The Nomadic Alternative – Page 107

forgotten the natural asceticism of the nomad, had waxed fat and gone a-whoring. "They have loved a reward on every corn floor."

Hosea . Sodom was a city, and Abraham the nomad rescued his cousin Lot from the attentions of the Sodomites. In this view Jehovah was the invisible God of the Way who guided the migrant on the right road. He possessed the heart of the nomad. He was Jahweh - the One, "Yahuh". It is HE" - the wandering dervish's cry. He asked his people to worship him three days' journey into the clean air of the desert. And if in a weak moment they had extracted from him the mobile Ark of the Covenant, he is more than doubtful of the honour of a temple in the style of a Canaanite sanctuary.

The moment the Mobile God installs himself in his new home, restlessness stirs him. He threatens to cast the whole place out of his sight. "The temple which is called after my name is polluted, filled with abominations." For the Children had turned the place into a sculpture gallery. Instead of significant nothingness, they had lined its courts with the ogle-eyed images that make the archaeology of the Holy Land so distasteful. The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos and Hosea howled their criticism of the gold and silver idols that separated the people from their god, the prosti­tution male and female, the castrations, the cuttings, scourgings and suggestions of human sacrifice. For such was the ritual brouhaha that blackened the name of the resident divinities of Palestine.

Jehovah had promised the Promised Land on one condition. The people were chosen to move through it, not to strike roots in it or dig it up. The prophets anticipated a Day of Restoration when Israel would amend its stupidity and return to the black tents. "... and again I will make you live in tents as in the days of old."

Hosea 12. . When they resume migrations they will again find favour with their God. They will quit the pulsating places of the Canaan­ites, cities which they had not built and vineyards which they had not sowed. "Life in cities" had been the cause of their ruin.

When Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, penned the Israelites behind the walls of Jerusalem, Jeremiah reminded them of the