PREVIOUSLY: Israel arrived at the Jordan river, the border to the promised land.
1-30)Moses gives a really long speech which recaps the content of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, adds a few new laws, and goes on about the Israelites being God's chosen people and the need to follow all the laws.
Highlights include:
One of the Bible's most cringe-worthy lines so far:
'Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.'
What to do if a city stops worshipping God:
“If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, that certain worthless fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’... you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again."
How to check if a prophet is legit:
"when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him."
What to do when you capture a city in warfare:
"And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you."
What to do with a rebellious son who disobeys his parents:
"All the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst."
A REALLY LONG description about what God will do if you don't follow the rules:
“The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly...
The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew...
The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies...
And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.
The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind...
You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her.
You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it.
You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit.
Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it.
Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you.
Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless.
A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see.
The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known.
You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.
The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away... who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young...
They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land.
And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you.
And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters...
The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left, so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege...
The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege...
Etc.
31) God tells Moses that he is going to die soon, and commands him to write a song. God tells Joshua that he shall be the new leader.
32) Moses sings the song to the Israelites.
33) Moses blesses Israel and each of its tribes.
34) Moses climbs a nearby mountain and looks upon the promised land. He dies, and God buries him somewhere. No-one knows where.
The people mourn for 30 days. Joshua takes command.
'And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.'
END OF DEUTERONOMY
Wednesday 30 July 2014
Sunday 27 July 2014
Hebrew Bible: Numbers
1) God tells Moses to carry out a census of the people of Israel. God tells Moses to exclude the Levites from the census, and put them in charge of the Tabernacle.
2) God tells Moses how the people of Israel should arrange their camp.
3) God tells Moses that the Levites should keep guard over the people of Israel as well as looking after the Tabernacle. God says that he is now taking the Levites instead of every firstborn child. God tells Moses to do a census of all the male Levites.
God tells Moses to do a census of all of Israel's firstborns, and repeats that he is taking the Levites instead of the firstborn people, and taking the Levites' cattle instead of the firstborn cattle. God tells Moses to collect money from all the firstborns, to be given to the priesthood.
4) God tells Moses to carry out more censuses, and describes the duties of the different tribes.
5) God tells Moses to get rid of every unclean person from the camp.
People who commit sins should confess them and make restitution.
"And every contribution, all the holy donations of the people of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his. Each one shall keep his holy donations: whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his.”
God gives instructions on how to test for adultery.
6) God explains the Nazirite Vow
"When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins." Etc
7) Lots of animals are sacrificed.
8) God tells Moses to cleanse the Levites, in preparation for them belonging to God.
"Thus you shall do to them to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of purification upon them, and let them go with a razor over all their body, and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves."
A Levite shall retire from service at the age of 50.
9) The people of Israel celebrate Passover.
"On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped. At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the Lord they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp."
10) God tells Moses to make two silver trumpets, which shall be used to summon congregations and break camp.
The people of Israel leave Sinai and enter the land of Paran.
11) The Israelites complain about their misfortunes. God hears them and gets angry. He sets fire to their camp, and burns some of the outlying parts. Moses prays, and the fire dies down.
The people of Israel want to eat meat: they are getting sick of eating manna all the time.
God gets angry, and Moses gets upset. Moses asks God why he has dumped the burden of the people onto him alone.
God tells Moses to gather 70 elders; God will split the burden between Moses and them.
God tells Moses that he will provide meat for his people:
"Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you."
God sends quail from the sea and has them fall around the camp, a day's journey on each side and about 36 inches deep. The people who gathered it and ate were killed by a plague from God, because he was angry at them.
12) Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses. God hears them, gets angry, and tells them and Moses to go to the tent of meeting. 'Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.'
God comes down to earth in a pillar of cloud, and says to M&A:
"If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
God departs, and turns Miriam leprous as he leaves.
Aaron begs Moses for forgiveness, and Moses asks God to heal her. God says she must kicked out of the camp for seven days.
13) Moses sends spies to the promised land to find out what it's like and whether its inhabitants are strong or weak, few or many.
Forty days later the spies return and report that the land flows with milk and honey, but its inhabitants are very strong and their cities are heavily fortified. And the sons of Amak, descendants of the Nephilim, reside there. (The Nephilim are a race of giants introduced in Genesis, and they should have been killed off by the Great Flood.)
14) The people grumble against Moses and Aaron; they think the situation is hopeless. The spies say that God will help them get the land as long as they obey his laws. The people decide to stone them to death. God intervenes by revealing his glory at the tent of meeting.
God asks Moses:
“How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
Moses calms God down by asking him what the Egyptians will think if he kills all the Israelites. Won't they think it was because he was unable to deliver them to the promised land? Moses reminds God that he is supposed to be "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love".
God agrees not to kill all Israelites. Instead, he will just ensure that everyone who grumbled against him and is over twenty years old will die in the wilderness before reaching the promised land.
God kills the spies with a plague because they reported the promised land negatively.
15) God gives more instructions on how to sacrifice animals correctly.
A man is found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. He is arrested and stoned to death at God's command.
16) Korah, a Levite, starts an anti-Moses rebellion. The rebels confront Moses and Aaron.
"You have gone too far, sons of Levi!” warns Moses.
Later, God tells Moses and Aaron to get away from the tents of the rebels, because he is going to destroy them. Moses calmly warns the people: “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins.”
The rebels stand at the doors of their tents with their wives, children and babies.
The earth opens up and consumes them and all of their belongings, sending them down to Sheol.
[Sheol is the Hebrew Underworld; the New Testament calls the underworld Hades or Tartarus; the name 'Hell' is derived from Norse mythology].
The next day more people try to rebel against Moses and Aaron. God decides to kill the rebels with a plague. Moses tells Aaron to quickly get some of sacred fire from the altar and burn incense on it to calm God down and stop the plague. Aaron does so, and manages to stop the plague after it has killed 14,700 people.
17) God tells Moses to gather the staffs of the elders of the tribes, and have each staff labelled with its owner's name. He tells Moses to deposit the staffs in the tent of meeting, and that the staff of his chosen leader shall sprout.
Aaron's staff sprouts overnight: it produced buds, blossoms and ripe almonds.
God tells Moses to keep the staff in the ark of the covenant, 'as a sign for the rebels'.
18) God details the duties of priests and Levites.
19) God gives more instructions about purification and what to do with unclean things. E.g.
“This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days."
20) Miriam dies and is buried.
The people run out of water and shout at Moses & Aaron. God tells Moses to hit a certain rock with his staff. Moses does so, and water comes out.
The Israelites want to pass through the kingdom of Edom, so they send a message to King Kadesh, who refuses them entry.
The people turn away from Edom and journey to Mount Hor, where Aaron dies and his son, Eleazar, is made high priest.
21) The Canaanite king of Arad attacks the Israelites and takes some as prisoners. The Israelites retaliate and destroy all the Canaanite cities.
The Israelites set off from Mount Hor to go around the Edom, They become impatient and start questioning God.
God sends fiery serpents to kill some of them so they know who's boss. Moses makes a bronze serpent statue which prevents people being killed by the serpents' bites.
They keep travelling.
Messengers are sent to Sihon, king of the Amorites, asking for permission to pass through his land. He refuses entry, gathers his army, and attacks the Israelites. Israel wins and conquers the land. 'They captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.'
Then they head to Bashan.
King Og of Bashan assembles his army and prepares to defend his land from the Israelite horde.
God tells Moses to do as they did with the Amorites. 'So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land.'
22) The Kingdom of Moab starts to worry about the oncoming Israelites.
“This horde will now lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.” says Moab, the country.
Moab teams up with Midian, and decide that their last hope is to convince the wizard/sage/oracle Balaam to curse Israel.
God tells Balaam that the Israelites are with him. Balaam refuses to curse them.
Balak, king of Moab, offers him cool things. Balaam again refuses.
The next morning, Balaam saddles his donkey and accompanies the princes of Moab back home. This makes God angry. He sends an angel to block his way.
The donkey sees the angel and freaks out. Balaam hits the donkey 3 times, then thinks about killing it.
“What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” asks the Donkey.
“Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.”
“Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?”
“No.”
Balaam notices the angel, who informs him that the donkey just saved his life: if she hadn't freaked out and turned away, the angel would have killed him. The angel tells Balaam to only say God-approved words to Balak.
Balaam arrives at Moab and meets with Balak. They sacrifice some animals together.
23) Balaam sacrifices some animals and blesses Israel. Balak is outraged, but he asks again for Balaam to curse Israel. Balaam again sacrifices some animals and blesses Israel.
24) Balaam blesses Israel again. Balak gets angry and tells him to f&*^ off. Balaam decides to bless Israel again, then list all of the places that they will defeat and dispossess. Then he does back home.
25) Some of the Israelites gets a bit too friendly with the Moabites, and bow down to their gods. Bad move. God tells Moses to kill them, and sends a punishing plague for good measure.
One of the Israelites even gets married to a Midianite. Bad move. Phinehas son of Eleazar kills the Israelite man and the Midianite woman by stabbing them with a spear through their bellies.
The plague, which had killed 24,000 people, stops. God tells Moses that Phinebas did the right thing and is blessed.
26) God tells Moses to do a census, to figure out how many people survived the plague, and how many are able to go to war. Moses carries out the census.
27) God tells Moses that Joshua is to succeed him as leader of Israel.
28) What to sacrifice on a daily basis; what to sacrifice on the Sabbath day; what to sacrifice on a monthly basis; what to sacrifice during Passover; what to sacrifice during the Feast of Weeks.
29) What to sacrifice during the Feast of Trumpets, on the Day of Atonement, and during the Feast of Booths.
30) Laws about vows, eg.
“If a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the Lord will forgive her, because her father opposed her."
31) God tells Moses to attack the Midianites. One thousand men from each tribe go to war. They kill all the male Midianites, even Balaam who had blessed them. They take the women and children captive. They plunder their livestock and their goods. They burn their cities to the ground.
Moses gets angry at the army officers because they weren't ruthless enough; he commands them to kill all the male children and non-virgin women. He then instructs them on how to divide the plunder.
32) The tribes of Gad and Reuben decide to settle in Gilead; they don't want to go all the way to the promised land; this place seems nice enough. Moses and God get angry at them. Gad & Reuben promise to help Israel conquer the promised land, then come back and settle here.
33) Israel's journey is recounted, from Rameses to Moab. They are now camped by the Jordan river, the border to the promised land.
34) God describes the borders of the promised land, and explains how the tribes are to divide it between them.
35) God tells Moses that each tribe must give up some of its land to the Levites, 48 cities in total, and that some of the cities will be Cities of Refuge, where manslayers, people who kill by accident, are allowed to live.
36) God tells Moses that females are allowed to inherit their father's possession, so that each tribes' wealth stays within the tribe.
END OF NUMBERS.
2) God tells Moses how the people of Israel should arrange their camp.
3) God tells Moses that the Levites should keep guard over the people of Israel as well as looking after the Tabernacle. God says that he is now taking the Levites instead of every firstborn child. God tells Moses to do a census of all the male Levites.
God tells Moses to do a census of all of Israel's firstborns, and repeats that he is taking the Levites instead of the firstborn people, and taking the Levites' cattle instead of the firstborn cattle. God tells Moses to collect money from all the firstborns, to be given to the priesthood.
4) God tells Moses to carry out more censuses, and describes the duties of the different tribes.
5) God tells Moses to get rid of every unclean person from the camp.
People who commit sins should confess them and make restitution.
"And every contribution, all the holy donations of the people of Israel, which they bring to the priest, shall be his. Each one shall keep his holy donations: whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his.”
God gives instructions on how to test for adultery.
6) God explains the Nazirite Vow
"When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins." Etc
7) Lots of animals are sacrificed.
8) God tells Moses to cleanse the Levites, in preparation for them belonging to God.
"Thus you shall do to them to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of purification upon them, and let them go with a razor over all their body, and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves."
A Levite shall retire from service at the age of 50.
9) The people of Israel celebrate Passover.
"On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped. At the command of the Lord the people of Israel set out, and at the command of the Lord they camped. As long as the cloud rested over the tabernacle, they remained in camp."
10) God tells Moses to make two silver trumpets, which shall be used to summon congregations and break camp.
The people of Israel leave Sinai and enter the land of Paran.
11) The Israelites complain about their misfortunes. God hears them and gets angry. He sets fire to their camp, and burns some of the outlying parts. Moses prays, and the fire dies down.
The people of Israel want to eat meat: they are getting sick of eating manna all the time.
God gets angry, and Moses gets upset. Moses asks God why he has dumped the burden of the people onto him alone.
God tells Moses to gather 70 elders; God will split the burden between Moses and them.
God tells Moses that he will provide meat for his people:
"Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you."
God sends quail from the sea and has them fall around the camp, a day's journey on each side and about 36 inches deep. The people who gathered it and ate were killed by a plague from God, because he was angry at them.
12) Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses. God hears them, gets angry, and tells them and Moses to go to the tent of meeting. 'Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.'
God comes down to earth in a pillar of cloud, and says to M&A:
"If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
God departs, and turns Miriam leprous as he leaves.
Aaron begs Moses for forgiveness, and Moses asks God to heal her. God says she must kicked out of the camp for seven days.
13) Moses sends spies to the promised land to find out what it's like and whether its inhabitants are strong or weak, few or many.
Forty days later the spies return and report that the land flows with milk and honey, but its inhabitants are very strong and their cities are heavily fortified. And the sons of Amak, descendants of the Nephilim, reside there. (The Nephilim are a race of giants introduced in Genesis, and they should have been killed off by the Great Flood.)
14) The people grumble against Moses and Aaron; they think the situation is hopeless. The spies say that God will help them get the land as long as they obey his laws. The people decide to stone them to death. God intervenes by revealing his glory at the tent of meeting.
God asks Moses:
“How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
Moses calms God down by asking him what the Egyptians will think if he kills all the Israelites. Won't they think it was because he was unable to deliver them to the promised land? Moses reminds God that he is supposed to be "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love".
God agrees not to kill all Israelites. Instead, he will just ensure that everyone who grumbled against him and is over twenty years old will die in the wilderness before reaching the promised land.
God kills the spies with a plague because they reported the promised land negatively.
15) God gives more instructions on how to sacrifice animals correctly.
A man is found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. He is arrested and stoned to death at God's command.
16) Korah, a Levite, starts an anti-Moses rebellion. The rebels confront Moses and Aaron.
"You have gone too far, sons of Levi!” warns Moses.
Later, God tells Moses and Aaron to get away from the tents of the rebels, because he is going to destroy them. Moses calmly warns the people: “Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins.”
The rebels stand at the doors of their tents with their wives, children and babies.
The earth opens up and consumes them and all of their belongings, sending them down to Sheol.
[Sheol is the Hebrew Underworld; the New Testament calls the underworld Hades or Tartarus; the name 'Hell' is derived from Norse mythology].
The next day more people try to rebel against Moses and Aaron. God decides to kill the rebels with a plague. Moses tells Aaron to quickly get some of sacred fire from the altar and burn incense on it to calm God down and stop the plague. Aaron does so, and manages to stop the plague after it has killed 14,700 people.
17) God tells Moses to gather the staffs of the elders of the tribes, and have each staff labelled with its owner's name. He tells Moses to deposit the staffs in the tent of meeting, and that the staff of his chosen leader shall sprout.
Aaron's staff sprouts overnight: it produced buds, blossoms and ripe almonds.
God tells Moses to keep the staff in the ark of the covenant, 'as a sign for the rebels'.
18) God details the duties of priests and Levites.
19) God gives more instructions about purification and what to do with unclean things. E.g.
“This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days."
20) Miriam dies and is buried.
The people run out of water and shout at Moses & Aaron. God tells Moses to hit a certain rock with his staff. Moses does so, and water comes out.
The Israelites want to pass through the kingdom of Edom, so they send a message to King Kadesh, who refuses them entry.
The people turn away from Edom and journey to Mount Hor, where Aaron dies and his son, Eleazar, is made high priest.
21) The Canaanite king of Arad attacks the Israelites and takes some as prisoners. The Israelites retaliate and destroy all the Canaanite cities.
The Israelites set off from Mount Hor to go around the Edom, They become impatient and start questioning God.
God sends fiery serpents to kill some of them so they know who's boss. Moses makes a bronze serpent statue which prevents people being killed by the serpents' bites.
They keep travelling.
Messengers are sent to Sihon, king of the Amorites, asking for permission to pass through his land. He refuses entry, gathers his army, and attacks the Israelites. Israel wins and conquers the land. 'They captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.'
Then they head to Bashan.
King Og of Bashan assembles his army and prepares to defend his land from the Israelite horde.
God tells Moses to do as they did with the Amorites. 'So they defeated him and his sons and all his people, until he had no survivor left. And they possessed his land.'
22) The Kingdom of Moab starts to worry about the oncoming Israelites.
“This horde will now lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.” says Moab, the country.
Moab teams up with Midian, and decide that their last hope is to convince the wizard/sage/oracle Balaam to curse Israel.
God tells Balaam that the Israelites are with him. Balaam refuses to curse them.
Balak, king of Moab, offers him cool things. Balaam again refuses.
The next morning, Balaam saddles his donkey and accompanies the princes of Moab back home. This makes God angry. He sends an angel to block his way.
The donkey sees the angel and freaks out. Balaam hits the donkey 3 times, then thinks about killing it.
“What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” asks the Donkey.
“Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.”
“Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?”
“No.”
Balaam notices the angel, who informs him that the donkey just saved his life: if she hadn't freaked out and turned away, the angel would have killed him. The angel tells Balaam to only say God-approved words to Balak.
Balaam arrives at Moab and meets with Balak. They sacrifice some animals together.
23) Balaam sacrifices some animals and blesses Israel. Balak is outraged, but he asks again for Balaam to curse Israel. Balaam again sacrifices some animals and blesses Israel.
24) Balaam blesses Israel again. Balak gets angry and tells him to f&*^ off. Balaam decides to bless Israel again, then list all of the places that they will defeat and dispossess. Then he does back home.
25) Some of the Israelites gets a bit too friendly with the Moabites, and bow down to their gods. Bad move. God tells Moses to kill them, and sends a punishing plague for good measure.
One of the Israelites even gets married to a Midianite. Bad move. Phinehas son of Eleazar kills the Israelite man and the Midianite woman by stabbing them with a spear through their bellies.
The plague, which had killed 24,000 people, stops. God tells Moses that Phinebas did the right thing and is blessed.
26) God tells Moses to do a census, to figure out how many people survived the plague, and how many are able to go to war. Moses carries out the census.
27) God tells Moses that Joshua is to succeed him as leader of Israel.
28) What to sacrifice on a daily basis; what to sacrifice on the Sabbath day; what to sacrifice on a monthly basis; what to sacrifice during Passover; what to sacrifice during the Feast of Weeks.
29) What to sacrifice during the Feast of Trumpets, on the Day of Atonement, and during the Feast of Booths.
30) Laws about vows, eg.
“If a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the Lord will forgive her, because her father opposed her."
31) God tells Moses to attack the Midianites. One thousand men from each tribe go to war. They kill all the male Midianites, even Balaam who had blessed them. They take the women and children captive. They plunder their livestock and their goods. They burn their cities to the ground.
Moses gets angry at the army officers because they weren't ruthless enough; he commands them to kill all the male children and non-virgin women. He then instructs them on how to divide the plunder.
32) The tribes of Gad and Reuben decide to settle in Gilead; they don't want to go all the way to the promised land; this place seems nice enough. Moses and God get angry at them. Gad & Reuben promise to help Israel conquer the promised land, then come back and settle here.
33) Israel's journey is recounted, from Rameses to Moab. They are now camped by the Jordan river, the border to the promised land.
34) God describes the borders of the promised land, and explains how the tribes are to divide it between them.
35) God tells Moses that each tribe must give up some of its land to the Levites, 48 cities in total, and that some of the cities will be Cities of Refuge, where manslayers, people who kill by accident, are allowed to live.
36) God tells Moses that females are allowed to inherit their father's possession, so that each tribes' wealth stays within the tribe.
END OF NUMBERS.
Wednesday 23 July 2014
Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
In Leviticus, God gives Moses lots of rules and instructions.
1) How to sacrifice animals as burnt offerings. E.g.
“If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male without blemish, and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and Aaron's sons the priests shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar."
2) How to make grain offerings. E.g.
"You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt."
3) How to sacrifice animals as peace offerings.
4) How to sacrifice animals as an apology for unintentionally breaking one of the ten commandments.
5) How to sacrifice animals because you touched something unclean. E.g.
"He shall wring its head from its neck but shall not sever it completely, and he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar"
6) Anyone who robs their neighbour and realises their guilt must restore what they stole plus one fifth, and sacrifice a ram to God.
More instructions about burnt offerings, grain offerings and sin offerings.
7) More instructions on guilt offerings. E.g.
"The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering to the Lord; it is a guilt offering. Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy."
More instructions on peace offerings.
No eating fat: "You shall eat no fat, of ox or sheep or goat. The fat of an animal that dies of itself and the fat of one that is torn by beasts may be put to any other use, but on no account shall you eat it."
No eating blood: "Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling places."
8) God tells Moses to consecrate the priests and the tabernacle. Moses does so, then sacrifices a bull as a sin offering. Then a ram as a burnt offering. Then a ram of ordination. Moses sprinkles some blood and anointing oil onto the priests to consecrate them.
9) Aaron sacrifices some animals.
10) Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, 'offered unauthorized fire before the Lord'. God kills them with the fire.
More sacrifices, more grain offerings.
11) What to eat/Clean animals: Any animal that parts the hoof, is cloven-footed and cud chewing. "Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers." Locusts, crickets, grasshoppers.
What not to eat/Unclean animals: Camels, rock badgers, hares and pigs. Anything in the seas or rivers which does not have fins or scales. Eagles, vultures, kites, falcons, ravens, ostriches, nighthawks, seagulls, hawks, owls, cormorants, storks, herons, hoopoes, bats. "All winged insects that go on all fours" except those mentioned above. Mole rats, mice, lizards. Anything that swarms on the ground.
Anyone who touches an unclean animal will be considered unclean until evening. If an item touches a dead unclean animal it shall become unclean. "It must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the evening; then it shall be clean. And if any of them falls into any earthenware vessel, all that is in it shall be unclean, and you shall break it."
12) If a woman gives birth to a male child, she shall be unclean for seven days. Males should be circumcised on the eighth day. If a woman gives birth to a female child, she shall be unclean for two weeks. After she is purified, she must sacrifice a lamb as a burnt offering, and a pigeon or turtledove as a sin offering.
"And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering."
13) How to deal with lepers:
“The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip [grow a moustache] and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp."
How to deal with mouldy clothes: lock the garment up for seven days; on the seventh day, check if the disease has spread; if it has, burn the garment.
14) How to cleanse lepers. It involves sacrificing lots of animals.
How to deal with mouldy houses: empty the house, lock it up for seven days. "And the priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the disease has spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the disease and throw them into an unclean place outside the city. And he shall have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city."
15) What to do about bodily discharges.
What to do if a man ejaculates:
“If a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening. And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening. If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening."
What to do if a woman is menstruating:
"Everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening."
16) God tells Moses to tell Aaron to sacrifice some animals, and sets up the Day of Atonement:
“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you."
17) No sacrificing animals away from the Tabernacle; no sacrificing animals to goat demons.
No eating blood; don't even let the foreigners living amongst you eat blood. Make sure you pour the blood away when you kill an animal.
18) No having sex with close relatives.
"And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive."
No having sex with menstruating women.
No having sex with your neighbour's wife.
No sacrificing children to Moloch.
No male on male sex.
No having sex with animals.
Do not do any of these things "lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you."
19) Leave some of your produce for the poor.
Do not steal; do not deal falsely; do not lie.
Do not falsely swear by God's name (YHWH).
Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind.
Judge in righteousness; do not be partial to the poor or defer to the great.
Do not hate your brother; reason frankly with your neighbour, lest you incur sin.
"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself:"
Do not let cattle interbreed.
Do not sow your field with two kinds of seeds.
Do not wear garments of cloth made of two kinds of material.
If a man has sex with a female slave belonging to another, he should sacrifice an animal.
Do not interpret omens or tell fortunes.
Do not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edge of your beard.
No tattoos.
Do not force your daughter to become a prostitute "lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity."
Avoid mediums and necromancers.
Honour old people.
Treat visitors nicely.
Use accurate balances and weights. “You shall do no wrong in judgement, in measures of length or weight or quantity."
20) Anyone who sacrifices their children to Moloch should be killed.
Adulterers should be killed.
Men who have sex with their daughters-in-law should be killed. (The daughters-in-law should also be killed.)
Men who have sex with men should killed.
"If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you."
Anyone who has sex with an animal should be killed; also, kill the animal.
“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death."
21) Priests may not marry prostitutes, non-virgins, widows or divorcees.
"And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire."
The chief priest is not allowed to "go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother."
"No one who has a blemish shall draw near [the altar], a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles."
22) The aforementioned laws about being unclean are repeated to the priests.
Only priests and priest's slaves may eat the holy food sacrificed to God.
Further instructions on how to sacrifice animals correctly.
23) Holy feasts: the Sabbath; the Passover; the Feast of Firstfruits; the Feast of Weeks; the Feast of Trumpets; the Day of Atonement; the Feast of Booths;
24) A man blasphemes the name of God, and is brought to Moses. God tells Moses to kill him.
"Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death."
This is followed by the famous 'An Eye for an Eye':
“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. If anyone injures his neighbour, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, rand whoever kills a person shall be put to death."
25) Every seventh year you should let your land lie fallow, a Sabbath year.
If your brother becomes poor, look after him.
Do not lend money at interest.
“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired worker"
"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly."
26) No idols; no images; no pillars; no figured stones to bow down to.
God gives a dramatic speech about what will happen if his rules are followed, and what will happen if they aren't:
"I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
"But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.
“And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste."
27) Chapter 27 contains laws about valuations (as in, how much slaves should cost). E.g.
"If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels."
END OF LEVITICUS
1) How to sacrifice animals as burnt offerings. E.g.
“If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male without blemish, and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and Aaron's sons the priests shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar."
2) How to make grain offerings. E.g.
"You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt."
3) How to sacrifice animals as peace offerings.
4) How to sacrifice animals as an apology for unintentionally breaking one of the ten commandments.
5) How to sacrifice animals because you touched something unclean. E.g.
"He shall wring its head from its neck but shall not sever it completely, and he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar"
6) Anyone who robs their neighbour and realises their guilt must restore what they stole plus one fifth, and sacrifice a ram to God.
More instructions about burnt offerings, grain offerings and sin offerings.
7) More instructions on guilt offerings. E.g.
"The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering to the Lord; it is a guilt offering. Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy."
More instructions on peace offerings.
No eating fat: "You shall eat no fat, of ox or sheep or goat. The fat of an animal that dies of itself and the fat of one that is torn by beasts may be put to any other use, but on no account shall you eat it."
No eating blood: "Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling places."
8) God tells Moses to consecrate the priests and the tabernacle. Moses does so, then sacrifices a bull as a sin offering. Then a ram as a burnt offering. Then a ram of ordination. Moses sprinkles some blood and anointing oil onto the priests to consecrate them.
9) Aaron sacrifices some animals.
10) Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, 'offered unauthorized fire before the Lord'. God kills them with the fire.
More sacrifices, more grain offerings.
11) What to eat/Clean animals: Any animal that parts the hoof, is cloven-footed and cud chewing. "Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers." Locusts, crickets, grasshoppers.
What not to eat/Unclean animals: Camels, rock badgers, hares and pigs. Anything in the seas or rivers which does not have fins or scales. Eagles, vultures, kites, falcons, ravens, ostriches, nighthawks, seagulls, hawks, owls, cormorants, storks, herons, hoopoes, bats. "All winged insects that go on all fours" except those mentioned above. Mole rats, mice, lizards. Anything that swarms on the ground.
Anyone who touches an unclean animal will be considered unclean until evening. If an item touches a dead unclean animal it shall become unclean. "It must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the evening; then it shall be clean. And if any of them falls into any earthenware vessel, all that is in it shall be unclean, and you shall break it."
12) If a woman gives birth to a male child, she shall be unclean for seven days. Males should be circumcised on the eighth day. If a woman gives birth to a female child, she shall be unclean for two weeks. After she is purified, she must sacrifice a lamb as a burnt offering, and a pigeon or turtledove as a sin offering.
"And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering."
13) How to deal with lepers:
“The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip [grow a moustache] and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp."
How to deal with mouldy clothes: lock the garment up for seven days; on the seventh day, check if the disease has spread; if it has, burn the garment.
14) How to cleanse lepers. It involves sacrificing lots of animals.
How to deal with mouldy houses: empty the house, lock it up for seven days. "And the priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the disease has spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the disease and throw them into an unclean place outside the city. And he shall have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city."
15) What to do about bodily discharges.
What to do if a man ejaculates:
“If a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening. And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening. If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening."
What to do if a woman is menstruating:
"Everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening."
16) God tells Moses to tell Aaron to sacrifice some animals, and sets up the Day of Atonement:
“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you."
17) No sacrificing animals away from the Tabernacle; no sacrificing animals to goat demons.
No eating blood; don't even let the foreigners living amongst you eat blood. Make sure you pour the blood away when you kill an animal.
18) No having sex with close relatives.
"And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive."
No having sex with menstruating women.
No having sex with your neighbour's wife.
No sacrificing children to Moloch.
No male on male sex.
No having sex with animals.
Do not do any of these things "lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you."
19) Leave some of your produce for the poor.
Do not steal; do not deal falsely; do not lie.
Do not falsely swear by God's name (YHWH).
Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind.
Judge in righteousness; do not be partial to the poor or defer to the great.
Do not hate your brother; reason frankly with your neighbour, lest you incur sin.
"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself:"
Do not let cattle interbreed.
Do not sow your field with two kinds of seeds.
Do not wear garments of cloth made of two kinds of material.
If a man has sex with a female slave belonging to another, he should sacrifice an animal.
Do not interpret omens or tell fortunes.
Do not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edge of your beard.
No tattoos.
Do not force your daughter to become a prostitute "lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity."
Avoid mediums and necromancers.
Honour old people.
Treat visitors nicely.
Use accurate balances and weights. “You shall do no wrong in judgement, in measures of length or weight or quantity."
20) Anyone who sacrifices their children to Moloch should be killed.
Adulterers should be killed.
Men who have sex with their daughters-in-law should be killed. (The daughters-in-law should also be killed.)
Men who have sex with men should killed.
"If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you."
Anyone who has sex with an animal should be killed; also, kill the animal.
“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death."
21) Priests may not marry prostitutes, non-virgins, widows or divorcees.
"And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire."
The chief priest is not allowed to "go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother."
"No one who has a blemish shall draw near [the altar], a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles."
22) The aforementioned laws about being unclean are repeated to the priests.
Only priests and priest's slaves may eat the holy food sacrificed to God.
Further instructions on how to sacrifice animals correctly.
23) Holy feasts: the Sabbath; the Passover; the Feast of Firstfruits; the Feast of Weeks; the Feast of Trumpets; the Day of Atonement; the Feast of Booths;
24) A man blasphemes the name of God, and is brought to Moses. God tells Moses to kill him.
"Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death."
This is followed by the famous 'An Eye for an Eye':
“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. If anyone injures his neighbour, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, rand whoever kills a person shall be put to death."
25) Every seventh year you should let your land lie fallow, a Sabbath year.
If your brother becomes poor, look after him.
Do not lend money at interest.
“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired worker"
"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly."
26) No idols; no images; no pillars; no figured stones to bow down to.
God gives a dramatic speech about what will happen if his rules are followed, and what will happen if they aren't:
"I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
"But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.
“And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste."
27) Chapter 27 contains laws about valuations (as in, how much slaves should cost). E.g.
"If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels."
END OF LEVITICUS
Saturday 19 July 2014
Hebrew Bible: Exodus 16-40
PREVIOUSLY ON EXODUS: God led the Israelites out of Egypt, into the wilderness.
16) The Israelites come to the wilderness of Sin, and everyone grumbles about how hungry they are.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not."
The next morning, a fine, flake-like substance covers the ground. The people ask Moses what it is. He tells them that it is bread sent from heaven, and that they should gather as much as they can eat. The people do so, and none of them go hungry.
The bread of heaven is given the name 'manna' (sometimes spelled 'mana'), and the Israelites live of it throughout their time in the wilderness.
17) The Israelites complain that they have no water. God tells Moses that water will come out of a certain rock if he hits it with the Staff of God. Moses hits the rock, and the people get water.
The army of Amalek appears and attacks Israel. Moses and a few others watch the battle from a hill.
"Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun." Israel wins.
18) Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, father of Zipporah, meets up with the Israelites. They catch up on recent events, and Jethro makes a sacrifice to God.
The next day, Jethro notices that Moses is organising everything and dealing with all the people's disputes. He warns Moses that he is going to wear himself out if he continues doing this, and advises him to appoint chiefs rule over groups of people, and tell everyone the statutes and laws by which they must live. The chiefs should deal with the small disputes, and only bring the major ones to Moses.
Jethro returns home.
19) The Israelites camp at the base of Mount Sinai. Moses climbs up the mountain to meet with God.
God tells Moses that the Israelites will be God's favourites as long they keep obeying him, and that he will be descending in a thick cloud in 3 days time, and he expects everyone to have consecrated themselves and washed their garments by then. And on the third day, noone should touch the mountain, or they will be killed.
'On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast... Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly... And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.'
When Moses reaches the top, God tells him to go back down and come up with Aaron.
20) The Ten Commandments:
I. “You shall have no other gods before me."
II. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."
III. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." [It is worth remembering here that God's name is not 'God', God's name is 'YHWH'.]
IV. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
V. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."
VI. “You shall not murder."
VII. “You shall not commit adultery."
VIII. “You shall not steal."
IX. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."
X. “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”
'Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled... The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.'
God tells Moses not to make gods of silver or gold, and gives him instructions about altars.
21) In this and many of the following chapters, God gives Moses lots of laws and instructions.
Laws about slaves, e.g.
'When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.'
'When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.'
What to do with violent people/oxes, e.g.
'Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.'
'Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.'
'When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.'
'When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.'
'When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye.'
'When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.'
22) What to do with thieves, e.g.
'If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep... If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.'
'If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.'
'You shall not permit a sorceress to live.'
'Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.'
Be nice to foreigners who sojourn in your land.
Be nice to widows and orphans.
Do not lend money at interest.
Sacrifice firstborn animals to God.
23) Do not spread lies.
Do not pervert justice.
Every seventh year you shall let your farmland lie fallow, a Sabbath year for the land.
Do not mention the names of other gods.
'You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.'
God promises to send an angel to guard the Israelites on their way to the promised land, and gives a dramatic speech about the promised land:
“When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces... I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.... Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.'
24) Moses tells the Israelites all the rules, and writes them down in the Book of the Covenant.
Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel climb the mountain and see God.
'There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.'
Later, God tells Moses to climb up the mountain to collect stone tablets with the laws and commandments written on them.
'Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.'
25) God gives Moses detailed instructions on how to make the Ark of the Covenant, the Table for Bread, the Golden Lampstand, ...
26) ...the Tabernacle, ...
27) ...the Bronze Altar, the Court of the Tabernacle, ...
28) ...Priests' Garments, the Breastpiece of Judgement
29) How to consecrate priests, involving multiple animal sacrifices.
30) Instructions on how to build the Altar of Incense.
Laws on taxation, e.g.
'The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives.'
How to build a Bronze Basin, how to make incense.
31) God tells Moses to make the items listed above and to keep the Sabbath day free from work.
'And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.'
32) The Israelites get bored and ask Aaron to make some gods for them, because Moses has been up the mountain for awhile and they don't know what's happened to him. Aaron gets all the Israelites' golden earrings and makes a golden calf. The people worship it.
Meanwhile, on the mountain, God tells Moses to head back down because his people have already started to worship something else. God asks to be left alone, in case he gets angrier:
"Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
But Moses calms God down by asking him what the Egyptians would think if he killed them all; they'd think God was evil, and had only saved them from slavery so that he could kill them himself.
Moses goes down the mountain carrying the stone tablets written by the finger of God. When he reaches the camp, he hears people singing and dancing around the calf.
Moses gets angry. He smashes the tablets on the ground in rage. He grinds the calf into powder, mixes the powder with water, and makes the Israelites down it.
Moses asks Aaron WTF he was thinking. Aaron explains.
Moses calls for anyone loyal to God to come to him. The sons of Levi gather round. Moses commands them:
“Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’”
They kill 3000 people.
The next day Moses tells the people that he has to go back up the mountain to talk to God again, and hopes that he won't be too angry. God sends a plague as punishment for the calf.
33) God tells Moses to depart from Sinai; he will send a angel to lead the way to the promised land, and will drive out its current inhabitants. Moses starts to lose confidence, and asks to see God's glory.
“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name... But, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live... while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” says God.
34) God tells Moses to make new tablets with his commandments on. Writing down everything that was on the first two, which he smashed. God comes down in a cloud and says:
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
God renews his covenant with Moses and promises (again) to drive out the current inhabitants of the promised land. He reiterates some important commands: worship no other gods ('for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God'), keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all firstborns belong to God, do not work on the Sabbath day, no leavened bread shall accompany sacrifices.
'So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.'
Moses climbs down, and the Israelites are a bit weirded out because his face is shining. He covers his face with a veil.
35) No work on the Sabbath day. The people contribute items to the priests, to be used in making the Tabernacle. Construction of the Tabernacle begins.
36) Moses notices that the people had donated too much stuff to the Tabernacle Construction Fund, and are still donating things. He commands them to stop donating things. Construction of the Tabernacle continues.
37) The Ark of the Covenant, Acacia Table, Golden Lampstand and Altar of Incense are made.
38) The Altar of Burnt Offering and Bronze Basin are made. Construction of the Tabernacle continues.
39) Priestly garments are made.
40) Construction of the Tabernacle is completed. Moses consecrates it. The Cloud of God descends and the glory of God fills the tabernacle.
'Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.'
END OF EXODUS
16) The Israelites come to the wilderness of Sin, and everyone grumbles about how hungry they are.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not."
The next morning, a fine, flake-like substance covers the ground. The people ask Moses what it is. He tells them that it is bread sent from heaven, and that they should gather as much as they can eat. The people do so, and none of them go hungry.
The bread of heaven is given the name 'manna' (sometimes spelled 'mana'), and the Israelites live of it throughout their time in the wilderness.
17) The Israelites complain that they have no water. God tells Moses that water will come out of a certain rock if he hits it with the Staff of God. Moses hits the rock, and the people get water.
The army of Amalek appears and attacks Israel. Moses and a few others watch the battle from a hill.
"Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun." Israel wins.
18) Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, father of Zipporah, meets up with the Israelites. They catch up on recent events, and Jethro makes a sacrifice to God.
The next day, Jethro notices that Moses is organising everything and dealing with all the people's disputes. He warns Moses that he is going to wear himself out if he continues doing this, and advises him to appoint chiefs rule over groups of people, and tell everyone the statutes and laws by which they must live. The chiefs should deal with the small disputes, and only bring the major ones to Moses.
Jethro returns home.
19) The Israelites camp at the base of Mount Sinai. Moses climbs up the mountain to meet with God.
God tells Moses that the Israelites will be God's favourites as long they keep obeying him, and that he will be descending in a thick cloud in 3 days time, and he expects everyone to have consecrated themselves and washed their garments by then. And on the third day, noone should touch the mountain, or they will be killed.
'On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast... Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly... And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.'
When Moses reaches the top, God tells him to go back down and come up with Aaron.
20) The Ten Commandments:
I. “You shall have no other gods before me."
II. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."
III. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain." [It is worth remembering here that God's name is not 'God', God's name is 'YHWH'.]
IV. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
V. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you."
VI. “You shall not murder."
VII. “You shall not commit adultery."
VIII. “You shall not steal."
IX. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."
X. “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's.”
'Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled... The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.'
God tells Moses not to make gods of silver or gold, and gives him instructions about altars.
21) In this and many of the following chapters, God gives Moses lots of laws and instructions.
Laws about slaves, e.g.
'When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.'
'When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.'
What to do with violent people/oxes, e.g.
'Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death.'
'Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.'
'When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.'
'When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.'
'When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye.'
'When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.'
22) What to do with thieves, e.g.
'If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep... If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.'
'If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.'
'You shall not permit a sorceress to live.'
'Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.'
Be nice to foreigners who sojourn in your land.
Be nice to widows and orphans.
Do not lend money at interest.
Sacrifice firstborn animals to God.
23) Do not spread lies.
Do not pervert justice.
Every seventh year you shall let your farmland lie fallow, a Sabbath year for the land.
Do not mention the names of other gods.
'You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.'
God promises to send an angel to guard the Israelites on their way to the promised land, and gives a dramatic speech about the promised land:
“When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces... I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.... Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.'
24) Moses tells the Israelites all the rules, and writes them down in the Book of the Covenant.
Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel climb the mountain and see God.
'There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.'
Later, God tells Moses to climb up the mountain to collect stone tablets with the laws and commandments written on them.
'Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.'
25) God gives Moses detailed instructions on how to make the Ark of the Covenant, the Table for Bread, the Golden Lampstand, ...
26) ...the Tabernacle, ...
27) ...the Bronze Altar, the Court of the Tabernacle, ...
28) ...Priests' Garments, the Breastpiece of Judgement
29) How to consecrate priests, involving multiple animal sacrifices.
30) Instructions on how to build the Altar of Incense.
Laws on taxation, e.g.
'The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives.'
How to build a Bronze Basin, how to make incense.
31) God tells Moses to make the items listed above and to keep the Sabbath day free from work.
'And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.'
32) The Israelites get bored and ask Aaron to make some gods for them, because Moses has been up the mountain for awhile and they don't know what's happened to him. Aaron gets all the Israelites' golden earrings and makes a golden calf. The people worship it.
Meanwhile, on the mountain, God tells Moses to head back down because his people have already started to worship something else. God asks to be left alone, in case he gets angrier:
"Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”
But Moses calms God down by asking him what the Egyptians would think if he killed them all; they'd think God was evil, and had only saved them from slavery so that he could kill them himself.
Moses goes down the mountain carrying the stone tablets written by the finger of God. When he reaches the camp, he hears people singing and dancing around the calf.
Moses gets angry. He smashes the tablets on the ground in rage. He grinds the calf into powder, mixes the powder with water, and makes the Israelites down it.
Moses asks Aaron WTF he was thinking. Aaron explains.
Moses calls for anyone loyal to God to come to him. The sons of Levi gather round. Moses commands them:
“Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’”
They kill 3000 people.
The next day Moses tells the people that he has to go back up the mountain to talk to God again, and hopes that he won't be too angry. God sends a plague as punishment for the calf.
33) God tells Moses to depart from Sinai; he will send a angel to lead the way to the promised land, and will drive out its current inhabitants. Moses starts to lose confidence, and asks to see God's glory.
“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name... But, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live... while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” says God.
34) God tells Moses to make new tablets with his commandments on. Writing down everything that was on the first two, which he smashed. God comes down in a cloud and says:
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
God renews his covenant with Moses and promises (again) to drive out the current inhabitants of the promised land. He reiterates some important commands: worship no other gods ('for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God'), keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, all firstborns belong to God, do not work on the Sabbath day, no leavened bread shall accompany sacrifices.
'So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.'
Moses climbs down, and the Israelites are a bit weirded out because his face is shining. He covers his face with a veil.
35) No work on the Sabbath day. The people contribute items to the priests, to be used in making the Tabernacle. Construction of the Tabernacle begins.
36) Moses notices that the people had donated too much stuff to the Tabernacle Construction Fund, and are still donating things. He commands them to stop donating things. Construction of the Tabernacle continues.
37) The Ark of the Covenant, Acacia Table, Golden Lampstand and Altar of Incense are made.
38) The Altar of Burnt Offering and Bronze Basin are made. Construction of the Tabernacle continues.
39) Priestly garments are made.
40) Construction of the Tabernacle is completed. Moses consecrates it. The Cloud of God descends and the glory of God fills the tabernacle.
'Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.'
END OF EXODUS
Saturday 12 July 2014
Hebrew Bible: Exodus 1-15
PREVIOUSLY: the Israelites moved to Egypt...
1) The Israelites multiplied greatly. A new Pharaoh came to power, one who did not know Joseph, and he told his people to enslave the Israelites because they have become too many and mighty, and we wouldn't want them joining our enemies in a war.
The Pharaoh commands the Hebrew midwives to kill any sons born to Hebrew women. The midwives do not do as commanded. The Pharaoh tell his people to throw all the Hebrew sons into the Nile.
2) A child is born to a Levite family. The mother hides him for three months, then puts him in a basket and places it amongst the reeds by the river bank. The child's sister waits nearby to see what happens.
The Pharaoh's daughter finds the basket. The child's sister approaches, and offers to find a nurse for the baby. She brings her mother. The Pharaoh's daughter offers to pay the mother's wages while she raises the child.
'When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses.'
Fast forward. Moses is grown up. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Looking around, Moses sees no one, so he kills the Egyptian and buries the body in the sand.
The next day, Moses sees two Hebrews fighting and tries to intervene.
“Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Moses becomes afraid, and realises that his crime is known (I imagine the Hebrew he saved from the beating wasn't good at keeping secrets). Moses flees to the land of Midian, and ends up staying with a guy called Reuel/Jethro (the narrative alternates between the names), marrying one of his daughters, Zipporah, and having a son.
"During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob."
3) Moses was keeping his father-in-law's flock when he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of God appeared to him as a flame of fire on a bush. The bush was burning, but it was not consumed.
“Moses, Moses!” said God, "Here I am."
And God told Moses to take his sandals off, because he was standing on holy ground.
God tells Moses that he is going to free his people from their slavery in Egypt, but he needs Moses to be his messenger. God tells him to return to Egypt and ask for the Hebrews' freedom.
"But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbour, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewellery, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
4) Moses doubts that anyone will believe him or listen to him. God tells him to throw his staff onto the ground: it becomes a serpent and Moses runs away. God tells Moses to catch the serpent by its tail. Moses does so, and it transforms back into a staff. God gives Moses another sign: his cloak makes hands leprous, then cures them. These signs will be used to convince the people.
Moses tells God about his speech impediment. God tells Moses to use his brother Aaron as an interpreter.
Moses says goodbye to his father-in-law and returns to Egypt with his wife and children, Staff of God in hand.
On the way, God decides to kill Moses, but Zipporah cuts off their son's foreskin just in time, so God lets him live.
God tells Aaron to meet up with Moses in the wilderness. Moses and Aaron meet with elders of Israel and perform the signs. The people believe.
5) Moses and Aaron meet with the Pharaoh and ask for Israel's freedom. The Pharaoh refuses, and makes the slaves' lives a bit harder. Moses gets upset, God tries to comfort him, and tells him to see the Pharaoh again.
6-7) God tells Moses that the Pharaoh is not going to free his people yet, but not to worry because God has cool acts of judgement planned.
He tells Moses and Aaron to prove their power to the Pharaoh by turning the staff into a serpent.
They do this, but the Pharaoh summons the Wizards of Egypt, who transforms their staffs into serpents.
The serpents fight, and God's staff-serpent devours the Egyptian staff-serpents.
The Pharaoh refuses to free the people.
The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood.
The next morning, Moses and Aaron go to the bank of the Nile in the morning and strike the water with the Staff of God. The water turns to blood. The fish die, the river stinks, and the water could not be drunk.
But the Wizards of Egypt could also turn water to blood. The Pharaoh refuses to free the people.
8) The Second Plague: Frogs
Seven days later, Aaron uses the staff to summon frogs from the rivers, canals and pools of Egypt. But the Wizards of Egypt could do the same. The Pharaoh asks Moses to stop the frogs, Moses agrees to limit the frogs to the Nile. The frogs in the houses, courtyards and fields die.
But the Pharaoh would not let the people go.
The Third Plague: Gnats
Aaron strikes the ground with his staff, and the dust of the Earth rises up and becomes gnats. The Wizards of Egypt could not do the same.
The Fourth Plague: Flies
Gods sends swarms of flies to Egypt, but they do not bother the Hebrews. The Pharaoh promises to let the people go, and asks Moses to stop the flies. God stops the flies, but the Pharaoh changes his mind.
9) The Fifth Plague: Egyptian Livestock Die
God kills all of the Egyptians' livestock, but leaves the livestock of the Israelites alone.
The Sixth Plague: Boils
Moses throws some soot into the air and it becomes a fine dust over the land of Egypt, and causes boils to break out in sores on Egyptians and animals throughout the land. The Wizards of Egypt could not face Moses because they were defeated by the boils.
The Seventh Plague: Hail
Moses points the Staff of God at heaven. The sky thunders. Hail and fire rains down on Egypt. The hail and fire kills everything that isn't safely inside, except for the Israelites, which it leaves alone.
The Pharaoh asks Moses to stop the thunder and hail, and promises to let the people go. Again, God stops, and again, the Pharaoh changes his mind.
10) The Eighth Plague: Locusts
The Pharaoh's servants are getting annoyed, they say to him:
“How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”
Moses and Aaron are brought in to see the Pharaoh, but the Pharaoh changes his mind about letting them go.
Moses points the Staff of God over Egypt, and God sends a strong east wind which, the next morning, brings locusts.
The locusts settled on the whole country, devouring all the food the Egyptian's had left. 'Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.' The Pharaoh asks Moses and Aaron to stop the locusts. God turns the wind westwards and blows the locusts into the Red Sea. But the Pharaoh would not let the people go.
The Ninth Plague: Darkness
Moses stretches his hand towards heaven, and the land of Egypt is cast into pitch darkness for three days, but the 'people of Israel had light where they lived.'
The Pharaoh tells Moses that his people may leave, but must leave their livestock behind. Moses says that this is unacceptable. The Pharaoh thinks this is ridiculous, and tells Moses to go away.
11) God makes the Egyptians like the Israelites, so they give them lots of jewellery. Moses warns the Pharaoh of a final plague: God "will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel."
12) God tells Moses how his people should celebrate the Passover, and to mark their doors with the blood of a lamb.
"For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast."
The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn
'At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”
The Exodus begins. The Israelites, about 600,000 of them, leave the land of Egypt.
13) 'The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”'
Moses tells the Israelites that they are going to celebrate the Passover every year, and tells them that every firstborn animal shall be sacrificed, and that every firstborn human shall be redeemed.
God leads the Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, towards the Red Sea.
14) The Pharaoh and his people change their mind about releasing the Israelites. The army of Egypt, all the king's horses and chariots and horsemen, sets off to capture them.
The Israelites camp facing the Red Sea. They see the approaching Egyptians and think they are all going to die. They say to Moses: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?"
But Moses says, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
God, in the pillar of cloud, moves between the Israelites and the Egyptians. 'And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.'
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.'
Moses stretches his hand over the sea, and the water crashes down on the Egyptians. Not one of them was left alive. 'But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.'
15) The people of Israel celebrate their freedom by singing the Song of Moses/the Song of the Sea:
After credits scene:
The Israelites are now in the wilderness of Shur. They find no water for three days.
Then they find water, but it is bitter and they cannot drink it.
They grumble at Moses. God tells Moses to throw a certain log into the water. The water becomes sweet. God says to them:
“If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”
Then the Israelites arrive at Elim, a place with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.
[Note: the narrative alternates between telling us that 'the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart', 'the heart of Pharaoh was hardened' and 'Pharaoh hardened his heart'. Each version is subtly different and changes who is responsible for the continued enslavement of the Israelites. The first suggests that God deliberately made the Pharaoh crueller so he could show off his acts of judgement. The second is passive, and suggests that the heart hardening just happened because of, say, a bad upbringing - no one is responsible. The final version puts the blame squarely on the Pharaoh for being a nasty person.
Note 2: I'm looking forward to Ridley Scott's (probably very loose) adaptation:
]
NEXT TIME ON EXODUS:
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES, BUT WHAT WILL THEY EAT?
THE LORD PROVIDES...
1) The Israelites multiplied greatly. A new Pharaoh came to power, one who did not know Joseph, and he told his people to enslave the Israelites because they have become too many and mighty, and we wouldn't want them joining our enemies in a war.
The Pharaoh commands the Hebrew midwives to kill any sons born to Hebrew women. The midwives do not do as commanded. The Pharaoh tell his people to throw all the Hebrew sons into the Nile.
2) A child is born to a Levite family. The mother hides him for three months, then puts him in a basket and places it amongst the reeds by the river bank. The child's sister waits nearby to see what happens.
The Pharaoh's daughter finds the basket. The child's sister approaches, and offers to find a nurse for the baby. She brings her mother. The Pharaoh's daughter offers to pay the mother's wages while she raises the child.
'When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses.'
Fast forward. Moses is grown up. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Looking around, Moses sees no one, so he kills the Egyptian and buries the body in the sand.
The next day, Moses sees two Hebrews fighting and tries to intervene.
“Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Moses becomes afraid, and realises that his crime is known (I imagine the Hebrew he saved from the beating wasn't good at keeping secrets). Moses flees to the land of Midian, and ends up staying with a guy called Reuel/Jethro (the narrative alternates between the names), marrying one of his daughters, Zipporah, and having a son.
"During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob."
3) Moses was keeping his father-in-law's flock when he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of God appeared to him as a flame of fire on a bush. The bush was burning, but it was not consumed.
“Moses, Moses!” said God, "Here I am."
And God told Moses to take his sandals off, because he was standing on holy ground.
God tells Moses that he is going to free his people from their slavery in Egypt, but he needs Moses to be his messenger. God tells him to return to Egypt and ask for the Hebrews' freedom.
"But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbour, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewellery, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
4) Moses doubts that anyone will believe him or listen to him. God tells him to throw his staff onto the ground: it becomes a serpent and Moses runs away. God tells Moses to catch the serpent by its tail. Moses does so, and it transforms back into a staff. God gives Moses another sign: his cloak makes hands leprous, then cures them. These signs will be used to convince the people.
Moses tells God about his speech impediment. God tells Moses to use his brother Aaron as an interpreter.
Moses says goodbye to his father-in-law and returns to Egypt with his wife and children, Staff of God in hand.
On the way, God decides to kill Moses, but Zipporah cuts off their son's foreskin just in time, so God lets him live.
God tells Aaron to meet up with Moses in the wilderness. Moses and Aaron meet with elders of Israel and perform the signs. The people believe.
5) Moses and Aaron meet with the Pharaoh and ask for Israel's freedom. The Pharaoh refuses, and makes the slaves' lives a bit harder. Moses gets upset, God tries to comfort him, and tells him to see the Pharaoh again.
6-7) God tells Moses that the Pharaoh is not going to free his people yet, but not to worry because God has cool acts of judgement planned.
He tells Moses and Aaron to prove their power to the Pharaoh by turning the staff into a serpent.
They do this, but the Pharaoh summons the Wizards of Egypt, who transforms their staffs into serpents.
The serpents fight, and God's staff-serpent devours the Egyptian staff-serpents.
The Pharaoh refuses to free the people.
The First Plague: Water Turned to Blood.
The next morning, Moses and Aaron go to the bank of the Nile in the morning and strike the water with the Staff of God. The water turns to blood. The fish die, the river stinks, and the water could not be drunk.
But the Wizards of Egypt could also turn water to blood. The Pharaoh refuses to free the people.
8) The Second Plague: Frogs
Seven days later, Aaron uses the staff to summon frogs from the rivers, canals and pools of Egypt. But the Wizards of Egypt could do the same. The Pharaoh asks Moses to stop the frogs, Moses agrees to limit the frogs to the Nile. The frogs in the houses, courtyards and fields die.
But the Pharaoh would not let the people go.
The Third Plague: Gnats
Aaron strikes the ground with his staff, and the dust of the Earth rises up and becomes gnats. The Wizards of Egypt could not do the same.
The Fourth Plague: Flies
Gods sends swarms of flies to Egypt, but they do not bother the Hebrews. The Pharaoh promises to let the people go, and asks Moses to stop the flies. God stops the flies, but the Pharaoh changes his mind.
9) The Fifth Plague: Egyptian Livestock Die
God kills all of the Egyptians' livestock, but leaves the livestock of the Israelites alone.
The Sixth Plague: Boils
Moses throws some soot into the air and it becomes a fine dust over the land of Egypt, and causes boils to break out in sores on Egyptians and animals throughout the land. The Wizards of Egypt could not face Moses because they were defeated by the boils.
The Seventh Plague: Hail
Moses points the Staff of God at heaven. The sky thunders. Hail and fire rains down on Egypt. The hail and fire kills everything that isn't safely inside, except for the Israelites, which it leaves alone.
The Pharaoh asks Moses to stop the thunder and hail, and promises to let the people go. Again, God stops, and again, the Pharaoh changes his mind.
10) The Eighth Plague: Locusts
The Pharaoh's servants are getting annoyed, they say to him:
“How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”
Moses and Aaron are brought in to see the Pharaoh, but the Pharaoh changes his mind about letting them go.
Moses points the Staff of God over Egypt, and God sends a strong east wind which, the next morning, brings locusts.
The locusts settled on the whole country, devouring all the food the Egyptian's had left. 'Not a green thing remained, neither tree nor plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt.' The Pharaoh asks Moses and Aaron to stop the locusts. God turns the wind westwards and blows the locusts into the Red Sea. But the Pharaoh would not let the people go.
The Ninth Plague: Darkness
Moses stretches his hand towards heaven, and the land of Egypt is cast into pitch darkness for three days, but the 'people of Israel had light where they lived.'
The Pharaoh tells Moses that his people may leave, but must leave their livestock behind. Moses says that this is unacceptable. The Pharaoh thinks this is ridiculous, and tells Moses to go away.
11) God makes the Egyptians like the Israelites, so they give them lots of jewellery. Moses warns the Pharaoh of a final plague: God "will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle. There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again. But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel."
12) God tells Moses how his people should celebrate the Passover, and to mark their doors with the blood of a lamb.
"For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast."
The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn
'At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”
The Exodus begins. The Israelites, about 600,000 of them, leave the land of Egypt.
13) 'The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”'
Moses tells the Israelites that they are going to celebrate the Passover every year, and tells them that every firstborn animal shall be sacrificed, and that every firstborn human shall be redeemed.
God leads the Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, towards the Red Sea.
14) The Pharaoh and his people change their mind about releasing the Israelites. The army of Egypt, all the king's horses and chariots and horsemen, sets off to capture them.
The Israelites camp facing the Red Sea. They see the approaching Egyptians and think they are all going to die. They say to Moses: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?"
But Moses says, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
God, in the pillar of cloud, moves between the Israelites and the Egyptians. 'And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.'
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the Lord in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily.'
Moses stretches his hand over the sea, and the water crashes down on the Egyptians. Not one of them was left alive. 'But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.'
15) The people of Israel celebrate their freedom by singing the Song of Moses/the Song of the Sea:
After credits scene:
The Israelites are now in the wilderness of Shur. They find no water for three days.
Then they find water, but it is bitter and they cannot drink it.
They grumble at Moses. God tells Moses to throw a certain log into the water. The water becomes sweet. God says to them:
“If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”
Then the Israelites arrive at Elim, a place with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees.
[Note: the narrative alternates between telling us that 'the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart', 'the heart of Pharaoh was hardened' and 'Pharaoh hardened his heart'. Each version is subtly different and changes who is responsible for the continued enslavement of the Israelites. The first suggests that God deliberately made the Pharaoh crueller so he could show off his acts of judgement. The second is passive, and suggests that the heart hardening just happened because of, say, a bad upbringing - no one is responsible. The final version puts the blame squarely on the Pharaoh for being a nasty person.
Note 2: I'm looking forward to Ridley Scott's (probably very loose) adaptation:
]NEXT TIME ON EXODUS:
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES, BUT WHAT WILL THEY EAT?
THE LORD PROVIDES...
Monday 7 July 2014
Hebrew Bible: The Names of God
In the Hebrew Bible, God is commonly referred to by two different names: 'Elohim' and 'YHWH'. There are a variety of other names that are used less frequently. This post will present a variety of explanations for the use of these two different names for God.
'Elohim' is a plural word meaning 'the powerful ones' or 'the gods'; its singular form is 'eloha'. 'Elohim' is translated into English as 'God'. It is usually followed by singular verbs.
'YHWH' is seen as God's proper name. The Hebrews decided that 'YHWH' was too holy to be said aloud, so said 'adonay', meaning 'lord', instead. The original pronunciation was lost, but most scholars agree that it was probably 'Yahweh'. YHWH is translated into English as 'the LORD'.
God also has a tendency to use plurals when talking about himself, such as:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."
“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil."
"Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”
So, what's with the plurality?
Judaism - Plurals of Majesty
In Judaism, 'Elohim' and God's self-referencing plurals are seen as 'plurals of majesty' which emphasize the grandeur of God. Think of it as similar to the 'Royal we'.
Christianity - The Trinity
The triune Christian God is both singular and plural: three as one, one as three.
Mormonism - Separate Entities
According the Joseph Smith, 'Elohim' refers to God the father while 'YHWH' refers to God the Son (who became Jesus). The Father, the Son and God the Holy Ghost are three separate entities united in purpose as the Godhead of the Universe.
Both Elohim (God the Father) and YHWH/Jesus (God the Son) have physical bodies, whereas the Holy Ghost is purely spirit. Elohim and YHWH, being physical entities, are unable to enter human bodies to influence them, but the Holy Ghost can. Both YHWH/Jesus and the Holy Ghost are sons of Elohim.
Elohim has a wife, the Heavenly Mother.
Mormon theology allows for the existence of other gods, and the ability of any person to become a god and take a greater role in running the universe. Elohim began as a man himself:
"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret." - Joseph Smith
Polytheistic Origins - Separate Entities
Elohim and Yahweh might originally have been different deities. Last week I presented Samuel Shaviv's argument that the flood narrative was originally polytheistic, with Elohim and Yahweh being different deities who disagreed on whether mankind should live.
Polytheistic Origins - God of gods
'Elohim' might hint at a lost pantheon, but how does a plural word come to be used as a singular word, accompanied by singular verbs?
In ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was seen as the representative, the physical embodiment, of the entire Egyptian pantheon. It was through him that the gods did their work, carried out their will. When the people spoke to him, they thought that they were addressing all of their gods.
The Pharaoh was addressed as 'my gods'.
A similar thing might have occurred with Elohim/YHWH. He might have began as part of a pantheon and, as he alone was worshipped more and more, came to represent the whole lot. The pantheon was retconned, it never existed, and is now only hinted at by God's plurals and the occasional verse, such as:
Psalm 82:1 'God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgement.'
Sources
The Polytheistic Origins of the Biblical Flood Narrative
The Polytheism of Genesis Chapter 1
The Bible and Mythological Polytheism
Polytheism in Primitive Israel
Elohim, Jesus, Holy Ghost, Godhead, Godhood, Heavenly Mother - Encyclopaedia of Mormonism
Introduction - ESV Bible
'Elohim' is a plural word meaning 'the powerful ones' or 'the gods'; its singular form is 'eloha'. 'Elohim' is translated into English as 'God'. It is usually followed by singular verbs.
'YHWH' is seen as God's proper name. The Hebrews decided that 'YHWH' was too holy to be said aloud, so said 'adonay', meaning 'lord', instead. The original pronunciation was lost, but most scholars agree that it was probably 'Yahweh'. YHWH is translated into English as 'the LORD'.
God also has a tendency to use plurals when talking about himself, such as:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."
“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil."
"Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”
So, what's with the plurality?
Judaism - Plurals of Majesty
In Judaism, 'Elohim' and God's self-referencing plurals are seen as 'plurals of majesty' which emphasize the grandeur of God. Think of it as similar to the 'Royal we'.
Christianity - The Trinity
The triune Christian God is both singular and plural: three as one, one as three.
Mormonism - Separate Entities
According the Joseph Smith, 'Elohim' refers to God the father while 'YHWH' refers to God the Son (who became Jesus). The Father, the Son and God the Holy Ghost are three separate entities united in purpose as the Godhead of the Universe.
Both Elohim (God the Father) and YHWH/Jesus (God the Son) have physical bodies, whereas the Holy Ghost is purely spirit. Elohim and YHWH, being physical entities, are unable to enter human bodies to influence them, but the Holy Ghost can. Both YHWH/Jesus and the Holy Ghost are sons of Elohim.
Elohim has a wife, the Heavenly Mother.
Mormon theology allows for the existence of other gods, and the ability of any person to become a god and take a greater role in running the universe. Elohim began as a man himself:
"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret." - Joseph Smith
Polytheistic Origins - Separate Entities
Elohim and Yahweh might originally have been different deities. Last week I presented Samuel Shaviv's argument that the flood narrative was originally polytheistic, with Elohim and Yahweh being different deities who disagreed on whether mankind should live.
Polytheistic Origins - God of gods
'Elohim' might hint at a lost pantheon, but how does a plural word come to be used as a singular word, accompanied by singular verbs?
In ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh was seen as the representative, the physical embodiment, of the entire Egyptian pantheon. It was through him that the gods did their work, carried out their will. When the people spoke to him, they thought that they were addressing all of their gods.
The Pharaoh was addressed as 'my gods'.
A similar thing might have occurred with Elohim/YHWH. He might have began as part of a pantheon and, as he alone was worshipped more and more, came to represent the whole lot. The pantheon was retconned, it never existed, and is now only hinted at by God's plurals and the occasional verse, such as:
Psalm 82:1 'God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgement.'
Sources
The Polytheistic Origins of the Biblical Flood Narrative
The Polytheism of Genesis Chapter 1
The Bible and Mythological Polytheism
Polytheism in Primitive Israel
Elohim, Jesus, Holy Ghost, Godhead, Godhood, Heavenly Mother - Encyclopaedia of Mormonism
Introduction - ESV Bible
Sunday 6 July 2014
On Reading
Reading has become my favourite hobby, but it was not always so. I enjoyed reading as a child, but I didn't read as much other bookworm children. My family had a Nintendo 64 and, later, a Nintendo Gamecube. I spent far more time video gaming than I did reading. Video gaming was my favourite hobby. My favourite books at the time were Brian Jacque's 'Redwall' series, and Robin Jarvis' 'Deptford Mice' trilogy.
When I went to high school I read less. Near the beginning of Year 7, I attempted to read both Wuthering Heights and The Picture of Dorian Gray, because I thought I was older now - I should try some harder books. I did not get past the first few pages. It was a big jump from Redwall to Wuthering Heights.
I could not seem to find time to read; I was quite unhappy in high school, and found the easy instant escapism of video games far more satisfying than books. In my first two years of high school, I think I only read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Angels & Demons (I was very interested in the Illuminati at this time), and The Lost World. I read some of the latter during the morning form time, and someone asked me 'what are you reading for?'
We got a computer at home, and I started to live more and more online. I played Star Wars Battlefront 2 a lot. Then I got addicted to World Of Warcraft. I was subscribed to the game for ONE YEAR (April 2006 - April 2007) and accumulated a play time of SIXTY DAYS. One sixth of that year was spent in a virtual life.
English lessons at school were a big factor in me stopping reading. All of the assigned reading was a big chore. The Year 7 set text was so dull I refused to read it, or do the homework assignment. I'd thought that reading was supposed to be enjoyable, and this book certainly wasn't. I lied to the teacher, saying that I had done it and handed it in. She did not believe me, and gave me a detention. I lied to my mum, saying I had done it and handed it in, and got her to write a letter to the school saying I had done it and thought the detention was unfair. The teacher apologised. I was a good pupil the vast majority of the time, so could get away with it.
The association of those lessons with reading, and the appeal of virtual worlds, did a good job of killing my enthusiasm for reading. I could understand why that girl in my class had incredulously asked me what I was reading for. What school had made us read was either outright boring, boring because we weren't ready to appreciate it, or was made boring by us being forced to over-analyse it to death. All for a GCSE. A friend from a different school told me that English was his favourite subject, and I could not understand how that was even possible.
A few months after leaving World of Warcraft, I was given Philip Reeve's 'Mortal Engines' Quartet by my mum; a colleague of hers had recommended it. I read the lot in one week, hooked. I started to think there might be something in the whole reading malarkey. Later that year, I decided to use the Waterstones vouchers I'd been given as Christmas and birthday presents over the years. They had nearly expired. I purchased 'The Illuminatus! Trilogy' by Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shea, which is a mindfuck; 'Shadowmarch' by Tad Williams, which is an alright fantasy story; and 'Larklight' by Philip Reeve, which is a fun children's book. For Christmas, I received 'Anathem' and 'Cryptonomicon', both by Neal Stephenson. The former is so dull that it passes through 'boring' to reach something strange on the other side. The latter is so dull that when I was around a 100 pages (a hectopage, perhaps?) from the end of its 928 pages I realised I still didn't care what was happening, and gave up on it. My reading rate remained slow.
At the beginning of A2 year (Year 13), I cleared a lot of nerdy paraphernalia from my shelves. Looking at my shelves, I decided to fill the empty space between the remaining action figures with books that I had read, sure that there had to be something to the reading malarkey.
I quickly discovered that reading could be lots of fun, if you were reading what you wanted to read, and did not read anything that, for whatever reason, you did not enjoy. I got out of the prideful have-to-finish-a-book-because-I've-started-it line of thinking. I was reading for pleasure; any book that did not give me pleasure was wasting my time; I had already wasted my money on purchasing it, I would not waste my time as well. The book that broke me from the prideful line of thought to the wild hedonistic reasoning was 'The Secret History of the World' by Jonathan Black, which is shit.
That year my reading rate was at its highest. I had bookmarks in four different books at a time: a long novel, a shorter novel, a short story collection, and a non-fiction. At bedtime, I would read a chapter of each before going to sleep. I finished a book every 2-4 days. I read at college, at home, on the bus, on car journeys, on train journeys. I spent a lot of time reading. I felt like I had missed out on so many years of reading, and now needed to catch up.
I had an operation in December 2010 which left me housebound for a month while I recovered. My activity alternated between revising for my upcoming exams, seeing the friends that visited, playing on the Nintendo Wii I had received for Christmas (this was mostly done with the friends who visited) and reading. On the days when no one visited, I would revise one topic, then read one chapter of a book, and repeat this pattern for the day.
After I'd caught up on the quantity of books read, I wanted to have read all the mind-blowing science fiction novels while I was still young and impressionable. Science fiction is my favourite genre. I read a lot of SF classics, mostly those from Gollancz's SF Masterworks series. There is now a lot of Gollancz yellow on my shelves. This phase of my reading career concluded with Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon, which is THE mind-blowing science fiction novel. I had worked up to it, wanting to be ready for it, and it did not disappoint.
After Star Maker I found SF unsatisfying, so started to read more 'literary' classics. A year before Star Maker, I had read The Picture of Dorian Gray, which gripped me so strongly that I read most of it in one night. It showed me that the classics, which were, to me, still associated with those awful English lessons, could actually be enjoyed. After Star Maker, I read Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, which was exhaustingly difficult: after about ten minutes I felt like I needed to lie down and rest. But I enjoyed it. Now I'm working through the famous classics, to see what all the fuss is about. After all, they've been around so long and people are still going on about them, so there's gotta be something to them, right?
The shelves in my room were quickly filled, and there are now two more bookcases in my room, which are nearly full. And that is after accounting for the fact that a lot of the books I read back in college are no longer there. Before I got the extra bookcases, I occasionally did a book clearout when I was running out of space. For aesthetic reasons, I'm trying not to double stack, or be forced to rest any horizontally on top.
Mount Toread, my to-read pile, is huge.
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