְּאִישׁ מִפְּנֵיכֶם כִּי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא אֱלֹהִים בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וְעַל־הָאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת

I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen upon us ... for we heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Sea of Reeds before you when you came out of Egypt ... and we heard, and our heart melted, and no spirit rose in any man before you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below. (Joshua 2:9–11)

Her אֵימָה, dread, confirms that the promise Deuteronomy recycles from Exodus 23:27 has taken effect. Her final sentence is a near-verbatim echo of Moses’ creed in Deuteronomy 4:39. Rahab—a Canaanite woman called a זונה by Joshua—utters it in Jericho before any Israelite has uttered it inside the land. Her heart has already yielded while Israel’s is still calculating.

Joshua records her afterward: וַתֵּשֶׁב בְּקֶרֶב יִשְׂרָאֵל עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, “and she dwelt in the midst of Israel, to this day” (Joshua 6:25). The phrase בְּקֶרֶב, in the midst, is the same one Joshua 7:13 uses for Achan’s crime: חֵרֶם בְּקִרְבְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל, “there is a proscribed thing in your midst, O Israel.” A Canaanite dwells in the midst of Israel and a proscribed thing dwells in the midst of Israel, and the Canaanite is not the proscribed thing.

The Gibeonites are harder. By deception they obtain precisely the covenant Deuteronomy 7:2 forbids. Joshua says Israel erred by failing to inquire of God, yet treats the oath sworn in God’s name as binding (Joshua 9:14–19).

Deuteronomy 7 commands the destruction of populations; “your eye shall not pity them” but the later narrative refuses to treat the categories as sealed. The Israelite who covets shares the fate of the objects he coveted; the Canaanite who recites Moses’ creed lives in the camp; the Canaanites who deceive Israel into a treaty are protected by the oath they extracted.

The word עֵקֶב in Genesis, both times, is fastened to the clause וְהִתְבָּרְכוּ בְזַרְעֲךָ כֹּל גּוֹיֵי הָאָרֶץ, all the nations of the earth blessing themselves by Abraham’s seed. It was there from the first sentence God ever spoke to him: וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה, “and all the families of the soil shall bless themselves by you” (Genesis 12:3). And God’s stated reason for confiding in Abraham before Sodom names the content of the assignment.

כִּי יְדַעְתִּיו לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר יְצַוֶּה אֶת־בָּנָיו וְאֶת־בֵּיתוֹ אַחֲרָיו וְשָׁמְרוּ דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָה לַעֲשׂוֹת צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט

For I have known him, so that he may command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice. (Genesis 18:19)

A portion that opens by prohibiting covenants with neighbors is built on a promise whose very payload is to be a blessing unto the nations.

Eikev answers this itself

רַק בַּאֲבֹתֶיךָ חָשַׁק יְהוָה לְאַהֲבָה אוֹתָם וַיִּבְחַר בְּזַרְעָם אַחֲרֵיהֶם בָּכֶם מִכָּל־הָעַמִּים כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה׃ וּמַלְתֶּם אֵת עָרְלַת לְבַבְכֶם וְעָרְפְּכֶם לֹא תַקְשׁוּ עוֹד

Only in your ancestors did the LORD desire, to love them, and He chose their seed after them, you, out of all the peoples, as on this day. Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and do not stiffen your neck again. (Deuteronomy 10:15–16)

חָשַׁק returns from 7:7, and here it is pinned explicitly to the ancestors, which is what Ramban said it meant in the first place. And the commandment that follows is circumcision, Abraham’s sign, relocated to the organ that has been doing all the talking in this portion. Then, immediately:

כִּי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הוּא אֱלֹהֵי הָאֱלֹהִים וַאֲדֹנֵי הָאֲדֹנִים הָאֵל הַגָּדֹל הַגִּבֹּר וְהַנּוֹרָא אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יִשָּׂא פָנִים וְלֹא יִקַּח שֹׁחַד׃ עֹשֶׂה מִשְׁפַּט יָתוֹם וְאַלְמָנָה וְאֹהֵב גֵּר לָתֶת לוֹ לֶחֶם וְשִׂמְלָה׃ וַאֲהַבְתֶּם אֶת־הַגֵּר כִּי־גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who lifts no face and takes no bribe, who does justice for the orphan and the widow and loves the stranger, giving him bread and a garment. And you shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:17–19)

Set that beside 7:21, where “the great and awesome God” is the reason not to fear the nations. The same epithet is now the reason to feed the stranger. The chapter’s language of divine attachment—חָשַׁק beside three forms of אָהַב—is here extended beyond Israel: “You shall love the stranger.”

Deuteronomy goes further in a later chapter, using the exact verb of 7:26. There, the object of the forbidden thing was to be treated with וְתַעֵב תְּתַעֲבֶנּוּ, “you shall utterly abhor it.” Here:

לֹא־תְתַעֵב אֲדֹמִי כִּי אָחִיךָ הוּא לֹא־תְתַעֵב מִצְרִי כִּי־גֵר הָיִיתָ בְאַרְצוֹ

You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in his land. (Deuteronomy 23:8)

The book that commands loathing toward an idol prohibits it toward Egypt. Pharaoh’s nation, the one Israel was told in chapter 7 to remember when frightened, is placed under a standing prohibition against abhorrence, and the reason given is a memory of having been the outsider.

The portion also settles the arithmetic of chapter 7:7. Israel was told it was הַמְעַט מִכָּל־הָעַמִּים, the smallest of all the peoples, in a book whose founding promise was descendants like stars. Eikev closes the account.

בְּשִׁבְעִים נֶפֶשׁ יָרְדוּ אֲבֹתֶיךָ מִצְרָיְמָה וְעַתָּה שָׂמְךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ כְּכוֹכְבֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם לָרֹב

With seventy souls your ancestors went down to Egypt, and now the LORD your God has made you as the stars of the heavens for multitude. (Deuteronomy 10:22)

כְּכוֹכְבֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם is Genesis 22:17, delivered. Smallness is the starting count. Multitude is what was done with it. The verse holds both without letting the second become an argument for deserving the first.

The Hasidic reading takes the anatomy Rashi found in the word and treats the heel as a position. The Sefat Emet puts it this way.

ועקב היא מדרגה תחתונה ... וזה תכלית רצונו ית’ להיות כל הנבראים מחוברין זה בזה עד שגם הסוף ומדרגה התחתונה תהי’ נמשכת אחר הראשית וההתחלה

And ekev is the lowest rung ... and this is the purpose of His will, that all creatures be joined one to another, so that even the end and the lowest rung will be drawn after the beginning and the origin. (Sefat Emet, Eikev 1871)

He is describing the light commandments that Rashi said get trampled, and he is describing the shape of the portion. The heel is the part of the body furthest from the head and last to arrive anywhere, and the work is to get it to follow.

Which is the situation on the far bank of the Jordan. Abraham is the head of this thing. He listened, and everything downstream of him—the oath, the multiplication, the land, and the blessing meant to reach every nation—was fastened to that listening with the word עֵקֶב. Generations later, after enslavement, a golden calf, and forty years in the wilderness, the last and lowest end of Abraham stands at a river being told, in the same word, that the whole arrangement depends on whether it will do the one thing he did.