The Nomadic Alternative – Page 108

sensible Rechabites who were the only tribe to obey the commands of the desert god and who said, "We drink no wine for our father Jonadab commanded us, 'Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons for ever, neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any; but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live long in the land where ye are strangers.'"

Jeremiah 35.6-7. The bedouin Rechabites alone will escape the horrors of conventional siege warfare. No alien power will drag these Sons of Abel off into captivity. By demanding less and preserving their freedom of movement they will save all. The Exile merely repeats the penitential pilgrimage of Cain.

When, cried Isaiah, will the Israelites be restored to favour? "How long, O Lord? How long? Until the cities are wasted without inhabitants and the houses utterly ruined, and the ploughland is desolate, and until Jahweh hath removed the people far away, so that wide desolation prevail in the land. When a tenth that is in it, the land shall serve again as pasture ..." Isaiah 6.11-13. When a tenth that is in it, pastoral migrations will be visible. The prophet seems to subscribe to the concept of natural selection by warfare, and sees the problem of the good life in terms of over-crowding. "Woe unto them that rise up and join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth." Isaiah 5.8. Overpopulation is inimical to privacy as well as to peace.

The prophet Jeremiah also welcomes the idea of wholesale destruction in the land, which will give an opportunity to reconstruct society. "The desolate place shall again be an habitation of shepherds causing his flock to lie down." (33.12) Again the 'natural democracy' of the nomad will reassert itself. "Then may the covenant be broken with David my servant." The Lord had covenanted with David to shore
up a disintegrating society. But the hereditary kingship and the hierarchies of priests will dissolve and the Temple crumble to bits once migrations are resumed.