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
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