(Book of Numbers 5:5 - 5:10)
Jehovah told Moses to give the following instructions to the people of Israel: "Anyone who wrongs another man or woman in any way is guilty of committing a trespass against Jehovah. He must confess the sin he has committed and make amends. To the person who has been wronged, full monetary restitution must be made, plus 20%. However, if the injured party is deceased and there are no close relatives to whom restitution may be made, the payment will then be delivered to a priest of Jehovah -- this, in addition to a sacrificial ram that must be offered to obtain atonement for the guilty party. Every man’s sacred offerings are his, but what has been given to the priest belongs to the priest and will become his personal property."
Notes
1. Here, restitution for wrongs done to another man are placed solely on a monetary basis. Wrongs are to be paid for with property, plus, of course, the requisite 20%. Save for the 20% penalty, there seems to be no real punishment for the wrongdoing itself, only a payment of damages for the result of the wrongdoing. In this system, the moral component is entirely lost. The only deterrent from crime is whatever it may cost. A rich man, therefore, is free to do entirely what he likes, provided he is willing to pay the price for it.
2. Again we see the priesthood profiting from the bad behavior of the people they serve. If a wronged party or his family cannot be given restitution, it is the priests who benefit financially from it: they receive the payment otherwise owed to the injured party. The priests, rather than being punished for the wrongdoing of their flock, seemed to be rewarded for it. One is reminded that besides preserving civil order and promoting religious orthodoxy and uniformity of worship, a major purpose of the laws set down here is to preserve the prerogatives of the priesthood, to enhance their power, prestige, and wealth.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Expulsion of the Impure
(Book of Number 5:1 - 5:4)
Jehovah instructed Moses, "Order the Israelites to expel from camp anyone who is afflicted with tzaraath, has a ritually impure bodily discharge, or who is impure because of contact with a dead body. Expel them whether they are male or female so that they may not defile the camp where I dwell among them."
And so the Israelites did as Jehovah had commanded them and expelled such people from their camp.
Notes:
1. Tsaraath, which was covered quite extensively in Leviticus, is a catch-all term for any kind of skin disease that renders a person ritually impure. It is often translated as "leprosy," but certainly includes many other afflictions in addition to the disease called leprosy that was prevalent in ancient times (and which was probably different from modern leprosy or Hansen's disease). In fact, tsaraath can affect clothes or the walls of buildings in the form of mold or mildew.
2. Jehovah demands that these impure folks be kicked out of the Israelite camp not, it seems, because they might infect other Israelites but because he doesn't want to be around them. To what extent Jehovah actually lives among the Israelites is an open question. If he physically appears at all it would be in the Inner Sanctum of the Tabernacle. If he did, why should he worry about impure people living in other parts of the camp, for no one but a priest would be caught dead in the Inner Sanctum? (Correction: anyone else but a priest who entered the Inner Sanctum would very quickly become dead!) Does the ritual impurity of a human somehow have an effect upon Jehovah the god? Is this effect physical or otherwise? It only makes sense if a germaphobic Jehovah is afraid of catching something. Does Jehovah, if he be a physical being, need to protect himself from too close a contact with earth people so as to avoid exposure to pathogens?
3. It would be interesting to know how many were expelled from camp for this reason. (Here, Numbers fails to give us the number.) Did these people set up a separate camp and follow the Israelites in their travels? Were they able to rejoin the main camp when they became well or pure again?
Jehovah instructed Moses, "Order the Israelites to expel from camp anyone who is afflicted with tzaraath, has a ritually impure bodily discharge, or who is impure because of contact with a dead body. Expel them whether they are male or female so that they may not defile the camp where I dwell among them."
And so the Israelites did as Jehovah had commanded them and expelled such people from their camp.
Notes:
1. Tsaraath, which was covered quite extensively in Leviticus, is a catch-all term for any kind of skin disease that renders a person ritually impure. It is often translated as "leprosy," but certainly includes many other afflictions in addition to the disease called leprosy that was prevalent in ancient times (and which was probably different from modern leprosy or Hansen's disease). In fact, tsaraath can affect clothes or the walls of buildings in the form of mold or mildew.
2. Jehovah demands that these impure folks be kicked out of the Israelite camp not, it seems, because they might infect other Israelites but because he doesn't want to be around them. To what extent Jehovah actually lives among the Israelites is an open question. If he physically appears at all it would be in the Inner Sanctum of the Tabernacle. If he did, why should he worry about impure people living in other parts of the camp, for no one but a priest would be caught dead in the Inner Sanctum? (Correction: anyone else but a priest who entered the Inner Sanctum would very quickly become dead!) Does the ritual impurity of a human somehow have an effect upon Jehovah the god? Is this effect physical or otherwise? It only makes sense if a germaphobic Jehovah is afraid of catching something. Does Jehovah, if he be a physical being, need to protect himself from too close a contact with earth people so as to avoid exposure to pathogens?
3. It would be interesting to know how many were expelled from camp for this reason. (Here, Numbers fails to give us the number.) Did these people set up a separate camp and follow the Israelites in their travels? Were they able to rejoin the main camp when they became well or pure again?
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Duties of the Levites
(Book of Numbers 4:1 - 4:49)
Jehovah then instructed Moses, "Record by their families and clans the names of all members of the Kohathite branch of the Levite tribe who are 30 to 50 years of age and able to serve in the Tabernacle. The work of the Kohathites at Tabernacle is the custodianship of sacred objects.
"When camp is broken, Aaron and his sons will take down the veil that surrounds the Inner Sanctum and with it cover the Chest of Sacred Records. Over the top of it they must lay a cloth of fine leather and over that, a cloth of blue. Then insert into the Chest of Sacred Records its carrying staves. Then put a blue cloth over the Showbread table, over its dishes, cups, and utensils used for drink offerings and the Showbread itself that is always displayed on it. It should be covered with a cloth of scarlet and one of fine leather. Afterwards, the carrying staves should be inserted into the table. Next they should cover with a blue cloth the Menorah, its lamps, wick trimmers, trays, and the jars of olive oil that are its fuel. These and all its accessories should be wrapped in fine leather and placed on a carrying frame. Spread a blue cloth over the gold Incense Altar and cover it with fine leather. Then insert the carrying staves into the altar. The remaining furnishings of the Sanctum should be covered with a blue cloth, wrapped in fine leather, and placed on a frame for carrying.
"They must clean the ashes from the Sacrificial Altar and cover it with a purple cloth. All the utensils used at the altar, the fire pans, forks, shovels, and basins, should be covered with the cloth, then wrapped in fine leather, and placed on a frame for carrying. Afterwards the carrying staves should be put in place.
"The camp will be ready to move when Aaron and his sons have completed covering all the articles of the Sanctum. As the camp sets out, the Kohathites will carry the afore-named objects, but they must not touch the sacred objects themselves, or else they will die. But these are the things from the Tabernacle that the Kohathites are responsible for transporting.
"Eleazar, the son of Aaron, will be responsible for the oil of the Menorah, the Sacred Incense, the daily grain offering, and the Anointing Oil. Moreover, he will be in charge of the entire Tabernacle, including the Sanctum and its sacred objects."
Jehovah warned Moses and Aaron, "Do not let the Kohathite branch of the Levite tribe perish! So that they may be protected from being killed, Aaron or one of his sons must accompany the Kohathites whenever they enter the Sanctum and assign each man a specific task or object to carry. No Kohathite must be allowed to sneak into the Sanctum in order to gaze upon the uncovered sacred objects, even for an instant. Anyone who does so will be killed!"
Jehovah also instructed Moses, "Record by their families and clans the names of all members of the Gershonite branch of the Levite tribe who are 30 to 50 years of age and able to serve in the Tabernacle. As a part of their duties the Gershonites will be entrusted with carrying the following objects: the curtains of the Sanctum, the covering to the Sanctum, including the fine leather outer covering that goes on top of it, the screen before the Sanctum entrance, the curtains that surround the Tabernacle courtyard, the curtains for the Tabernacle entrance, and all the cords and other equipment necessary for installing the curtains. Such are the items the Gershonites will be responsible for. Aaron and his sons will supervise the Gershonites, whether it involves transporting objects from the Tabernacle or other tasks, and they will assign to each Gershonite worker the load he is to carry. These are the Tabernacle duties that the Gerhsonites will be responsible for and in them they will be personally directed by Aaron's son Ithamar.
"Now record by their families and clans the names of all members of the Merarite branch of the Levite tribe who are 30 to 50 years of age and are eligible to do work related to the Tabernacle. Their sole duty at the Tabernacle will be to carry the framework of the Sanctum, its crossbars, posts, and plinths, and the posts for the walls of the Tabernacle courtyard, with their plinths, tent pegs, ropes, and all related equipment. Each man will be assigned an object to carry. These are the Tabernacle duties that the Merarites will be responsible for, and in them they will be personally directed by Aaron's son Ithamar."
Moses, Aaron, and the other tribal leaders recorded by their families and clans the Kohathite branch. The list comprising men from the age of 30 to 50 and able to serve in the Tabernacle numbered 2,750. This was the result of the census of Kohathites able to serve in the Tabernacle conducted by Moses and Aaron in accordance with the instructions of Jehovah.
They also recorded by their families and clans the Gershonite branch. The list comprising men from the age of 30 to 50 and able to serve in the Tabernacle numbered 2,630. This was the result of the census of Gershonites able to serve in the Tabernacle conducted by Moses and Aaron in accordance with the instructions of Jehovah.
They also recorded by their families and clans the Merarite branch. The list comprising men from the age of 30 to 50 and able to serve in the Tabernacle numbered 3,200. This was the result of the census of Merarites able to serve in the Tabernacle conducted by Moses and Aaron in accordance with the instructions of Jehovah.
Moses, Aaron, and the tribal leaders completed their census of the tribe of Levi by their families and clans, of those from 30 to 50 years of age and able to serve in the Tabernacle and work in its transportation. Their number totaled 8,580. After their names were recorded, as Jehovah had instructed Moses, each was given a specific task to carry out and told what he was to carry. And so the count was performed in accordance with the instructions Jehovah had given Moses.
Notes
1. While Aaron and his descendants have the privilege of being priests, the rest of the Levite tribe, as has been said before, are reduced to being holy roustabouts, beasts of burden. The work force is highly supervised; tasks are those a moron can perform. Aaron and his sons have all the authority and those who work for them in the Tabernacle are decidedly just menials.
2. The objects to be carried when camp is broken and the portable Tabernacle is disassembled would require the labor of dozens or scores of men, not thousands. There are only so many objects to carry. How could the Tabernacle find work for 8,580 men? It seems that consistently the numbers in Numbers are inflated by about a hundred times.
3. Ordinary objects become sacred when touching or even looking at them causes death. Jehovah is apparently so proprietary he will kill anyone that even breaths upon what he regards as his property. But it is not clear what happens to the violator. Is he suddenly burned up, struck by a lightning bolt, or does he merely drop dead. Or, is the person arrested, charged with a crime, and executed?
Jehovah then instructed Moses, "Record by their families and clans the names of all members of the Kohathite branch of the Levite tribe who are 30 to 50 years of age and able to serve in the Tabernacle. The work of the Kohathites at Tabernacle is the custodianship of sacred objects.
"When camp is broken, Aaron and his sons will take down the veil that surrounds the Inner Sanctum and with it cover the Chest of Sacred Records. Over the top of it they must lay a cloth of fine leather and over that, a cloth of blue. Then insert into the Chest of Sacred Records its carrying staves. Then put a blue cloth over the Showbread table, over its dishes, cups, and utensils used for drink offerings and the Showbread itself that is always displayed on it. It should be covered with a cloth of scarlet and one of fine leather. Afterwards, the carrying staves should be inserted into the table. Next they should cover with a blue cloth the Menorah, its lamps, wick trimmers, trays, and the jars of olive oil that are its fuel. These and all its accessories should be wrapped in fine leather and placed on a carrying frame. Spread a blue cloth over the gold Incense Altar and cover it with fine leather. Then insert the carrying staves into the altar. The remaining furnishings of the Sanctum should be covered with a blue cloth, wrapped in fine leather, and placed on a frame for carrying.
"They must clean the ashes from the Sacrificial Altar and cover it with a purple cloth. All the utensils used at the altar, the fire pans, forks, shovels, and basins, should be covered with the cloth, then wrapped in fine leather, and placed on a frame for carrying. Afterwards the carrying staves should be put in place.
"The camp will be ready to move when Aaron and his sons have completed covering all the articles of the Sanctum. As the camp sets out, the Kohathites will carry the afore-named objects, but they must not touch the sacred objects themselves, or else they will die. But these are the things from the Tabernacle that the Kohathites are responsible for transporting.
"Eleazar, the son of Aaron, will be responsible for the oil of the Menorah, the Sacred Incense, the daily grain offering, and the Anointing Oil. Moreover, he will be in charge of the entire Tabernacle, including the Sanctum and its sacred objects."
Jehovah warned Moses and Aaron, "Do not let the Kohathite branch of the Levite tribe perish! So that they may be protected from being killed, Aaron or one of his sons must accompany the Kohathites whenever they enter the Sanctum and assign each man a specific task or object to carry. No Kohathite must be allowed to sneak into the Sanctum in order to gaze upon the uncovered sacred objects, even for an instant. Anyone who does so will be killed!"
Jehovah also instructed Moses, "Record by their families and clans the names of all members of the Gershonite branch of the Levite tribe who are 30 to 50 years of age and able to serve in the Tabernacle. As a part of their duties the Gershonites will be entrusted with carrying the following objects: the curtains of the Sanctum, the covering to the Sanctum, including the fine leather outer covering that goes on top of it, the screen before the Sanctum entrance, the curtains that surround the Tabernacle courtyard, the curtains for the Tabernacle entrance, and all the cords and other equipment necessary for installing the curtains. Such are the items the Gershonites will be responsible for. Aaron and his sons will supervise the Gershonites, whether it involves transporting objects from the Tabernacle or other tasks, and they will assign to each Gershonite worker the load he is to carry. These are the Tabernacle duties that the Gerhsonites will be responsible for and in them they will be personally directed by Aaron's son Ithamar.
"Now record by their families and clans the names of all members of the Merarite branch of the Levite tribe who are 30 to 50 years of age and are eligible to do work related to the Tabernacle. Their sole duty at the Tabernacle will be to carry the framework of the Sanctum, its crossbars, posts, and plinths, and the posts for the walls of the Tabernacle courtyard, with their plinths, tent pegs, ropes, and all related equipment. Each man will be assigned an object to carry. These are the Tabernacle duties that the Merarites will be responsible for, and in them they will be personally directed by Aaron's son Ithamar."
Moses, Aaron, and the other tribal leaders recorded by their families and clans the Kohathite branch. The list comprising men from the age of 30 to 50 and able to serve in the Tabernacle numbered 2,750. This was the result of the census of Kohathites able to serve in the Tabernacle conducted by Moses and Aaron in accordance with the instructions of Jehovah.
They also recorded by their families and clans the Gershonite branch. The list comprising men from the age of 30 to 50 and able to serve in the Tabernacle numbered 2,630. This was the result of the census of Gershonites able to serve in the Tabernacle conducted by Moses and Aaron in accordance with the instructions of Jehovah.
They also recorded by their families and clans the Merarite branch. The list comprising men from the age of 30 to 50 and able to serve in the Tabernacle numbered 3,200. This was the result of the census of Merarites able to serve in the Tabernacle conducted by Moses and Aaron in accordance with the instructions of Jehovah.
Moses, Aaron, and the tribal leaders completed their census of the tribe of Levi by their families and clans, of those from 30 to 50 years of age and able to serve in the Tabernacle and work in its transportation. Their number totaled 8,580. After their names were recorded, as Jehovah had instructed Moses, each was given a specific task to carry out and told what he was to carry. And so the count was performed in accordance with the instructions Jehovah had given Moses.
Notes
1. While Aaron and his descendants have the privilege of being priests, the rest of the Levite tribe, as has been said before, are reduced to being holy roustabouts, beasts of burden. The work force is highly supervised; tasks are those a moron can perform. Aaron and his sons have all the authority and those who work for them in the Tabernacle are decidedly just menials.
2. The objects to be carried when camp is broken and the portable Tabernacle is disassembled would require the labor of dozens or scores of men, not thousands. There are only so many objects to carry. How could the Tabernacle find work for 8,580 men? It seems that consistently the numbers in Numbers are inflated by about a hundred times.
3. Ordinary objects become sacred when touching or even looking at them causes death. Jehovah is apparently so proprietary he will kill anyone that even breaths upon what he regards as his property. But it is not clear what happens to the violator. Is he suddenly burned up, struck by a lightning bolt, or does he merely drop dead. Or, is the person arrested, charged with a crime, and executed?
Redemption of the Firstborn
(Book of Numbers 3:40 -3:51)
Jehovah then instructed Moses, "Now make a census of all the firstborn sons of Israel a month old or more and make a list of their names. Let the Levites be substitutes for all the firstborn sons of Israel and let the Levites' livestock be substitutes for the firstborn livestock of the entire nation of Israel. Thus says Jehovah."
And so Moses conducted a census of all the firstborn sons of Israel, as Jehovah had commanded him. Counting the names of the firstborn sons a month or older, the total came to 22,273.
Jehovah then instructed Moses, "The Levites will be substitutes for the firstborn of Israel and their livestock substitutes for the livestock of Israel. The Levites belong to me. Thus says Jehovah. However, to redeem the additional 273 firstborn of Israel, those exceeding the 22,000 Levites, collect from each of them 5 pieces of silver, each equal to a shekel (that is, a shekel determined by the priest's weights, which is equal to 20 gerahs). Give this silver to Aaron as the price for the redemption of the extra firstborn sons."
Moses thus collected the silver for the redemption of the firstborn sons of Israel above the number redeemed by the Levites. The amount of silver collected was 1,365 pieces, with each piece being equal to a shekel by the priest's weights. On behalf of those firstborn sons of Israel, Moses presented this silver to Aaron and his sons, as Jehovah had commanded.
Notes
1. Jehovah claims the entire tribe of Levi as his property, his slaves, forced to dedicate their lives to his worship. The justification for this is curious. Jehovah murders all the firstborn Egyptians in order to compel the Pharaoh of Egypt to free the Israelites from their bondage. Then, as payment for his "good" deed, he demands that the Israelites give to him all their firstborn, livestock and human. Instead of requiring the firstborn males to be human sacrifices on his altar, he allows the debt to be satisfied by his being given one of the tribes of Israel. The numbers of Levites and the number of firstborn among the entire people of Israel are roughly equal. But Jehovah will not be cheated or shorted. The 273 firstborns that the Levites do not cover must be paid for, literally.
2. To Jehovah the life of a human being is worth 5 shekels, two ounces of silver, at present market values, about $32. However, in Leviticus a man is worth ten times as much as a votive offering.
3. The silver that Jehovah demands in payment for the firstborn is given to Aaron and his sons. Yet another money-making racket for the priests! (The 1,365 pieces of silver would amount to about $8700 in current money, although, of course, it is difficult to know its real buying power in ancient Hebrew society.)
4. The male population of Israel of an age to bear arms is reported to be over 600,000. The entire number of firstborn males is more than 22,000. Hasn’t anyone noticed that these numbers are rather askew? They only make sense if every couple had 30 or 40 children.
5. It is not explicit what happens to the livestock belonging to the Levites and, therefore, belonging to Jehovah. Are they all destined for the Sacrificial Altar?
Jehovah then instructed Moses, "Now make a census of all the firstborn sons of Israel a month old or more and make a list of their names. Let the Levites be substitutes for all the firstborn sons of Israel and let the Levites' livestock be substitutes for the firstborn livestock of the entire nation of Israel. Thus says Jehovah."
And so Moses conducted a census of all the firstborn sons of Israel, as Jehovah had commanded him. Counting the names of the firstborn sons a month or older, the total came to 22,273.
Jehovah then instructed Moses, "The Levites will be substitutes for the firstborn of Israel and their livestock substitutes for the livestock of Israel. The Levites belong to me. Thus says Jehovah. However, to redeem the additional 273 firstborn of Israel, those exceeding the 22,000 Levites, collect from each of them 5 pieces of silver, each equal to a shekel (that is, a shekel determined by the priest's weights, which is equal to 20 gerahs). Give this silver to Aaron as the price for the redemption of the extra firstborn sons."
Moses thus collected the silver for the redemption of the firstborn sons of Israel above the number redeemed by the Levites. The amount of silver collected was 1,365 pieces, with each piece being equal to a shekel by the priest's weights. On behalf of those firstborn sons of Israel, Moses presented this silver to Aaron and his sons, as Jehovah had commanded.
Notes
1. Jehovah claims the entire tribe of Levi as his property, his slaves, forced to dedicate their lives to his worship. The justification for this is curious. Jehovah murders all the firstborn Egyptians in order to compel the Pharaoh of Egypt to free the Israelites from their bondage. Then, as payment for his "good" deed, he demands that the Israelites give to him all their firstborn, livestock and human. Instead of requiring the firstborn males to be human sacrifices on his altar, he allows the debt to be satisfied by his being given one of the tribes of Israel. The numbers of Levites and the number of firstborn among the entire people of Israel are roughly equal. But Jehovah will not be cheated or shorted. The 273 firstborns that the Levites do not cover must be paid for, literally.
2. To Jehovah the life of a human being is worth 5 shekels, two ounces of silver, at present market values, about $32. However, in Leviticus a man is worth ten times as much as a votive offering.
3. The silver that Jehovah demands in payment for the firstborn is given to Aaron and his sons. Yet another money-making racket for the priests! (The 1,365 pieces of silver would amount to about $8700 in current money, although, of course, it is difficult to know its real buying power in ancient Hebrew society.)
4. The male population of Israel of an age to bear arms is reported to be over 600,000. The entire number of firstborn males is more than 22,000. Hasn’t anyone noticed that these numbers are rather askew? They only make sense if every couple had 30 or 40 children.
5. It is not explicit what happens to the livestock belonging to the Levites and, therefore, belonging to Jehovah. Are they all destined for the Sacrificial Altar?
The Levite Tribe
(Book of Numbers 3:1 - 3:39)
This is the family line of Aaron and Moses at the time when Jehovah communed with Moses on the mountain in Sinai. The names of Aaron's sons are as follows: Nadab, the firstborn, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. These named sons of Aaron were anointed and ordained to minister as priests. Nabad and Abihu, however, were killed before the altar in the desert of Sinai when they made an offering to Jehovah of fire from an unauthorized source. Neither had children. Therefore, in their stead, Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests under the tutelage of their father Aaron.
Jehovah told Moses, "Call together the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron so that they may assist him. They will serve Aaron and the congregation of Israel by performing work in the Tabernacle, taking charge of all its furnishings, and fulfilling the needs of the Israelite people who come to the Tabernacle. Assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons. From among the Israelites, it is the Levites who are to serve them exclusively. Aaron and his sons are to be appointed priests and fulfill the duties of the office. Anyone else who approaches the Sanctum must be put to death.
"I have selected the Levites from among the Israelites to represent every first born male of every Israelite mother. They will belong to me, for every firstborn is mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn sons of Egypt, I laid claim to all the firstborn of Israel, whether man or beast. They are mine. Thus says Jehovah!"
Jehovah again instructed Moses in the desert of Sinai, "Take a census of the members of tribe of Levi, their clans and families. Count every male one month of age or older." And Moses made a record of them, as he was commanded by Jehovah.
The names of the Levi's sons were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Descended from Gershon were the clans of his sons Libni and Shimei, from Kohath -- Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, and from Merari -- Mahli and Mushi. Such are branches of the Levite tribe, recorded by family.
Gershon's descendants belonged to the Libnite and Shimeite clans. In these Gershonite clans were counted 7500 males a month of older. Their assigned camp was to the west of the Tabernacle. Their leader was Eliasaph, the son of Lael. These two clans were responsible for the care and upkeep of the Tabernacle, the tent surrounding the Sanctum and its coverings, the curtains at the entrance to the Sanctum, the curtains enclosing the Tabernacle courtyard around the Sanctum and the Sacrificial Altar and those at its entrance, and all the tent ropes and related equipment.
Kohath's descendants belonged to the Amramite, Izharite, Hebronite, and Uzzielite clans. In these Kohathite clans were counted 8300 males a month of older, to serve in the upkeep of the Sanctum. Their assigned camp was to the south of the Tabernacle. Their leader was Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel. These four clans were responsible for the Chest of Sacred Records, the Showbread Table, the Menorah, the altars, the sacred vessels used by the priests, the veil surrounding the Inner Sanctum, and all the articles and utensils used in the Sanctum. Eleazer, son of the priest Aaron, was to supervise those who were responsible for the upkeep of the Sanctum.
Merari's descendants belonged to the Mahlite and Mushite clans. In these Merarite clans were counted 6200 males a month of older, to serve in the upkeep of the Sanctum. Their assigned camp was to the north of the Tabernacle. Their leader was Zuriel, the son of Abihail. These two clans were responsible for the framework supporting the Sanctum, the crossbars, posts, plinths, and related equipment, and also the posts and plinths, tent pegs and ropes for the enclosure of the Tabernacle courtyard.
The area in front of the Tabernacle, in the east, facing the rising sun was reserved for the tents of Moses, Aaron, and their sons. They were ultimately responsible for the Sanctum in the name of the people of Israel. (Anyone unauthorized approaching the Sanctum was to be put to death.)
According to the census ordered by Jehovah and carried out by Moses and Aaron, the total number of Levites over the age of one month was 22,000.
Notes
1. It is established by Jehovah that there is to be an hereditary priesthood and that a single tribe, the Levites are to furnish his priests and have sole authority not only in religious matters, but in the practical aspects of worship. Curiously, not a word is here disclosed about Moses’ progeny.
2. While the Levites comprise a tribe, his sons Gershon, Kohath, and Merari are founders of three branches of that tribe. The sons of these three were founders of Levite clans. Within these clans were various families. (This is how I have rendered the often confusing terminology.) Incidentally, even though Levi was a son of Jacob, the Levite tribe is not one of the 12 tribes of Israel, since it did not receive a land inheritance. Joseph’s descendants are split into two tribes named after his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, making the number 12.
3. Reference is made to Aaron's eldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, who were struck down dead while they were ministering at the altar. They violated protocol by lighting the fire under the altar by using a flame from an unauthorized source. (Reading between the biblical lines, one may conclude that they were drunk at the time.) Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's third and fourth sons, therefore, succeeded to the priesthood.
4. Of the named figures referred to in this section, the number of sons they father does not suggest that they were greatly prolific. Aaron - 4, Levi - 3, Gershon -- 2, Kohath - 4, Merari - 2. This is a credible average of 3 sons. Considering that an equal number of daughters would also be born and that Levites would only marry Levites, to produce 22,000 living Levite men would require nine generations. This is premised on every couple having six children, and all members of three generations being alive at any one time. Yet, Aaron is supposedly only three generations removed from Levi. (Aaron < Amram < Kohath < Levi). Therefore, at the time of the Exodus there really could not have been 22,000 living Levite men, but, optimally, little more than 300 --the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of Levi's 8 grandsons. This seems very reasonable since it would fit the number of persons who, from a logistical perspective, might actually have been able to participate in any possible Exodus, 600 men and women from each tribe roughly yielding 7000 persons, although this would probably be a maximum and is probably too high. (The number of descendants a person may have can, of course, vary greatly, for example, although my mother's father's father had 7 children, he has less than 15 living descendants, my mother's mother's father having only 10 -- while my father’s father’ father must have more than a hundred!)
This is the family line of Aaron and Moses at the time when Jehovah communed with Moses on the mountain in Sinai. The names of Aaron's sons are as follows: Nadab, the firstborn, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. These named sons of Aaron were anointed and ordained to minister as priests. Nabad and Abihu, however, were killed before the altar in the desert of Sinai when they made an offering to Jehovah of fire from an unauthorized source. Neither had children. Therefore, in their stead, Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests under the tutelage of their father Aaron.
Jehovah told Moses, "Call together the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron so that they may assist him. They will serve Aaron and the congregation of Israel by performing work in the Tabernacle, taking charge of all its furnishings, and fulfilling the needs of the Israelite people who come to the Tabernacle. Assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons. From among the Israelites, it is the Levites who are to serve them exclusively. Aaron and his sons are to be appointed priests and fulfill the duties of the office. Anyone else who approaches the Sanctum must be put to death.
"I have selected the Levites from among the Israelites to represent every first born male of every Israelite mother. They will belong to me, for every firstborn is mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn sons of Egypt, I laid claim to all the firstborn of Israel, whether man or beast. They are mine. Thus says Jehovah!"
Jehovah again instructed Moses in the desert of Sinai, "Take a census of the members of tribe of Levi, their clans and families. Count every male one month of age or older." And Moses made a record of them, as he was commanded by Jehovah.
The names of the Levi's sons were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Descended from Gershon were the clans of his sons Libni and Shimei, from Kohath -- Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, and from Merari -- Mahli and Mushi. Such are branches of the Levite tribe, recorded by family.
Gershon's descendants belonged to the Libnite and Shimeite clans. In these Gershonite clans were counted 7500 males a month of older. Their assigned camp was to the west of the Tabernacle. Their leader was Eliasaph, the son of Lael. These two clans were responsible for the care and upkeep of the Tabernacle, the tent surrounding the Sanctum and its coverings, the curtains at the entrance to the Sanctum, the curtains enclosing the Tabernacle courtyard around the Sanctum and the Sacrificial Altar and those at its entrance, and all the tent ropes and related equipment.
Kohath's descendants belonged to the Amramite, Izharite, Hebronite, and Uzzielite clans. In these Kohathite clans were counted 8300 males a month of older, to serve in the upkeep of the Sanctum. Their assigned camp was to the south of the Tabernacle. Their leader was Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel. These four clans were responsible for the Chest of Sacred Records, the Showbread Table, the Menorah, the altars, the sacred vessels used by the priests, the veil surrounding the Inner Sanctum, and all the articles and utensils used in the Sanctum. Eleazer, son of the priest Aaron, was to supervise those who were responsible for the upkeep of the Sanctum.
Merari's descendants belonged to the Mahlite and Mushite clans. In these Merarite clans were counted 6200 males a month of older, to serve in the upkeep of the Sanctum. Their assigned camp was to the north of the Tabernacle. Their leader was Zuriel, the son of Abihail. These two clans were responsible for the framework supporting the Sanctum, the crossbars, posts, plinths, and related equipment, and also the posts and plinths, tent pegs and ropes for the enclosure of the Tabernacle courtyard.
The area in front of the Tabernacle, in the east, facing the rising sun was reserved for the tents of Moses, Aaron, and their sons. They were ultimately responsible for the Sanctum in the name of the people of Israel. (Anyone unauthorized approaching the Sanctum was to be put to death.)
According to the census ordered by Jehovah and carried out by Moses and Aaron, the total number of Levites over the age of one month was 22,000.
Notes
1. It is established by Jehovah that there is to be an hereditary priesthood and that a single tribe, the Levites are to furnish his priests and have sole authority not only in religious matters, but in the practical aspects of worship. Curiously, not a word is here disclosed about Moses’ progeny.
2. While the Levites comprise a tribe, his sons Gershon, Kohath, and Merari are founders of three branches of that tribe. The sons of these three were founders of Levite clans. Within these clans were various families. (This is how I have rendered the often confusing terminology.) Incidentally, even though Levi was a son of Jacob, the Levite tribe is not one of the 12 tribes of Israel, since it did not receive a land inheritance. Joseph’s descendants are split into two tribes named after his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, making the number 12.
3. Reference is made to Aaron's eldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, who were struck down dead while they were ministering at the altar. They violated protocol by lighting the fire under the altar by using a flame from an unauthorized source. (Reading between the biblical lines, one may conclude that they were drunk at the time.) Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's third and fourth sons, therefore, succeeded to the priesthood.
4. Of the named figures referred to in this section, the number of sons they father does not suggest that they were greatly prolific. Aaron - 4, Levi - 3, Gershon -- 2, Kohath - 4, Merari - 2. This is a credible average of 3 sons. Considering that an equal number of daughters would also be born and that Levites would only marry Levites, to produce 22,000 living Levite men would require nine generations. This is premised on every couple having six children, and all members of three generations being alive at any one time. Yet, Aaron is supposedly only three generations removed from Levi. (Aaron < Amram < Kohath < Levi). Therefore, at the time of the Exodus there really could not have been 22,000 living Levite men, but, optimally, little more than 300 --the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of Levi's 8 grandsons. This seems very reasonable since it would fit the number of persons who, from a logistical perspective, might actually have been able to participate in any possible Exodus, 600 men and women from each tribe roughly yielding 7000 persons, although this would probably be a maximum and is probably too high. (The number of descendants a person may have can, of course, vary greatly, for example, although my mother's father's father had 7 children, he has less than 15 living descendants, my mother's mother's father having only 10 -- while my father’s father’ father must have more than a hundred!)
Friday, November 21, 2014
Organization of the Camp
(Book of Numbers 2:1 - 2:34)
Jehovah gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron: "When camp is set up, each family will pitch their tents beneath their family’s ancestral banners. The encampment will be made on all sides of the Tabernacle, but at some distance from it.
"On the east side, facing the rising sun, will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:
Judah, led Nahshon, son of Amminadab, numbering 74,600 fighting men
Issachar, led by Nethanel, son of Zuar, numbering 54,400 fighting men
Zebulun, led by Eliab, son of Helon, numbering 57,400 fighting men
The total number of forces from Judah's side of the camp totals 186,400 fighting men. These tribes will set out first when the Israelites break camp.
"On the south side will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:
Reuben, led by Elizur, son of Shedeur, numbering 46,500 fighting men
Simeon, led by Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai, numbering 59,300 fighting men
Gad, led by Eliasaph, son Deuel [or Reuel], numbering 45,650 fighting men
The total number of forces from Reuben's side of the camp totals 151,450 fighting men. They will set out second.
"The Tabernacle and the camp of the Levites will have their places in the middle of the encampment. They will set out in the same order in which they make camp, each in their assigned places under their banners.
"On the west side will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:
Ephraim, led by Elishama, son of Ammihud, numbering 40,500 fighting men
Manasseh, led by Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur, numbering 32,200 fighting men
Benjamin, led by Abidan, son of Gideoni, numbering 35,400 fighting men
The total number of forces from Ephraim's side of the camp totals 108,100 fighting men. They will set out third.
"On the north side will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:
Dan, led by Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai, numbering 62,700 fighting men
Asher, led by Pagiel, son of Okran, numbering 41,500 fighting men
Naphtali, led by Ahira, son of Enan, numbering 53,400 fighting men
The total number of forces from Dan's side of the camp totals 157,100 fighting men. They will set out last whenever the Israelites break camp."
These, therefore, are the forces of the Israelites, counted according to their tribes. The total number of fighting men equals 603,550 (excluding, as Jehovah ordered, the Levites, who were not enrolled for military service). The Israelites complied with the instructions Jehovah gave to Moses: each family and tribe set up camp under their ancestral banners and, when marching, did so with their own family and tribe.
Notes
1. It is amazing the degree to which Jehovah (Creator-God of the universe?) takes an interest in the nuts-and-bolts details of Israelite affairs. His insistence on micromanaging everything suggests little confidence in Moses' administrative abilities.
2. A common characteristic of ancient and medieval chronicles is the presentation of superfluous details, those that really do not further the narrative or provide any significant insight. Most such chronicles, the Bible included, are based on oral traditions, and so it seems unlikely that such details, especially numbers and names, would have been accurately recorded and passed down, yet they are always pointedly presented with assumed exactitude. Perhaps the reason for this is that details always suggest accuracy, a confirmation of authenticity, authority and, in the case of the Bible, divine provenance. Significant details, on the other hands, seem always omitted and ignored. For instance, the readers were never informed in Exodus of the name of the Egyptian Pharaoh, which is the very first thing one would like to know, but we are given the exact details of the construction of the Tabernacle. We have the exact number of people in each tribe of Israel, but we are not informed, for instance, of the unglamorous details of how the sanitation needs of such a vast population could possibly have been met.
Jehovah gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron: "When camp is set up, each family will pitch their tents beneath their family’s ancestral banners. The encampment will be made on all sides of the Tabernacle, but at some distance from it.
"On the east side, facing the rising sun, will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:
Judah, led Nahshon, son of Amminadab, numbering 74,600 fighting men
Issachar, led by Nethanel, son of Zuar, numbering 54,400 fighting men
Zebulun, led by Eliab, son of Helon, numbering 57,400 fighting men
The total number of forces from Judah's side of the camp totals 186,400 fighting men. These tribes will set out first when the Israelites break camp.
"On the south side will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:
Reuben, led by Elizur, son of Shedeur, numbering 46,500 fighting men
Simeon, led by Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai, numbering 59,300 fighting men
Gad, led by Eliasaph, son Deuel [or Reuel], numbering 45,650 fighting men
The total number of forces from Reuben's side of the camp totals 151,450 fighting men. They will set out second.
"The Tabernacle and the camp of the Levites will have their places in the middle of the encampment. They will set out in the same order in which they make camp, each in their assigned places under their banners.
"On the west side will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:
Ephraim, led by Elishama, son of Ammihud, numbering 40,500 fighting men
Manasseh, led by Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur, numbering 32,200 fighting men
Benjamin, led by Abidan, son of Gideoni, numbering 35,400 fighting men
The total number of forces from Ephraim's side of the camp totals 108,100 fighting men. They will set out third.
"On the north side will camp the following tribes under their ancestral banners:
Dan, led by Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai, numbering 62,700 fighting men
Asher, led by Pagiel, son of Okran, numbering 41,500 fighting men
Naphtali, led by Ahira, son of Enan, numbering 53,400 fighting men
The total number of forces from Dan's side of the camp totals 157,100 fighting men. They will set out last whenever the Israelites break camp."
These, therefore, are the forces of the Israelites, counted according to their tribes. The total number of fighting men equals 603,550 (excluding, as Jehovah ordered, the Levites, who were not enrolled for military service). The Israelites complied with the instructions Jehovah gave to Moses: each family and tribe set up camp under their ancestral banners and, when marching, did so with their own family and tribe.
Notes
1. It is amazing the degree to which Jehovah (Creator-God of the universe?) takes an interest in the nuts-and-bolts details of Israelite affairs. His insistence on micromanaging everything suggests little confidence in Moses' administrative abilities.
2. A common characteristic of ancient and medieval chronicles is the presentation of superfluous details, those that really do not further the narrative or provide any significant insight. Most such chronicles, the Bible included, are based on oral traditions, and so it seems unlikely that such details, especially numbers and names, would have been accurately recorded and passed down, yet they are always pointedly presented with assumed exactitude. Perhaps the reason for this is that details always suggest accuracy, a confirmation of authenticity, authority and, in the case of the Bible, divine provenance. Significant details, on the other hands, seem always omitted and ignored. For instance, the readers were never informed in Exodus of the name of the Egyptian Pharaoh, which is the very first thing one would like to know, but we are given the exact details of the construction of the Tabernacle. We have the exact number of people in each tribe of Israel, but we are not informed, for instance, of the unglamorous details of how the sanitation needs of such a vast population could possibly have been met.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
The Census
(Book of Numbers 1:1 - 1:54)
One year after the Israelites had made their exodus from Egypt, on the first day of the second month, Jehovah spoke to Moses in the Tabernacle in the desert of Sinai. He instructed him, "Take a census of the entire population of Israel, recording each person's name, his family, and his tribe. You and Aaron must make a registry of every male who is twenty years of age or more and is able to bear arms. You are to be assisted in this by each of the tribal chiefs.
"The names of the chiefs and their tribes are as follows:
Reuben: Elizur, the son of Shedeur
Simeon: Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai
Judah: Hahshon, the son of Amminadab
Issachar: Nethanel, the son of Zuar
Zebulun: Eliab, the son of Helon
Joseph (Ephraim): Elishama, the son of Ammihud
Joseph (Manasseh): Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur
Benjamin: Abidan, the son of Gideoni
Dan: Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai
Asher: Pagiel, the son of Ochran
Gad: Eliasaph, the son of Deuel
Naphtali: Ahira, the son of Enan
"These are the chosen leaders, the elders of the ancestral clans, the chiefs of the tribes of Israel."
Moses and Aaron summoned these leaders and, on that same day, assembled the entire population of Israel. All the people were listed according to their family and tribe and the men twenty years old and above were individually registered, just as Jehovah had instructed Moses. And so a census was taken there in the desert of Sinai.
Men twenty years old and above and able to bear arms were listed by name. The following is the tally from each of Israel's tribes:
Reuben, Israel's first born: 46,500
Simeon: 59,300
Gad: 45,650
Judah: 74,600
Issachar: 54,400
Zebulun: 57,400
Joseph (Ephraim): 40,500
Joseph (Manasseh): 32,200
Benjamin: 35,400
Dan: 62,700
Asher: 41,500
Naphtali: 53,400
These were the men registered by Moses, Aaron, and the chiefs representing the tribes of Israel. All men twenty years old and above and able to bear arms were listed by family. Their total number was 603,550.
Those of the ancestral tribe of Levi, however, were not counted with the others, for Jehovah had told Moses, "You should not count those of the tribe of Levi or include them in the census with the rest of the Israelites. The Levites are to be stewards of the Holy Tabernacle, its equipment and furnishings, everything it contains. They must tend and maintain it and transport it, and they must make their camp around it. When the Tabernacle is to be moved, they will take it down, and when it is to be set up again, it is they who will do it. If any unauthorized person approaches the Tabernacle, he is to be put to death. Each tribe of Israel will be assigned their own area in the encampment, marked with their tribal banner. But the Levites will camp around the Tabernacle so that I may not vent my wrath upon the people of Israel. They will guard and protect the Tabernacle."
The people of Israel did all that Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Notes
1. Numbers picks up the story of the Israelites a year after the Exodus, eleven months after their encampment beneath the holy mountain in Sinai. Presumably the Tabernacle and its furnishings described in Exodus have been built.
2. Taking a census makes sense from an administrative and logistical point of view. A new nation, forged from the tribes of Israel, descended from the sons of Jacob, was being formed, even if it had not yet reached the land on which it would settle. Although censuses date to the early history of Egypt, historically citizens have had an ambivalent attitude toward them. Numbering the populace has not always seemed benign, but has often been disparaged as the intrusive instrument of tyrants. --- It is interesting that in the New Testament Jesus would supposedly come to be born in Bethlehem because of a census.
3. A former census described in Exodus was taken in order to raise "money" through taxes. The purpose of this census is to lay a foundation for the organization of a national army.
4. The numbers given for the various tribes must be regarded as fanciful. A total of over 600,00 men able to bear arms would suggest a total population of 3 or 4 million, even more, if the Israelites were as prolific as the biblical texts suggest. If the Israelites had remained in Egypt for 400 or 430 years as the biblical texts claim, technically there might be enough time for such a population to accrue. However, since life spans in ancient times were short due to wars, disease, famine, poor nutrition, bad sanitation, and minimal medical care, it is very unlikely. The frenetic population boom of a slave class asserted by the text conflicts with the reality that in ancient times population numbers were often stable and growth, if any, was slow. (It should be mentioned that Israelite bondage being four centuries in length is problematic considering there were only 5 generations between Jacob and Moses!) It is sheer nonsense to entertain the idea that such a horde could subsist in the desert wastes of Sinai, let alone journey en masse under any sort of effective leadership. As has been noted before, an exodus of any more than a few thousand souls would have been impractical, if not impossible. And there is, in fact, no historical or archaeological evidence to support any sort of exodus.
5. That the numbers of this census and the names of the tribal chiefs would be remembered and regarded as important enough to be remembered nearly a thousand years later by biblical authors is remarkable. One does suspect that the authors of Numbers cooked the books a bit to make the more important and respected tribes (Judah, for instance) look good with higher population numbers. (Of course the record of the census may, like much of the Old Testament, be facilely interpreted as nationalistic propaganda intended to aggrandize ancestors.)
6. One also wonders how the census would have been recorded since the only writing the Israelites could have known would have been Egyptian hieroglyphics.
7. The second month, Iyar, occurs in April-May.
8. The Levites are charged not only to protect the Tabernacle from the common people, but to protect the common people from Jehovah. It’s as if Jehovah was radioactive or a ferocious animal that needed to be caged. To approach Jehovah or to violate what he regarded as sacred meant death. His anger was not to be aroused or it meant destruction to the people. The Levites (Moses and Aaron were Levites -- what a coincidence!) were intermediaries between Jehovah and his Israelite worshipers --- and placaters. They, therefore, enjoyed special privileges, such as being exempt from military service. The Levites must have numbered in the tens of thousands. How would the Tabernacle find employment for all of them? Some, to be sure, could be priests, but how many priests could serve in a single place of worship. Many Levites would have to have been nothing more than glorified roustabouts who put up and took down the Tabernacle and its compound. What would the rest of them do? Would the Tabernacle have the need for thousands and thousands of “roustabouts”? -- even The Greatest Show on Earth doesn’t require so many.
One year after the Israelites had made their exodus from Egypt, on the first day of the second month, Jehovah spoke to Moses in the Tabernacle in the desert of Sinai. He instructed him, "Take a census of the entire population of Israel, recording each person's name, his family, and his tribe. You and Aaron must make a registry of every male who is twenty years of age or more and is able to bear arms. You are to be assisted in this by each of the tribal chiefs.
"The names of the chiefs and their tribes are as follows:
Reuben: Elizur, the son of Shedeur
Simeon: Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai
Judah: Hahshon, the son of Amminadab
Issachar: Nethanel, the son of Zuar
Zebulun: Eliab, the son of Helon
Joseph (Ephraim): Elishama, the son of Ammihud
Joseph (Manasseh): Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur
Benjamin: Abidan, the son of Gideoni
Dan: Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai
Asher: Pagiel, the son of Ochran
Gad: Eliasaph, the son of Deuel
Naphtali: Ahira, the son of Enan
"These are the chosen leaders, the elders of the ancestral clans, the chiefs of the tribes of Israel."
Moses and Aaron summoned these leaders and, on that same day, assembled the entire population of Israel. All the people were listed according to their family and tribe and the men twenty years old and above were individually registered, just as Jehovah had instructed Moses. And so a census was taken there in the desert of Sinai.
Men twenty years old and above and able to bear arms were listed by name. The following is the tally from each of Israel's tribes:
Reuben, Israel's first born: 46,500
Simeon: 59,300
Gad: 45,650
Judah: 74,600
Issachar: 54,400
Zebulun: 57,400
Joseph (Ephraim): 40,500
Joseph (Manasseh): 32,200
Benjamin: 35,400
Dan: 62,700
Asher: 41,500
Naphtali: 53,400
These were the men registered by Moses, Aaron, and the chiefs representing the tribes of Israel. All men twenty years old and above and able to bear arms were listed by family. Their total number was 603,550.
Those of the ancestral tribe of Levi, however, were not counted with the others, for Jehovah had told Moses, "You should not count those of the tribe of Levi or include them in the census with the rest of the Israelites. The Levites are to be stewards of the Holy Tabernacle, its equipment and furnishings, everything it contains. They must tend and maintain it and transport it, and they must make their camp around it. When the Tabernacle is to be moved, they will take it down, and when it is to be set up again, it is they who will do it. If any unauthorized person approaches the Tabernacle, he is to be put to death. Each tribe of Israel will be assigned their own area in the encampment, marked with their tribal banner. But the Levites will camp around the Tabernacle so that I may not vent my wrath upon the people of Israel. They will guard and protect the Tabernacle."
The people of Israel did all that Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Notes
1. Numbers picks up the story of the Israelites a year after the Exodus, eleven months after their encampment beneath the holy mountain in Sinai. Presumably the Tabernacle and its furnishings described in Exodus have been built.
2. Taking a census makes sense from an administrative and logistical point of view. A new nation, forged from the tribes of Israel, descended from the sons of Jacob, was being formed, even if it had not yet reached the land on which it would settle. Although censuses date to the early history of Egypt, historically citizens have had an ambivalent attitude toward them. Numbering the populace has not always seemed benign, but has often been disparaged as the intrusive instrument of tyrants. --- It is interesting that in the New Testament Jesus would supposedly come to be born in Bethlehem because of a census.
3. A former census described in Exodus was taken in order to raise "money" through taxes. The purpose of this census is to lay a foundation for the organization of a national army.
4. The numbers given for the various tribes must be regarded as fanciful. A total of over 600,00 men able to bear arms would suggest a total population of 3 or 4 million, even more, if the Israelites were as prolific as the biblical texts suggest. If the Israelites had remained in Egypt for 400 or 430 years as the biblical texts claim, technically there might be enough time for such a population to accrue. However, since life spans in ancient times were short due to wars, disease, famine, poor nutrition, bad sanitation, and minimal medical care, it is very unlikely. The frenetic population boom of a slave class asserted by the text conflicts with the reality that in ancient times population numbers were often stable and growth, if any, was slow. (It should be mentioned that Israelite bondage being four centuries in length is problematic considering there were only 5 generations between Jacob and Moses!) It is sheer nonsense to entertain the idea that such a horde could subsist in the desert wastes of Sinai, let alone journey en masse under any sort of effective leadership. As has been noted before, an exodus of any more than a few thousand souls would have been impractical, if not impossible. And there is, in fact, no historical or archaeological evidence to support any sort of exodus.
5. That the numbers of this census and the names of the tribal chiefs would be remembered and regarded as important enough to be remembered nearly a thousand years later by biblical authors is remarkable. One does suspect that the authors of Numbers cooked the books a bit to make the more important and respected tribes (Judah, for instance) look good with higher population numbers. (Of course the record of the census may, like much of the Old Testament, be facilely interpreted as nationalistic propaganda intended to aggrandize ancestors.)
6. One also wonders how the census would have been recorded since the only writing the Israelites could have known would have been Egyptian hieroglyphics.
7. The second month, Iyar, occurs in April-May.
8. The Levites are charged not only to protect the Tabernacle from the common people, but to protect the common people from Jehovah. It’s as if Jehovah was radioactive or a ferocious animal that needed to be caged. To approach Jehovah or to violate what he regarded as sacred meant death. His anger was not to be aroused or it meant destruction to the people. The Levites (Moses and Aaron were Levites -- what a coincidence!) were intermediaries between Jehovah and his Israelite worshipers --- and placaters. They, therefore, enjoyed special privileges, such as being exempt from military service. The Levites must have numbered in the tens of thousands. How would the Tabernacle find employment for all of them? Some, to be sure, could be priests, but how many priests could serve in a single place of worship. Many Levites would have to have been nothing more than glorified roustabouts who put up and took down the Tabernacle and its compound. What would the rest of them do? Would the Tabernacle have the need for thousands and thousands of “roustabouts”? -- even The Greatest Show on Earth doesn’t require so many.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Votive Offerings
(Leviticus 27:1 - 27:34)
Jehovah spoke again to Moses and told him to instruct the people of Israel, "If someone makes a votive offering to Jehovah consisting a human being, here are the values set for each kind of individual:
“A man between the age of 20 and 60 -- 50 shekels of silver (according to the weights used at the Tabernacle)
A woman between the age of 20 and 60 -- 30 shekels
A boy between the age of 5 and 20 -- 20 shekels
A girl between the age of 5 and 20 -- 10 shekels
A boy child between the ages of 1 month and 5 years -- 5 shekels
A girl child between the ages of 1 month and 5 years -- 3 shekels
A man older than 60 years of age -- 15 shekels
A woman older than 60 years of age -- 10 shekels
"If you wish to make a vow, but are too poor to pay the full amount, take the person to the priest, who will figure out a price based on what you can afford.
"If the votive offering is an animal, such an animal, provided that it is an offering acceptable to Jehovah, will be considered holy. Another cannot be exchanged or substituted for it, neither a better one for a worse one or vice versa, but if one is substituted then both the substitute and the original animal should be considered holy. If the votive offering is a ritually impure animal, one not acceptable to Jehovah, then it must be brought to the priest, who will determine its value, high or low. His assessment will be final, and if you want to buy back the animal you must pay the price set by the priest, plus 20 percent.
"If someone dedicates his house to Jehovah as a votive offering, then the priest must assess its value. Whether high or low, the price set by the priest will be final. And if the owner wishes to buy it back, he must pay the price set by the priest, plus 20 percent, for the house to belong to him again.
"If someone dedicates a piece of family property as a votive offering, its value will be determined by the amount of seed the land requires for planting, eg. 50 shekels for a homer of barley seed. If the land is dedicated during the Jubilee Year, that assessment remains. If field has been dedicated after the Jubilee Year, then the priest must calculate the number of years till the next jubilee and reduce the price accordingly. If someone who has dedicated the land wants to buy it back, for the field to become his own again he must pay the established price plus 20 percent. But if the piece of property has not been bought back by the time of the jubilee, or has been sold to someone else, the original owner will no longer be able to redeem it. When it is released on the Jubilee Year, it will forthwith become of the property of the priests, holy as land dedicated to Jehovah.
"If someone dedicates a piece of property that was purchased and not part of his family's ancestral lands, the priest will calculate its value up to the next Jubilee Year, and at the time of the dedication make the assessed value a sacred donation to Jehovah. At the time of the Jubilee Year the property must return to the one from whom it was purchased, the one who inherited it as an ancestral land.
"All payments must be assessed in shekels as measured by the weights used at the Tabernacle. (One shekel is equal to 20 gerahs.)
"You may not dedicate a first-born animal to Jehovah, since first-born cattle, sheep, and goats already belong to him. However, you may buy back the first-born of any ritually impure animal at the price determined by the priest, plus 20 percent. If it is not bought back, the priest will then sell it at its assessed value.
"Nothing owned by a person that has been designated as a permanent sacrifice to Jehovah can be bought back or sold, whether it is a person, an animal, or a piece of family land. Anything dedicated in this way becomes holy and the property of Jehovah. No person designated as such a sacrifice and marked for destruction can be redeemed; he must be killed.
"All the produce of the land, whether the grain of the fields or the fruits of the trees, is subjected to 10 percent tax that must be paid to Jehovah and becomes his holy property. Anyone who wishes to buy back what he has donated of his harvest must pay its value and an additional 20 percent. A similar tax of herds and flocks is imposed: every 10th animal should be counted and set aside as the holy property of Jehovah. You may not pick or choose between good and bad animals or make substitutions. If a substitution is made, then both animals become holy and may not be redeemed."
These are the commandments that Jehovah on the mountain in Sinai gave to Moses for the Israelites.
Notes
1. A shekel is equal to about .4 ounces. An adult man is worth as much as a good tea service, 20 ounces of silver being roughly $400 given the 2014 market price of silver. A homer is equal to about 300 pounds.
2. While it is somewhat disturbing to think that Jehovah would put a specific cash value on a human being, it is dismaying to realize how little value an older man or woman has compared to a younger one, worth a third as much or less. Apparently the wisdom and experience of age didn't count for much when the shekels were counted by the priests. Also of note is how little value a woman has compared to a man. That womanly virtues and talents were undervalued is not surprising -- they always have been, but in a society that placed great emphasis on the propagation of its population, one would have thought that a woman, at least one of child-bearing years, would have at least as much value as a man. One can conclude that the shekel values here itemized are base solely upon the ability to perform manual labor and menial tasks.
3. A votive offering, unlike the required peace offerings, guilt offerings, etc., is made to Jehovah in fulfillment of a vow. It is personal in nature, not a public duty. A man promises Jehovah a goat, if he has a good harvest. The goat would be the votive offering. Such is a common practice among believers of all religions, Christianity no less than others. In medieval times, for instance, a noble warrior would ask for God's help in a battle and, in the event of winning it, promises to donate to the church some precious object. Similarly, in modern times, a rich man might promise he will fund a new steeple for the church if his prayers are answered and his wife recovers from an illness. The votive offering is always a bribe to the deity in payment for his favorable intervention in human affairs. It assumes that the divine being needs to be instructed by mortals in how he should aid mankind and will not do good unless he is rewarded for it.
4. It is unclear here what happens to the human being who is given to Jehovah as a votive offering. Does he become a slave to the priests or a commodity to be sold by them? It is clear that persons who are given as permanent sacrifices, those that can't be bought back, are to be killed. Are these criminals? Are they unwanted slaves, troublesome foreigners, or despised family members? Or are they, as they most likely were, captives of war? Are they executed, stoned to death or whatever, or are they sacrificed on the altar, butchered and burned like a sheep or a steer?
5. Once any kind of votive offering is bought back, Jehovah's law makes sure that the priests make a tidy 20 percent profit on the deal. Most of Jehovah's statutes are all about the priesthood being needed and honored -- and being able to enrich itself. Things were hardly different in the medieval Christian church where there was more emphasis on wealth and power than on piety, (although, to be fair, both the Jehovan and the Christian religious establishment did practice charity and provided what we call social services).
Jehovah spoke again to Moses and told him to instruct the people of Israel, "If someone makes a votive offering to Jehovah consisting a human being, here are the values set for each kind of individual:
“A man between the age of 20 and 60 -- 50 shekels of silver (according to the weights used at the Tabernacle)
A woman between the age of 20 and 60 -- 30 shekels
A boy between the age of 5 and 20 -- 20 shekels
A girl between the age of 5 and 20 -- 10 shekels
A boy child between the ages of 1 month and 5 years -- 5 shekels
A girl child between the ages of 1 month and 5 years -- 3 shekels
A man older than 60 years of age -- 15 shekels
A woman older than 60 years of age -- 10 shekels
"If you wish to make a vow, but are too poor to pay the full amount, take the person to the priest, who will figure out a price based on what you can afford.
"If the votive offering is an animal, such an animal, provided that it is an offering acceptable to Jehovah, will be considered holy. Another cannot be exchanged or substituted for it, neither a better one for a worse one or vice versa, but if one is substituted then both the substitute and the original animal should be considered holy. If the votive offering is a ritually impure animal, one not acceptable to Jehovah, then it must be brought to the priest, who will determine its value, high or low. His assessment will be final, and if you want to buy back the animal you must pay the price set by the priest, plus 20 percent.
"If someone dedicates his house to Jehovah as a votive offering, then the priest must assess its value. Whether high or low, the price set by the priest will be final. And if the owner wishes to buy it back, he must pay the price set by the priest, plus 20 percent, for the house to belong to him again.
"If someone dedicates a piece of family property as a votive offering, its value will be determined by the amount of seed the land requires for planting, eg. 50 shekels for a homer of barley seed. If the land is dedicated during the Jubilee Year, that assessment remains. If field has been dedicated after the Jubilee Year, then the priest must calculate the number of years till the next jubilee and reduce the price accordingly. If someone who has dedicated the land wants to buy it back, for the field to become his own again he must pay the established price plus 20 percent. But if the piece of property has not been bought back by the time of the jubilee, or has been sold to someone else, the original owner will no longer be able to redeem it. When it is released on the Jubilee Year, it will forthwith become of the property of the priests, holy as land dedicated to Jehovah.
"If someone dedicates a piece of property that was purchased and not part of his family's ancestral lands, the priest will calculate its value up to the next Jubilee Year, and at the time of the dedication make the assessed value a sacred donation to Jehovah. At the time of the Jubilee Year the property must return to the one from whom it was purchased, the one who inherited it as an ancestral land.
"All payments must be assessed in shekels as measured by the weights used at the Tabernacle. (One shekel is equal to 20 gerahs.)
"You may not dedicate a first-born animal to Jehovah, since first-born cattle, sheep, and goats already belong to him. However, you may buy back the first-born of any ritually impure animal at the price determined by the priest, plus 20 percent. If it is not bought back, the priest will then sell it at its assessed value.
"Nothing owned by a person that has been designated as a permanent sacrifice to Jehovah can be bought back or sold, whether it is a person, an animal, or a piece of family land. Anything dedicated in this way becomes holy and the property of Jehovah. No person designated as such a sacrifice and marked for destruction can be redeemed; he must be killed.
"All the produce of the land, whether the grain of the fields or the fruits of the trees, is subjected to 10 percent tax that must be paid to Jehovah and becomes his holy property. Anyone who wishes to buy back what he has donated of his harvest must pay its value and an additional 20 percent. A similar tax of herds and flocks is imposed: every 10th animal should be counted and set aside as the holy property of Jehovah. You may not pick or choose between good and bad animals or make substitutions. If a substitution is made, then both animals become holy and may not be redeemed."
These are the commandments that Jehovah on the mountain in Sinai gave to Moses for the Israelites.
Notes
1. A shekel is equal to about .4 ounces. An adult man is worth as much as a good tea service, 20 ounces of silver being roughly $400 given the 2014 market price of silver. A homer is equal to about 300 pounds.
2. While it is somewhat disturbing to think that Jehovah would put a specific cash value on a human being, it is dismaying to realize how little value an older man or woman has compared to a younger one, worth a third as much or less. Apparently the wisdom and experience of age didn't count for much when the shekels were counted by the priests. Also of note is how little value a woman has compared to a man. That womanly virtues and talents were undervalued is not surprising -- they always have been, but in a society that placed great emphasis on the propagation of its population, one would have thought that a woman, at least one of child-bearing years, would have at least as much value as a man. One can conclude that the shekel values here itemized are base solely upon the ability to perform manual labor and menial tasks.
3. A votive offering, unlike the required peace offerings, guilt offerings, etc., is made to Jehovah in fulfillment of a vow. It is personal in nature, not a public duty. A man promises Jehovah a goat, if he has a good harvest. The goat would be the votive offering. Such is a common practice among believers of all religions, Christianity no less than others. In medieval times, for instance, a noble warrior would ask for God's help in a battle and, in the event of winning it, promises to donate to the church some precious object. Similarly, in modern times, a rich man might promise he will fund a new steeple for the church if his prayers are answered and his wife recovers from an illness. The votive offering is always a bribe to the deity in payment for his favorable intervention in human affairs. It assumes that the divine being needs to be instructed by mortals in how he should aid mankind and will not do good unless he is rewarded for it.
4. It is unclear here what happens to the human being who is given to Jehovah as a votive offering. Does he become a slave to the priests or a commodity to be sold by them? It is clear that persons who are given as permanent sacrifices, those that can't be bought back, are to be killed. Are these criminals? Are they unwanted slaves, troublesome foreigners, or despised family members? Or are they, as they most likely were, captives of war? Are they executed, stoned to death or whatever, or are they sacrificed on the altar, butchered and burned like a sheep or a steer?
5. Once any kind of votive offering is bought back, Jehovah's law makes sure that the priests make a tidy 20 percent profit on the deal. Most of Jehovah's statutes are all about the priesthood being needed and honored -- and being able to enrich itself. Things were hardly different in the medieval Christian church where there was more emphasis on wealth and power than on piety, (although, to be fair, both the Jehovan and the Christian religious establishment did practice charity and provided what we call social services).
Jehovah's Rewards and Punishments
(Leviticus 26:1 - 26:46)
"You must not make idols or carved images, or erect pillars or stone sculptures in your land for the purpose of worshiping them. Thus says Jehovah your god. You must keep my sabbaths and revere my Tabernacle. Thus says Jehovah your god.
"If you follow my statutes, respect my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will send you rain in good season. The land will yield its crops and the trees will bring forth their fruit. Your threshing will continue until it is time to harvest the grapes, and you will still be harvesting grapes when it is time to plant the grain. You will able to eat your fill and live securely on the land. I will bring peace to your land. You will be able to lie down to sleep without fear. I will banish the wild beasts from your land and no warfare will threaten your country. When you pursue your enemies, they will be routed. Five of you will put to flight a hundred of them, and a hundred, ten thousand! By your arms your enemies will be overcome.
"I will look with approval upon you. You will be fruitful and multiply. I will keep the pact I made with you. You will still be eating the grain of last year's harvest when it is time to store the new. I will place my Tabernacle among you and will not spurn you. My spirit will always be with you. I will be your god and you will be my people. I am Jehovah your god, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery that bound your neck, so that you could walk erect.
"However, if you do not heed me or obey these commandments, if you break my contract by rejecting my decrees, showing contempt for my laws, or ignoring my commands, then what follows will happen to you. Terrible calamity will fall precipitously upon you. Debilitating disease and fever will steal your sight and sap your strength. Your seeds will be planted in vain, for it will be your enemies who will eat the crop. I will turn against you so that you will be conquered by your enemies. Those who hate you will lord over you. You will flee even when no one pursues you.
"If, after all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you sevenfold for your sins. I will break your rebellious spirit. Your sky will become as dry as iron and your land as hard as copper. Your labor will all be to no purpose, because crops will not grow in your soil and the trees in your land will bear no fruit.
"If you still remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey me, then I will increase your afflictions sevenfold, in punishment for your sins. I will send wild beasts to attack you, to rob you of your children and prey upon your livestock. They will so decrease the population that your roads will be deserted and desolate.
"If, despite these afflictions, you haven't learned your lesson and are still hostile to me, then I will be hostile to you. I will afflict you sevenfold for your sins. In retribution for the breaking of my contract with you, I will bring warfare down upon you. You will seek refuge in your cities, but I will afflict you with disease and you will be delivered into the hands of your enemy. When I cut off your grain supply, it will only take ten women and a single oven to bake all the bread you have. The bread will be doled out by weight and when you eat your meager ration, it won't be enough to keep you from being hungry.
"If you then continue to disobey me and be hostile to me, my full wrath will vented upon you and I will punish you for your sins sevenfold. You will end up as cannibals, eating the flesh of your children. I will destroy your pagan shrines and topple your altars. Your corpses will be heaped upon the ruins of your smashed idols. I will revile you. I will devastate your cities and lay waste your places of worship. I will find no pleasure in the otherwise pleasurable aroma of your burnt offerings. I will make the land a place of such desolation that even the enemies occupying it will be shocked. I will scatter you among foreign lands where you will be harassed by warfare. Your country will be a wasteland and your cities will lie in ruins. The land in its desolation will have a Sabbath Year every year. While you are in exile in the land of your enemies and the land remains desolate, the land will enjoy the rest and the Sabbath Years it was deprived of when you were living there.
“You who survive will live in the land of your enemies with such fear that even so much as the rustle of a wind-blown leaf will drive you to into a panicked flight. You will flee as if from an army, but will fall and stumble over one another, even when no one pursues you. You will have no strength to oppose your foes. You will find death in foreign countries and the lands of your enemies will swallow you up. Those who do survive will waste away there, not only because of their own sins, but because of the sins of their ancestors.
"But, if finally my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, if they will regret their infidelity and hostility to me, (which made me so hostile to them they I banished them to the land of their enemies), if their hard hearts will be softened and they will make amends for their trespasses, then I will remember the contract I made with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham and remember the land I promised them. That land, evacuated by them, will enjoy a sabbath while they are absent making amends for their iniquity, for continually ignoring my ordinances and rejecting my regulations. Yet, despite that, when they are in exile in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them or detest them so much as to utterly destroy them or break my contract with them, for I am still their god Jehovah. For their sakes, I will remember the ancient contract I made with their ancestors when, before the eyes of all the world, I brought them out of Egypt to be their god. Thus says Jehovah."
These are the laws and statutes and decrees that Jehovah gave to Moses on the mountain in Sinai as part of the contract between himself and the Israelites.
Notes
1. The prohibition against images, statues, idols, etc. is specific, but only if they are used for idolatrous worship. It is not, therefore, forbidden to make a statue, a painting, and carving of anything; worshiping them is what is sinful. This prohibition has been too strictly interpreted by many religious who regard the Old Testament as scripture.
2. Success, good fortune, peace and prosperity are all predicated on ones' obedience to Jehovah and proper observance of his laws and statutes. Good things will happen to those who are good, evil things to those who are evil -- this is the kind of earthly justice we all yearn for and hope for. But experience repeatedly tells us it does not exist. Jehovah makes these glowing promises to his followers. When they are not fulfilled there is always the excuse that his people have not been holy enough, that their sins, and there are always sins, have deprive them of Jehovah's blessings. This mindset is not peculiar to the Israelites or even to the ancient world. That God in this earthly life will reward the righteous and punish the sinful is a belief that persists among the faithful of all religions, however much empirical evidence militates against its reality.
3. The worship of Jehovah was apparently so distasteful to the Israelites that they had to be bribed and threatened to be observant. The inducements to devotion are so great, the punishments that befall the apostate so horrendous, it is hard to understand why would the Israelites not remain dutifully faithful. But there is always skepticism and obstinacy, indulgence and passion and venality. Jehovah doesn't seem to be able to compel obedience or to change the nature of his errant worshipers.
4. Jehovah (or the authors of the Old Testament) always exhibits a taste for the melodramatic and seems to derive almost sadistic pleasure from florid descriptions of cataclysm, catastrophe, and calamity on an epic, indeed biblical scale. Jehovah, definitely not a turn-the-other-cheek kind of chap, takes delight in threatening evil and violence upon his people. He is rather like a stern father who must never be crossed or challenged, who demands unquestioning obedience, and who will find any excuse to get out the strap and give his unworthy offspring a good lickin'.
5. The Israelites are to be punished not only for their own sins, but for that of their ancestors. The concept of collective and ancestral guilt is well established in the Old Testament and promoted by Jehovah, although it is generally rejected by moderns who feel that a man is responsible only for his own actions.
6. The prophecies of disaster, conquest and exile, are obvious references to the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzer and the subsequent conquest and captivity of the Israelites from the Kingdom of Judah. Even the cannibalism refers to a recorded incident during that siege. To the writers of the Old Testament, very conscious of their audience, these events were recent history. Readers needed to be comforted by the knowledge that Jehovah must have been aware of this many hundreds of years before.
"You must not make idols or carved images, or erect pillars or stone sculptures in your land for the purpose of worshiping them. Thus says Jehovah your god. You must keep my sabbaths and revere my Tabernacle. Thus says Jehovah your god.
"If you follow my statutes, respect my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will send you rain in good season. The land will yield its crops and the trees will bring forth their fruit. Your threshing will continue until it is time to harvest the grapes, and you will still be harvesting grapes when it is time to plant the grain. You will able to eat your fill and live securely on the land. I will bring peace to your land. You will be able to lie down to sleep without fear. I will banish the wild beasts from your land and no warfare will threaten your country. When you pursue your enemies, they will be routed. Five of you will put to flight a hundred of them, and a hundred, ten thousand! By your arms your enemies will be overcome.
"I will look with approval upon you. You will be fruitful and multiply. I will keep the pact I made with you. You will still be eating the grain of last year's harvest when it is time to store the new. I will place my Tabernacle among you and will not spurn you. My spirit will always be with you. I will be your god and you will be my people. I am Jehovah your god, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves. I broke the yoke of slavery that bound your neck, so that you could walk erect.
"However, if you do not heed me or obey these commandments, if you break my contract by rejecting my decrees, showing contempt for my laws, or ignoring my commands, then what follows will happen to you. Terrible calamity will fall precipitously upon you. Debilitating disease and fever will steal your sight and sap your strength. Your seeds will be planted in vain, for it will be your enemies who will eat the crop. I will turn against you so that you will be conquered by your enemies. Those who hate you will lord over you. You will flee even when no one pursues you.
"If, after all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you sevenfold for your sins. I will break your rebellious spirit. Your sky will become as dry as iron and your land as hard as copper. Your labor will all be to no purpose, because crops will not grow in your soil and the trees in your land will bear no fruit.
"If you still remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey me, then I will increase your afflictions sevenfold, in punishment for your sins. I will send wild beasts to attack you, to rob you of your children and prey upon your livestock. They will so decrease the population that your roads will be deserted and desolate.
"If, despite these afflictions, you haven't learned your lesson and are still hostile to me, then I will be hostile to you. I will afflict you sevenfold for your sins. In retribution for the breaking of my contract with you, I will bring warfare down upon you. You will seek refuge in your cities, but I will afflict you with disease and you will be delivered into the hands of your enemy. When I cut off your grain supply, it will only take ten women and a single oven to bake all the bread you have. The bread will be doled out by weight and when you eat your meager ration, it won't be enough to keep you from being hungry.
"If you then continue to disobey me and be hostile to me, my full wrath will vented upon you and I will punish you for your sins sevenfold. You will end up as cannibals, eating the flesh of your children. I will destroy your pagan shrines and topple your altars. Your corpses will be heaped upon the ruins of your smashed idols. I will revile you. I will devastate your cities and lay waste your places of worship. I will find no pleasure in the otherwise pleasurable aroma of your burnt offerings. I will make the land a place of such desolation that even the enemies occupying it will be shocked. I will scatter you among foreign lands where you will be harassed by warfare. Your country will be a wasteland and your cities will lie in ruins. The land in its desolation will have a Sabbath Year every year. While you are in exile in the land of your enemies and the land remains desolate, the land will enjoy the rest and the Sabbath Years it was deprived of when you were living there.
“You who survive will live in the land of your enemies with such fear that even so much as the rustle of a wind-blown leaf will drive you to into a panicked flight. You will flee as if from an army, but will fall and stumble over one another, even when no one pursues you. You will have no strength to oppose your foes. You will find death in foreign countries and the lands of your enemies will swallow you up. Those who do survive will waste away there, not only because of their own sins, but because of the sins of their ancestors.
"But, if finally my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, if they will regret their infidelity and hostility to me, (which made me so hostile to them they I banished them to the land of their enemies), if their hard hearts will be softened and they will make amends for their trespasses, then I will remember the contract I made with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham and remember the land I promised them. That land, evacuated by them, will enjoy a sabbath while they are absent making amends for their iniquity, for continually ignoring my ordinances and rejecting my regulations. Yet, despite that, when they are in exile in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them or detest them so much as to utterly destroy them or break my contract with them, for I am still their god Jehovah. For their sakes, I will remember the ancient contract I made with their ancestors when, before the eyes of all the world, I brought them out of Egypt to be their god. Thus says Jehovah."
These are the laws and statutes and decrees that Jehovah gave to Moses on the mountain in Sinai as part of the contract between himself and the Israelites.
Notes
1. The prohibition against images, statues, idols, etc. is specific, but only if they are used for idolatrous worship. It is not, therefore, forbidden to make a statue, a painting, and carving of anything; worshiping them is what is sinful. This prohibition has been too strictly interpreted by many religious who regard the Old Testament as scripture.
2. Success, good fortune, peace and prosperity are all predicated on ones' obedience to Jehovah and proper observance of his laws and statutes. Good things will happen to those who are good, evil things to those who are evil -- this is the kind of earthly justice we all yearn for and hope for. But experience repeatedly tells us it does not exist. Jehovah makes these glowing promises to his followers. When they are not fulfilled there is always the excuse that his people have not been holy enough, that their sins, and there are always sins, have deprive them of Jehovah's blessings. This mindset is not peculiar to the Israelites or even to the ancient world. That God in this earthly life will reward the righteous and punish the sinful is a belief that persists among the faithful of all religions, however much empirical evidence militates against its reality.
3. The worship of Jehovah was apparently so distasteful to the Israelites that they had to be bribed and threatened to be observant. The inducements to devotion are so great, the punishments that befall the apostate so horrendous, it is hard to understand why would the Israelites not remain dutifully faithful. But there is always skepticism and obstinacy, indulgence and passion and venality. Jehovah doesn't seem to be able to compel obedience or to change the nature of his errant worshipers.
4. Jehovah (or the authors of the Old Testament) always exhibits a taste for the melodramatic and seems to derive almost sadistic pleasure from florid descriptions of cataclysm, catastrophe, and calamity on an epic, indeed biblical scale. Jehovah, definitely not a turn-the-other-cheek kind of chap, takes delight in threatening evil and violence upon his people. He is rather like a stern father who must never be crossed or challenged, who demands unquestioning obedience, and who will find any excuse to get out the strap and give his unworthy offspring a good lickin'.
5. The Israelites are to be punished not only for their own sins, but for that of their ancestors. The concept of collective and ancestral guilt is well established in the Old Testament and promoted by Jehovah, although it is generally rejected by moderns who feel that a man is responsible only for his own actions.
6. The prophecies of disaster, conquest and exile, are obvious references to the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzer and the subsequent conquest and captivity of the Israelites from the Kingdom of Judah. Even the cannibalism refers to a recorded incident during that siege. To the writers of the Old Testament, very conscious of their audience, these events were recent history. Readers needed to be comforted by the knowledge that Jehovah must have been aware of this many hundreds of years before.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Sale of Slaves
(Leviticus 25:35- 25:55)
"If a fellow Israelite becomes destitute and cannot support himself, you should assist him as you would a foreigner or resident alien. If you respect your god, then do not charge him interest or make a profit at his expense, so that he may afford to live in the community. Do not charge interest on the money you may lend him or sell him food at a profit. Thus says Jehovah your god, who brought you out Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your god.
"If a fellow Israelite becomes destitute and must sell himself to you, treat him not as a slave, but as any other hired hand or migrant worker. He will only be in your service till the next Jubilee Year, at which time he and his family will have no obligation to you, but will be able to return to their own clan and ancestral lands. Since I freed the people of Israel from Egypt, they are my servants and they must not be sold into slavery. Show your respect for your god by not treating them as slaves.
"However, you may purchase slaves, both male and female, from neighboring countries and from among the foreigners that reside temporarily with you or even foreigners that have been born among your people. You may treat them as your personal property, chattels that may be bequeathed to your children as a permanent inheritance. But while you may regard foreigners as your slaves, you must never regard a fellow Israelite as such.
"If a resident alien becomes wealthy and he, or a member of his family purchases a fellow Israelite who has become impoverished, the Israelite retains the right to have his freedom bought back. A member of his family, an uncle or cousin or any blood relation, may do so -- or even the Israelite himself, if he is able to acquire sufficient wealth. The buyer and Israelite who has sold himself must calculate the price based upon the time to the next Jubilee Year from the date when the purchase was made and at a rate that a hired worker would normally be paid. (If many years remain till the next Jubilee Year, then a larger price will have to be paid for the Israelite to gain his freedom; if only a few years remain till the Jubilee Year, then a proportionately smaller amount is paid.) The foreigner must regard the purchased Israelite only as a worker who has been hired on a yearly basis and must not be allowed to treat your fellow Israelite as a slave. Any Israelite whose freedom has not been purchased before the Jubilee Year arrives will automatically be freed at that time, along with his children.
"The people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants that I brought of Egypt. Thus says Jehovah your god."
Notes
1. We see here more indications of the tribalistic attitude being reinforced by Jehovah's commands. These within the tribe are treated differently than those outside the tribe. Those within must not be charged interest on loans, profit must not be taken on food sold to the needy among them, and slaves must not be taken from within the tribe. Treatment of those outside the tribe is different. It's OK to take them as slaves, buy and sell them as mere property, for to Jehovah human beings have a different value depending on what tribe they belong to. Tribalism was the prevailing mindset in ancient times (and after), weakened only by the political and legal structures of the great empires, those of the Persians, the Hellenes, and the Romans. The moral equality of men would be a concept promulgated later by philosophies such as Stoicism and religions such as Christianity.
2. Any moral imperatives presented here are relative, not absolute: they are based solely on what is pleasing to Jehovah and what supports his personal pride. Israelites must be treated well for the sole reason that they are Jehovah's people, his servants, his property, not because of any overarching moral responsibility or concepts of righteousness or humanity.
"If a fellow Israelite becomes destitute and cannot support himself, you should assist him as you would a foreigner or resident alien. If you respect your god, then do not charge him interest or make a profit at his expense, so that he may afford to live in the community. Do not charge interest on the money you may lend him or sell him food at a profit. Thus says Jehovah your god, who brought you out Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your god.
"If a fellow Israelite becomes destitute and must sell himself to you, treat him not as a slave, but as any other hired hand or migrant worker. He will only be in your service till the next Jubilee Year, at which time he and his family will have no obligation to you, but will be able to return to their own clan and ancestral lands. Since I freed the people of Israel from Egypt, they are my servants and they must not be sold into slavery. Show your respect for your god by not treating them as slaves.
"However, you may purchase slaves, both male and female, from neighboring countries and from among the foreigners that reside temporarily with you or even foreigners that have been born among your people. You may treat them as your personal property, chattels that may be bequeathed to your children as a permanent inheritance. But while you may regard foreigners as your slaves, you must never regard a fellow Israelite as such.
"If a resident alien becomes wealthy and he, or a member of his family purchases a fellow Israelite who has become impoverished, the Israelite retains the right to have his freedom bought back. A member of his family, an uncle or cousin or any blood relation, may do so -- or even the Israelite himself, if he is able to acquire sufficient wealth. The buyer and Israelite who has sold himself must calculate the price based upon the time to the next Jubilee Year from the date when the purchase was made and at a rate that a hired worker would normally be paid. (If many years remain till the next Jubilee Year, then a larger price will have to be paid for the Israelite to gain his freedom; if only a few years remain till the Jubilee Year, then a proportionately smaller amount is paid.) The foreigner must regard the purchased Israelite only as a worker who has been hired on a yearly basis and must not be allowed to treat your fellow Israelite as a slave. Any Israelite whose freedom has not been purchased before the Jubilee Year arrives will automatically be freed at that time, along with his children.
"The people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants that I brought of Egypt. Thus says Jehovah your god."
Notes
1. We see here more indications of the tribalistic attitude being reinforced by Jehovah's commands. These within the tribe are treated differently than those outside the tribe. Those within must not be charged interest on loans, profit must not be taken on food sold to the needy among them, and slaves must not be taken from within the tribe. Treatment of those outside the tribe is different. It's OK to take them as slaves, buy and sell them as mere property, for to Jehovah human beings have a different value depending on what tribe they belong to. Tribalism was the prevailing mindset in ancient times (and after), weakened only by the political and legal structures of the great empires, those of the Persians, the Hellenes, and the Romans. The moral equality of men would be a concept promulgated later by philosophies such as Stoicism and religions such as Christianity.
2. Any moral imperatives presented here are relative, not absolute: they are based solely on what is pleasing to Jehovah and what supports his personal pride. Israelites must be treated well for the sole reason that they are Jehovah's people, his servants, his property, not because of any overarching moral responsibility or concepts of righteousness or humanity.
Sale of Land
(Leviticus 25:14 - 25:34)
"When you sell land to any of your own people, or buy land from them, do not cheat one another. When you buy land from a neighbor, the price should be based upon the number of years since the last Jubilee Year. The seller must take into account the number of years until the next jubilee. The more years there are until the next jubilee, the higher the price, the fewer the years, the lower the price. The reason for this is that the person selling you the land is actually selling a certain number of harvests. Show respect to your god by not cheating each other. Thus says your god Jehovah.
"Observe my statutes and obey my decrees and you will live securely in the land. The land will produce bountiful harvests, you will be able to eat your fill and live in security. But you might ask, 'What will we eat on the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops during that year?' Rest assured that I will so bless your fields on the sixth year that the land will yield a crop that will last for three years. When you plant your fields in the eighth year you will still be eating the large crop from the sixth year. (In fact you will still be eating it when the new crop is being harvested on the ninth year!)
"You cannot sell the land permanently, for it belongs to me; you live upon it only as a resident alien would. When land is purchased, the right of the seller to buy it back must be honored. If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell a piece of family property, a close relative should have the opportunity to reclaim it for him. If there is no family member to do so, but the original owner acquires enough wealth to buy it back, he may do so from the person he sold it to, after figuring a discount for the number of years to the next Jubilee. In this way, the original owner may return to his land. If, however, he cannot afford to pay for his land, it must remain with the new owner until the next Jubilee Year. At that time the property will revert to the original owner, who can live again on his own land.
"Anyone who sells a dwelling in a walled city has the right to reclaim it up to a full year after the purchase. During that year he has the right to buy it back, but if it is not bought back within the year, then the sale of the dwelling will become final. It will become the permanent property of the buyer and not to be returned in the Jubilee Year. However, a dwelling in a village, that is, an unwalled settlement, is to be treated like any other property in the countryside. It may be bought back anytime by the original owner and must be returned to him in the Jubilee Year.
"Members of the tribe of Levi retain the right to buy back any house in the towns belonging to them. Real estate sold by the Levites or property in the towns belonging to them must be returned to them during the Jubilee Year, since the property in their towns are their sole inheritance in Israel. The pastureland around the Levite towns may not be sold at all and is their permanent possession."
Notes
1. Laws concerning the disposition of land seem absurd to promulgate at a time when the migrant Israelites own no land and will not do so for several decades. But the chickens are being well counted before they hatch and the far-sighted Jehovah is supposedly establishing the ground rules long before the game is to be played. (Pardon the mixed metaphor!) It must be reiterated that Levitical law was obviously not established with a divine wave of the hand on Sinai, but evolved over many generations, many hundreds of years. To give custom and human-devised law authority, it is made out to be the command of the national deity -- standard practice among ancient and primitive societies.
2. Jehovah guarantees that there will be good harvests on the sixth year so that on the seventh year the land may lay idle. Really! Jehovah will apparently continually manipulate and manage the weather to benefit the Israelites and that bountiful harvests are assured if the Israelites follow his will. The idea that God (or, more commonly, the gods) actively controls climatic conditions and that every "act of God" is divinely ordained is an old one. For it has always been difficult for man to acknowledge that the venting of Nature's wrath, a drought, a flood, a hurricane, or a tornado, is simply a purposeless, random event. A companion to this view is that the righteous, those favored by the gods, will be rewarded with good fortune: crops yields are in direct proportion to the piety of the farmer.
3. Property and land ownership was regarded differently in Hebrew society than it is today. Firstly, all the land belongs to Jehovah. No one else can really own the land. (This is not conceptually dissimilar to monarchial nations where the crown technically owns all the land.) In most cases, an Israelite merely holds purchased property for a period of time, but families do seem to have permanent ancestral rights over certain tracts of land. It is to be assumed that upon settlement in Canaan there will be allotments of land to tribes, clans, and families, rather the way William the Conqueror divided up England after the Conquest. Any sale of these allotments will be more like a leasing agreement with the land reverting to the original owner after a period of time, here, by the advent of the Jubilee Year that occurs every 50 years. The original owner has the right to terminate at his discretion what is tantamount to a lease. The difference, though, between this arrangement and a lease is that here the "leasee" must make the entire payment up front. In modern terms, it would work like this: Pete wants to expand his farm and would like to plant wheat on a tract of land owned by Joe. He is willing to pay $1000 a year for the land. That's OK with Joe. Since it’s 12 years until the next Jubilee Year, Pete must fork over to Joe $12,000. He can then farm the land for 12 years. At the end of that time he must give it back to Joe. If Joe decides he wants the land back after 6 years time, he has the right to rescind their agreement, but he must give Pete $6000 to get his land back. If he can't afford to do so, he has to wait until the Jubilee Year when it will be returned to him without charge. This was an agrarian plan not without merit. It prevented the disenfranchisement of the poor and the creation of a permanently landless and, therefore, restive and disgruntled class of people, yet it did not impede those who were ambiguous, hard-working, and savvy from acquiring wealth. Ownership of land has been a sticking point in many, if not most societies, ancient and modern. Special problems are created when the indigenous population owns all the land, but is idle, while hard-working, ambitious immigrants are barred from owning property, or, when the ambitious immigrants buy up all the land and leave the indigenous people landless and destitute. The Hebrews found an admirable way of avoiding these extreme situations.
4. We see this early on in the history of civilization a difference between the city and the country/small town. Final after a period of a year are sales of dwellings in cities (in ancient and medieval times, any settlement that had a wall around it), unlike the sale of dwellings in towns, or of farmland and pastures. Cities have always attracted immigrants, foreigners, merchants, and travelers, a turnover of a diverse population. Different rules had to be in force. This is also due to the fact that city-dwellers probably didn’t own farmlands or pastures upon which they could subsist. The prosperity of even these ancient cities would depend upon the ability of its inhabitants to buy and sell freely, to transfer property and real estate.
5. The Levites, the tribe from which the priests of Jehovah come, would not receive the same sort of land allotment the other tribes did. They could, therefore, claim special, compensatory privileges. They made sure that they could, since it is they who are writing the rules, as is evidenced by the name of this book.
"When you sell land to any of your own people, or buy land from them, do not cheat one another. When you buy land from a neighbor, the price should be based upon the number of years since the last Jubilee Year. The seller must take into account the number of years until the next jubilee. The more years there are until the next jubilee, the higher the price, the fewer the years, the lower the price. The reason for this is that the person selling you the land is actually selling a certain number of harvests. Show respect to your god by not cheating each other. Thus says your god Jehovah.
"Observe my statutes and obey my decrees and you will live securely in the land. The land will produce bountiful harvests, you will be able to eat your fill and live in security. But you might ask, 'What will we eat on the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops during that year?' Rest assured that I will so bless your fields on the sixth year that the land will yield a crop that will last for three years. When you plant your fields in the eighth year you will still be eating the large crop from the sixth year. (In fact you will still be eating it when the new crop is being harvested on the ninth year!)
"You cannot sell the land permanently, for it belongs to me; you live upon it only as a resident alien would. When land is purchased, the right of the seller to buy it back must be honored. If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell a piece of family property, a close relative should have the opportunity to reclaim it for him. If there is no family member to do so, but the original owner acquires enough wealth to buy it back, he may do so from the person he sold it to, after figuring a discount for the number of years to the next Jubilee. In this way, the original owner may return to his land. If, however, he cannot afford to pay for his land, it must remain with the new owner until the next Jubilee Year. At that time the property will revert to the original owner, who can live again on his own land.
"Anyone who sells a dwelling in a walled city has the right to reclaim it up to a full year after the purchase. During that year he has the right to buy it back, but if it is not bought back within the year, then the sale of the dwelling will become final. It will become the permanent property of the buyer and not to be returned in the Jubilee Year. However, a dwelling in a village, that is, an unwalled settlement, is to be treated like any other property in the countryside. It may be bought back anytime by the original owner and must be returned to him in the Jubilee Year.
"Members of the tribe of Levi retain the right to buy back any house in the towns belonging to them. Real estate sold by the Levites or property in the towns belonging to them must be returned to them during the Jubilee Year, since the property in their towns are their sole inheritance in Israel. The pastureland around the Levite towns may not be sold at all and is their permanent possession."
Notes
1. Laws concerning the disposition of land seem absurd to promulgate at a time when the migrant Israelites own no land and will not do so for several decades. But the chickens are being well counted before they hatch and the far-sighted Jehovah is supposedly establishing the ground rules long before the game is to be played. (Pardon the mixed metaphor!) It must be reiterated that Levitical law was obviously not established with a divine wave of the hand on Sinai, but evolved over many generations, many hundreds of years. To give custom and human-devised law authority, it is made out to be the command of the national deity -- standard practice among ancient and primitive societies.
2. Jehovah guarantees that there will be good harvests on the sixth year so that on the seventh year the land may lay idle. Really! Jehovah will apparently continually manipulate and manage the weather to benefit the Israelites and that bountiful harvests are assured if the Israelites follow his will. The idea that God (or, more commonly, the gods) actively controls climatic conditions and that every "act of God" is divinely ordained is an old one. For it has always been difficult for man to acknowledge that the venting of Nature's wrath, a drought, a flood, a hurricane, or a tornado, is simply a purposeless, random event. A companion to this view is that the righteous, those favored by the gods, will be rewarded with good fortune: crops yields are in direct proportion to the piety of the farmer.
3. Property and land ownership was regarded differently in Hebrew society than it is today. Firstly, all the land belongs to Jehovah. No one else can really own the land. (This is not conceptually dissimilar to monarchial nations where the crown technically owns all the land.) In most cases, an Israelite merely holds purchased property for a period of time, but families do seem to have permanent ancestral rights over certain tracts of land. It is to be assumed that upon settlement in Canaan there will be allotments of land to tribes, clans, and families, rather the way William the Conqueror divided up England after the Conquest. Any sale of these allotments will be more like a leasing agreement with the land reverting to the original owner after a period of time, here, by the advent of the Jubilee Year that occurs every 50 years. The original owner has the right to terminate at his discretion what is tantamount to a lease. The difference, though, between this arrangement and a lease is that here the "leasee" must make the entire payment up front. In modern terms, it would work like this: Pete wants to expand his farm and would like to plant wheat on a tract of land owned by Joe. He is willing to pay $1000 a year for the land. That's OK with Joe. Since it’s 12 years until the next Jubilee Year, Pete must fork over to Joe $12,000. He can then farm the land for 12 years. At the end of that time he must give it back to Joe. If Joe decides he wants the land back after 6 years time, he has the right to rescind their agreement, but he must give Pete $6000 to get his land back. If he can't afford to do so, he has to wait until the Jubilee Year when it will be returned to him without charge. This was an agrarian plan not without merit. It prevented the disenfranchisement of the poor and the creation of a permanently landless and, therefore, restive and disgruntled class of people, yet it did not impede those who were ambiguous, hard-working, and savvy from acquiring wealth. Ownership of land has been a sticking point in many, if not most societies, ancient and modern. Special problems are created when the indigenous population owns all the land, but is idle, while hard-working, ambitious immigrants are barred from owning property, or, when the ambitious immigrants buy up all the land and leave the indigenous people landless and destitute. The Hebrews found an admirable way of avoiding these extreme situations.
4. We see this early on in the history of civilization a difference between the city and the country/small town. Final after a period of a year are sales of dwellings in cities (in ancient and medieval times, any settlement that had a wall around it), unlike the sale of dwellings in towns, or of farmland and pastures. Cities have always attracted immigrants, foreigners, merchants, and travelers, a turnover of a diverse population. Different rules had to be in force. This is also due to the fact that city-dwellers probably didn’t own farmlands or pastures upon which they could subsist. The prosperity of even these ancient cities would depend upon the ability of its inhabitants to buy and sell freely, to transfer property and real estate.
5. The Levites, the tribe from which the priests of Jehovah come, would not receive the same sort of land allotment the other tribes did. They could, therefore, claim special, compensatory privileges. They made sure that they could, since it is they who are writing the rules, as is evidenced by the name of this book.
Sabbath and Jubilee Years
(Leviticus 25:1 - 25:13)
When Moses was on the mountain in Sinai, Jehovah told him to give the following instructions to the people of Israel, "When you have settled upon the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath, a time of rest, every 7 years. For 6 years you should plant your fields, prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but the 7th year must be a Sabbath year of total rest. During that year, devoted to Jehovah, you must not doing any planting or pruning. You must not harvest what has grown untended in your fields, or pick the fruit of your unpruned vines. It must be a year of complete rest for the land. However, whatever the land yields during the Sabbath Year will be subsistence for yourself, your male and female slaves, the hired hands and migrant workers who live with you, as well as your livestock and the wild animals on your property. Whatever grows wild on the land may be eaten.
"Counting off 7 weeks of sabbath years, that is, 7 times seven years, the result adds up to 49 years. On the Day of Atonement (on the 10th day of seven month, Tishri) of the 5oth year a ram's horn should sound loudly throughout the land. The 50th year will be regarded as holy, and liberty will be proclaimed throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be for you a jubilee. Everyone should return to his ancestral lands and to his own family. The 50th year will be a jubilee for you. You must not plant or harvest what has grown untended in your fields, or pick the fruit of your untended vines. For this is the Jubilee Year, holy to you. You must eat only what grows wild on your land. In this Jubilee Year each person must return to his own property."
Notes
1. The concept of letting fields lie fallow every few years is a sound and long-observed agricultural practice. However, letting all of one's fields go untilled for a year would seem unwise, since it is impossible to predict whether there will be a good harvest or not. A bad harvest before the Sabbath Year would result in a hungry community.
2. The demand that on the Sabbath Year one must leave to rot on the vine and in the field any fruits and crops that might grow on their own seems an incredible waste. But the commands of Jehovah, arbitrary as they are, must be obeyed.
3. On the Jubilee Year everyone is to return to his family and ancestral property. One wonders to what extent Israelites, even in later times, would have traveled and settled away from where they were born.
When Moses was on the mountain in Sinai, Jehovah told him to give the following instructions to the people of Israel, "When you have settled upon the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath, a time of rest, every 7 years. For 6 years you should plant your fields, prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but the 7th year must be a Sabbath year of total rest. During that year, devoted to Jehovah, you must not doing any planting or pruning. You must not harvest what has grown untended in your fields, or pick the fruit of your unpruned vines. It must be a year of complete rest for the land. However, whatever the land yields during the Sabbath Year will be subsistence for yourself, your male and female slaves, the hired hands and migrant workers who live with you, as well as your livestock and the wild animals on your property. Whatever grows wild on the land may be eaten.
"Counting off 7 weeks of sabbath years, that is, 7 times seven years, the result adds up to 49 years. On the Day of Atonement (on the 10th day of seven month, Tishri) of the 5oth year a ram's horn should sound loudly throughout the land. The 50th year will be regarded as holy, and liberty will be proclaimed throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be for you a jubilee. Everyone should return to his ancestral lands and to his own family. The 50th year will be a jubilee for you. You must not plant or harvest what has grown untended in your fields, or pick the fruit of your untended vines. For this is the Jubilee Year, holy to you. You must eat only what grows wild on your land. In this Jubilee Year each person must return to his own property."
Notes
1. The concept of letting fields lie fallow every few years is a sound and long-observed agricultural practice. However, letting all of one's fields go untilled for a year would seem unwise, since it is impossible to predict whether there will be a good harvest or not. A bad harvest before the Sabbath Year would result in a hungry community.
2. The demand that on the Sabbath Year one must leave to rot on the vine and in the field any fruits and crops that might grow on their own seems an incredible waste. But the commands of Jehovah, arbitrary as they are, must be obeyed.
3. On the Jubilee Year everyone is to return to his family and ancestral property. One wonders to what extent Israelites, even in later times, would have traveled and settled away from where they were born.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Punishment of a Blasphemer
(Leviticus 24:10 - 24:23)
A certain man whose mother was an Israelite and whose father was an Egyptian had accompanied the Israelites on their Exodus. It happened that a fight broke out in camp between this man and an Israelite, and, during the fight, this son of Israelite woman blasphemed -- he uttered in a curse the name of Jehovah. He was thus brought to Moses. (This man's mother was, by name, Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.) They held him under close arrest until Jehovah's will in this matter could be learned.
Jehovah instructed Moses, "Let those who heard him utter the blasphemy take charge of him and bring the blasphemer to a place outside of camp. There let him be stoned to death by the entire community. Tell the people of Israel that those who curse their god will be punished for their sin. Anyone who commits blasphemy by cursing in the name of Jehovah will be stoned to death by the entire community of Israel. Indeed, any native born-Israelite or foreigner who lives among you that is guilty of blasphemy by cursing in my name is to be put to death.
"Furthermore, anyone who takes the life of another human being must be put to death. Anyone who causes the death of an animal must make restitution to the owner, that is, a live animal for the one that was killed. Anyone who inflicts injury on another person must be injured in the same way, a broken bone for a broken bone, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; the perpetrator must suffer the same injury as his victim. Whoever kills an animal may make restitution, but whoever kills a human being must be put to death. This is the law for both foreigner and native-born citizen alike. Thus says Jehovah your god."
Moses conveyed what Jehovah had said to the Israelites. They did indeed take the blasphemer outside of camp and there stoned him to death, doing exactly as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Notes
1. This incident is, for some reason, inserted in the midst of the explanations of Jehovan laws and Hebrew customs. But it is quite illuminating. --- However, it is not clear in the story exactly how the Egyptian-Israelite, the mixed-ethnicity camp follower, blasphemed or cursed Jehovah. Did he use his name as a cuss word? Did he say “Jehovah d--n it!” or "D--n Jehovah!" Did he suggest that Jehovah was a lousy god or even tell his Israelite opponent that Jehovah should go f--- himself, or something to that effect? Whatever it was, it was deemed serious enough an infraction of the prohibition against dissing Jehovah that the matter was brought to Moses. Moses has to consult Jehovah to find out what to do. And Jehovah responds with the pronouncement of a sentence that is swiftly enacted -- an ideal justice system!?
2. It was the custom of ancient Egyptians to curse their gods as well as praise them. Thus, the act of this half-Egyptian Israelite was doubly offensive. It violated Jehovan law and it also conformed to a noxious foreign custom.
3. The laws set down for the Israelites apply equally to foreigners or resident aliens living with them. This is equitable, but in this instance was there a prejudice against the accused because he was half Egyptian? (Undertones in the text suggest a disapproval of mixed marriages.) We cannot know, but we can be pretty sure that the accused had no opportunity to defend himself, present his case, offer extenuating circumstances, or profess contrition and plead for mercy. With a presumptive god serving as prosecutor, judge and jury, there would be no need for legal proceedings.
4. At times there are in the Levitical ordinances suggestions of a nascent legal system and moral sensibilities that are almost modern. At other times they betray values that are primitive, barbaric, and tribalistic. Executing someone for an act of blasphemy, especially one that probably occurred under stress, during the anger of the moment, is more than draconian. It reveals an unbending, fanatical mindset, much like that of the contemporary Islamic Jihadist who believes that any sign of disrespect to his god to be a capital offense. But this conforms to Jehovah's legal doctrine, that man's greatest moral responsibility is obedience to him.
5. The infamous moral imperative, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," is unambiguously presented here. If you knock a man's eye out in a fight, you must let him gouge out your eye. If you break his leg, your leg must also be broken. This is the morality of getting back at others for what they've done to you. This is the morality of raw emotion and animal instinct, of the caveman and the criminal. This is the morality of revenge, blood feuds, brutality, cruelty, hatred, and unforgiveness. But there's flaw in this morality: the original offense may seem justified to the perpetrator. His punishment is, therefore, deemed unjust, an act that itself requires punishment. There ensues an endless cycle of reprisals. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," results in a world of sightless, toothless men.
6. Jehovah must be fairly proud of his people, for they followed his orders to kill the man who offended him and did so with no apparent reluctance. He has what he wants, a docile, sheep-like people who will mindlessly obey and do what they are told, who do not criticize or question, but accept, who make no moral judgments on their own, but defer to him, who will do their thinking for them.
7. Leviticus tells us nothing of the backstory, who the blasphemer was, what the quarrel was about, and who his mother Shilomith was. Other sources of legend fill in the gap and satisfy our curiosity. Supposedly, the Egyptian father was a taskmaster who killed Shelomith’s father and, one assumes, raped her. This was the very man that Moses had killed. The blasphemer’s grievance was that he could not camp with his mother. Poor chap -- it seems as if he was paying for the sins of his father.
A certain man whose mother was an Israelite and whose father was an Egyptian had accompanied the Israelites on their Exodus. It happened that a fight broke out in camp between this man and an Israelite, and, during the fight, this son of Israelite woman blasphemed -- he uttered in a curse the name of Jehovah. He was thus brought to Moses. (This man's mother was, by name, Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.) They held him under close arrest until Jehovah's will in this matter could be learned.
Jehovah instructed Moses, "Let those who heard him utter the blasphemy take charge of him and bring the blasphemer to a place outside of camp. There let him be stoned to death by the entire community. Tell the people of Israel that those who curse their god will be punished for their sin. Anyone who commits blasphemy by cursing in the name of Jehovah will be stoned to death by the entire community of Israel. Indeed, any native born-Israelite or foreigner who lives among you that is guilty of blasphemy by cursing in my name is to be put to death.
"Furthermore, anyone who takes the life of another human being must be put to death. Anyone who causes the death of an animal must make restitution to the owner, that is, a live animal for the one that was killed. Anyone who inflicts injury on another person must be injured in the same way, a broken bone for a broken bone, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; the perpetrator must suffer the same injury as his victim. Whoever kills an animal may make restitution, but whoever kills a human being must be put to death. This is the law for both foreigner and native-born citizen alike. Thus says Jehovah your god."
Moses conveyed what Jehovah had said to the Israelites. They did indeed take the blasphemer outside of camp and there stoned him to death, doing exactly as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
Notes
1. This incident is, for some reason, inserted in the midst of the explanations of Jehovan laws and Hebrew customs. But it is quite illuminating. --- However, it is not clear in the story exactly how the Egyptian-Israelite, the mixed-ethnicity camp follower, blasphemed or cursed Jehovah. Did he use his name as a cuss word? Did he say “Jehovah d--n it!” or "D--n Jehovah!" Did he suggest that Jehovah was a lousy god or even tell his Israelite opponent that Jehovah should go f--- himself, or something to that effect? Whatever it was, it was deemed serious enough an infraction of the prohibition against dissing Jehovah that the matter was brought to Moses. Moses has to consult Jehovah to find out what to do. And Jehovah responds with the pronouncement of a sentence that is swiftly enacted -- an ideal justice system!?
2. It was the custom of ancient Egyptians to curse their gods as well as praise them. Thus, the act of this half-Egyptian Israelite was doubly offensive. It violated Jehovan law and it also conformed to a noxious foreign custom.
3. The laws set down for the Israelites apply equally to foreigners or resident aliens living with them. This is equitable, but in this instance was there a prejudice against the accused because he was half Egyptian? (Undertones in the text suggest a disapproval of mixed marriages.) We cannot know, but we can be pretty sure that the accused had no opportunity to defend himself, present his case, offer extenuating circumstances, or profess contrition and plead for mercy. With a presumptive god serving as prosecutor, judge and jury, there would be no need for legal proceedings.
4. At times there are in the Levitical ordinances suggestions of a nascent legal system and moral sensibilities that are almost modern. At other times they betray values that are primitive, barbaric, and tribalistic. Executing someone for an act of blasphemy, especially one that probably occurred under stress, during the anger of the moment, is more than draconian. It reveals an unbending, fanatical mindset, much like that of the contemporary Islamic Jihadist who believes that any sign of disrespect to his god to be a capital offense. But this conforms to Jehovah's legal doctrine, that man's greatest moral responsibility is obedience to him.
5. The infamous moral imperative, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," is unambiguously presented here. If you knock a man's eye out in a fight, you must let him gouge out your eye. If you break his leg, your leg must also be broken. This is the morality of getting back at others for what they've done to you. This is the morality of raw emotion and animal instinct, of the caveman and the criminal. This is the morality of revenge, blood feuds, brutality, cruelty, hatred, and unforgiveness. But there's flaw in this morality: the original offense may seem justified to the perpetrator. His punishment is, therefore, deemed unjust, an act that itself requires punishment. There ensues an endless cycle of reprisals. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," results in a world of sightless, toothless men.
6. Jehovah must be fairly proud of his people, for they followed his orders to kill the man who offended him and did so with no apparent reluctance. He has what he wants, a docile, sheep-like people who will mindlessly obey and do what they are told, who do not criticize or question, but accept, who make no moral judgments on their own, but defer to him, who will do their thinking for them.
7. Leviticus tells us nothing of the backstory, who the blasphemer was, what the quarrel was about, and who his mother Shilomith was. Other sources of legend fill in the gap and satisfy our curiosity. Supposedly, the Egyptian father was a taskmaster who killed Shelomith’s father and, one assumes, raped her. This was the very man that Moses had killed. The blasphemer’s grievance was that he could not camp with his mother. Poor chap -- it seems as if he was paying for the sins of his father.
Menorah and Showbread
(Leviticus 24:1 - 24:9)
Jehovah instructed Moses, "Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil from pressed olives for the lamps of the menorah so that an eternal flame may always burn. Aaron should set up the menorah in the Tabernacle just outside the curtain of the Inner Sanctum, where the Chest of Sacred Records is housed, and he must tend it so that from dusk till dawn a flame will always burn there. This is to be an established custom observed through the generations: the lamps on the pure gold menorah standing before the Inner Sanctum must be continually tended.
"Using the finest flour, bake twelve loaves of bread made of two-tenths of an ephah of flour for each loaf. They should be arranged in two rows, six loaves in each row, on the table of pure gold standing before the Inner Sanctum. Place some pure frankincense next to each row as a token offering for the bread, a burnt offering for Jehovah. Every Sabbath this showbread must be laid out before the Inner Sanctum as a condition of my everlasting contract with the people of Israel. These loaves will belong to Aaron and his successors, but since they are sacred, they must be eaten within the confines of the Tabernacle. (It is the privilege of the priests to claim this divinely sanctioned portion of the food offerings made to Jehovah.)"
Notes
1. Aaron and his priests must tend the lamps of the menorah so that they will always burn in the Sanctum. You wonder if this required someone to be up all night on watch, adding oil and trimming the wicks when necessary. If so, it must have been a lonely vigil. How would someone living at that time occupy his solitary hours? Obviously, no internet to surf, no cat videos to look at, no video games to play, no ipod or talk radio or baseball games to listen to. There were no cards to play solitaire with. He could not read, not even the Bible, since it hadn't been written yet. (In fact, for many centuries there would not really be such a thing as a book. Alphabets had yet to be invented and there were only inscriptions and records in Sumerian cuneiform or Egyptian hieroglyphics.) Could a priest bring his knitting into the Sanctum, or engage in whittling? Playing a musical instrument -- what did they have beside the ram's horn and maybe some sort of harp or lyre? -- would have disturbed the sleeping flocks of sheep, and Jehovah might not have like it anyway. It is hard to imagine how the priest would have spent his time, save in meditation.
2. Again we have the huge two-tenth-of-an-ephah loaves of bread, from four quarts of flour -- a gallon! One hopes that the Jehovan priests, fattening up on a diet of such bread and all those choice burnt offerings of beef and mutton (and no healthy pork), had opportunities to work out. Some authorities, though, credibly assert that the omer, rather than the ephah should be used here. Two-tenths of an omer, being about three-quarters of pint, would make the bread conveniently small to fit on the table and not impossibly large.
3. We continually see that Jehovah is placated by various offerings of food. That, one supposes, was all that primitive man could think of. Later, the gods would regularly have things built for them, as does, in fact, Jehovah -- the Tabernacle. In more sophisticated times, men would also make other offerings and promises to their gods, good deeds, quests or crusades, devotional service, acts of self-denial, or abstention from bad behavior. For some reason, the modern worshiper no longer seems to think his god would appreciate a well-cooked fillet.
Jehovah instructed Moses, "Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil from pressed olives for the lamps of the menorah so that an eternal flame may always burn. Aaron should set up the menorah in the Tabernacle just outside the curtain of the Inner Sanctum, where the Chest of Sacred Records is housed, and he must tend it so that from dusk till dawn a flame will always burn there. This is to be an established custom observed through the generations: the lamps on the pure gold menorah standing before the Inner Sanctum must be continually tended.
"Using the finest flour, bake twelve loaves of bread made of two-tenths of an ephah of flour for each loaf. They should be arranged in two rows, six loaves in each row, on the table of pure gold standing before the Inner Sanctum. Place some pure frankincense next to each row as a token offering for the bread, a burnt offering for Jehovah. Every Sabbath this showbread must be laid out before the Inner Sanctum as a condition of my everlasting contract with the people of Israel. These loaves will belong to Aaron and his successors, but since they are sacred, they must be eaten within the confines of the Tabernacle. (It is the privilege of the priests to claim this divinely sanctioned portion of the food offerings made to Jehovah.)"
Notes
1. Aaron and his priests must tend the lamps of the menorah so that they will always burn in the Sanctum. You wonder if this required someone to be up all night on watch, adding oil and trimming the wicks when necessary. If so, it must have been a lonely vigil. How would someone living at that time occupy his solitary hours? Obviously, no internet to surf, no cat videos to look at, no video games to play, no ipod or talk radio or baseball games to listen to. There were no cards to play solitaire with. He could not read, not even the Bible, since it hadn't been written yet. (In fact, for many centuries there would not really be such a thing as a book. Alphabets had yet to be invented and there were only inscriptions and records in Sumerian cuneiform or Egyptian hieroglyphics.) Could a priest bring his knitting into the Sanctum, or engage in whittling? Playing a musical instrument -- what did they have beside the ram's horn and maybe some sort of harp or lyre? -- would have disturbed the sleeping flocks of sheep, and Jehovah might not have like it anyway. It is hard to imagine how the priest would have spent his time, save in meditation.
2. Again we have the huge two-tenth-of-an-ephah loaves of bread, from four quarts of flour -- a gallon! One hopes that the Jehovan priests, fattening up on a diet of such bread and all those choice burnt offerings of beef and mutton (and no healthy pork), had opportunities to work out. Some authorities, though, credibly assert that the omer, rather than the ephah should be used here. Two-tenths of an omer, being about three-quarters of pint, would make the bread conveniently small to fit on the table and not impossibly large.
3. We continually see that Jehovah is placated by various offerings of food. That, one supposes, was all that primitive man could think of. Later, the gods would regularly have things built for them, as does, in fact, Jehovah -- the Tabernacle. In more sophisticated times, men would also make other offerings and promises to their gods, good deeds, quests or crusades, devotional service, acts of self-denial, or abstention from bad behavior. For some reason, the modern worshiper no longer seems to think his god would appreciate a well-cooked fillet.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Festivals to Be Observed
(Leviticus 23:1 - 23:44)
Jehovah told Moses to convey to the Israelites these instructions: "These are the established festivals that are to be enshrined as official holidays for the religious congregation.
"For six days you will work, but the seventh day, the Sabbath, is to be set aside as a day for rest and religious services. On the Sabbath, dedicated to Jehovah, you will do no work, regardless of where you may live.
"The following are Jehovah's established festivals, official holidays for religious service that are to be observed at the appropriate times of the year.
"There is Jehovah's Passover, which commences on sundown on the 14th day of Nisan, the first month of the year. The 15th day of the month is the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days only unleavened bread may be eaten. On the first day of Passover there should be a sacred convocation, and everyone must take a day off from work. On each day food offerings should be sacrificed to Jehovah, and on the seventh day there should be another sacred convocation, with everyone taking off from work.
The Jehovah told Moses to convey to the Israelites these instructions: "When you have settled in the land I am taking you to and have harvested the first crop, bring to the priest a sheaf from the first grain you reap. The priest should wave it above the altar on the first day after the Sabbath, so that it may be accepted by Jehovah on your behalf. On the same day you should sacrifice to Jehovah a burnt offering of a yearling lamb without defect, along with a grain offering of two tenths of an ephah of finest flour mixed with olive oil -- a burnt offering that will create an aroma most pleasing to Jehovah-- and also a drink offering of one quarter of a hin of wine. You should eat no bread or any fresh or roasted kernels of grain until you make this sacrifice to Jehovah. This will be an established custom that you must observe through the generations regardless of where you may live.
"From the day after the Sabbath, the day that you bring in the sheaf of grain to be waved above the altar, you should count off 7 full weeks. Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, 50 days; you should then present to Jehovah an offering of new grain. From your home you should bring as an offering to be waved above the altar two loaves of leavened bread made with two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour. These will be a part of the offerings of first fruits to Jehovah. In addition to the bread, sacrifice as burnt offerings to Jehovah 7 yearling male lambs without defect, a male calf, and 2 rams. These will comprise the burnt offering to Jehovah, accompanying the offerings of grain and drink -- food offerings that will create an aroma most pleasing to Jehovah. Then sacrifice, for a guilt offering, one male goat and, for a peace offering, 2 yearling male lambs. The priest will raise and wave above the altar these offerings to Jehovah as he did with the 2 loaves representing the first fruits of the harvest. These sacred offerings made to Jehovah will belong to the priests. This day will be an official holiday for sacred convocation, with everyone taking off from work. This will be an established custom that you must observe through the generations regardless of where you may live.
"When you harvest your crops do not reap the grain to the edges of the fields, or collect the gleanings that remain. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners who live among you. Thus says Jehovah your god."
Jehovah told Moses, "On the first day of the seventh month of Tishri you are to observe a Sabbath-like day of rest. There should be a sacred convocation proclaimed by blasts of the ram’s horn. Refrain from doing any work and sacrifice a food offering to Jehovah."
Jehovah told Moses, "On the tenth day of the seventh month of Tishri is a Day of Atonement celebrated with a sacred convocation. You are to fast and refrain from work and present sacrifices of food offerings to Jehovah, for this is a day to atone and to purify yourselves before your god Jehovah. Anyone who does not fast on that day should be banished from the community. Anyone who does any work during the course of the day I will strike down in the midst of the people. Do absolutely no work on that day! This will be an established custom that you must observe through the generations regardless of where you may live. It must be a Sabbath-like day of complete rest and you must fast on that day. You are to observe this day of rest from sundown on the ninth day of the month to sundown on the following day."
The Jehovah told Moses to convey to the Israelites these instructions: "On the fifteenth day of same month, five days after the Day of Atonement you should begin to celebrate Jehovah's Festival of Tabernacles, which lasts seven days. On the first day is a sacred convocation, when no one must work. On each of the seven days you must make food sacrifices to Jehovah. On the eighth day is a solemn holiday when burnt offerings to Jehovah are to be made and a sacred convocation held. No one must work on that day.
"Keep in mind that this week-long festival to Jehovah, the Festival of the Tabernacles, begins on the fifth of the month of Tishri. after you have harvested your crops. The first and the eighth day of the festival are holidays of total rest. On the first day collect foliage, branches from citron trees, palm fronds, myrtle boughs, and branches from the willows that grow along the banks of streams -- and rejoice for seven days in honor of your god Jehovah. Celebrate this festival to Jehovah for seven days every year. This will be an established custom to be observed through the generations. Observe it in the seventh month, Tishri. Live in small, temporary shelters for seven days. All native-born Israelites are to do so so that their descendants will remember that I had the Israelites live in such shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. Thus says Jehovah your god."
These are Jehovah's established festivals, celebrated by sacred convocations and food offerings made to Jehovah -- burnt offering, grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its appropriate day. These festivals are to observed in addition to the Jehovah's regular Sabbaths, and the offerings are in addition to whatever gifts, votive and voluntary offerings you may make to Jehovah.
Moses thus presented to the Israelites instructions for the observance of the annual festivals established by Jehovah.
Notes
1. In summary, these are festival or holidays established by Jehovah:
Passover, comprising the Feast of Unleavened Bread, celebrating the Israelites’ freedom from Egyptian bondage, on the 14th of the first month, Nisan, (late March, April) and lasting for 7 days (later 8 days).
Feast of First Fruits, Festival of Weeks, called in New Testament times, Feast of Pentecost, and now called Shavuot and observed on the 6th day of the 3rd month, Sivan (late May, early June), traditionally the day the Torah was given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, time of wheat harvest and ripening of fruit.
New Year, or Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh month, Tishri, (September, early October) celebrated with horn blasts, traditionally the day that Adam was created.
Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, 10th day of the seventh month, Tishri, (mid September, early October) celebrated with fasting, prayer, sacrifices.
Festival of Tabernacles, or Festival of Booths, Festival of Ingathering, or Festival of the Final Harvest, now known as Sukkot, 15th day of the seventh month, Tishri (late September to late October), 7 days celebrated by eating and sleeping in simple shelters covered with foliage and greenery.
Three of the festivals, Passover, Feast of First Fruits, and Festival of Tabernacles would become pilgrimage holidays during which Israelites were supposed to journey to Jerusalem. How practical this ever was is doubtful.
It must be remembered days begin at dusk. The Jewish calendar is lunar so that the dates of the holidays will vary from year to year in relation to the solar calendar. All these holidays are still celebrated by observant and, to varying degrees, by nonobservant Jews today.
2. Two-tenths of an ephah is about 7 pounds. Those must have been whopping big loaves of bread! A grocery store loaf of bread weighs as little as a pound and a quarter. A quarter of a hin is about a quart or a liter.
3. The second-to-last paragraph ("These are Jehovah's established festivals ...") is misplaced in the middle of the description of Festival of Tabernacles. It is probably not part of Jehovah's speech, so I have inserted it afterwards, where it obviously belongs.
4. It is odd that the names and descriptions of Jehovah's holidays given here is at some variance with those given in Exodus. It is further evidence that the Books of Moses, or their source material, were not all written at the same time or by the same authors. It is obvious that these books, written by and for the benefit of the priestly class, record traditions that were established over time, probably hundreds of years, and not immediately put into practice at the foot of Mount Sinai. It seems unlikely that either Jehovah or Moses would have been telling the freed slaves of Israel wandering in the desert what would be expected of them forty years hence.
5. On the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, it is mentioned here that the ram’s horn, or shofar is sounded. Many translations say “trumpet,” which is not quite accurate. A trumpet generally refers to a wind instrument of metal. Early ones, without keys or valves and of bronze and silver were in use during Moses’ time, but the ram’s horn is the musical instrument used by the Israelites, often for religious purposes. The ram’s horn, like the bugle, requires the player to use his mouth to alter pitch.
Jehovah told Moses to convey to the Israelites these instructions: "These are the established festivals that are to be enshrined as official holidays for the religious congregation.
"For six days you will work, but the seventh day, the Sabbath, is to be set aside as a day for rest and religious services. On the Sabbath, dedicated to Jehovah, you will do no work, regardless of where you may live.
"The following are Jehovah's established festivals, official holidays for religious service that are to be observed at the appropriate times of the year.
"There is Jehovah's Passover, which commences on sundown on the 14th day of Nisan, the first month of the year. The 15th day of the month is the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days only unleavened bread may be eaten. On the first day of Passover there should be a sacred convocation, and everyone must take a day off from work. On each day food offerings should be sacrificed to Jehovah, and on the seventh day there should be another sacred convocation, with everyone taking off from work.
The Jehovah told Moses to convey to the Israelites these instructions: "When you have settled in the land I am taking you to and have harvested the first crop, bring to the priest a sheaf from the first grain you reap. The priest should wave it above the altar on the first day after the Sabbath, so that it may be accepted by Jehovah on your behalf. On the same day you should sacrifice to Jehovah a burnt offering of a yearling lamb without defect, along with a grain offering of two tenths of an ephah of finest flour mixed with olive oil -- a burnt offering that will create an aroma most pleasing to Jehovah-- and also a drink offering of one quarter of a hin of wine. You should eat no bread or any fresh or roasted kernels of grain until you make this sacrifice to Jehovah. This will be an established custom that you must observe through the generations regardless of where you may live.
"From the day after the Sabbath, the day that you bring in the sheaf of grain to be waved above the altar, you should count off 7 full weeks. Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, 50 days; you should then present to Jehovah an offering of new grain. From your home you should bring as an offering to be waved above the altar two loaves of leavened bread made with two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour. These will be a part of the offerings of first fruits to Jehovah. In addition to the bread, sacrifice as burnt offerings to Jehovah 7 yearling male lambs without defect, a male calf, and 2 rams. These will comprise the burnt offering to Jehovah, accompanying the offerings of grain and drink -- food offerings that will create an aroma most pleasing to Jehovah. Then sacrifice, for a guilt offering, one male goat and, for a peace offering, 2 yearling male lambs. The priest will raise and wave above the altar these offerings to Jehovah as he did with the 2 loaves representing the first fruits of the harvest. These sacred offerings made to Jehovah will belong to the priests. This day will be an official holiday for sacred convocation, with everyone taking off from work. This will be an established custom that you must observe through the generations regardless of where you may live.
"When you harvest your crops do not reap the grain to the edges of the fields, or collect the gleanings that remain. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners who live among you. Thus says Jehovah your god."
Jehovah told Moses, "On the first day of the seventh month of Tishri you are to observe a Sabbath-like day of rest. There should be a sacred convocation proclaimed by blasts of the ram’s horn. Refrain from doing any work and sacrifice a food offering to Jehovah."
Jehovah told Moses, "On the tenth day of the seventh month of Tishri is a Day of Atonement celebrated with a sacred convocation. You are to fast and refrain from work and present sacrifices of food offerings to Jehovah, for this is a day to atone and to purify yourselves before your god Jehovah. Anyone who does not fast on that day should be banished from the community. Anyone who does any work during the course of the day I will strike down in the midst of the people. Do absolutely no work on that day! This will be an established custom that you must observe through the generations regardless of where you may live. It must be a Sabbath-like day of complete rest and you must fast on that day. You are to observe this day of rest from sundown on the ninth day of the month to sundown on the following day."
The Jehovah told Moses to convey to the Israelites these instructions: "On the fifteenth day of same month, five days after the Day of Atonement you should begin to celebrate Jehovah's Festival of Tabernacles, which lasts seven days. On the first day is a sacred convocation, when no one must work. On each of the seven days you must make food sacrifices to Jehovah. On the eighth day is a solemn holiday when burnt offerings to Jehovah are to be made and a sacred convocation held. No one must work on that day.
"Keep in mind that this week-long festival to Jehovah, the Festival of the Tabernacles, begins on the fifth of the month of Tishri. after you have harvested your crops. The first and the eighth day of the festival are holidays of total rest. On the first day collect foliage, branches from citron trees, palm fronds, myrtle boughs, and branches from the willows that grow along the banks of streams -- and rejoice for seven days in honor of your god Jehovah. Celebrate this festival to Jehovah for seven days every year. This will be an established custom to be observed through the generations. Observe it in the seventh month, Tishri. Live in small, temporary shelters for seven days. All native-born Israelites are to do so so that their descendants will remember that I had the Israelites live in such shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. Thus says Jehovah your god."
These are Jehovah's established festivals, celebrated by sacred convocations and food offerings made to Jehovah -- burnt offering, grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its appropriate day. These festivals are to observed in addition to the Jehovah's regular Sabbaths, and the offerings are in addition to whatever gifts, votive and voluntary offerings you may make to Jehovah.
Moses thus presented to the Israelites instructions for the observance of the annual festivals established by Jehovah.
Notes
1. In summary, these are festival or holidays established by Jehovah:
Passover, comprising the Feast of Unleavened Bread, celebrating the Israelites’ freedom from Egyptian bondage, on the 14th of the first month, Nisan, (late March, April) and lasting for 7 days (later 8 days).
Feast of First Fruits, Festival of Weeks, called in New Testament times, Feast of Pentecost, and now called Shavuot and observed on the 6th day of the 3rd month, Sivan (late May, early June), traditionally the day the Torah was given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, time of wheat harvest and ripening of fruit.
New Year, or Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh month, Tishri, (September, early October) celebrated with horn blasts, traditionally the day that Adam was created.
Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, 10th day of the seventh month, Tishri, (mid September, early October) celebrated with fasting, prayer, sacrifices.
Festival of Tabernacles, or Festival of Booths, Festival of Ingathering, or Festival of the Final Harvest, now known as Sukkot, 15th day of the seventh month, Tishri (late September to late October), 7 days celebrated by eating and sleeping in simple shelters covered with foliage and greenery.
Three of the festivals, Passover, Feast of First Fruits, and Festival of Tabernacles would become pilgrimage holidays during which Israelites were supposed to journey to Jerusalem. How practical this ever was is doubtful.
It must be remembered days begin at dusk. The Jewish calendar is lunar so that the dates of the holidays will vary from year to year in relation to the solar calendar. All these holidays are still celebrated by observant and, to varying degrees, by nonobservant Jews today.
2. Two-tenths of an ephah is about 7 pounds. Those must have been whopping big loaves of bread! A grocery store loaf of bread weighs as little as a pound and a quarter. A quarter of a hin is about a quart or a liter.
3. The second-to-last paragraph ("These are Jehovah's established festivals ...") is misplaced in the middle of the description of Festival of Tabernacles. It is probably not part of Jehovah's speech, so I have inserted it afterwards, where it obviously belongs.
4. It is odd that the names and descriptions of Jehovah's holidays given here is at some variance with those given in Exodus. It is further evidence that the Books of Moses, or their source material, were not all written at the same time or by the same authors. It is obvious that these books, written by and for the benefit of the priestly class, record traditions that were established over time, probably hundreds of years, and not immediately put into practice at the foot of Mount Sinai. It seems unlikely that either Jehovah or Moses would have been telling the freed slaves of Israel wandering in the desert what would be expected of them forty years hence.
5. On the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, it is mentioned here that the ram’s horn, or shofar is sounded. Many translations say “trumpet,” which is not quite accurate. A trumpet generally refers to a wind instrument of metal. Early ones, without keys or valves and of bronze and silver were in use during Moses’ time, but the ram’s horn is the musical instrument used by the Israelites, often for religious purposes. The ram’s horn, like the bugle, requires the player to use his mouth to alter pitch.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Instructions for Priests
(Leviticus 21:1 - 22:33)
Jehovah told Moses to give the following instructions to the priests: "A priest must not make himself ritually impure by touching the dead body of a relative. Exceptions are made for family members, a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or a spinster sister whom he supports because she has no husband. However, he should not make himself ritually impure on account of someone who is only a relative by marriage.
"Priests should not shave their heads, shape the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their flesh. They must set themselves apart as holy for their god and not profane his name. They are the ones who make the sacrifices of food to Jehovah, sustenance for their god, and they, therefore, must remain holy.
"Because they are holy to their god, priests must not marry a woman who has defiled herself by being sexually promiscuous or who has been divorced from her husband. Treat the priests as holy because they furnish the food for your god. Consider them holy, for I, Jehovah am holy. It is I who makes you holy. If the daughter of a priest defiles herself by being promiscuous, she has defiled her father's holiness and should be burned to death.
"The High Priest, the leader among his fellow priests, the one who has had the anointing oil poured over his head and who has been consecrated to don the sacred vestments, must not, during mourning, leave his hair disheveled or wear tattered clothing. He should not make himself ritually impure by attending to a dead body, even if it be that of his mother or father. He should not leave the Tabernacle compound for this purpose (and, therefore, defile it), for he has been made holy by the anointing oil of his god. Thus says Jehovah.
“The High Priest may marry only a virgin and never a woman who has been widowed or divorced, or one who has defiled herself by being promiscuous. The virgin he marries should be from his own tribe, so that his offspring will not be disrespected by it. Thus says Jehovah, who has sanctified him."
Jehovah also instructed Moses to tell Aaron, "None of your successors down through the generations may present food sacrifices to Jehovah if he has any kind of defect. No one who has a defect should approach the altar, that is, someone who is blind or lame, who has a disfigured face or a deformed limb, a broken arm or leg, who is a hunchback or a dwarf, who has an eye disease, skin sores or scabs, or has damaged testicles. No successor of Aaron the priest who is to present food offerings to Jehovah should have any defect. If he has a defect, then he must not come near the food offerings to his god. He may, however, eat the sacrificed food, even the most holy offerings. Yet, because of his defect, he may not enter the Inner Sanctum or approach the altar, for that would profane my holy places. Thus says Jehovah, who makes them holy."
Moses conveyed these instructions to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel.
Jehovah also told Moses to instruct Aaron and his sons, "Take care in handling the sacred offerings the Israelites consecrate to me so as not to profane my holy name. Thus says Jehovah.
“Tell them that if any of your successors down through the generations touches these sacred offerings that the Israelites have consecrated to me while he is ritually impure, that person should be removed from the priesthood. Thus says Jehovah. None of Aaron' successors who is infected with tzaraath or has any bodily discharge that renders him ritually impure should eat of the sacred offerings until he has been declared ritually pure. Also, if he becomes ritually impure by touching a dead body or by having an emission of semen, or by touching bugs or vermin that might make him impure, or by being exposed to a person who has, for any reason, become ritually impure, then that person will be ritually impure until evening. He may not eat from the sacred offering until he has taken a bath. After sunset he will be ritually pure again and may eat from the sacred offerings, for this is his food. But he must not eat anything that has been found dead or has been killed by wild animals, and so become ritually impure because of it. Thus says Jehovah.
"The priests are to officiate in such a way that they do not violate my instructions. They will be killed if they are guilty of treating them with contempt. Thus says Jehovah, who has made them holy.
"No one not belonging to the priest's family may partake of the sacred offerings. Even guests or hired workers in the priest's household may not do so. However, slaves purchased by the priest or slaves born in the priest's household may eat his food. If the daughter of a priest marries someone other than a priest then she may no longer eat from the sacred offerings. But if she becomes a widow or is divorced and has no son to support her and returns to live in her father's home as she did when she was young, then she may eat her father's food again. Otherwise, no one outside the priest's household is allowed to eat it.
"If a man unintentional eats a sacred offering, he must make restitution to the priests for it, plus an additional 20%. The priests should not allow the sacred offerings presented to Jehovah by the people of Israel to be defiled by being eaten by unauthorized persons, bringing guilt upon them and requiring them to pay compensation. Thus says Jehovah, who makes them holy."
Jehovah told Moses to speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and toinstruct them, "If any of you, whether an Israelite or a resident alien, makes a sacrifice of a burnt offering to Jehovah, either to fulfill a vow or voluntarily, to be accepted the sacrifice must be of a male animal without defect, a bull, a ram, or a billy goat. Don't offer an animal that has any defect, because it won't be accepted on your behalf. When anyone brings from the herd or the flock a peace offering, whether to fulfill a vow or voluntarily, the animal offered for sacrifice must be perfect; it must have no defect of any kind. You must not offer an animal that is blind, crippled, or injured, or which has warts, sores, or scabs. Such animal must never be offered as a burnt sacrifice to Jehovah. You may, however, as a voluntary offering, present cattle or sheep that are deformed or stunted, but not in fulfillment of a vow. If an animal has been castrated or has damaged testicles, you should not offer it to Jehovah. You must never do this in your own country and you must not accept such animals from a foreigner to offer as a sacrifice to your god. Such animals will not be accepted on your behalf, since they are defective and deformed."
Jehovah told Moses, "When a calf, a lamb, or a kid is born it should remain with its mother for seven days. By the eighth day it will acceptable as a food sacrifice for Jehovah. However, whether it be an animal from the herd or the flock, an animal and its mother should not be slaughtered on the same day.
"When you make a thanksgiving offering to Jehovah, be sure that the sacrifice is properly conducted so that it will accepted on your behalf. You must eat all of it on the day it is made and not leave any till morning. Thus says Jehovah.
"Honor all my commandments and follow them. Do not profane my holy name so that I may be regarded as holy among the Israelites. I am the god that makes you holy. I brought you out of Egypt so that I might be your god. Thus says Jehovah.
Notes
1. This excerpt from the priest's rule book is illuminating in several ways. Firstly, there is a reiteration of the concepts of ritually purity which were, one would have thought, already exhaustively elucidated. The High Priest must observe higher standards than the ordinary priest, that is, he must never allow himself to become ritually pure. For instance, unlike a common priest, he is forbidden to attend the dead body of his father, because to do so would made him ritually impure.
2. Illness and injury, defect and deformity not only subtract from the worthiness or ritual purity of a priest they render an animal ineligible for sacrifice in most cases. While it is understandable that Jehovah wants the best and that his people should want to give him the best, there is a suggestion here that physical imperfection is connected to or caused by moral failings. The impression is given that in Hebrew society the disabled were looked upon with disfavor and discriminated against. Indeed, many Christian societies believed that disabilities are punishments from God.
3. It is interesting that a priest's slave could partake of the sacred food of his master when guests or hired workers were not allowed to do so. At least the slave had some perks, even if he was only considered property.
4. Another interesting point is that priests are to marry only within their own tribe (Levi). If they do not do so the children will disgrace the tribe simply because they are partly of some other extraction. And the “mixed race” children would apparently not be accepted by the tribe. Racial purity seemed to have been as important to Jehovah as it was to the Nazis.
5. Priests of Jehovah are not allowed to shave their heads or shape their beards, this being to distinguish them from Egyptian and Canaanite priests. There is probably no other reason for such a grooming code. As is seen throughout the books of Old Testament, Jehovah is ever intent upon separating himself from other gods and establishing ceremonies and customs of worship that will set his people apart from their neighbors. He has a bone to pick with his fellow gods. He resents them and is in competition with them and does all he can to show them up. He strives to create a system of worship and a priesthood that will be superior to those of these rival gods.
6. An animal and his its mother should not be slaughtered on the same day - a respectful piece of etiquette to be sure, perhaps a sop to ancient animal rights advocates. It’s nice the Israelites placed some limits on the wanton killing of animals for religious purposes.
6. Jehovah here claims legitimacy as Israel's god based on his releasing the Israelites from their bondage and bringing them out of Egypt (into the desert!), and not referring to his earlier relations with Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, etc. (Probably because that Jehovah was a different chap altogether!) The statement is very suggestive. It's as if he was not a god before that time, but merely claimed the position after he had, in his eyes, earned it. Jehovah is rather like a white man who goes to live with a primitive tribe and, after wowing the people by performing some wonders made possible by the knowledge he has and the technology he has access to, sets himself up as a god and lays down laws for his worship.
Jehovah told Moses to give the following instructions to the priests: "A priest must not make himself ritually impure by touching the dead body of a relative. Exceptions are made for family members, a father, mother, son, daughter, brother, or a spinster sister whom he supports because she has no husband. However, he should not make himself ritually impure on account of someone who is only a relative by marriage.
"Priests should not shave their heads, shape the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their flesh. They must set themselves apart as holy for their god and not profane his name. They are the ones who make the sacrifices of food to Jehovah, sustenance for their god, and they, therefore, must remain holy.
"Because they are holy to their god, priests must not marry a woman who has defiled herself by being sexually promiscuous or who has been divorced from her husband. Treat the priests as holy because they furnish the food for your god. Consider them holy, for I, Jehovah am holy. It is I who makes you holy. If the daughter of a priest defiles herself by being promiscuous, she has defiled her father's holiness and should be burned to death.
"The High Priest, the leader among his fellow priests, the one who has had the anointing oil poured over his head and who has been consecrated to don the sacred vestments, must not, during mourning, leave his hair disheveled or wear tattered clothing. He should not make himself ritually impure by attending to a dead body, even if it be that of his mother or father. He should not leave the Tabernacle compound for this purpose (and, therefore, defile it), for he has been made holy by the anointing oil of his god. Thus says Jehovah.
“The High Priest may marry only a virgin and never a woman who has been widowed or divorced, or one who has defiled herself by being promiscuous. The virgin he marries should be from his own tribe, so that his offspring will not be disrespected by it. Thus says Jehovah, who has sanctified him."
Jehovah also instructed Moses to tell Aaron, "None of your successors down through the generations may present food sacrifices to Jehovah if he has any kind of defect. No one who has a defect should approach the altar, that is, someone who is blind or lame, who has a disfigured face or a deformed limb, a broken arm or leg, who is a hunchback or a dwarf, who has an eye disease, skin sores or scabs, or has damaged testicles. No successor of Aaron the priest who is to present food offerings to Jehovah should have any defect. If he has a defect, then he must not come near the food offerings to his god. He may, however, eat the sacrificed food, even the most holy offerings. Yet, because of his defect, he may not enter the Inner Sanctum or approach the altar, for that would profane my holy places. Thus says Jehovah, who makes them holy."
Moses conveyed these instructions to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel.
Jehovah also told Moses to instruct Aaron and his sons, "Take care in handling the sacred offerings the Israelites consecrate to me so as not to profane my holy name. Thus says Jehovah.
“Tell them that if any of your successors down through the generations touches these sacred offerings that the Israelites have consecrated to me while he is ritually impure, that person should be removed from the priesthood. Thus says Jehovah. None of Aaron' successors who is infected with tzaraath or has any bodily discharge that renders him ritually impure should eat of the sacred offerings until he has been declared ritually pure. Also, if he becomes ritually impure by touching a dead body or by having an emission of semen, or by touching bugs or vermin that might make him impure, or by being exposed to a person who has, for any reason, become ritually impure, then that person will be ritually impure until evening. He may not eat from the sacred offering until he has taken a bath. After sunset he will be ritually pure again and may eat from the sacred offerings, for this is his food. But he must not eat anything that has been found dead or has been killed by wild animals, and so become ritually impure because of it. Thus says Jehovah.
"The priests are to officiate in such a way that they do not violate my instructions. They will be killed if they are guilty of treating them with contempt. Thus says Jehovah, who has made them holy.
"No one not belonging to the priest's family may partake of the sacred offerings. Even guests or hired workers in the priest's household may not do so. However, slaves purchased by the priest or slaves born in the priest's household may eat his food. If the daughter of a priest marries someone other than a priest then she may no longer eat from the sacred offerings. But if she becomes a widow or is divorced and has no son to support her and returns to live in her father's home as she did when she was young, then she may eat her father's food again. Otherwise, no one outside the priest's household is allowed to eat it.
"If a man unintentional eats a sacred offering, he must make restitution to the priests for it, plus an additional 20%. The priests should not allow the sacred offerings presented to Jehovah by the people of Israel to be defiled by being eaten by unauthorized persons, bringing guilt upon them and requiring them to pay compensation. Thus says Jehovah, who makes them holy."
Jehovah told Moses to speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and toinstruct them, "If any of you, whether an Israelite or a resident alien, makes a sacrifice of a burnt offering to Jehovah, either to fulfill a vow or voluntarily, to be accepted the sacrifice must be of a male animal without defect, a bull, a ram, or a billy goat. Don't offer an animal that has any defect, because it won't be accepted on your behalf. When anyone brings from the herd or the flock a peace offering, whether to fulfill a vow or voluntarily, the animal offered for sacrifice must be perfect; it must have no defect of any kind. You must not offer an animal that is blind, crippled, or injured, or which has warts, sores, or scabs. Such animal must never be offered as a burnt sacrifice to Jehovah. You may, however, as a voluntary offering, present cattle or sheep that are deformed or stunted, but not in fulfillment of a vow. If an animal has been castrated or has damaged testicles, you should not offer it to Jehovah. You must never do this in your own country and you must not accept such animals from a foreigner to offer as a sacrifice to your god. Such animals will not be accepted on your behalf, since they are defective and deformed."
Jehovah told Moses, "When a calf, a lamb, or a kid is born it should remain with its mother for seven days. By the eighth day it will acceptable as a food sacrifice for Jehovah. However, whether it be an animal from the herd or the flock, an animal and its mother should not be slaughtered on the same day.
"When you make a thanksgiving offering to Jehovah, be sure that the sacrifice is properly conducted so that it will accepted on your behalf. You must eat all of it on the day it is made and not leave any till morning. Thus says Jehovah.
"Honor all my commandments and follow them. Do not profane my holy name so that I may be regarded as holy among the Israelites. I am the god that makes you holy. I brought you out of Egypt so that I might be your god. Thus says Jehovah.
Notes
1. This excerpt from the priest's rule book is illuminating in several ways. Firstly, there is a reiteration of the concepts of ritually purity which were, one would have thought, already exhaustively elucidated. The High Priest must observe higher standards than the ordinary priest, that is, he must never allow himself to become ritually pure. For instance, unlike a common priest, he is forbidden to attend the dead body of his father, because to do so would made him ritually impure.
2. Illness and injury, defect and deformity not only subtract from the worthiness or ritual purity of a priest they render an animal ineligible for sacrifice in most cases. While it is understandable that Jehovah wants the best and that his people should want to give him the best, there is a suggestion here that physical imperfection is connected to or caused by moral failings. The impression is given that in Hebrew society the disabled were looked upon with disfavor and discriminated against. Indeed, many Christian societies believed that disabilities are punishments from God.
3. It is interesting that a priest's slave could partake of the sacred food of his master when guests or hired workers were not allowed to do so. At least the slave had some perks, even if he was only considered property.
4. Another interesting point is that priests are to marry only within their own tribe (Levi). If they do not do so the children will disgrace the tribe simply because they are partly of some other extraction. And the “mixed race” children would apparently not be accepted by the tribe. Racial purity seemed to have been as important to Jehovah as it was to the Nazis.
5. Priests of Jehovah are not allowed to shave their heads or shape their beards, this being to distinguish them from Egyptian and Canaanite priests. There is probably no other reason for such a grooming code. As is seen throughout the books of Old Testament, Jehovah is ever intent upon separating himself from other gods and establishing ceremonies and customs of worship that will set his people apart from their neighbors. He has a bone to pick with his fellow gods. He resents them and is in competition with them and does all he can to show them up. He strives to create a system of worship and a priesthood that will be superior to those of these rival gods.
6. An animal and his its mother should not be slaughtered on the same day - a respectful piece of etiquette to be sure, perhaps a sop to ancient animal rights advocates. It’s nice the Israelites placed some limits on the wanton killing of animals for religious purposes.
6. Jehovah here claims legitimacy as Israel's god based on his releasing the Israelites from their bondage and bringing them out of Egypt (into the desert!), and not referring to his earlier relations with Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, etc. (Probably because that Jehovah was a different chap altogether!) The statement is very suggestive. It's as if he was not a god before that time, but merely claimed the position after he had, in his eyes, earned it. Jehovah is rather like a white man who goes to live with a primitive tribe and, after wowing the people by performing some wonders made possible by the knowledge he has and the technology he has access to, sets himself up as a god and lays down laws for his worship.
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