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Deuteronomy 5 requires that Israel have no other gods, covenant language that is based on ancient Near Eastern traditions, including the treaties of Esarhaddon, which similarly requires that his servants have no other kings or lords.
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The Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon
Ancient Near East
You swear that you will protect Ashurbanipal, the crown-prince, whom Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, has designated to you and of whom he has spoken to you, and concerning whom he has firmly imposed the treaty upon you. That, you will not sin against him; that you will not bring your hand against him with evil intent. That you will not revolt or do anything to him which is not good, and not proper. You will not oust him from the kingship of Assyria by helping one of his brothers, older or younger, to seize the throne of Assyria in his stead. You will not set over you any other king or any other lord, nor will you swear an oath to any other king or any other lord. You swear that you will neither listen to nor conceal any improper, unsuitable or unseemly words concerning the exercise of kingship, which are unseemly and evil against Ashurbanipal, the crown-prince, either from the mouth of his brothers, his uncles, his cousins, his, family, members of his father's line; or from the mouth of officials or governors, or from the mouth of an officer or courtiers or from the mouth of any skilled person or from the mouth of any of the masses, as many as there are, but you will come and report these things to Ashurbanipal, the crown-prince.
Date: 672 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Deuteronomy 5:7
Hebrew Bible
5 (I was standing between the Lord and you at that time to reveal the Lord’s message to you, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain.) He said: 6 “I am the Lord your God—he who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery. 7 “You must not have any other gods besides me. 8 “You must not make for yourself an image of anything in heaven above, on earth below, or in the waters beneath. 9 You must not worship or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I punish the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject me,
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Notes and References
"... A prominent feature of attempts to ground the deuteronomic text in a historical context over the last half century has been the observation of certain affinities between Deuteronomy and ancient Near Eastern vassal treaties and loyalty oaths. More specifically, it has been suggested that the book of Deuteronomy, in some more or less original form, constituted a subversive appropriation of Neo-Assyrian imperial ideology in favor of a Yahwistic theocentricity: a text deliberately designed to undermine the authority of the Assyrian king by planting YHWH in his stead. The prevalence of this assertion has its roots in the widespread recognition of similarities between elements of Deuteronomy, especially chapters 13 and 28, and Assyrian vassal treaties and loyalty oaths, with a particular focus on the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon ..."
Crouch, Carly L.
Israel and the Assyrians: Deuteronomy, the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon, and the Nature of Subversion
(p. 1) Society of Biblical Literature, 2014
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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