(Deuteronomy 31:30 - 32:47)
Moses then recited the words of this song from beginning to end so that the entire people of Israel could hear them:
“Listen, O Heaven, and I will speak.
Hear, O Earth, the words from my mouth.
“Let my teachings fall upon you like the rain,
Let my words settle upon you like the dew,
A gentle sprinkling upon the new grass,
A soft shower upon the budding plants.
“I will proclaim the name of Jehovah,
I will declare the greatness of our god.
He is the Rock; his deeds are perfection;
In all his actions he is just and fair,
A god who does no wrong, faithful and true,
So honorable and equitable.
“But have they not dealt with him honestly.
Corrupted, how can they still be his children,
This deceitful and perverse generation?
“Is this how you repay Jehovah,
You obtuse and doltish people?
Is he not the creator god,
The father who sired and reared you?
“Remember the days of long ago,
Consider the generations past.
Ask your father, he will show you,
Ask the elders, they will tell you:
When the Most High gave each nation
Its inherited portion of land
And divided the human race,
He established the boundaries
For his people according to
The number of Israel’s sons.
For the people of Israel
Is Jehovah’s inheritance
And Jacob, his assigned legacy.
For he found them in the desert,
In a barren, wind-swept wasteland.
He protected and looked out for them
Guarded them as he would guard his own,
Like an eagle that stirs its nest
And flutters over its young chicks,
Bearing them aloft on its wings.
“Alone, Jehovah guided them;
No foreign god accompanied him.
He made them ride over the highlands
And feast on the crops of the field.
With honey from the rock and oil
From flinty stones he nourished them.
With yogurt from the herd he fed them
And milk from the flock and fattened lambs,
The choicest rams from Bashan and goats,
Wheat of the finest quality,
And drank the foaming juice of the grape.
But Israel, stuffed and sated,
Grew fat, flabby, and defiant.
They deserted the god who made them
And scoffed at the Rock that saved them.
With foreign gods they made him jealous
Angering him with hated idols.
They sacrificed to godless demons,
Deities they had never known,
Gods of recent derivation
That your ancestors respected not.
You deserted the Rock your father,
Forgot the god that gave you birth.
Jehovah saw this and spurned them,
Angered by his own sons and daughters.
He said, ‘I will conceal myself from them
And merely watch what may become of them,
For they are a perverse generation
Of children who are faithless and disloyal.
They made me jealous with their worthless gods
And angered me with their foolish idols.
I will make them jealous with worthless people
And anger them with a foolish nation.
For a fire will be kindled by my wrath,
And burn to the depths of the netherworld,
Consuming the earth and all of its crops,
Setting afire the base of the mountains.
I will heap upon them calamities
And pick them off with shots of my arrows.
I will wear them down with famines and fevers,
And devastate them with plagues and pestilence.
I will send against them the fangs of wild beasts
And the venom of slithering creatures.
From the outside, war will bring bereavement
While inside, a reign of terror will ensue,
For the young man and young woman alike,
For nursing infant and the gray-haired man.
‘I might have said, “Let’s obliterate them,
Erase their name from human history!”
But I feared the taunts of her enemies
Who might misread what has happened and boast,
‘It wasn’t Jehovah who accomplished this,
But our own power that is triumphant.
‘Israel is a nation without sense;
Its people are ignorant and dull-witted;
If they possessed any understanding
They would realize what their fate will be.
‘How could one man put to flight a thousand,
Or two make ten thousand beat a retreat,
Unless their Rock had delivered them up,
Unless Jehovah had handed them over?
For their rock is not like the Rock of ours,
As even our enemies will concede.
Their vine has sprung from the vine of Sodom,
Nurtured in the vineyards of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are poison, their clusters, bitter;
Their wine is like the venom of vipers,
The deadly toxin of cobras and asps.’
“Jehovah says, ‘Am I not keeping these things,
Sealing them securely in my storehouse?
I will seek vengeance and compensation.
For the time will come when they will stumble.
The day of their calamity is nigh.
Their doom and destruction will come swiftly.’
“Jehovah will pass judgment on his people,
But will have pity upon his servants
When he sees their strength has been depleted
And there is no one remaining, slave or free.
He will say to them, ‘Where are your gods now?
The gods who were the rock that was your refuge,
Who ate the flesh of your sacrifices,
And consumed your drink offerings of wine?
Let them come forth to save and shelter you!
‘Behold I am the only one:
There is no other god but me!
I put to death and bring forth life,
I am the one who wounds and heals,
And no one can be delivered
From out of my powerful hands.
I lift my hand to the heavens
And swear, as I live forever,
When I sharpen my flashing sword
And prepare to mete out justice,
I will revenge myself on my foes
And repay those who reject me.
My arrows I will make drunk with blood
And my sword will gorge itself on flesh,
The blood of the slain and captured,
And the heads of the enemy leaders.’
“May the heavens rejoice and worship him,
For he avenges the blood of his people
And takes vengeance upon his enemies.
He pays back those who have rejected him
And makes atonement for his land and people.”
Moses, accompanied by Joshua son of Nun, recited all the words of this song in the hearing of people. When he had finished speaking the words of the song, he said to the people of Israel, “Keep in mind all the warnings I have given you this day, so that you may pass them on as lessons to your children so that they will obey every word of these instructions. These are not meaningless words; they impact your very life, for by obeying them you will live long and prosper in the land you are crossing the River Jordan to occupy.”
Notes
1. The song is quite long and one doubts that it was set to a catchy tune. It is amazing that a man of Moses’ years could have recited it, let alone memorized it. Expecting future generations to remember it is asking a lot. The people would have been illiterate and thus would have had to consign the whole thing to memory. And, quite frankly, is simply ain’t that good. Thematically it’s all over the place and, as is usual with the Books of Moses, it is annoyingly redundant. But the memorization of Jehovah’s laws and instructions is the key element of the Jehovah religion. It furthers the indoctrination of the youth, who must accept the traditional teaching and learn not to question them or give in to the temptation of thinking for themselves.
2. Throughout much of the song Jehovah trashes his own people and reiterates how unworthy they are. This hardly seems like an effective sales strategy. And again Jehovah the psychopath glories in bragging about the horrendous things he’s going to do to his errant worshipers. The only reason he gives for not completely obliterating his unfaithful people is that Israel’s enemies might take credit for its destruction. Mercy, compassion are not major factors, although he does cite them.
3. Jehovah presents himself here as the sole true god. The gods of other countries are false, that is, they don’t even exist and, therefore, cannot help their people when appealed to. Elsewhere, there is the impression given that these other gods do, in fact, exist, but are either inferior or else inappropriate objects of worship for the Israelites.
4. Jehovah is called here and elsewhere, the Rock, that is, the foundation, the bulwark, the mainstay and refuge of his worshipers.
5. Jehovah boasts how magnificently he fed his people. What is he talking about? Weren’t the Israelites of the Exodus fed nothing but manna?
Showing posts with label jehovah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jehovah. Show all posts
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Reading the Law
(Deuteronomy 31:9 - 31:29)
Moses wrote down the law and delivered it to the Levite priests who were in charge of Jehovah’s Chest of Sacred Records and to the Israelite elders. Moses charged them, “Every 7 years, in the year that debts are canceled, during the Festival of Tabernacles when all the people of Israel appear before the altar of Jehovah your god at the designated place of worship, you should publicly read the law in their hearing. Assemble the entire population, men, women and children, as well as foreign residents of your towns, so they can listen and learn to revere Jehovah your god and carefully follow the details of the law. Do this so that your children who are not familiar with the law, may hear it and learn to revere Jehovah your god. Do this as long as you dwell in the land you are crossing the River Jordan to occupy.”
Jehovah then told Moses, “The time has come for you to die. Call Joshua and come to the entrance to the Tabernacle so that I may instruct him.” And so Moses and Joshua presented themselves at the Tabernacle. Jehovah manifested himself within the Tabernacle as an elongated cloud standing before the entrance to the tent.
Jehovah spoke to Moses. “You are about to pass over and join your ancestors. After you are gone, these people will begin to worship alien gods, the gods of the land to which they are going. They will betray me and violate the contract I have made with them. My ire will then be aroused against them. I will abandon them. I will conceal myself from them. And they will be devoured. Many misfortunes and disasters will fall upon them and when that happens they will say, ‘These disasters have befallen us because Jehovah is no longer among us.’ At that time I will surely hide myself from them, because of the great evil they have done by worshiping other gods.
“Now write down the words of this song. Teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may serve as my testimony against the people of Israel. For after I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I swore I would give to your forefathers, and when they have have eaten their fill and have grown fat, they will turn to other gods and worship them, disrespecting me and breaking my contract. But when disasters and calamities will overtake them, this song will remain as a testimony against them, for it will not be forgotten by their descendants. Even before I am to bring them into the land I swore to give them, I have been made aware of the inclinations of these people.”
So, on that very day, Moses wrote down the song and taught it to the Israelites.
Jehovah charged Joshua the son of Nun, “Be brave and strong, for you will lead the people of Israel into the land I swore I would give them. I will be at your side.”
When Moses had finished writing down in a book the entire body of law, he gave this order to the Levites who were in charge of carrying the Chest of Sacred records: “Take this book of law and place it inside Jehovah’s Chest of Sacred Records so that it may remain there as a testimony against the people of Israel. I know how stubborn and rebellious you are. If you are rebellious to Jehovah while I am alive and still among you, how more rebellious will you be after I am dead. Now convene all the tribal elders and officials so that I may speak with them directly and call upon the heaven and the earth as a witness. For I am aware that after my death you will corrupt yourself and act contrary to the ways I have commanded you. In the future, evil will befall you, because you will have done what is evil in the sight of Jehovah, arousing his ire by your actions.”
Notes
1. Again it must noted that Moses could not have written down the law, since there was no alphabet and no writing except for cuneiform and hieroglyphics. It is always assumed and it is certainly inferred that Jehovah’s law was written down in Hebrew, but it would be many centuries after Moses before that could become possible. It is also unclear whether a written record of every utterance, every law and statute, is to be housed in the Chest of Sacred Records, which is thought of as a receptacle for the Ten Commandments, traditionally both the Moses tablets and the broken pieces of the tablets Jehovah gave him. It also should be noted that if a record, a book, refers to a stone tablet and not, say, a papyrus scroll, there is a storage problem. (How many stone tablets could the chest contain? Its outside dimensions were 45 x 27 x 27 inches.)
2. The record of the law exist only as a rebuke to the Israelites it seems and not a positive inspiration or a guide for behavior. Jehovah seems to maintain a threatening, adversarial relationship with his Chosen People and expresses no confidence in their loyalty. (He of course knows what is in their hearts and also presumably knows the future.) One repeatedly asks, if the Israelites are so unworthy and so faithless, why did Jehovah pick them as his Chosen People? Was it because other peoples already had gods to represent them and national god of the Israelites was an open post, so to speak?
3. And again we are reminded that the ultimate sin, the greatest evil, is not any sort of moral depravity, but merely deserting Jehovah and worshiping other gods.
4. Moses doesn’t really pass muster as a successful leader. He was barely able to control his people in his lifetime and he despairs that his will and wishes will be followed after his death. He apparently has little faith in Joshua, who is his successor. (One gains the impression here that Joshua will be much more of a military than a spiritual leader.) No Mosaic dynasty has been established. In fact, there is no mention of Moses’ sons, Gershom and Eliezer; they disappear from the chronicle. Did they die? Perhaps they were unworthy in character, although that hardly seems disqualifying, judging from past history of the Hebrews in which all manner of scoundrels, mass murderers, cheats, and adulterers were exalted. Perhaps they were unworthy owing to the fact that their mother, Sephora, was a Midianite, a Hebrew, but not an Israelite.
5. Jehovah appears in the Tabernacle as he is wont, manifesting himself as an elongated cloud. This is a better translation, I think, than “pillar of cloud,” since a cloud does not have a defined and delineated shape and, therefore, can only approximate the shape of a pillar or column. An elongated cloud would veil Jehovah’s form, if he was a humanoid. Why he hides himself is a manner of conjecture -- to create a mystique? to conceal an appearance that humans would find repellent? (In Exodus it is asserted that Jehovah does have a physical and humanoid form. Moses is allowed to view him from the rear.)
Moses wrote down the law and delivered it to the Levite priests who were in charge of Jehovah’s Chest of Sacred Records and to the Israelite elders. Moses charged them, “Every 7 years, in the year that debts are canceled, during the Festival of Tabernacles when all the people of Israel appear before the altar of Jehovah your god at the designated place of worship, you should publicly read the law in their hearing. Assemble the entire population, men, women and children, as well as foreign residents of your towns, so they can listen and learn to revere Jehovah your god and carefully follow the details of the law. Do this so that your children who are not familiar with the law, may hear it and learn to revere Jehovah your god. Do this as long as you dwell in the land you are crossing the River Jordan to occupy.”
Jehovah then told Moses, “The time has come for you to die. Call Joshua and come to the entrance to the Tabernacle so that I may instruct him.” And so Moses and Joshua presented themselves at the Tabernacle. Jehovah manifested himself within the Tabernacle as an elongated cloud standing before the entrance to the tent.
Jehovah spoke to Moses. “You are about to pass over and join your ancestors. After you are gone, these people will begin to worship alien gods, the gods of the land to which they are going. They will betray me and violate the contract I have made with them. My ire will then be aroused against them. I will abandon them. I will conceal myself from them. And they will be devoured. Many misfortunes and disasters will fall upon them and when that happens they will say, ‘These disasters have befallen us because Jehovah is no longer among us.’ At that time I will surely hide myself from them, because of the great evil they have done by worshiping other gods.
“Now write down the words of this song. Teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may serve as my testimony against the people of Israel. For after I have brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I swore I would give to your forefathers, and when they have have eaten their fill and have grown fat, they will turn to other gods and worship them, disrespecting me and breaking my contract. But when disasters and calamities will overtake them, this song will remain as a testimony against them, for it will not be forgotten by their descendants. Even before I am to bring them into the land I swore to give them, I have been made aware of the inclinations of these people.”
So, on that very day, Moses wrote down the song and taught it to the Israelites.
Jehovah charged Joshua the son of Nun, “Be brave and strong, for you will lead the people of Israel into the land I swore I would give them. I will be at your side.”
When Moses had finished writing down in a book the entire body of law, he gave this order to the Levites who were in charge of carrying the Chest of Sacred records: “Take this book of law and place it inside Jehovah’s Chest of Sacred Records so that it may remain there as a testimony against the people of Israel. I know how stubborn and rebellious you are. If you are rebellious to Jehovah while I am alive and still among you, how more rebellious will you be after I am dead. Now convene all the tribal elders and officials so that I may speak with them directly and call upon the heaven and the earth as a witness. For I am aware that after my death you will corrupt yourself and act contrary to the ways I have commanded you. In the future, evil will befall you, because you will have done what is evil in the sight of Jehovah, arousing his ire by your actions.”
Notes
1. Again it must noted that Moses could not have written down the law, since there was no alphabet and no writing except for cuneiform and hieroglyphics. It is always assumed and it is certainly inferred that Jehovah’s law was written down in Hebrew, but it would be many centuries after Moses before that could become possible. It is also unclear whether a written record of every utterance, every law and statute, is to be housed in the Chest of Sacred Records, which is thought of as a receptacle for the Ten Commandments, traditionally both the Moses tablets and the broken pieces of the tablets Jehovah gave him. It also should be noted that if a record, a book, refers to a stone tablet and not, say, a papyrus scroll, there is a storage problem. (How many stone tablets could the chest contain? Its outside dimensions were 45 x 27 x 27 inches.)
2. The record of the law exist only as a rebuke to the Israelites it seems and not a positive inspiration or a guide for behavior. Jehovah seems to maintain a threatening, adversarial relationship with his Chosen People and expresses no confidence in their loyalty. (He of course knows what is in their hearts and also presumably knows the future.) One repeatedly asks, if the Israelites are so unworthy and so faithless, why did Jehovah pick them as his Chosen People? Was it because other peoples already had gods to represent them and national god of the Israelites was an open post, so to speak?
3. And again we are reminded that the ultimate sin, the greatest evil, is not any sort of moral depravity, but merely deserting Jehovah and worshiping other gods.
4. Moses doesn’t really pass muster as a successful leader. He was barely able to control his people in his lifetime and he despairs that his will and wishes will be followed after his death. He apparently has little faith in Joshua, who is his successor. (One gains the impression here that Joshua will be much more of a military than a spiritual leader.) No Mosaic dynasty has been established. In fact, there is no mention of Moses’ sons, Gershom and Eliezer; they disappear from the chronicle. Did they die? Perhaps they were unworthy in character, although that hardly seems disqualifying, judging from past history of the Hebrews in which all manner of scoundrels, mass murderers, cheats, and adulterers were exalted. Perhaps they were unworthy owing to the fact that their mother, Sephora, was a Midianite, a Hebrew, but not an Israelite.
5. Jehovah appears in the Tabernacle as he is wont, manifesting himself as an elongated cloud. This is a better translation, I think, than “pillar of cloud,” since a cloud does not have a defined and delineated shape and, therefore, can only approximate the shape of a pillar or column. An elongated cloud would veil Jehovah’s form, if he was a humanoid. Why he hides himself is a manner of conjecture -- to create a mystique? to conceal an appearance that humans would find repellent? (In Exodus it is asserted that Jehovah does have a physical and humanoid form. Moses is allowed to view him from the rear.)
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Return to Jehovah
(Deuteronomy 30:1 - 30:20)
“In the future when the blessings and curses I have described have been imposed upon you and you are living in the country to which Jehovah our god have banished you, you may recall to mind my instructions. If you and your children return to Jehovah your god and resolve to obey with all your heart and soul the commandments I have given you this day, then Jehovah will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and bring you back from all the nations to which he has scattered you. Even though you may have been banished to the ends of the earth, he will fetch you and bring you back. You will be returned to the land that belonged to your ancestors and you will occupy it again. He will then make you more numerous and more prosperous than your ancestors. Jehovah will purify your minds and those of your descendants so that you and your descendants will love him will all your heart and soul and survive. Jehovah will transfer the curses to your enemies, those who have hated and persecuted you. You will again obey the voice of Jehovah and keep all the commandments I have given you this day. Jehovah your god will make you prosper greatly in all your endeavors, in your children, in your livestock, and in your crops. He will take delight in your prosperity as he took delight in that of your ancestors, if you will obey the voice of Jehovah, keep the commandments and statues written in the book of law, and turn to Jehovah your god with all your heart and soul.
“The commandment I am giving you today is not hidden from you or beyond your reach. It is not up in the sky so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into the heavens to bring it down to us and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea so that you must ask, ‘Who will sail across the sea to bring it back to us so that we may hear what it is and obey it?’ No, the word is near to you; it is on your tongue and in your heart that you may obey it.
“I am setting before you today a choice: life and prosperity or death and disaster. I command you today to revere Jehovah your god, to act in obedience to him, and to keep his commandments, decrees, and statutes. If you do so you will live and prosper and Jehovah your god will bless you in the land you are about to enter and settle in.
“But your heart turns away in disobedience and you are seduced into the service and worship of other gods, then I tell you today that you will then be destroyed. You will not survive long in the land you are crossing the River Jordan to occupy.
“I call upon the heavens and the earth to be witnesses that I have offered you today the choice between life and death, between blessing and curses. Therefore, choose life that you and your children may live, revering Jehovah your god, obeying his word, being faithful to him. This is path to life. In the land he swore to give to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jehovah will give you a long life.”
Notes
1. With what is becoming annoying redundancy, Moses presents to the Israelites the grand bargain of their contract with Jehovah: worship him and obey his laws and be blessed or else be destroyed, or at least be banished to some God-forsaken country. Here the blessings are emphasized and a second chance is offered for the nation that rejects Jehovah, but will then consent to return to worshipful obedience. It is suggested that the blessings will be greater for the nation that does so than for the nation that remains faithful. It always seems to be such, the repentant sinner is more valued than one who has never strayed, but has always been pious.
“In the future when the blessings and curses I have described have been imposed upon you and you are living in the country to which Jehovah our god have banished you, you may recall to mind my instructions. If you and your children return to Jehovah your god and resolve to obey with all your heart and soul the commandments I have given you this day, then Jehovah will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and bring you back from all the nations to which he has scattered you. Even though you may have been banished to the ends of the earth, he will fetch you and bring you back. You will be returned to the land that belonged to your ancestors and you will occupy it again. He will then make you more numerous and more prosperous than your ancestors. Jehovah will purify your minds and those of your descendants so that you and your descendants will love him will all your heart and soul and survive. Jehovah will transfer the curses to your enemies, those who have hated and persecuted you. You will again obey the voice of Jehovah and keep all the commandments I have given you this day. Jehovah your god will make you prosper greatly in all your endeavors, in your children, in your livestock, and in your crops. He will take delight in your prosperity as he took delight in that of your ancestors, if you will obey the voice of Jehovah, keep the commandments and statues written in the book of law, and turn to Jehovah your god with all your heart and soul.
“The commandment I am giving you today is not hidden from you or beyond your reach. It is not up in the sky so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into the heavens to bring it down to us and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea so that you must ask, ‘Who will sail across the sea to bring it back to us so that we may hear what it is and obey it?’ No, the word is near to you; it is on your tongue and in your heart that you may obey it.
“I am setting before you today a choice: life and prosperity or death and disaster. I command you today to revere Jehovah your god, to act in obedience to him, and to keep his commandments, decrees, and statutes. If you do so you will live and prosper and Jehovah your god will bless you in the land you are about to enter and settle in.
“But your heart turns away in disobedience and you are seduced into the service and worship of other gods, then I tell you today that you will then be destroyed. You will not survive long in the land you are crossing the River Jordan to occupy.
“I call upon the heavens and the earth to be witnesses that I have offered you today the choice between life and death, between blessing and curses. Therefore, choose life that you and your children may live, revering Jehovah your god, obeying his word, being faithful to him. This is path to life. In the land he swore to give to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jehovah will give you a long life.”
Notes
1. With what is becoming annoying redundancy, Moses presents to the Israelites the grand bargain of their contract with Jehovah: worship him and obey his laws and be blessed or else be destroyed, or at least be banished to some God-forsaken country. Here the blessings are emphasized and a second chance is offered for the nation that rejects Jehovah, but will then consent to return to worshipful obedience. It is suggested that the blessings will be greater for the nation that does so than for the nation that remains faithful. It always seems to be such, the repentant sinner is more valued than one who has never strayed, but has always been pious.
A Review of the Contract with Jehovah
(Deuteronomy 29:1 - 29:29)
These are the words of the contract that Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in Moab, in addition to the contract he made with them at Horeb. Moses summoned all the Israelite people and addressed them:
“You have witnessed what Jehovah did to the Pharaoh of Egypt, to all his minions, and to his entire country; your very eyes saw the tests of might, the miracles and the fantastic wonders. But up until this time Jehovah has never given you the mind to understand, the eyes to see, or the ears to hear. I have led you 40 years through the desert. Neither the clothes on your back nor the sandals on your feet have worn out with age. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, so that you would remember that Jehovah is your god.
“When you arrived here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them. We occupied their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their share of the inheritance.
“Therefore, obey all the terms of the contract so that you will succeed in all you do. You are standing today before Jehovah your god, among the tribal leaders, elders, and officers, indeed all the men of Israel, your women and children, as well as the foreigners who live among us, from those who chop wood to those who carry water. You are standing here to enter into a contract with Jehovah your god, a contract that must be sealed with an oath to Jehovah your god. It will confirm that you are his people and that he is your god, as he promised you and as he swore to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But you are not the only ones with whom this sworn contract is being made. It is being made not only with those who stand before Jehovah your god today but with those who are not here.
“You remember how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the midst of nations on our way here. And you saw their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, silver and gold. Beware lest there may be among you, a man or a woman, a clan or a tribe, that may betray Jehovah your god and go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be a root among you that will bear a fruit so poisonous and bitter. Those who hear the warnings of this sworn contract, but arrogantly say to themselves, ‘I will be safe, even if I follow the will of my headstrong heart and sate my appetites,’ Jehovah will never pardon them; his jealousy and wrath will be inflamed against them. All the curses written here will come down upon them, and Jehovah will blot out their names from under the heavens. Jehovah will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for destruction and afflict upon them all the curses of the contract detailed in this book of law.
“Then, future generations, both your descendants and foreigners who will immigrate from distant lands, will witness the devastation of the land and the pestilences that Jehovah has inflicted upon it. The entire country will be burned out by sulfur and salt, with nothing planted on it and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It will be like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim that Jehovah in his intense anger destroyed. All the surrounding countries will ask, ‘Why did Jehovah do this to the land? What so aroused his fury?' The people will reply, ‘This occurred because the people of this land violated the contract they had made with Jehovah, the god of their ancestors, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. They strayed and served other gods, gods not known to them, gods Jehovah did not permit them to worship. Consequently, Jehovah’s anger was inflicted upon this land, and he brought down upon it all the curses written in this book. Jehovah, in anger and fury, uprooted them from the land and banished them to the country where they now dwell.
“There are secrets that belong only to Jehovah our god, but the things he has revealed to us belong to us and our descendants forever so that we may follow the words of this law.”
Notes
1. This contract or covenant that Jehovah has made with the people of Israel is the heart of the Books of Moses. It seems however to be a very fluid agreement with Jehovah adding more and more conditions, more and more laws and statutes that his people must follow. The benefits of adhering to the agreement do not increase, but the penalties, eg. the curses listed in Deuteronomy, become more severe.
2. Some explanation for the Israelites not needing to eat regular food has been previously suggested. (Jehovah, being most likely an extraterrestrial, makes daily drops of synthetic food, manna, from an airship the guides the wandering Israelites and continually hovers over their camp.) No explanation can, however, be offered for the Israelites not wearing out their clothes and sandals. (Imagine wearing the same set of clothes every day for 40 years! How was a tailor or a sandal maker able to make a living?) This is, of course, preposterous. Also, it should be mentioned that Moses is ignoring one salient fact. With only a couple exceptions, all the people who had started on the Exodus had died off by the 40th year. This has been repeated many times. Moses, the old man, seems to have forgotten all about it and during this speech, he seems to be addressing the dead Israelites who departed from Egypt. One would have thought such glaring contradictions, and there are many others, would not have escaped an editor’s notice, as they still seem to escape the notice of faithful believers.
3. The contract with Jehovah is binding upon future generations of Israelites. In other words, those not yet born are bound to a contract completely without their consent. And there seems to be no opt-out clause.
4. Jehovah again takes delight in bragging how he will destroy the land if any of his subject people disobey him. Comparison is made to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those cities were incinerated because the inhabitants were immoral, or, more likely, defiant of Jehovah. There is no suggestion, though, that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had any sort of contract with Jehovah; he destroyed them anyway. (Why didn’t Jehovah also destroy other countries whose immorality was egregious?)
5. Jehovah’s acts of destruction are motivated by his anger and not by his sense of justice. Punishment is never corrective, merely vindictive. There is no sense of using punishment to show the sinner the errors of his ways, only to make him suffer the most. Jehovah is less the stern, reproving parent, than the cruel and sadistic prison warden.
These are the words of the contract that Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in Moab, in addition to the contract he made with them at Horeb. Moses summoned all the Israelite people and addressed them:
“You have witnessed what Jehovah did to the Pharaoh of Egypt, to all his minions, and to his entire country; your very eyes saw the tests of might, the miracles and the fantastic wonders. But up until this time Jehovah has never given you the mind to understand, the eyes to see, or the ears to hear. I have led you 40 years through the desert. Neither the clothes on your back nor the sandals on your feet have worn out with age. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, so that you would remember that Jehovah is your god.
“When you arrived here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them. We occupied their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their share of the inheritance.
“Therefore, obey all the terms of the contract so that you will succeed in all you do. You are standing today before Jehovah your god, among the tribal leaders, elders, and officers, indeed all the men of Israel, your women and children, as well as the foreigners who live among us, from those who chop wood to those who carry water. You are standing here to enter into a contract with Jehovah your god, a contract that must be sealed with an oath to Jehovah your god. It will confirm that you are his people and that he is your god, as he promised you and as he swore to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But you are not the only ones with whom this sworn contract is being made. It is being made not only with those who stand before Jehovah your god today but with those who are not here.
“You remember how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the midst of nations on our way here. And you saw their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, silver and gold. Beware lest there may be among you, a man or a woman, a clan or a tribe, that may betray Jehovah your god and go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be a root among you that will bear a fruit so poisonous and bitter. Those who hear the warnings of this sworn contract, but arrogantly say to themselves, ‘I will be safe, even if I follow the will of my headstrong heart and sate my appetites,’ Jehovah will never pardon them; his jealousy and wrath will be inflamed against them. All the curses written here will come down upon them, and Jehovah will blot out their names from under the heavens. Jehovah will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for destruction and afflict upon them all the curses of the contract detailed in this book of law.
“Then, future generations, both your descendants and foreigners who will immigrate from distant lands, will witness the devastation of the land and the pestilences that Jehovah has inflicted upon it. The entire country will be burned out by sulfur and salt, with nothing planted on it and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It will be like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim that Jehovah in his intense anger destroyed. All the surrounding countries will ask, ‘Why did Jehovah do this to the land? What so aroused his fury?' The people will reply, ‘This occurred because the people of this land violated the contract they had made with Jehovah, the god of their ancestors, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. They strayed and served other gods, gods not known to them, gods Jehovah did not permit them to worship. Consequently, Jehovah’s anger was inflicted upon this land, and he brought down upon it all the curses written in this book. Jehovah, in anger and fury, uprooted them from the land and banished them to the country where they now dwell.
“There are secrets that belong only to Jehovah our god, but the things he has revealed to us belong to us and our descendants forever so that we may follow the words of this law.”
Notes
1. This contract or covenant that Jehovah has made with the people of Israel is the heart of the Books of Moses. It seems however to be a very fluid agreement with Jehovah adding more and more conditions, more and more laws and statutes that his people must follow. The benefits of adhering to the agreement do not increase, but the penalties, eg. the curses listed in Deuteronomy, become more severe.
2. Some explanation for the Israelites not needing to eat regular food has been previously suggested. (Jehovah, being most likely an extraterrestrial, makes daily drops of synthetic food, manna, from an airship the guides the wandering Israelites and continually hovers over their camp.) No explanation can, however, be offered for the Israelites not wearing out their clothes and sandals. (Imagine wearing the same set of clothes every day for 40 years! How was a tailor or a sandal maker able to make a living?) This is, of course, preposterous. Also, it should be mentioned that Moses is ignoring one salient fact. With only a couple exceptions, all the people who had started on the Exodus had died off by the 40th year. This has been repeated many times. Moses, the old man, seems to have forgotten all about it and during this speech, he seems to be addressing the dead Israelites who departed from Egypt. One would have thought such glaring contradictions, and there are many others, would not have escaped an editor’s notice, as they still seem to escape the notice of faithful believers.
3. The contract with Jehovah is binding upon future generations of Israelites. In other words, those not yet born are bound to a contract completely without their consent. And there seems to be no opt-out clause.
4. Jehovah again takes delight in bragging how he will destroy the land if any of his subject people disobey him. Comparison is made to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those cities were incinerated because the inhabitants were immoral, or, more likely, defiant of Jehovah. There is no suggestion, though, that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had any sort of contract with Jehovah; he destroyed them anyway. (Why didn’t Jehovah also destroy other countries whose immorality was egregious?)
5. Jehovah’s acts of destruction are motivated by his anger and not by his sense of justice. Punishment is never corrective, merely vindictive. There is no sense of using punishment to show the sinner the errors of his ways, only to make him suffer the most. Jehovah is less the stern, reproving parent, than the cruel and sadistic prison warden.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Treatment of Sons
(Deuteronomy 21:15 - 21:21)
“Take this case: A man has two wives. He loves one wife, but not the other. He has sons by both wives, the elder son by the unloved wife. When the time comes for him to distribute his inheritance, he may not give the younger son, the son of the wife he loves, more than the son of the unloved wife, who is the elder. He must recognize the son of the unloved wife as his first born and give to him as his inheritance a double share of his possessions, for that son is first fruit of his father’s virility and the rights of the firstborn belong to him.
“A man has a headstrong and rebellious son who will not obey his parents even though they discipline him. In such a case, the father and mother should then take hold of the son and bring him to see the elders at the town gate. They will say to them, ‘Our son is headstrong and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of the town should stone the son to death. In this way they will purge such evil from the community. All Israel will hear of it and be fearful.”
Notes
1. The Jehovan laws for inheritance cannot be altered to conform to a man’s preference for one wife over another. The eldest son receives a double portion of his father’s possessions and property regardless of the father’s feelings toward the eldest son’s mother. Although this may be a serious abrogation of paternal power, there is a certain fairness here: the eldest son cannot be disinherited simply because his mother has a falling out with his father or the father becomes attached to some younger wife who has given him a son. This system engenders less familial conflict and is probably better for the stability of society. However, this is an interesting pronouncement considering the fact that Jehovah’s most devoted follower, Jacob (Israel), more or less disinherited his eldest son, favoring his younger children. (Joseph’s descendants ended up with the greatest legacy.) The eldest son of Abraham, Ishmael, was disinherited in favor of Isaac, because Abraham preferred his mother Sarah to Ishmael’s mother Hagar. And Isaac was tricked into giving the blessing of the firstborn to Jacob, instead of to his eldest son Esau. Moses’ eldest son Gershom had his place taken as his father’s inheritor by Joshua. This passage clearly illustrates the common disconnect between the laws that Jehovah sets down for his people and the actions of the leaders of his Chosen People.
2. Rebellious sons pay a high price in Israelite society, the death penalty. The most serious transgression, that is, those mentioned, are gluttony and drunkenness; for these faults a son may be executed. There is no mention of a son who is a liar, a thief, a wastrel, or of being lazy and good for nothing, but one could presume that if the parents got fed up with him they could take him to see the town elders and persuade them to have the menfolk of the town stone the son to death -- a facile solution to problems of parenting. No word yet on the fate of rebellious daughters.
“Take this case: A man has two wives. He loves one wife, but not the other. He has sons by both wives, the elder son by the unloved wife. When the time comes for him to distribute his inheritance, he may not give the younger son, the son of the wife he loves, more than the son of the unloved wife, who is the elder. He must recognize the son of the unloved wife as his first born and give to him as his inheritance a double share of his possessions, for that son is first fruit of his father’s virility and the rights of the firstborn belong to him.
“A man has a headstrong and rebellious son who will not obey his parents even though they discipline him. In such a case, the father and mother should then take hold of the son and bring him to see the elders at the town gate. They will say to them, ‘Our son is headstrong and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of the town should stone the son to death. In this way they will purge such evil from the community. All Israel will hear of it and be fearful.”
Notes
1. The Jehovan laws for inheritance cannot be altered to conform to a man’s preference for one wife over another. The eldest son receives a double portion of his father’s possessions and property regardless of the father’s feelings toward the eldest son’s mother. Although this may be a serious abrogation of paternal power, there is a certain fairness here: the eldest son cannot be disinherited simply because his mother has a falling out with his father or the father becomes attached to some younger wife who has given him a son. This system engenders less familial conflict and is probably better for the stability of society. However, this is an interesting pronouncement considering the fact that Jehovah’s most devoted follower, Jacob (Israel), more or less disinherited his eldest son, favoring his younger children. (Joseph’s descendants ended up with the greatest legacy.) The eldest son of Abraham, Ishmael, was disinherited in favor of Isaac, because Abraham preferred his mother Sarah to Ishmael’s mother Hagar. And Isaac was tricked into giving the blessing of the firstborn to Jacob, instead of to his eldest son Esau. Moses’ eldest son Gershom had his place taken as his father’s inheritor by Joshua. This passage clearly illustrates the common disconnect between the laws that Jehovah sets down for his people and the actions of the leaders of his Chosen People.
2. Rebellious sons pay a high price in Israelite society, the death penalty. The most serious transgression, that is, those mentioned, are gluttony and drunkenness; for these faults a son may be executed. There is no mention of a son who is a liar, a thief, a wastrel, or of being lazy and good for nothing, but one could presume that if the parents got fed up with him they could take him to see the town elders and persuade them to have the menfolk of the town stone the son to death -- a facile solution to problems of parenting. No word yet on the fate of rebellious daughters.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Some Elements of Justice
(Deuteronomy 19:14 - 19:21)
"When settled in the land Jehovah your god has given to you as your inheritance do not move your neighbors’ boundary markers set up by your ancestors.
"One witness is insufficient to establish the guilt of a person accused of committing any crime or offense. Two or more witnesses are required to prove a case.
"If a malicious witness comes forward to accuse someone of a crime, then he, the accuser, and the accused must appear before the altar of Jehovah and present the case to the priests and judges serving in office at that time. The judges must conduct a thorough investigation, and if they find that the witness has accused his fellow Israelite falsely, then they must impose upon the false accuser the very sentence he sought for the man he accused. In this way you will purge such evil from your midst. The rest of the people will come to know of it and thus be so afraid that such an evil thing will never be done among you again. Show no pity: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot."
Notes
1. The prohibition against the moving and manipulation of boundary markers addresses what would probably be an important area of contention among the Israelites, land claims. For the first few centuries of American history, the colonization of early New England, the settlement of the frontier, the conquest of the Old West, property disputes were always a major point of conflict. Surveying the land and setting up boundary markers and fences established claims to personal property. Apparently the Israelites, even if they held some property communally, knew the concept of personal property, if not individual, at least family ownership of land. (More primitive societies often do not understand such a concept. Native Americans, for instance, did not hold the same ideas about property that Europeans did. Land ownership did not really exist; the claim to land use was permitted only to the tribe, not the individual) It is unlikely, though, that the early settlers of the Promised Land, the descendants of Egyptian slaves, who had been a part of a nomadic society, would have shifted so quickly into the mindset of the agricultural society with fixed abodes and boundary markers, cities and towns, and settled land already divided among the tribes and clans and families. But it cannot be lost upon the reader that what is presented in the Books of Moses, the customs and traditions, laws and statutes, are unlikely to be relevant to a people just emerging from a nomadic existence.
2. Emphasized again are two concepts that are cornerstones of Jehovan justice. One is draconian punishments that make examples of wrongdoers in order to discourage and deter further wrong doing. Complimentary to this, although, one who think, often at odds with it, is the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" guideline that allows for no clemency, no forgiveness, little consideration of extenuating circumstances, and no Christian mercy.
"When settled in the land Jehovah your god has given to you as your inheritance do not move your neighbors’ boundary markers set up by your ancestors.
"One witness is insufficient to establish the guilt of a person accused of committing any crime or offense. Two or more witnesses are required to prove a case.
"If a malicious witness comes forward to accuse someone of a crime, then he, the accuser, and the accused must appear before the altar of Jehovah and present the case to the priests and judges serving in office at that time. The judges must conduct a thorough investigation, and if they find that the witness has accused his fellow Israelite falsely, then they must impose upon the false accuser the very sentence he sought for the man he accused. In this way you will purge such evil from your midst. The rest of the people will come to know of it and thus be so afraid that such an evil thing will never be done among you again. Show no pity: a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot."
Notes
1. The prohibition against the moving and manipulation of boundary markers addresses what would probably be an important area of contention among the Israelites, land claims. For the first few centuries of American history, the colonization of early New England, the settlement of the frontier, the conquest of the Old West, property disputes were always a major point of conflict. Surveying the land and setting up boundary markers and fences established claims to personal property. Apparently the Israelites, even if they held some property communally, knew the concept of personal property, if not individual, at least family ownership of land. (More primitive societies often do not understand such a concept. Native Americans, for instance, did not hold the same ideas about property that Europeans did. Land ownership did not really exist; the claim to land use was permitted only to the tribe, not the individual) It is unlikely, though, that the early settlers of the Promised Land, the descendants of Egyptian slaves, who had been a part of a nomadic society, would have shifted so quickly into the mindset of the agricultural society with fixed abodes and boundary markers, cities and towns, and settled land already divided among the tribes and clans and families. But it cannot be lost upon the reader that what is presented in the Books of Moses, the customs and traditions, laws and statutes, are unlikely to be relevant to a people just emerging from a nomadic existence.
2. Emphasized again are two concepts that are cornerstones of Jehovan justice. One is draconian punishments that make examples of wrongdoers in order to discourage and deter further wrong doing. Complimentary to this, although, one who think, often at odds with it, is the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" guideline that allows for no clemency, no forgiveness, little consideration of extenuating circumstances, and no Christian mercy.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Kings of Israel
(Deuteronomy 17:14 - 17:20)
"After you have entered the land that Jehovah your god has given to you, have occupied and settled it, you may say, "Let's have a king to rule over us like all the neighboring countries do." Be sure to accept as your a king only he who has been selected by Jehovah your god. He must be a fellow countryman; do not pick a foreigner, one who is not of your people, to rule over you. The king should not breed a large stable of horses for himself or bid his people to go to Egypt to acquire more for him, because Jehovah has told you, "Do not go back that way again!” He must not take too many wives, for they are apt turn his mind from the way of Jehovah. Nor should he amass for himself an excessive amount of silver and gold.
"When he assumes the throne as king, he must keep a record of these instructions for himself in a book, copied from that of the Levitical priests. He is have it with him always and read it every day of his life so that he may learn to revere Jehovah his god, to keep all the words of his laws, and to execute these statutes. He must not come to feel himself superior to his fellow Israelites or alter the law in any way, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel."
Notes
1. Jehovah demands that Israelite kings do not seek to acquire too much personal wealth, horses, wives, gold and silver. Good luck with that. Ironically, King Solomon of Israel, who built the Jehovan Temple, was famed for his wealth and the size of his harem. He seemed to get on OK, but later, King Herod was not totally accepted by the people of Israel because he was regarded as a foreigner.
2. The king is not supposed to have too many horses and must on no account go to Egypt to stock his stables. At this time the Israelites had cattle and sheep, goats and donkeys, but there has been no reference to horses. The breeds of horses existent at that time were not used as beasts of burden. Donkeys pulled carts, oxen pulled plows, and everybody walked. In the 16th Century BC the Hyksos introduced the horse-drawn war chariot to Egypt. Outside of the steppes of Eurasian, horses were never used as mounts until about 800 BC -- and it would be hundreds of years before effective bridles were invented. It seems unlikely that an Israelite king would want horses for himself, unless the reference here is to war horses.
3. The king is suppose to have a written copy of Jehovah's laws to refer to on a daily basis. Great, only at this time, as has been oft noted, the Hebrews lived in a preliterate culture. There were no alphabets, no writing, save Egyptian hieroglyphics and Babylonian cuneiform. Even if Moses probably knew the latter, it is unlikely that the Israelites would have used either. It had been centuries since the Israelites had been in contact with Mesopotamia, and considering the animosity Jehovah harbored against the Egyptians, it is improbable that he would have sanctioned the use of their writing. It is assumed, of course, that the writing would be in Hebrew, but that was a language that would not be developed for hundreds of years. This is another indication that the writers of the Bible were entirely clueless about conditions in former times and were woefully deluded about the true history of their own people.
Justice in Israel
(Deuteronomy 16:18 - 17:13)
"In all the towns that Jehovah your god is giving you, you should appoint judges and officials for each of the tribes. They must pass judgment fairly, and not pervert justice by showing partiality or by taking a bribe (for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and twist the words of the righteous). Pursue justice and justice alone so that you may prosper when you take possession of the land Jehovah your god is giving you.
"You must not plant any kind of tree to be worshiped as an Asherah or erect a stone image for worship beside the altar you have built for Jehovah your god, for such things are detested by him.
"Do not sacrifice to Jehovah your god cattle or sheep that possess any flaw or defect, for that would be offensive to Jehovah.
"When you have settled in the towns Jehovah your god is giving you, it may happen that a man or woman does evil in the sight of Jehovah your god and violates his pact by serving and bowing down to other gods, or by worshiping the sun or the moon or other heavenly bodies -- which I have forbidden. If there is such a report and you come to hear of it, you must investigate the matter thoroughly. If it is established that such an abominable act has been committed in Israel, then the man or woman who has committed it must be taken to the town gates and stoned to death. Evidence must always be presented by 2 or 3 witnesses. No one should be sentenced to death on the testimony of a single witness. The first stones must be hurled by the hands of the witnesses, after which the rest of the populace join in. The evil in your midst is thusly purged.
"If a case arises in your towns that proves difficult to decide, whether it be a determination of what sort of homicide or assault may have been committed or some matter involving conflicting legal rights, then take it to a place of worship chosen by Jehovah your god and present it to the Levite priests or to whatever judge is currently in office. Consult with them and they will render a verdict for you. You must carry out the decisions they give you at a place of worship chosen by Jehovah your god. Carefully take note of all the instructions they tell you. Abide by their interpretation of the law and follow their directions in regard to carrying out the verdict. Do not alter their judgment in any way, by making it either harsher or more lenient. Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or the priest that represents Jehovah your god and rejects their decision must be put to death to purge the evil from Israel. All the people will hear of it, be afraid, and never again act with such contempt.”
Notes
1. There is a continued emphasis upon the exclusive worship of Jehovah, for that seems to be the common element, the glue that holds together the tribes of the nation of Israel. To pursue, worship, and serve other gods is more than sacrilege and a betrayal of Jehovah, it is a repudiation of national identity, justifying heresy and apostasy as capital offenses. In reality, though, the Hebrews were, through most of their history, not at all monotheistic nor was the worship of gods other than Jehovah an anomaly, even if it might have been an abomination to the Levite priests of Jehovah.
2. Asherah were living trees or wooden poles set up near Canaanite shrines to honor Asherah, a fertility goddess.
3. The reliance upon corroborated testimony and evidence resulting from an honest investigation, as well as insistence upon unbiased and incorruptible judges provide a sound basis for a justice system. That they were espoused by the Israelites, a group of primitive nomads, is admirable. But one wonders, though, whether these concepts were actually honored during the time of Moses or whether they were developed later when Hebrew civilization, no longer nomadic, had became more sophisticated. The lapse in time from when the events in the Books of Moses took place to when they were first recorded and to when the records might have been compiled, edited, added to, and censured is many hundreds of years. Therefore, we can never know what aspects of Hebrew law and custom are contemporary with the "historical" account and what are anachronistic.
4. The provision that the witnesses against a law breaker must be the primary executioners would seem a bit barbaric to us, but does make some rough sense. And the idea that severity of punishment is necessary to prevent future crime is certainly something we understand. However much as deterrent sentences have been and still are imposed, they do not constitute justice, which demands that the punishment be in proportion to the seriousness of the crime and that law breakers are punished only for their own crimes and not for future possible crimes committed by others. There seems to be an assurance here that putting to death those who are guilty of heresy or of ignoring or altering the judgment of a priest will generate such fear that it will scotch any potential law breaker. Experience and long history have shown, though, that draconian punishments, such as making minor crimes capital offenses, have rarely had the deterrent effect expected; more often than not they are counterproductive.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Punishment for Apostasy
(Deuteronomy 13:1 - 13:18)
"A prophet or a diviner of dreams may appear among you and foretell wonders and miraculous events. These wonders or miraculous events may come to pass. But, if he will then urge you, 'Come, let us seek out other gods' (gods you have not known) 'and worship them,’ you must not heed the words of that prophet or diviner of dreams. This is Jehovah your god testing you, to see if you really love him with all your heart and soul. It is Jehovah your god that you must follow and him you must revere, keeping his commandments and obeying his words, worshiping him and remaining faithful to him. Because he has incited rebellion against Jehovah your god, who brought you out of Egypt and released you bondage, and because he is seducing you away from the paths Jehovah has taught you to walk, that prophet or diviner of dreams should be put to death. You must purge your community of such evil.
"Your brother, the son of your mother, your son or daughter, the wife you love, or your dearest friend may secretly entice you, 'Let us worship other gods,' (gods known neither to you nor to your ancestors, perhaps gods of neighboring peoples or those of far-flung folk who dwell on one end of the earth or the other.) You must not heed them or be persuaded by them. Nor should you show them any sympathy. Do not spare them or shield them. They must be put to death! And you must throw the first stone. Then, all the rest of the people should join in, stoning to death those who are guilty of trying to lure you away from the worship of Jehovah your god, who rescued you from the Egypt, the land where you were slaves. All of Israel will then come to hear of it and be so fearful that no one among you will again perpetrate such wickedness.
"When you have begun to settle in the towns Jehovah your god is giving you to live in, you may hear of certain men among you, followers of evil, that have led the people of a town astray, declaring, "Let's go and worship other gods,' (gods that were unknown to you). In such a case, you should inquire into the matter and conduct a thorough investigation. If it is determined to be true that such an abomination has occurred among you, then you must put the town to the sword. The town itself should be destroyed utterly as a divine sacrifice along with all its inhabitants, even the livestock. You should collect all the goods of the town in the main square, then burn the town and its goods as an offering to Jehovah your god. It should remain forever a ruin and never be rebuilt. Save for your own use none of the town's goods marked for destruction, so that Jehovah will quell the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and compassion. And he will make you multiply, as he promised your forefathers, if you obey Jehovah your god, keep his commandments, which I am giving you here today, and do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah your god."
Notes
1. Condemnation of the false prophet does not depend upon the accuracy of his prophecies, but upon his divine allegiance. A prophet who favors some god other than Jehovah can, it is implied, make accurate, even miraculous prophecies, but he is apparently not a legitimate prophet unless he has the sanction of Jehovah. It is implied that Jehovah allows the false prophet to test his own adherents. The Jehovan must not be swayed to worship other gods simply because their prophets and diviners have a good track record. This is similar to the Christian belief that God allows Satan to tempt believers to sin, just so the strength of their belief can be tested.
2. Jehovah's insistence upon religious orthodoxy and uniformity and the draconian punishments for non-conformance and apostasy put to shame the harshest theocracies, which always find it necessary to impress a uniformity of belief and enforce an adherence to "right" thought. Here, we are told a man must turn in his family member or friend if suspected of urging the worship of gods other than Jehovah. A modern parallel would be Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia where one was obliged to inform on the family member or friend if any action or remark of his suggested a lack of dedication to the regime. Among the Israelites -- to make matters worse -- the accuser must be the lead executioner in stoning to death his family member or friend. (Don’t think even the Nazis thought of that one!) Dedication to Jehovah must, of course, supersede devotion to family or loyalty to friends, but that it should be taken to such hideous extremes is appalling. And one wonders what abuses this provision might have permitted and encouraged. For example, if a man wanted to get rid of an enemy, an unwanted wife, or troublesome brother, all he had to do was to go to the priest and accuse the person of persuading him to worship some god other than Jehovah. He could then head the stoning party and kill the person himself. --- Modern dictatorships cannot tolerate dissidents because they threaten the civil order and the stability of a government whose legitimacy is not derived from the consent of the government, but from power and often a personality cult that borders on religious worship. It has been so throughout history: man, a rebellious and headstrong creature who is continually tempted to think for himself, can only be kept in line, herded into common allegiance and common thought, through the imposition of force and the threat of terror. Those who rule by force know this. And so does Jehovah, who is no different than the modern totalitarian dictator: " believe in me," he says, "obey me, and you will be rewarded; show one sign of disloyalty to me, one act of defiance, and you will punished with death and utter destruction."
3. The complete destruction the town that strays from the worship of Jehovah, like the punishment of individuals who proselytize for other gods, does not constitute an act of justice, but terrorism, to force obedience and conformity through fear. Indeed Moses/Jehovah admits as much.
"A prophet or a diviner of dreams may appear among you and foretell wonders and miraculous events. These wonders or miraculous events may come to pass. But, if he will then urge you, 'Come, let us seek out other gods' (gods you have not known) 'and worship them,’ you must not heed the words of that prophet or diviner of dreams. This is Jehovah your god testing you, to see if you really love him with all your heart and soul. It is Jehovah your god that you must follow and him you must revere, keeping his commandments and obeying his words, worshiping him and remaining faithful to him. Because he has incited rebellion against Jehovah your god, who brought you out of Egypt and released you bondage, and because he is seducing you away from the paths Jehovah has taught you to walk, that prophet or diviner of dreams should be put to death. You must purge your community of such evil.
"Your brother, the son of your mother, your son or daughter, the wife you love, or your dearest friend may secretly entice you, 'Let us worship other gods,' (gods known neither to you nor to your ancestors, perhaps gods of neighboring peoples or those of far-flung folk who dwell on one end of the earth or the other.) You must not heed them or be persuaded by them. Nor should you show them any sympathy. Do not spare them or shield them. They must be put to death! And you must throw the first stone. Then, all the rest of the people should join in, stoning to death those who are guilty of trying to lure you away from the worship of Jehovah your god, who rescued you from the Egypt, the land where you were slaves. All of Israel will then come to hear of it and be so fearful that no one among you will again perpetrate such wickedness.
"When you have begun to settle in the towns Jehovah your god is giving you to live in, you may hear of certain men among you, followers of evil, that have led the people of a town astray, declaring, "Let's go and worship other gods,' (gods that were unknown to you). In such a case, you should inquire into the matter and conduct a thorough investigation. If it is determined to be true that such an abomination has occurred among you, then you must put the town to the sword. The town itself should be destroyed utterly as a divine sacrifice along with all its inhabitants, even the livestock. You should collect all the goods of the town in the main square, then burn the town and its goods as an offering to Jehovah your god. It should remain forever a ruin and never be rebuilt. Save for your own use none of the town's goods marked for destruction, so that Jehovah will quell the fierceness of his anger and show you mercy and compassion. And he will make you multiply, as he promised your forefathers, if you obey Jehovah your god, keep his commandments, which I am giving you here today, and do what is right in the eyes of Jehovah your god."
Notes
1. Condemnation of the false prophet does not depend upon the accuracy of his prophecies, but upon his divine allegiance. A prophet who favors some god other than Jehovah can, it is implied, make accurate, even miraculous prophecies, but he is apparently not a legitimate prophet unless he has the sanction of Jehovah. It is implied that Jehovah allows the false prophet to test his own adherents. The Jehovan must not be swayed to worship other gods simply because their prophets and diviners have a good track record. This is similar to the Christian belief that God allows Satan to tempt believers to sin, just so the strength of their belief can be tested.
2. Jehovah's insistence upon religious orthodoxy and uniformity and the draconian punishments for non-conformance and apostasy put to shame the harshest theocracies, which always find it necessary to impress a uniformity of belief and enforce an adherence to "right" thought. Here, we are told a man must turn in his family member or friend if suspected of urging the worship of gods other than Jehovah. A modern parallel would be Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia where one was obliged to inform on the family member or friend if any action or remark of his suggested a lack of dedication to the regime. Among the Israelites -- to make matters worse -- the accuser must be the lead executioner in stoning to death his family member or friend. (Don’t think even the Nazis thought of that one!) Dedication to Jehovah must, of course, supersede devotion to family or loyalty to friends, but that it should be taken to such hideous extremes is appalling. And one wonders what abuses this provision might have permitted and encouraged. For example, if a man wanted to get rid of an enemy, an unwanted wife, or troublesome brother, all he had to do was to go to the priest and accuse the person of persuading him to worship some god other than Jehovah. He could then head the stoning party and kill the person himself. --- Modern dictatorships cannot tolerate dissidents because they threaten the civil order and the stability of a government whose legitimacy is not derived from the consent of the government, but from power and often a personality cult that borders on religious worship. It has been so throughout history: man, a rebellious and headstrong creature who is continually tempted to think for himself, can only be kept in line, herded into common allegiance and common thought, through the imposition of force and the threat of terror. Those who rule by force know this. And so does Jehovah, who is no different than the modern totalitarian dictator: " believe in me," he says, "obey me, and you will be rewarded; show one sign of disloyalty to me, one act of defiance, and you will punished with death and utter destruction."
3. The complete destruction the town that strays from the worship of Jehovah, like the punishment of individuals who proselytize for other gods, does not constitute an act of justice, but terrorism, to force obedience and conformity through fear. Indeed Moses/Jehovah admits as much.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Religious Practices
(Deuteronomy 12:1 - 12:32)
"These are the laws and decrees you must carefully follow when you settle in the land that Jehovah, the god of your forefathers, is giving you to possess for as long as you live. When you expel the peoples that currently inhabit the land, you must obliterate all the places where they have worshiped their gods, whether they be on a high mountain, in the hills, or under a shade tree. You must overturn their altars, smash their pillars, burn their Asherim poles, and chop to bits their carved idols so that the names of their gods is erased from these sites.
"You must not worship Jehovah you god in this manner. Rather, you must go to a site that Jehovah himself has chosen to establish as his habitation, the place where his name is to be honored among the tribes of Israel. It is there that you should go, bringing your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and sacred contributions, your votive and voluntary offerings, as well as the firstborn of your flocks and herds. It is there before the altar of Jehovah your god that you and your families will feast and celebrate all the undertakings that Jehovah your god has blessed.
"You will abandon the current practice, with each man worshiping in the way that seems fitting in his own eyes. You have not yet ended your wanderings and arrived at the destination where you will receive the inheritance Jehovah your god is giving you. But after you have crossed the Jordan to settle in the land Jehovah your god is giving you as an inheritance, he will give you a respite from fighting all your enemies so that you can live in security. Then you must bring everything I command you, your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and sacred contributions, and choice votive offerings dedicated to Jehovah to the site that Jehovah your god has established as the habitation where his name will be honored. You must celebrate there before the altar of Jehovah your god -- you, your families and slaves, and Levites who have inherited no portion of your land, but live in your towns. Be careful not to present your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see, but offer them in the way I will instruct you and only at the places Jehovah has chosen within the territory of each tribe.
"Even so you may butcher your livestock in any of your town and eat your fill of the meat that Jehovah your god has blessed you with. All of you, whether ritually pure or impure, may partake freely of the meat, as you would a gazelle or a deer. But drink not the blood; instead pour it out on the ground like water. Within your towns you must not eat the grain, drink the new wine, or use the olive oil set aside as a tithe. And you must not eat the firstborn of your flocks and herds, any of the votive offering you are making, or any voluntary offering or sacred contribution. You must eat them only before the altar of Jehovah at the place that Jehovah your god has designated -- you, your families, your slaves, and the Levites who dwell in your towns. And it is before the altar of Jehovah your god that you should celebrate all you have accomplished. (Take care, as long as you live in the land, not to neglect the Levites!)
"When Jehovah your god has enlarged your territory as he has promised, you may exclaim, "I want meat!" because you crave it. Well, you may eat meat whenever you wish. If a place designated by Jehovah your god to honor his name is too far away, you may butcher any of the flocks or herds Jehovah has given you and eat the meat in your own town, as I have instructed you. Anyone, regardless of whether they are ritually pure or not, may consume the meat, as one would that of a gazelle or deer. But do not drink the blood, for the life force is contained in the blood and the life force must not be consumed with the meat. Instead pour the blood onto the ground like water. Do not consume the blood, for all will go well with you and with your children after you when you do what is pleasing in the eyes of Jehovah.
“Take your sacred contributions and votive offerings to the place chosen by Jehovah. You must offer the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of Jehovah your god. The blood must be poured out on the altar, but the meat you may eat. Be careful to obey the regulations I am giving you; all will thus go well with you and with your children after you when you do what is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah.
"When Jehovah your god goes ahead of you and expels the nations you will displace, when you have driven them out and settled in their land, do not be tempted to inquire about their gods and ask, 'How did these nations worship their god, for I want to do the same?’ You must not worship Jehovah your god in their way, because they have done for their gods abominable things that Jehovah detests. Why they even burn their children as sacrifices to their gods!
"All the commands I give you, you must do, neither adding anything to them nor subtracting anything from them.”
Notes
1. Moses not only orders the destruction of all holy places of foreign gods, but advocates something quite significant, the institutionalization of Jehovan worship and the regulation of religious practice. This is an advancement of social order and national development. But it is also a major assertion of the collective over the individual, of the ceremonial over the mystical, of the religious establishment over the individual adherent. Laymen, private persons, will no longer have the freedom to worship Jehovah in their own way. (They were long since denied the freedom to worship any other deity.) Indeed, every dictate of Moses (Jehovah) results in the abrogation of personal rights. However, it must be remembered that personal rights were scarcely thought of at this early time. And, on the face of it, it does seem fitting that Jehovah himself should dictate the terms of his own worship! Ancient civil governments were nearly all theocratic to some extent, but that being set up by the Israelites promises to be extremely so -- and with a degree of religious intolerance that is total.
2. Throughout history it has been very common for a new religion to appropriate and make its own the sacred sites of the religion it has displaced. Christian churches were built on the sites of pagan shrines. Christian churches were made over into Islamic mosques. A holy site is a holy site. This practice, though, is condemned by Moses, for he wants nothing pertaining to foreign religions corrupting the exclusive worship of Jehovah.
3. The Israelites who, the texts suggest, have been subsisting solely on manna for the past 40 years are about to come off their diet and eat meat again. Whether or not their digestive systems will readily adapt to this, Jehovah sanctions it. Now that the Israelites are no longer in the desert, meat and other types of regular food will be readily available to them. And it would be no longer practical for Jehovah to feed his people with daily drops of manna. He was able to do so when their population was concentrated in a single camp, but not now they are to be spread across an entire country. That the Israelites were on a manna-only diet, though, is inconsistent with other parts of the narrative, which refer to the Israelites having vast flocks and herds. Were they not eating their livestock? The reference here to gazelles and deer certainly suggests that they were being hunted and eaten, but that the livestock would only now serve as food. The inconsistencies here are considerable.
4. The annoyingly frequent references to the Levites certainly suggests what class was behind putting together the biblical narrative. The Israelites are continually exhorted to honor the rights of the Levites, who, as a priestly caste, is more a privileged than a deprived tribe.
5. The prohibition against consuming blood is unclear. Does it mean only the drinking of blood or does it preclude having a rare beefsteak? It was reasonable for the ancients to conclude that blood contains the life force, since they could see that when a person loses too much blood he dies. They could have had no true understanding of the importance and nature of blood and circulation -- and Jehovah, who has a vested interest in keeping his worshipers ignorant, did not see fit to enlighten them on the matter -- or on any other scientific or practical matter.
6. Jehovah disparages the religious practices of his fellow gods, citing the sacrifice of children. Granted he eventually changed his mind about it, but didn't Jehovah, or some entity claiming to be Jehovah, demand that Abraham burn his son Isaac on an altar as a sacrifice to him?
"These are the laws and decrees you must carefully follow when you settle in the land that Jehovah, the god of your forefathers, is giving you to possess for as long as you live. When you expel the peoples that currently inhabit the land, you must obliterate all the places where they have worshiped their gods, whether they be on a high mountain, in the hills, or under a shade tree. You must overturn their altars, smash their pillars, burn their Asherim poles, and chop to bits their carved idols so that the names of their gods is erased from these sites.
"You must not worship Jehovah you god in this manner. Rather, you must go to a site that Jehovah himself has chosen to establish as his habitation, the place where his name is to be honored among the tribes of Israel. It is there that you should go, bringing your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and sacred contributions, your votive and voluntary offerings, as well as the firstborn of your flocks and herds. It is there before the altar of Jehovah your god that you and your families will feast and celebrate all the undertakings that Jehovah your god has blessed.
"You will abandon the current practice, with each man worshiping in the way that seems fitting in his own eyes. You have not yet ended your wanderings and arrived at the destination where you will receive the inheritance Jehovah your god is giving you. But after you have crossed the Jordan to settle in the land Jehovah your god is giving you as an inheritance, he will give you a respite from fighting all your enemies so that you can live in security. Then you must bring everything I command you, your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and sacred contributions, and choice votive offerings dedicated to Jehovah to the site that Jehovah your god has established as the habitation where his name will be honored. You must celebrate there before the altar of Jehovah your god -- you, your families and slaves, and Levites who have inherited no portion of your land, but live in your towns. Be careful not to present your burnt offerings at any place you happen to see, but offer them in the way I will instruct you and only at the places Jehovah has chosen within the territory of each tribe.
"Even so you may butcher your livestock in any of your town and eat your fill of the meat that Jehovah your god has blessed you with. All of you, whether ritually pure or impure, may partake freely of the meat, as you would a gazelle or a deer. But drink not the blood; instead pour it out on the ground like water. Within your towns you must not eat the grain, drink the new wine, or use the olive oil set aside as a tithe. And you must not eat the firstborn of your flocks and herds, any of the votive offering you are making, or any voluntary offering or sacred contribution. You must eat them only before the altar of Jehovah at the place that Jehovah your god has designated -- you, your families, your slaves, and the Levites who dwell in your towns. And it is before the altar of Jehovah your god that you should celebrate all you have accomplished. (Take care, as long as you live in the land, not to neglect the Levites!)
"When Jehovah your god has enlarged your territory as he has promised, you may exclaim, "I want meat!" because you crave it. Well, you may eat meat whenever you wish. If a place designated by Jehovah your god to honor his name is too far away, you may butcher any of the flocks or herds Jehovah has given you and eat the meat in your own town, as I have instructed you. Anyone, regardless of whether they are ritually pure or not, may consume the meat, as one would that of a gazelle or deer. But do not drink the blood, for the life force is contained in the blood and the life force must not be consumed with the meat. Instead pour the blood onto the ground like water. Do not consume the blood, for all will go well with you and with your children after you when you do what is pleasing in the eyes of Jehovah.
“Take your sacred contributions and votive offerings to the place chosen by Jehovah. You must offer the meat and the blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of Jehovah your god. The blood must be poured out on the altar, but the meat you may eat. Be careful to obey the regulations I am giving you; all will thus go well with you and with your children after you when you do what is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah.
"When Jehovah your god goes ahead of you and expels the nations you will displace, when you have driven them out and settled in their land, do not be tempted to inquire about their gods and ask, 'How did these nations worship their god, for I want to do the same?’ You must not worship Jehovah your god in their way, because they have done for their gods abominable things that Jehovah detests. Why they even burn their children as sacrifices to their gods!
"All the commands I give you, you must do, neither adding anything to them nor subtracting anything from them.”
Notes
1. Moses not only orders the destruction of all holy places of foreign gods, but advocates something quite significant, the institutionalization of Jehovan worship and the regulation of religious practice. This is an advancement of social order and national development. But it is also a major assertion of the collective over the individual, of the ceremonial over the mystical, of the religious establishment over the individual adherent. Laymen, private persons, will no longer have the freedom to worship Jehovah in their own way. (They were long since denied the freedom to worship any other deity.) Indeed, every dictate of Moses (Jehovah) results in the abrogation of personal rights. However, it must be remembered that personal rights were scarcely thought of at this early time. And, on the face of it, it does seem fitting that Jehovah himself should dictate the terms of his own worship! Ancient civil governments were nearly all theocratic to some extent, but that being set up by the Israelites promises to be extremely so -- and with a degree of religious intolerance that is total.
2. Throughout history it has been very common for a new religion to appropriate and make its own the sacred sites of the religion it has displaced. Christian churches were built on the sites of pagan shrines. Christian churches were made over into Islamic mosques. A holy site is a holy site. This practice, though, is condemned by Moses, for he wants nothing pertaining to foreign religions corrupting the exclusive worship of Jehovah.
3. The Israelites who, the texts suggest, have been subsisting solely on manna for the past 40 years are about to come off their diet and eat meat again. Whether or not their digestive systems will readily adapt to this, Jehovah sanctions it. Now that the Israelites are no longer in the desert, meat and other types of regular food will be readily available to them. And it would be no longer practical for Jehovah to feed his people with daily drops of manna. He was able to do so when their population was concentrated in a single camp, but not now they are to be spread across an entire country. That the Israelites were on a manna-only diet, though, is inconsistent with other parts of the narrative, which refer to the Israelites having vast flocks and herds. Were they not eating their livestock? The reference here to gazelles and deer certainly suggests that they were being hunted and eaten, but that the livestock would only now serve as food. The inconsistencies here are considerable.
4. The annoyingly frequent references to the Levites certainly suggests what class was behind putting together the biblical narrative. The Israelites are continually exhorted to honor the rights of the Levites, who, as a priestly caste, is more a privileged than a deprived tribe.
5. The prohibition against consuming blood is unclear. Does it mean only the drinking of blood or does it preclude having a rare beefsteak? It was reasonable for the ancients to conclude that blood contains the life force, since they could see that when a person loses too much blood he dies. They could have had no true understanding of the importance and nature of blood and circulation -- and Jehovah, who has a vested interest in keeping his worshipers ignorant, did not see fit to enlighten them on the matter -- or on any other scientific or practical matter.
6. Jehovah disparages the religious practices of his fellow gods, citing the sacrifice of children. Granted he eventually changed his mind about it, but didn't Jehovah, or some entity claiming to be Jehovah, demand that Abraham burn his son Isaac on an altar as a sacrifice to him?
Obedience to Jehovah's Laws
(Deuteronomy 10:12 - 11:32)
"And now, Israel, what does Jehovah your god demand of you, but to revere Jehovah your god, to live according to his ways, to love him, to worship Jehovah your god with all your heart and soul, and to keep the commandments and decrees that he gives you for your own benefit. Look, to Jehovah your god belong the heights of the heavens and the earth with all that is on it. Yet, Jehovah chose your ancestors as the object of his love, and he chose you, their descendants, in preference to all other nations, as we have seen today. Therefore, purify your mind that you may no longer be so headstrong. For Jehovah your god is the god of gods, the master of masters, the great and mighty and magnificent god. He shows no partiality to any person and he accepts no bribes. He delivers justice to the orphan and the widow. He is compassionate to the resident alien and provides him with food and clothing. (So you, too, must show compassion for the resident alien, for you yourself were foreigners in Egypt.) Revere Jehovah your god and worship him. Be faithful to him and, when you take an oath, use his name. He is your glory and he is your god, the one who has performed the marvelous miracles you saw with your own eyes. When your forefathers emigrated to Egypt, they were but 70 individuals; now Jehovah your god has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
"You should therefore love Jehovah your god and always do what he requires of you, following his laws, decrees, and commandments. Keep in mind that today I am not speaking to your children, who did not feel the effect of the discipline dispensed by Jehovah your god or witness his greatness, his might and power. They did not see the miracles and the acts he performed in Egypt against the Pharaoh and his entire country. They did not see what Jehovah did to the armies of Egypt, to their horses and chariots, how he made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them when they were pursuing you, and how he destroyed them forever. Nor did your children see what Jehovah did for you when you were in the desert, before you arrived at this place. And they didn't see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (sons of Eliab and descendants of Reuben), when the earth opened up in the middle of the Israelite camp and swallowed them, along with their households, tents, and every living thing that was theirs. But you have seen with your own eyes all these mighty deeds that Jehovah did perform.
"Therefore take care to obey all the commands I am giving you this day so that you will have the strength to invade and conquer the land you are crossing the River Jordan to possess and that you may live long and prosper in the land Jehovah promised your ancestors he would give to them and to their descendants -- a land flowing with milk and honey. The land you are entering to take possession of is not like the land from which you came, Egypt, where you planted seeds and irrigated them by hand like in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that soak up the water that falls as rain from the heavens. It is a land nurtured by Jehovah your god, who watches over it from the beginning of the year till its end.
"And if you will faithfully obey the commands I am giving you here today, to revere Jehovah your god and to worship him with all your heart and soul, then he will send rain for the land in season, the first rain of autumn and later rain in the spring so that you may harvest your grain, new wine, and olive oil. And he will provide ample pasturage for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied. But take care that your mind be not deceived; don’t be led astray to worship other gods, for then the anger of Jehovah will be aroused; he will close the firmament so that the rain will not fall. The land then will produce no crops, and you will quickly perish in the good land that Jehovah is giving you.
"Let them be ingrained in your hearts and minds, these words of mine. Wear them like an armband round your wrist or a headband round your forehead. Teach them to your children. Discuss them when you’re sitting at home and when you are walking along the road, before you go to bed and when you get up. Inscribe them on the door frames of your house and on your gates so that you and your children may live in the land that Jehovah vowed to give to your forefathers as long as the heavens will exist above the earth.
"If you are careful to follow the commandments I am giving to you, to love Jehovah your god, to live according to his laws, and to remain faithful to him, Jehovah will drive out all the nations before you, even though they be stronger and mightier than you; you will then be able to take over their land. Wherever you set foot, that land will belong to you. The boundaries of your country will extend from the southern desert north to Lebanon, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand against you, for wherever you may go throughout the land, Jehovah your god will make the people fear and dread you; so is his promise.
"Take note that I am bringing you a blessing and a curse -- a blessing, if you will obey the commandments of Jehovah your god that I am giving you here today, a curse, if you disobey the commandments of Jehovah your god and reject him by worshiping foreign gods formerly unknown to you. When Jehovah your god brings you into the land and helps you to occupy it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal. (These two mountains are west of the River Jordan in the land of the Canaanites that dwell in the Jordan River Valley, near the town of Gilgal and the oak grove of Moreh.) You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and occupy the land Jehovah your god is giving you. When you have conquered it and are settled there, be sure to obey all the decrees and laws I am giving you today."
Notes
1. Again, Moses is speaking to the generation of the Exodus and not to their children. But Jehovah caused that generation to pass away so that no member of it (save Joshua and Caleb) would set foot on the Promised Land -- at least according to Numbers. There seems to be a gross incompatibility between the narrative of Numbers and that of Deuteronomy, where most of this generation is still alive to hear Moses' sermon.
2. The multiplication of Israel's population during their time in bondage in Israel that is cited here is not even remotely plausible. Even if every man has ten children, the resultant population after five generations is well under a million. Jehovah, while bragging about how he has spurred the Israelites growth rate, concedes that the enemy nations are more populous. He extols the strength of Israel and then portrays them as underdogs, thus having it both ways.
3. Jehovah professes compassion for the resident alien, yet he orders the extermination of every foreign country Israel is to come into contact with. Where are these foreign residents to come from when the population of foreign countries is to be exterminated?
4. Jehovah, who claims to be the Creator, the universal God, makes the Israelites his Chosen People, from among all the peoples in the world, yet he never says why. Indeed, he never refers to any Israelite virtues, only their faults, mostly their obstinacy and disobedience. A list of ancient peoples who believed they were divine favorites would be a long one.
5. The Promised Land is praised as being more fertile than Egypt, which must rely upon irrigation from the Nile. Palestine is in fact quite arid and today only 17% of land in modern Israel is arable (although this would included the Negev desert.) In ancient times it was probably more fertile and was in fact famous for its olive groves and fruit trees. Save for rare occasions when the Nile floods did not come, Egypt, though, could boast of a tremendous agricultural output supporting a large population. Advanced methods of basin irrigation and horticulture, which Jehovah belittles, contributed to that output. During Roman times Egypt was not only the richest province, it was the breadbasket of the empire. Few would have regarded Canaan as preferable from an agrarian standpoint.
6. One presumes the command to write Jehovah's commandments on doorposts and gates is figurative. Who among the population would actually be literate? And, at that time, literate in what language, when Hebrew had not yet been developed and there were no alphabets?
7. The boundaries given for the Promised Land are those given to Abraham. However, they would seem to include land Jehovah had earlier conceded to Moab and Ammon. The extension of the eastern border all the way to the Euphrates River is not consistent with the eastern boundary given in Numbers and includes land that would never be occupied by the Israelites (save perhaps during the days of King Solomon) or considered by later generations to be part of the Promised Land.
8. Jehovah's gifts always come with strings attached, his blessings, conditional. Obedience is always coerced with threats. The Israelites are not only blessed by Jehovah, but also cursed. If the Israelites are disobedient, then he will stop the rain from falling. He will do this by closing the firmament, the dome the encloses the flat earth and separates it and the sky from the ocean above that is the source of rain water. (Jehovah hasn’t figured out evaporation and condensation and is ignorant as to the origin of rainfall.) Therefore, if there is a drought, the ancient Israelite would naturally conclude it to be an act of Jehovah intended to punish sin. Thus everything in the natural world becomes, at least potentially, not only an act of God, but an expression of divine pleasure or displeasure.
"And now, Israel, what does Jehovah your god demand of you, but to revere Jehovah your god, to live according to his ways, to love him, to worship Jehovah your god with all your heart and soul, and to keep the commandments and decrees that he gives you for your own benefit. Look, to Jehovah your god belong the heights of the heavens and the earth with all that is on it. Yet, Jehovah chose your ancestors as the object of his love, and he chose you, their descendants, in preference to all other nations, as we have seen today. Therefore, purify your mind that you may no longer be so headstrong. For Jehovah your god is the god of gods, the master of masters, the great and mighty and magnificent god. He shows no partiality to any person and he accepts no bribes. He delivers justice to the orphan and the widow. He is compassionate to the resident alien and provides him with food and clothing. (So you, too, must show compassion for the resident alien, for you yourself were foreigners in Egypt.) Revere Jehovah your god and worship him. Be faithful to him and, when you take an oath, use his name. He is your glory and he is your god, the one who has performed the marvelous miracles you saw with your own eyes. When your forefathers emigrated to Egypt, they were but 70 individuals; now Jehovah your god has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
"You should therefore love Jehovah your god and always do what he requires of you, following his laws, decrees, and commandments. Keep in mind that today I am not speaking to your children, who did not feel the effect of the discipline dispensed by Jehovah your god or witness his greatness, his might and power. They did not see the miracles and the acts he performed in Egypt against the Pharaoh and his entire country. They did not see what Jehovah did to the armies of Egypt, to their horses and chariots, how he made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them when they were pursuing you, and how he destroyed them forever. Nor did your children see what Jehovah did for you when you were in the desert, before you arrived at this place. And they didn't see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (sons of Eliab and descendants of Reuben), when the earth opened up in the middle of the Israelite camp and swallowed them, along with their households, tents, and every living thing that was theirs. But you have seen with your own eyes all these mighty deeds that Jehovah did perform.
"Therefore take care to obey all the commands I am giving you this day so that you will have the strength to invade and conquer the land you are crossing the River Jordan to possess and that you may live long and prosper in the land Jehovah promised your ancestors he would give to them and to their descendants -- a land flowing with milk and honey. The land you are entering to take possession of is not like the land from which you came, Egypt, where you planted seeds and irrigated them by hand like in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that soak up the water that falls as rain from the heavens. It is a land nurtured by Jehovah your god, who watches over it from the beginning of the year till its end.
"And if you will faithfully obey the commands I am giving you here today, to revere Jehovah your god and to worship him with all your heart and soul, then he will send rain for the land in season, the first rain of autumn and later rain in the spring so that you may harvest your grain, new wine, and olive oil. And he will provide ample pasturage for your livestock. You will eat and be satisfied. But take care that your mind be not deceived; don’t be led astray to worship other gods, for then the anger of Jehovah will be aroused; he will close the firmament so that the rain will not fall. The land then will produce no crops, and you will quickly perish in the good land that Jehovah is giving you.
"Let them be ingrained in your hearts and minds, these words of mine. Wear them like an armband round your wrist or a headband round your forehead. Teach them to your children. Discuss them when you’re sitting at home and when you are walking along the road, before you go to bed and when you get up. Inscribe them on the door frames of your house and on your gates so that you and your children may live in the land that Jehovah vowed to give to your forefathers as long as the heavens will exist above the earth.
"If you are careful to follow the commandments I am giving to you, to love Jehovah your god, to live according to his laws, and to remain faithful to him, Jehovah will drive out all the nations before you, even though they be stronger and mightier than you; you will then be able to take over their land. Wherever you set foot, that land will belong to you. The boundaries of your country will extend from the southern desert north to Lebanon, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand against you, for wherever you may go throughout the land, Jehovah your god will make the people fear and dread you; so is his promise.
"Take note that I am bringing you a blessing and a curse -- a blessing, if you will obey the commandments of Jehovah your god that I am giving you here today, a curse, if you disobey the commandments of Jehovah your god and reject him by worshiping foreign gods formerly unknown to you. When Jehovah your god brings you into the land and helps you to occupy it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal. (These two mountains are west of the River Jordan in the land of the Canaanites that dwell in the Jordan River Valley, near the town of Gilgal and the oak grove of Moreh.) You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and occupy the land Jehovah your god is giving you. When you have conquered it and are settled there, be sure to obey all the decrees and laws I am giving you today."
Notes
1. Again, Moses is speaking to the generation of the Exodus and not to their children. But Jehovah caused that generation to pass away so that no member of it (save Joshua and Caleb) would set foot on the Promised Land -- at least according to Numbers. There seems to be a gross incompatibility between the narrative of Numbers and that of Deuteronomy, where most of this generation is still alive to hear Moses' sermon.
2. The multiplication of Israel's population during their time in bondage in Israel that is cited here is not even remotely plausible. Even if every man has ten children, the resultant population after five generations is well under a million. Jehovah, while bragging about how he has spurred the Israelites growth rate, concedes that the enemy nations are more populous. He extols the strength of Israel and then portrays them as underdogs, thus having it both ways.
3. Jehovah professes compassion for the resident alien, yet he orders the extermination of every foreign country Israel is to come into contact with. Where are these foreign residents to come from when the population of foreign countries is to be exterminated?
4. Jehovah, who claims to be the Creator, the universal God, makes the Israelites his Chosen People, from among all the peoples in the world, yet he never says why. Indeed, he never refers to any Israelite virtues, only their faults, mostly their obstinacy and disobedience. A list of ancient peoples who believed they were divine favorites would be a long one.
5. The Promised Land is praised as being more fertile than Egypt, which must rely upon irrigation from the Nile. Palestine is in fact quite arid and today only 17% of land in modern Israel is arable (although this would included the Negev desert.) In ancient times it was probably more fertile and was in fact famous for its olive groves and fruit trees. Save for rare occasions when the Nile floods did not come, Egypt, though, could boast of a tremendous agricultural output supporting a large population. Advanced methods of basin irrigation and horticulture, which Jehovah belittles, contributed to that output. During Roman times Egypt was not only the richest province, it was the breadbasket of the empire. Few would have regarded Canaan as preferable from an agrarian standpoint.
6. One presumes the command to write Jehovah's commandments on doorposts and gates is figurative. Who among the population would actually be literate? And, at that time, literate in what language, when Hebrew had not yet been developed and there were no alphabets?
7. The boundaries given for the Promised Land are those given to Abraham. However, they would seem to include land Jehovah had earlier conceded to Moab and Ammon. The extension of the eastern border all the way to the Euphrates River is not consistent with the eastern boundary given in Numbers and includes land that would never be occupied by the Israelites (save perhaps during the days of King Solomon) or considered by later generations to be part of the Promised Land.
8. Jehovah's gifts always come with strings attached, his blessings, conditional. Obedience is always coerced with threats. The Israelites are not only blessed by Jehovah, but also cursed. If the Israelites are disobedient, then he will stop the rain from falling. He will do this by closing the firmament, the dome the encloses the flat earth and separates it and the sky from the ocean above that is the source of rain water. (Jehovah hasn’t figured out evaporation and condensation and is ignorant as to the origin of rainfall.) Therefore, if there is a drought, the ancient Israelite would naturally conclude it to be an act of Jehovah intended to punish sin. Thus everything in the natural world becomes, at least potentially, not only an act of God, but an expression of divine pleasure or displeasure.
Friday, October 16, 2015
Forsake Not Jehovah
(Deuteronomy 8:1 - 8:20)
"Take care to follow every commandment I am giving you here today in order that you may prosper and multiply when you enter and occupy the land Jehovah swore to give your forefathers. Remember how Jehovah your god guided you through the desert for 40 years, humbling you and testing your mettle, finding out whether or not you would obey his commands. He humbled you and caused you to go hungry. But he fed you with manna, something the neither you nor your ancestors had ever heard of before. He did this to show you that man does not exist on food alone, but also on every word spoken by Jehovah. Your clothes did not wear out nor did your feet swell during those 40 years. And so bear in mind that Jehovah was disciplining you as a man might discipline his son.
"So you must observe the commandments of Jehovah your god, live according to his principles, and revere him. For Jehovah your god is bringing you into a bountiful land, a land with brooks and streams and springs that gush water onto the hills and valleys, a land of wheat and barley, of grape vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey. There will be plentiful food; it will be a land without want, and a land where there are iron ore deposits in the rocks and where copper can be mined in the mountains. And when you have eaten your fill, thank Jehovah your god for the bountiful land he has given you.
"Take care that you do not forget Jehovah your god or fail to observe the commandments, laws, and decrees I am giving you today. Otherwise, when you have eaten your fill, when you have built fine homes and settled in them, when your flocks and herds have grown large and you have accumulated much gold and silver, when all you have has increased, you may become arrogant and shun Jehovah your god who brought you out of Egypt, where you were held in slavery. Do not forget that he guided you through the vast and dread desert, a land arid and waterless, with its poisonous snakes and scorpions. He produced water from solid rock! He fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you -- eventually for your own good. You may say to yourself, 'My ability and the strength of my hands produced this wealth for me.' But remember it was Jehovah your god who gave you the ability to acquire that wealth, so as to fulfill the pact that he made with your ancestors and which he swore to honor -- as he is doing today. And if you forsake Jehovah your god to pursue other gods, to worship and adore them, I gravely caution you here and now: you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations that Jehovah will destroy ahead of your entering the land he has given you, he will destroy you, should you not obey Jehovah your god."
Notes
1. Moses continues to speak as if his entire audience has endured the 40 years of the Exodus and he is reminiscing with them. It must be remembered that no male (save Joshua, Caleb, and Moses himself) remained alive who was an adult when the Israelites left Egypt. That would leave a relatively small number who had known the complete experience of the Exodus. (Unless the authors of Deuteronomy do not subscribe to the narrative set down in Numbers.)
2. All the trials and deprivations of the Exodus were merely Jehovah testing the Israelites, according to Moses. Hadn't they had it tough enough as slaves in Egypt? Wasn't the purpose of leaving there a quest for a better life? Did Jehovah punish the Israelites because, like a reproving parent, he was disciplining them for their own good? Or did Jehovah punish and inflict hardship upon the Israelites because of personal pique, wounded pride, vanity, and petty vindictiveness?
3. Moses boasts how Jehovah produced water from a rock, fed the hungry Israelites with manna that fell from the sky, and kept their clothes from wearing out. Jehovah could have had knowledge of the springs in the area and therefore was able to engineer the water-from-the-rock miracle. The manna that fell from the sky might have been synthetic food manufactured by Jehovah's people and dropped from their airship. But how did Jehovah prevent the clothes of the Israelites from wearing out? He did not give them any special clothes; they were wearing the same garments of wool (and possibly linen) that they had worn when they were slaves. Surely the rocky desert terrain would not have been easy on them. This is a miracle indeed!
4. In extolling the virtues of the Promised Land, Moses mentions deposits of iron and copper. Copper, an important resource, would have been mined to produce bronze. This was the Bronze Age, but it was not the Iron Age. Iron would have meant nothing to the people of Moses' time, for the means of smelting it and forging iron weapons, tools, and implements had not yet been discovered. Such anachronisms in the text betray the later, Iron Age, origins of the Books of Moses. The authors were writing of times hundreds, even many hundreds of years in the past; they seem to possess little awareness of the technological, cultural, and social changes that had taken place during those hundreds of years.
4. Moses reiterates the threat of destruction to those who do not obey Jehovah. Apparently the worship of Jehovah is so patently distasteful, the temptation to worship other gods so irresistible, that the rewards of fidelity, even the bounty of the Promised Land is not enough to keep Jehovah's followers faithful. Moses is correct in his reading of human psychology; gratitude is an emotion of short duration, easily set aside in good times. And it is oft that the just recipients of gratitude are facilely forgotten. History bears this out. It was not during the time of Moses, or the time of David and Solomon, or even the time of the Babylonian Captivity, but perhaps not until the 2nd Century BC that the bulk of the Israelite/Hebrew population became truly monotheistic, worshiping Jehovah exclusively. In the Jehovist propaganda that is known as the Bible, this is not evident, for the worship of other gods is there portrayed as an anomalous perversion.
5. Moses and Jehovah are continually putting down, emasculating the Israelites by telling them they are nothing without their god, can achieve naught, can win no battles, can acquire no wealth without his necessary help. Everything is owed to Jehovah and they must be continually reminded of this. Any success they might have is not due to their hard work, talent, brains, ambition, or enterprise; all must be attributed to Jehovah who makes everything possible. It is true that personal pride can often degenerate into a selfish arrogance, but how stifling, how dismal, how inhuman is a philosophy that does not permit a man to take pride in -- and credit for the things he has accomplished.
"Take care to follow every commandment I am giving you here today in order that you may prosper and multiply when you enter and occupy the land Jehovah swore to give your forefathers. Remember how Jehovah your god guided you through the desert for 40 years, humbling you and testing your mettle, finding out whether or not you would obey his commands. He humbled you and caused you to go hungry. But he fed you with manna, something the neither you nor your ancestors had ever heard of before. He did this to show you that man does not exist on food alone, but also on every word spoken by Jehovah. Your clothes did not wear out nor did your feet swell during those 40 years. And so bear in mind that Jehovah was disciplining you as a man might discipline his son.
"So you must observe the commandments of Jehovah your god, live according to his principles, and revere him. For Jehovah your god is bringing you into a bountiful land, a land with brooks and streams and springs that gush water onto the hills and valleys, a land of wheat and barley, of grape vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey. There will be plentiful food; it will be a land without want, and a land where there are iron ore deposits in the rocks and where copper can be mined in the mountains. And when you have eaten your fill, thank Jehovah your god for the bountiful land he has given you.
"Take care that you do not forget Jehovah your god or fail to observe the commandments, laws, and decrees I am giving you today. Otherwise, when you have eaten your fill, when you have built fine homes and settled in them, when your flocks and herds have grown large and you have accumulated much gold and silver, when all you have has increased, you may become arrogant and shun Jehovah your god who brought you out of Egypt, where you were held in slavery. Do not forget that he guided you through the vast and dread desert, a land arid and waterless, with its poisonous snakes and scorpions. He produced water from solid rock! He fed you in the desert with manna, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you -- eventually for your own good. You may say to yourself, 'My ability and the strength of my hands produced this wealth for me.' But remember it was Jehovah your god who gave you the ability to acquire that wealth, so as to fulfill the pact that he made with your ancestors and which he swore to honor -- as he is doing today. And if you forsake Jehovah your god to pursue other gods, to worship and adore them, I gravely caution you here and now: you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations that Jehovah will destroy ahead of your entering the land he has given you, he will destroy you, should you not obey Jehovah your god."
Notes
1. Moses continues to speak as if his entire audience has endured the 40 years of the Exodus and he is reminiscing with them. It must be remembered that no male (save Joshua, Caleb, and Moses himself) remained alive who was an adult when the Israelites left Egypt. That would leave a relatively small number who had known the complete experience of the Exodus. (Unless the authors of Deuteronomy do not subscribe to the narrative set down in Numbers.)
2. All the trials and deprivations of the Exodus were merely Jehovah testing the Israelites, according to Moses. Hadn't they had it tough enough as slaves in Egypt? Wasn't the purpose of leaving there a quest for a better life? Did Jehovah punish the Israelites because, like a reproving parent, he was disciplining them for their own good? Or did Jehovah punish and inflict hardship upon the Israelites because of personal pique, wounded pride, vanity, and petty vindictiveness?
3. Moses boasts how Jehovah produced water from a rock, fed the hungry Israelites with manna that fell from the sky, and kept their clothes from wearing out. Jehovah could have had knowledge of the springs in the area and therefore was able to engineer the water-from-the-rock miracle. The manna that fell from the sky might have been synthetic food manufactured by Jehovah's people and dropped from their airship. But how did Jehovah prevent the clothes of the Israelites from wearing out? He did not give them any special clothes; they were wearing the same garments of wool (and possibly linen) that they had worn when they were slaves. Surely the rocky desert terrain would not have been easy on them. This is a miracle indeed!
4. In extolling the virtues of the Promised Land, Moses mentions deposits of iron and copper. Copper, an important resource, would have been mined to produce bronze. This was the Bronze Age, but it was not the Iron Age. Iron would have meant nothing to the people of Moses' time, for the means of smelting it and forging iron weapons, tools, and implements had not yet been discovered. Such anachronisms in the text betray the later, Iron Age, origins of the Books of Moses. The authors were writing of times hundreds, even many hundreds of years in the past; they seem to possess little awareness of the technological, cultural, and social changes that had taken place during those hundreds of years.
4. Moses reiterates the threat of destruction to those who do not obey Jehovah. Apparently the worship of Jehovah is so patently distasteful, the temptation to worship other gods so irresistible, that the rewards of fidelity, even the bounty of the Promised Land is not enough to keep Jehovah's followers faithful. Moses is correct in his reading of human psychology; gratitude is an emotion of short duration, easily set aside in good times. And it is oft that the just recipients of gratitude are facilely forgotten. History bears this out. It was not during the time of Moses, or the time of David and Solomon, or even the time of the Babylonian Captivity, but perhaps not until the 2nd Century BC that the bulk of the Israelite/Hebrew population became truly monotheistic, worshiping Jehovah exclusively. In the Jehovist propaganda that is known as the Bible, this is not evident, for the worship of other gods is there portrayed as an anomalous perversion.
5. Moses and Jehovah are continually putting down, emasculating the Israelites by telling them they are nothing without their god, can achieve naught, can win no battles, can acquire no wealth without his necessary help. Everything is owed to Jehovah and they must be continually reminded of this. Any success they might have is not due to their hard work, talent, brains, ambition, or enterprise; all must be attributed to Jehovah who makes everything possible. It is true that personal pride can often degenerate into a selfish arrogance, but how stifling, how dismal, how inhuman is a philosophy that does not permit a man to take pride in -- and credit for the things he has accomplished.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Boundaries of the Promised Land
(Book of Numbers 33:50 - 34:29)
When they were camped on the plains of Moab by the River Jordan, across from Jericho, Jehovah told Moses to tell the Israelites, "When you cross the River Jordan, drive out all the people living there. Destroy their carved idols and brazen images. Demolish their temples and shrines. Take possession of the land and settle on it, for I have given it to you to be your property. You must distribute the land to the clans by lot, proportionally: that is, a larger group will receive a larger parcel of land, a smaller group, a smaller parcel. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. In this way the land will be divided up among the ancestral tribes. But if you fail to drive out the native inhabitants of the land, they will be a thorn in your side and give you trouble wherever you may live in the land. Then I will do to you what I planned to do to them."
Jehovah told Moses to give these commands to the Israelites, "When you enter Canaan, the land that is your inheritance shall have these boundaries:
"Your southern border will include the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. The boundary line will begin in the east at the Dead Sea. It will extend south to Scorpion Pass in the direction of Zin. Its southernmost point will be Kardesh Barnea, from which it will go to Hazar Addar and then to Azmon. From there it will turn toward the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea.
"For your western border you will have the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea; that's your western boundary.
"Your northern border will begin at the Mediterranean Sea and run east to Mount Hor, then to Lebo Hamath, on to Zedad and Ziphron, and then to Hazar Enan. That will be the northern boundary.
"The eastern border will begin at Hazar Enan and run south to Shepham and then to Riblah on the east side of Ain. From there it will run along the eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee and down the River Jordan, ending at the Dead Sea.
"These are the boundaries that encompass your country!"
Moses told the Israelites, "This is the legacy of land that will be divided by lot. Jehovah has commanded that you divide it among the remain 9 1/2 tribes. The ancestral clans of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh have already claimed their inheritance; these 2 1/2 tribes have received grants of land east of the River Jordan across from Jericho, toward the rising sun."
Jehovah instructed Moses, "Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun are the men who should supervise the division of the land grants. And you should appoint a leader from each tribe to assist in this task. The names of the men are as follows:
Caleb son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah
Shemuel son of Ammihud from the tribe of Simeon
Elidad son of Kislon from the tribe of Benjamin
Bukki son of Jogli, a leader from the tribe of Dan
Hanniel son of Ephod, a leader from the tribe of Manasseh
Kemuel son of Shiphtan, a leader from the tribe of Ephraim
Elizaphan son of Parnak, a leader from the tribe of Zebulun
Paltiel son of Azzan, a leader from the tribe o Issachar
Ahihud son of Shelomi, a leader from the tribe of Asher
Pedahel son of Ammihud, a leader from the tribe of Naphtali.”
These are the men that Jehovah assigned to oversee the division of the Israelite inheritance in the land of Canaan.
Notes
1. It is Jehovah's plan that the Israelites totally displace the present inhabitants of the Promised Land, the Canaanites, so that they may never be a problem to his people. The Israelites are not to live in harmony with them, they are not to conquer and rule them, but are to expel or exterminate the Canaanites. Considering the vast size of the territory involved and the number of people living there, it would be virtually impossible to empty the land and evict its population. Where would the people go? Could they all be driven into the desert or into the sea? Indeed, Jehovah's plan and the promise of an easy conquest of Canaan is totally unrealistic. Yet, he is setting the boundaries of a land that his people have not yet begun to conquer.
2. Pointedly, Jehovah orders his people to destroy the idols and altars of the Canaanites the Israelites are going to make war against. The Canaanites not only have no right to live in their own ancestral lands, but have no right to worship the gods of their choosing. Jehovah has constantly been at war with his rival gods. There has never been a suggestion that these gods do not exist, only that Jehovah takes primacy over them. Jehovah has made enemies with all the other gods and his Chosen People are used by him as tools to show up and punish them.
3. The borders of traditional Israel are roughly from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan, from the Sea of Galilee to a line drawn from the lower end of the Dead Sea. It includes the Left Bank, but not the Negev, which is part of modern Israel.
When they were camped on the plains of Moab by the River Jordan, across from Jericho, Jehovah told Moses to tell the Israelites, "When you cross the River Jordan, drive out all the people living there. Destroy their carved idols and brazen images. Demolish their temples and shrines. Take possession of the land and settle on it, for I have given it to you to be your property. You must distribute the land to the clans by lot, proportionally: that is, a larger group will receive a larger parcel of land, a smaller group, a smaller parcel. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. In this way the land will be divided up among the ancestral tribes. But if you fail to drive out the native inhabitants of the land, they will be a thorn in your side and give you trouble wherever you may live in the land. Then I will do to you what I planned to do to them."
Jehovah told Moses to give these commands to the Israelites, "When you enter Canaan, the land that is your inheritance shall have these boundaries:
"Your southern border will include the Desert of Zin along the border of Edom. The boundary line will begin in the east at the Dead Sea. It will extend south to Scorpion Pass in the direction of Zin. Its southernmost point will be Kardesh Barnea, from which it will go to Hazar Addar and then to Azmon. From there it will turn toward the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea.
"For your western border you will have the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea; that's your western boundary.
"Your northern border will begin at the Mediterranean Sea and run east to Mount Hor, then to Lebo Hamath, on to Zedad and Ziphron, and then to Hazar Enan. That will be the northern boundary.
"The eastern border will begin at Hazar Enan and run south to Shepham and then to Riblah on the east side of Ain. From there it will run along the eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee and down the River Jordan, ending at the Dead Sea.
"These are the boundaries that encompass your country!"
Moses told the Israelites, "This is the legacy of land that will be divided by lot. Jehovah has commanded that you divide it among the remain 9 1/2 tribes. The ancestral clans of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh have already claimed their inheritance; these 2 1/2 tribes have received grants of land east of the River Jordan across from Jericho, toward the rising sun."
Jehovah instructed Moses, "Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun are the men who should supervise the division of the land grants. And you should appoint a leader from each tribe to assist in this task. The names of the men are as follows:
Caleb son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah
Shemuel son of Ammihud from the tribe of Simeon
Elidad son of Kislon from the tribe of Benjamin
Bukki son of Jogli, a leader from the tribe of Dan
Hanniel son of Ephod, a leader from the tribe of Manasseh
Kemuel son of Shiphtan, a leader from the tribe of Ephraim
Elizaphan son of Parnak, a leader from the tribe of Zebulun
Paltiel son of Azzan, a leader from the tribe o Issachar
Ahihud son of Shelomi, a leader from the tribe of Asher
Pedahel son of Ammihud, a leader from the tribe of Naphtali.”
These are the men that Jehovah assigned to oversee the division of the Israelite inheritance in the land of Canaan.
Notes
1. It is Jehovah's plan that the Israelites totally displace the present inhabitants of the Promised Land, the Canaanites, so that they may never be a problem to his people. The Israelites are not to live in harmony with them, they are not to conquer and rule them, but are to expel or exterminate the Canaanites. Considering the vast size of the territory involved and the number of people living there, it would be virtually impossible to empty the land and evict its population. Where would the people go? Could they all be driven into the desert or into the sea? Indeed, Jehovah's plan and the promise of an easy conquest of Canaan is totally unrealistic. Yet, he is setting the boundaries of a land that his people have not yet begun to conquer.
2. Pointedly, Jehovah orders his people to destroy the idols and altars of the Canaanites the Israelites are going to make war against. The Canaanites not only have no right to live in their own ancestral lands, but have no right to worship the gods of their choosing. Jehovah has constantly been at war with his rival gods. There has never been a suggestion that these gods do not exist, only that Jehovah takes primacy over them. Jehovah has made enemies with all the other gods and his Chosen People are used by him as tools to show up and punish them.
3. The borders of traditional Israel are roughly from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan, from the Sea of Galilee to a line drawn from the lower end of the Dead Sea. It includes the Left Bank, but not the Negev, which is part of modern Israel.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Vows Made By Women
(Book of Numbers 30:1 - 30:16)
Moses told the tribal leaders of Israel, "This is what Jehovah has commanded: When a man makes a vow to Jehovah or a promise under oath, he must never break it. He must follow through on what he has pledged.
"When a young woman who is living in her father's home makes a vow to Jehovah or obligates herself with a pledge and her father learns of it and does not object to it, then the vow or pledge remains in force. However, if the father, when he learns of the vow or pledge, disapproves of it, then she is no longer obligated by the vow or pledge she has made: Jehovah will release her obligation owing to the disapproval of her father.
"If, after she makes a vow or binds herself by a rash or thoughtless pledge, a woman marries and her husband learns of it and does not object, then the vow or pledge remains in force. If, however, when the husband learns of it, he repudiates the vow or pledge, then the wife's commitment is nullified: Jehovah will release her. (But a widowed or divorced woman must fulfill all the vows and pledges she has made.)
"If a woman is married and living in her husband's home when she makes a vow or pledge, it will remain in force if the husband learns of it and does not object to it. But if her husband rejects it when he learns of it, then the vow or pledge will be nullified: Jehovah will release her. Thus a woman's husband may confirm or nullify any vow or any pledge of self-denial. But if he does not object to a vow or pledge at the time that he learns of it, then he is giving his approval to all the vows and pledges by which she has bound herself. (His silence upon learning of them is sufficient to constitute consent.) --- If, however, he tries to nullify a vow or pledge well after he has learned of it, then he will assume her guilt in not fulfilling it."
These are the laws Jehovah conveyed to Moses concerning relationships between a man and his wife and between a young daughter and her father when she still lives with him.
Notes
1. Not surprisingly, biblical law, well in line with legal thought prevalent up until modern times, regards woman as more or less a ward of her father or husband and is empowered to do little without his consent. The daughter and the wife are not only dependent upon the dominant male, but must defer to him in matters that touch upon morality and honor, such as keeping an oath. It is strongly implied that the woman is not the moral equal of men, but, for the most part, on the level of an underage child who lacks the maturity to make competent, sensible, and reasoned ethical decisions. Compared to a man, her judgment is inferior, her moral sense is flawed, her word carries far less weight. To be fair, it is unlikely that, until recently, many men believed differently. (One can only speculate upon the negative impact a dutiful adherence to biblical pronouncements, which, by and large, reflect an ancient and often primitive mindset, has had through history upon the progress of equity, if not equality in gender relations, particularly upon the status and advancement of women.)
2. It is strange that Jehovah should give the Israelites these particular commandments at this particular time, 40 years after the Exodus. It seems as if someone forgot to include this section in Leviticus and inserted it here for no real reason. But Jehovah’s laws and commandments are sporadically sprinkled through the Books of Moses, oddly punctuating the narrative. Indeed, at this point the reader is justified in thinking that Moses should already be dead.
Moses told the tribal leaders of Israel, "This is what Jehovah has commanded: When a man makes a vow to Jehovah or a promise under oath, he must never break it. He must follow through on what he has pledged.
"When a young woman who is living in her father's home makes a vow to Jehovah or obligates herself with a pledge and her father learns of it and does not object to it, then the vow or pledge remains in force. However, if the father, when he learns of the vow or pledge, disapproves of it, then she is no longer obligated by the vow or pledge she has made: Jehovah will release her obligation owing to the disapproval of her father.
"If, after she makes a vow or binds herself by a rash or thoughtless pledge, a woman marries and her husband learns of it and does not object, then the vow or pledge remains in force. If, however, when the husband learns of it, he repudiates the vow or pledge, then the wife's commitment is nullified: Jehovah will release her. (But a widowed or divorced woman must fulfill all the vows and pledges she has made.)
"If a woman is married and living in her husband's home when she makes a vow or pledge, it will remain in force if the husband learns of it and does not object to it. But if her husband rejects it when he learns of it, then the vow or pledge will be nullified: Jehovah will release her. Thus a woman's husband may confirm or nullify any vow or any pledge of self-denial. But if he does not object to a vow or pledge at the time that he learns of it, then he is giving his approval to all the vows and pledges by which she has bound herself. (His silence upon learning of them is sufficient to constitute consent.) --- If, however, he tries to nullify a vow or pledge well after he has learned of it, then he will assume her guilt in not fulfilling it."
These are the laws Jehovah conveyed to Moses concerning relationships between a man and his wife and between a young daughter and her father when she still lives with him.
Notes
1. Not surprisingly, biblical law, well in line with legal thought prevalent up until modern times, regards woman as more or less a ward of her father or husband and is empowered to do little without his consent. The daughter and the wife are not only dependent upon the dominant male, but must defer to him in matters that touch upon morality and honor, such as keeping an oath. It is strongly implied that the woman is not the moral equal of men, but, for the most part, on the level of an underage child who lacks the maturity to make competent, sensible, and reasoned ethical decisions. Compared to a man, her judgment is inferior, her moral sense is flawed, her word carries far less weight. To be fair, it is unlikely that, until recently, many men believed differently. (One can only speculate upon the negative impact a dutiful adherence to biblical pronouncements, which, by and large, reflect an ancient and often primitive mindset, has had through history upon the progress of equity, if not equality in gender relations, particularly upon the status and advancement of women.)
2. It is strange that Jehovah should give the Israelites these particular commandments at this particular time, 40 years after the Exodus. It seems as if someone forgot to include this section in Leviticus and inserted it here for no real reason. But Jehovah’s laws and commandments are sporadically sprinkled through the Books of Moses, oddly punctuating the narrative. Indeed, at this point the reader is justified in thinking that Moses should already be dead.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Corruption of the Israelites
(Book of Numbers 25:1 - 25:18)
While the Israelites were camping at Shittim [Acacia Grove], some of the men started having sex with the local Moabite women, who then encouraged them to attend services to their gods. These Israelites participated in the sacred feasts and bowed down to the Moabite gods. Israel joined the cult of Baal of Peor! This incurred the wrath of Jehovah against the Israelites.
Jehovah told Moses, "Round up the ring leaders and execute them before Jehovah’s altar in broad daylight so that the anger of Jehovah may no longer be directed toward the Israelites."
Moses then told the judges of Israel, "Kill any of your people who have dedicated themselves to Baal of Peor!”
At that moment, one of the Israelites was bringing a Midianite woman home to his family in full view of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel -- while they were weeping before the entrance to the Tabernacle! When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of the priest Aaron, saw this, he immediately rose and left the assembly. He grabbed a spear and followed the man into his tent. He thrust the spear through the man's body and into the stomach of the woman. This put an end to the plague that was afflicting the Israelite people. Even so, 24,000 people had already perished as a result of it.
Jehovah told Moses, "Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of the priest Aaron, has succeeded in turning my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous to defend my honor as I am, I did not put an end to the Israelites in my jealous wrath. Therefore I declare, 'I hereby make with him a personal covenant of peace by which I grant to him and his descendants the exclusive and everlasting right to the priesthood. Because of his zeal to defend the honor of his god, he has made atonement for the people of Israel."
The name of Israelite man who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, leader of a Simeonite clan. The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Kozbi, the daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of an ancestral Midianite clan.
Jehovah told Moses, "Regard the Midianites as your enemies. Kill them, because they acted towards you with treachery when they tricked you into worshiping Baal at Peor as well as in the matter of Kozbi, their countrywoman, the daughter of a Midianite leader, who was killed during the time of the plague (which resulted from what had happened at Peor).
Notes
1. One might have thought that the Israelite camp was isolated and that there would not have been any flow of people in and out of it to the neighboring land of Moab, pretty much enemy territory. Such, apparently, was not the case. Some Israelite men, probably like sailors on liberty, were straying in to Peor and, guess what, seeking out some available females. This cannot be surprising. For 40 years or so the Israelites had been wandering the desert where there was a girl behind every tree -- only there weren't many trees. The Moabite gals must have looked a lot better than the weather-beaten women back at the Israelite camp.
2. Betraying Jehovah by worshiping another god, like Baal, is the ultimate sin as far as Jehovah is concerned, and he demands the death penalty for violators. There is no trial or clemency for any who might express remorse or argue that they were coerced or compelled. Freedom of worship is the greatest of evils. Those who do not conform and worship Jehovah are to be purged from Israelite society. There will be fewer, but better Israelites!
3. Aaron's grandson, Phinehas is the ultimate Jehovan hero, a man after Jehovah's heart, an unreasoning zealot and a cold-blooded killer. He allows his victims, Zimri and Kozbi no quarter. He simply murders them ruthlessly, as is typical, even today, of honor killings. Of course, Phinehas is pretty gutsy, murdering someone of considerable stature, with a family that might take it upon themselves to avenge the murder.
4. This incident allows considerable insight into the nature of early Israelite society and the thought processes of the primitive, tribalistic mind. A basic and universal primitive belief is that catastrophes, disasters, diseases, and so forth are not due to natural causes, but are punishments from the gods, divine retribution for sins, often involving lapses in worship. Here, Jehovah is mad at the Israelites for two-timing him with Baal of Peor, so he unleashes a plague against his own people.
5. The plague will kill 24,000 Israelites. (Some of 24,000 may have been executed by the judges. Traditionally this number is 1000.) It is not targeted at the offenders, who are being killed by the Israelites themselves, but at the general population. Jehovah is ready once again to destroy the entire Israelite community for the actions of a few. Instead of being placated by Moses, it is Phinehas' murderous actions that assuage his ire.
6. It is difficult to determine what is the nature of the plagues that Jehovah has several times inflicted upon the Israelites. As a result of them, people, randomly it seems, die in great numbers and within a very short period of time. Here, the impression is given that the plague lasts but a single day. Diseases, though, must incubate and people perish from them after a period of time. These plagues always miraculously end immediately after Jehovah is placated. It is hard to see these plagues are anything but elements of fable, conveying the message, "Defy Jehovah and your people will die!"
7. As a result of Phinehas' "heroic" actions, Jehovah rewards his descendants by giving them the exclusive right to be his priests. But Jehovah has done this several times before, why again? Is it now necessary to find a reason for making his hereditary priesthood a perk of the Aaronite clan?
8. Phinehas' victims are important people, the son and the daughter of tribal leaders. One might have thought that a union such as that of Zimri and Kozbi might have cemented peace and encouraged cooperation between the Israelites and the Midianites. But this is contrary to the xenophobic Israelite mindset and an anathema to Jehovah, the original racial bigot.
9. It is unstated why Zimri was taking the Midianite Kozbi into his tent. To have sex with her seems to be the usually accepted reason. Some even conclude that Zimri and Kozbi were killed in the “act.” But Phinehas followed them into the tent. Would he have waited until they were “doing it” before killing them? Their relationship is presented as immoral, but was it only because they were of different ethnicities? Maybe Zimri wanted to marry Kozbi and was introducing her to his family. She was, after all, his equal, the daughter of a chief, and not likely to be a whore, as she is often assumed to be. If they were to have a sexual tryst, why would he, the son of a tribal chief, do it in the family tent, apparently in the presence of his family and not seek a more suitable place in Peor or outdoors someplace.
10. Jehovah pronounces the Midianites as enemies of Israel. He does not include the Moabites, although we may conclude that the Midianites are a part of the Moabites or connected with them. Is it forgotten that Moses, during his exile from Egypt, lived with the Midianites, that his wife Sephora is a Midianite, that his father-in-law Jethro counseled him during the Exodus? One might theorize that Jehovah was originally a Midianite god, but that they eventually shunned or rejected him. And so he became the god of the Israelites, still harboring hard feelings toward his former, faithless worshipers who now prefer Baal of Peor, (Elsewhere he is called Chemosh, Baal being the generic term for a god or idol.) The rites of Chemosh were notoriously licentious, which would furnish another reason for Jehovah’s disapproval. If Chemosh, like Jehovah, was an actual entity, an extraterrestrial being, then Jehovah's jealousy and the competitive relationship he had with him (and other "deities”) makes great sense.
While the Israelites were camping at Shittim [Acacia Grove], some of the men started having sex with the local Moabite women, who then encouraged them to attend services to their gods. These Israelites participated in the sacred feasts and bowed down to the Moabite gods. Israel joined the cult of Baal of Peor! This incurred the wrath of Jehovah against the Israelites.
Jehovah told Moses, "Round up the ring leaders and execute them before Jehovah’s altar in broad daylight so that the anger of Jehovah may no longer be directed toward the Israelites."
Moses then told the judges of Israel, "Kill any of your people who have dedicated themselves to Baal of Peor!”
At that moment, one of the Israelites was bringing a Midianite woman home to his family in full view of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel -- while they were weeping before the entrance to the Tabernacle! When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of the priest Aaron, saw this, he immediately rose and left the assembly. He grabbed a spear and followed the man into his tent. He thrust the spear through the man's body and into the stomach of the woman. This put an end to the plague that was afflicting the Israelite people. Even so, 24,000 people had already perished as a result of it.
Jehovah told Moses, "Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of the priest Aaron, has succeeded in turning my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous to defend my honor as I am, I did not put an end to the Israelites in my jealous wrath. Therefore I declare, 'I hereby make with him a personal covenant of peace by which I grant to him and his descendants the exclusive and everlasting right to the priesthood. Because of his zeal to defend the honor of his god, he has made atonement for the people of Israel."
The name of Israelite man who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, leader of a Simeonite clan. The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Kozbi, the daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of an ancestral Midianite clan.
Jehovah told Moses, "Regard the Midianites as your enemies. Kill them, because they acted towards you with treachery when they tricked you into worshiping Baal at Peor as well as in the matter of Kozbi, their countrywoman, the daughter of a Midianite leader, who was killed during the time of the plague (which resulted from what had happened at Peor).
Notes
1. One might have thought that the Israelite camp was isolated and that there would not have been any flow of people in and out of it to the neighboring land of Moab, pretty much enemy territory. Such, apparently, was not the case. Some Israelite men, probably like sailors on liberty, were straying in to Peor and, guess what, seeking out some available females. This cannot be surprising. For 40 years or so the Israelites had been wandering the desert where there was a girl behind every tree -- only there weren't many trees. The Moabite gals must have looked a lot better than the weather-beaten women back at the Israelite camp.
2. Betraying Jehovah by worshiping another god, like Baal, is the ultimate sin as far as Jehovah is concerned, and he demands the death penalty for violators. There is no trial or clemency for any who might express remorse or argue that they were coerced or compelled. Freedom of worship is the greatest of evils. Those who do not conform and worship Jehovah are to be purged from Israelite society. There will be fewer, but better Israelites!
3. Aaron's grandson, Phinehas is the ultimate Jehovan hero, a man after Jehovah's heart, an unreasoning zealot and a cold-blooded killer. He allows his victims, Zimri and Kozbi no quarter. He simply murders them ruthlessly, as is typical, even today, of honor killings. Of course, Phinehas is pretty gutsy, murdering someone of considerable stature, with a family that might take it upon themselves to avenge the murder.
4. This incident allows considerable insight into the nature of early Israelite society and the thought processes of the primitive, tribalistic mind. A basic and universal primitive belief is that catastrophes, disasters, diseases, and so forth are not due to natural causes, but are punishments from the gods, divine retribution for sins, often involving lapses in worship. Here, Jehovah is mad at the Israelites for two-timing him with Baal of Peor, so he unleashes a plague against his own people.
5. The plague will kill 24,000 Israelites. (Some of 24,000 may have been executed by the judges. Traditionally this number is 1000.) It is not targeted at the offenders, who are being killed by the Israelites themselves, but at the general population. Jehovah is ready once again to destroy the entire Israelite community for the actions of a few. Instead of being placated by Moses, it is Phinehas' murderous actions that assuage his ire.
6. It is difficult to determine what is the nature of the plagues that Jehovah has several times inflicted upon the Israelites. As a result of them, people, randomly it seems, die in great numbers and within a very short period of time. Here, the impression is given that the plague lasts but a single day. Diseases, though, must incubate and people perish from them after a period of time. These plagues always miraculously end immediately after Jehovah is placated. It is hard to see these plagues are anything but elements of fable, conveying the message, "Defy Jehovah and your people will die!"
7. As a result of Phinehas' "heroic" actions, Jehovah rewards his descendants by giving them the exclusive right to be his priests. But Jehovah has done this several times before, why again? Is it now necessary to find a reason for making his hereditary priesthood a perk of the Aaronite clan?
8. Phinehas' victims are important people, the son and the daughter of tribal leaders. One might have thought that a union such as that of Zimri and Kozbi might have cemented peace and encouraged cooperation between the Israelites and the Midianites. But this is contrary to the xenophobic Israelite mindset and an anathema to Jehovah, the original racial bigot.
9. It is unstated why Zimri was taking the Midianite Kozbi into his tent. To have sex with her seems to be the usually accepted reason. Some even conclude that Zimri and Kozbi were killed in the “act.” But Phinehas followed them into the tent. Would he have waited until they were “doing it” before killing them? Their relationship is presented as immoral, but was it only because they were of different ethnicities? Maybe Zimri wanted to marry Kozbi and was introducing her to his family. She was, after all, his equal, the daughter of a chief, and not likely to be a whore, as she is often assumed to be. If they were to have a sexual tryst, why would he, the son of a tribal chief, do it in the family tent, apparently in the presence of his family and not seek a more suitable place in Peor or outdoors someplace.
10. Jehovah pronounces the Midianites as enemies of Israel. He does not include the Moabites, although we may conclude that the Midianites are a part of the Moabites or connected with them. Is it forgotten that Moses, during his exile from Egypt, lived with the Midianites, that his wife Sephora is a Midianite, that his father-in-law Jethro counseled him during the Exodus? One might theorize that Jehovah was originally a Midianite god, but that they eventually shunned or rejected him. And so he became the god of the Israelites, still harboring hard feelings toward his former, faithless worshipers who now prefer Baal of Peor, (Elsewhere he is called Chemosh, Baal being the generic term for a god or idol.) The rites of Chemosh were notoriously licentious, which would furnish another reason for Jehovah’s disapproval. If Chemosh, like Jehovah, was an actual entity, an extraterrestrial being, then Jehovah's jealousy and the competitive relationship he had with him (and other "deities”) makes great sense.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Jehovah Punishes the People With Snakes
(Book of Numbers 21:4 - 21:9)
The Israelites, skirting the border of Edom, traveled from Mount Hor by a route toward the Red Sea. But, growing impatient along the way, the people complained to Moses, "Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert. There's no food here or water, and we hate this horrible food!”
Jehovah sent venomous serpents among the people. Many Israelites were bitten and died. The people came to Moses and pleaded with him, "We know we have sinned by speaking against you and Jehovah, but please pray to Jehovah so he will take the snakes away from us."
Moses thus prayed for the people, and Jehovah made this reply to Moses: "Make an image of a snake and attach it to a pole. Anyone who is bitten may look at it and he will survive." And so Moses crafted a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten by a snake, he could look at it and he would survive.
Notes
1. The Israelites begin their grumbling again, making the same case, no water, no decent food (still eating manna?), why did you ever lead us out of Egypt. They are world-class whiners and seem to be continually undergoing all but fatal attacks of buyer's remorse. Their frustration, though, is understandable, for they are trapped in a situation where they have no options. They have practically no control over their own destiny, and any attempts they may make to exert their own will incur divine wrath. And they are now traveling away from their Promised Land.
2. Again Jehovah punishes his people for griping, for any complaint against him or against Moses, he regards as an act of betrayal punishable by death. This time he sends poisonous snakes to plague his people. As usual, Moses must intercede to save his people from Jehovah's murderous impulses.
3. Although he responds favorably to Mose' appeal, Jehovah doesn't remove the snakes. Instead, he devises a solution that can only strike a modern as comically absurd, primitive witch-doctor stuff. Make a bronze image of a snake, attach it to a pole, and anyone who is bitten by a poisonous snake will be cured if he just looks at the image -- very simple: no potions, no prayers, no spells. Of course the Israelites, with some small degree of ingenuity, could have devised their own, better solution -- simply kill the snakes.
4. The bronze snake (called the Nehustan -- in Hebrew serpent is nehash and bronze, nehoshet) was apparently saved and, in later times, worshiped. Ironic that Jehovah, who forbade the adoration of images, would command the making of something very much like an idol.
5. The poisonous snakes referred to were probably not cobras or horned vipers, but more likely the Israeli saw-scaled viper, which is red in color, inhabits rocky desert areas, attacks with a quick, leaping strike, and inflicts a painful bite that causes death in hours. And there is the possibility that some extinct or extraterrestrial species might have been referred to, even something that might pass for a dragon.
The Israelites, skirting the border of Edom, traveled from Mount Hor by a route toward the Red Sea. But, growing impatient along the way, the people complained to Moses, "Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the desert. There's no food here or water, and we hate this horrible food!”
Jehovah sent venomous serpents among the people. Many Israelites were bitten and died. The people came to Moses and pleaded with him, "We know we have sinned by speaking against you and Jehovah, but please pray to Jehovah so he will take the snakes away from us."
Moses thus prayed for the people, and Jehovah made this reply to Moses: "Make an image of a snake and attach it to a pole. Anyone who is bitten may look at it and he will survive." And so Moses crafted a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Whenever someone was bitten by a snake, he could look at it and he would survive.
Notes
1. The Israelites begin their grumbling again, making the same case, no water, no decent food (still eating manna?), why did you ever lead us out of Egypt. They are world-class whiners and seem to be continually undergoing all but fatal attacks of buyer's remorse. Their frustration, though, is understandable, for they are trapped in a situation where they have no options. They have practically no control over their own destiny, and any attempts they may make to exert their own will incur divine wrath. And they are now traveling away from their Promised Land.
2. Again Jehovah punishes his people for griping, for any complaint against him or against Moses, he regards as an act of betrayal punishable by death. This time he sends poisonous snakes to plague his people. As usual, Moses must intercede to save his people from Jehovah's murderous impulses.
3. Although he responds favorably to Mose' appeal, Jehovah doesn't remove the snakes. Instead, he devises a solution that can only strike a modern as comically absurd, primitive witch-doctor stuff. Make a bronze image of a snake, attach it to a pole, and anyone who is bitten by a poisonous snake will be cured if he just looks at the image -- very simple: no potions, no prayers, no spells. Of course the Israelites, with some small degree of ingenuity, could have devised their own, better solution -- simply kill the snakes.
4. The bronze snake (called the Nehustan -- in Hebrew serpent is nehash and bronze, nehoshet) was apparently saved and, in later times, worshiped. Ironic that Jehovah, who forbade the adoration of images, would command the making of something very much like an idol.
5. The poisonous snakes referred to were probably not cobras or horned vipers, but more likely the Israeli saw-scaled viper, which is red in color, inhabits rocky desert areas, attacks with a quick, leaping strike, and inflicts a painful bite that causes death in hours. And there is the possibility that some extinct or extraterrestrial species might have been referred to, even something that might pass for a dragon.
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