Bible Study Cover to Cover

I'm just wondering if you had realized you will be still reading and discussing this thing in 2013?

skip to Gen 19It's been a while but I was intrigued by the idea of doing this. So I went and learned a little bit about the subject matter, courtesy of Christine HayesGenesis 1: A classic and profound work. Essentially it seems to be a dramatic and important twist on the concepts of near-eastern thought. Instead of a great battle of gods with one ascending to primacy before splitting the waters into the firmament, it skips the battle asserting the original sovereignty of elohim. Instead of the creation of man as a slave race, man is created in the image of elohim.Genesis 2: With a slight hangover from 1 we shift focus to God's relationship to man. He created him and all those things that look nice and are pleasant/good and continues the theme of man as something apart from nature.Genesis 3: Confirms that the nature of God is quite different from Genesis 1. Instead of being a spirit/wind over waters he is walking around speaking just like the traditional deities of the pagans. Here Adam and Eve speak with the serpent and then eat the fruit. I like to think that the act of eating was enough to enable the couple to realize that they did have the freedom to go against God's instructions - whatever the reasoning they gain modesty and hide from God. When he finds them he's not impressed - he seems to fear that humans have become something of a threat and must be exiled from Eden and forbidden from getting anywhere near the Tree of Life (which wasn't previously off limits). Various curses are given out as a result of the transgression.Genesis 4: God doesn't give respect to Cain for his offering of grain. Why? Is this some kind of textual way of suggesting that the nomadic life is superior to the agricultural farming life? God warns Cain that he will feel the call of chatta'ah, translated as sin, but that he can master it. Clearly he doesn't and God punishes him by exile which he goes off and becomes rather fruitful. The chapter ends with Seth and Enos. At this point I notice God has given no explicit instructions to anybody as to how to be moral.Genesis 5: A quick rundown of the generations of Adam up to and including Noah -> Shem, Ham, and Japheth.Genesis 6: It all goes wrong. Man's freewill has ended up with widespread corruption and evil which seems an intractible problem. So, time to destroy all but the good ones (supernatural selection?) as well as most other life. For some reason, not described in the text, God is upset at the beasts/creeping things/birds (but not plants?) as well. He sits down (metaphorically) with Noah, his chosen good person, and details the construction of a boat and its planned inhabitants that could withstand what he has in mind.Genesis 7: Noah gets all the animals together, more clean ones than unclean ones and puts them on the ark as instructed. God then opens up the firmament above and below and in pours the water for 40 days/nights and the flood prevailed for 40 days/150 days destroying all land animals (plants are still somehow spared)Genesis 8: God uses a wind to bring an end to the flood (presumably blowing the water back onto the other side of the firmament, similar to what he does in Genesis 1 (the wind on the face of the water that seperates the firmament) and what he is said to do for Moses later. The flood eventually dries up and Noah is told to go forth and multiply. He makes sacrifices of each of the clean beats/fowl and the sweet smell of burnt flesh results in him declaring he'll never drown us again (perhaps he'll just burn our sweet smelling flesh?)Genesis 9: God says we can eat meat, but we must not eat the life (blood), which should be returned to its rightful owner, God - this is our first explicit instruction on morality. God promises not to flood the earth again, and creates the rainbow to seal the deal with all of earth as his witness...and whenver clouds should be overhead he'll be sure the seal of the covenant is seen to assure us we aren't all going to die. Noah gets drunk and we get another morality tale about preserving other's modesty/dignity (Ham sniggers about his father's drunken nakedness but the other brothers cover their father up without looking at his nakedness.Genesis 10: Just talks about the descendants of Noah and their role in nation building.Genesis 11: God seems once again threatened by the possibility of acheivements of man which might supplant him. Very old school goddish of him. This time, the cooperation of mankind seems to vex him so he makes it more difficult by confounding their previously common language. There's a little bit of anti-Babylon propaganda here in the typical Hebrew act of punning (Babel/Babble/Babylon) works about the same in English fortunately). More generations pass and we end up with Abram/Abraham and his nephew, Lot. Abram has a wife called Sarai who is barren. This seems extraneous information after the tale of Babylon, but they pick up and leave Ur of the Chaldees to go to Canaan.Genesis 12: And now it seems God changes pace. Instead of relying on mankind he starts to nurture one man and his descendants. So Abraham is told to pick up and leave by God with promises of a great nation. So off they go, with no specific destination (Get thee out of thy country...unto the land that I will show thee) and they end up in Egypt. Abram pretends Sarai is his sister, but after the advances of Pharaoh to the fair woman God sends plagues down upon him and Pharoah tells Abram to sod off for his deception.Genesis 13: Lot is still with them all at this point, so no doubt they were quite close. Nevertheless after returning to Bethel (which is on the West Bank I think), Lot and Abram have a bit of strife so they go their seperate ways. Lot to Jordan and Abram to Canaan. Apparantly Lot made a bad choice because Sodom was full of bad people, but God makes a promise to Abram: he and his seed will have the land forever and they will be numerous. What strikes me here is that Abram must be a little confused about this since Sarai is barren.Genesis 14: Great armies fought in Lot's land and his city is sacked and he is taken captive! Abram hears about it and gets together a militia and takes up the cause. Somehow with little more than 300 men, Abram wins and gets Lot back (Madness? This is CANAAN!!!). Various Kings who had been defeated bless Abram, but Abram demurs on the offer of riches from them.Genesis 15: Abram is a little disconcerted about being childless but God assures him he will have more descendants than is countable. God makes a promise, sealed with a sacrifice and a ritual.Genesis 16: Sarai is now concerned about her not baring children and points to her handmaiden Hagar. So Abram gets Hagar pregnant but strife follows after Hagar lords it over Sarai. God, via an angel, assures Hagar that all will be well and her child should be called Ishmael. When Ishmael was born, Abram was 86!Genesis 17: Abram is renamed Abraham at age 99. From beloved father to 'father of many'. The dramatic tension is getting rather intense - he's had one kid Ishmael. The covenant has a price now: circumcision. This seems to be yet another example of the Hebrews historicizing customs in the context of their deity. Oh, and Sarai is now going to be called Sarah and it she that will be the mother of the multitudes. God assures Abraham that Ishmael and his seed will go onto found a great nation, but that Sarah's child, Isaac will be the one with whom God resumes the covenant. There then follows a massive spate of circumcision including the near century old Abraham and his 13 year old son.Genesis 18: Sarah is old, how is she going to conceive? (Talk about hammering the point home ). I'm God, for my sake, says God. But first, a great cry is heard from Sodom ("I felt a great disturbance in the Force..."). Abraham begins to haggle with God trying to save the lives of its inhabitants...would you destroy them all if there are 50 innocents? No says god. What about 45, surely you wouldn't do it for lack of the five? etc etc He gets him down to 10 before God sets off.Genesis 19: Turns out that God's agents don't find 10. So they go about destroying the two infamous cities. However, remembering Abraham, he does spare Lot, Abraham's nephew and old travel companion. But Lot's wife was destroyed either as a mercy after the horror's she witnessed, or as punishment. Lot's daughters, wanting to preserve their line sleep with their father whilst he is drunk. They got pregnant and those children went on to become patriarchs of nations in their own right - though not nations that Israel likes, one gets the feeling.
back to the The beginningskip to Gen 24Genesis 20: So Abraham goes a travelin' again (one of my thoughts as I've looked through the first two books of the Torah is that if it modern Britain had a genesis like Israel's supposed genesis we'd call our green land "Dunroamin"). This time he goes to Gerar (part of Israel and once home to the Philistines), and in a stroke of deja vu the king, thinking that Sarah is Abraham's sister 'took' her. God isn't impressed and rebukes the King (by rebuke I mean curse, and by King I mean the King, his wife and the maidservants), and the King has a go at Abraham. Abraham explains he thought they'd kill him if they thought he was married, and he adds, she is technically his half-sister. "she [is] the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.". Seemingly pleased God removes the curse of barenness he placed on the King's household.Genesis 21: Sarah conceives and gives birth to Isaac, and eight days later Abraham (aged 100) has at it at Isaac's man parts. Hagar and Ishmael turn up and do their normal mocking thing - and with God's permission (and assurances that Ishmael will found a nation), he sends them on their way (with supplies). Unfortunately the supplies run out and Hagar fears that Ishmael (referred to as 'the lad' will die, but God provides a handy miracle in the form of a well. What strike me here is that God instructs Hagar: "Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation." My immediate image is of a scene in the lion king, but Ishmael is 14 years old here - I doubt an Egyptian Bondwoman is going to be picking up a 14 year old in any meaningful way.
Anyway, Ishmael became an archer in the deserts (possibly the same as Moses' famous desert) and his mum gets him a wife from Egypt.
Anyway the King that Abraham had a disagreement with makes a convenant with him, Abraham does some civic work with a well and the King sods off leaving Abraham to dwell in Beersheba - in the land of the Philistines.Genesis 22:
God: Kill your son.
Abraham: O'rly?
God: Yes
Abraham:...
A famous chapter and one worth considering in detail. What did the authors really want us to think here? It is very sparse on details, allowing our imagination to fill in gaps as it will. During the journey to the mountain is Isaac aware of what his father will do? He certainly plays dumb:And [Isaac] said, "Behold the fire and the wood: but where [is] the lamb for a burnt offering?"Abraham's reply is a bit of a joke I'm going to play with the normal word order to translate the joke into English."God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering - my son."Is Abraham worried about the prophecy of seeding a nation given that his barren elderly wife actually managed to produce a son and now he must kill him? Is Abraham testing God - knowing that any God that allows child sacrifice should not be the one to be followed?At the last second there is an intervention and Abraham kills an unlucky goat instead. God then says because of his 'fear' he will reward Abraham with lots of descendant. I am forced to wonder - if Abraham had refused to sacrifice his son, what would've happened? God had already promised all these things to Abraham after all, and surely God wouldn't break a covenant?The chapter ends with a load of begats.Genesis 23: Sarah dies, aged 127. Abraham buys Hebron/Cave of the Patriarchs in order to bury her.Genesis 24: Abraham is dying. He makes his servant swear to get a woman from his home land (Ur, I presume) as a wife for Isaac. They don't shake on the promise, but the servant puts his hand underneath Abraham's thigh. The servant goes off on his way, devises a test of kindness to pick a wife. He happens upon Rebekah (whose name not only means 'To tie or bind' but also implies 'Captivating beauty').So who is she? Incest rears its head again...

Terah
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Abraham    Nahor <--\  Haran
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Isaac    Bethuel     Milcah
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Rebekah

The arrow indicates that Nahor and Milcah got it on to produce Bethuel. Milcah being Nahor's niece. Anyway, Rebekah, despite her incestuous heritage, is a good looking virgin so naturally it is a good idea for her to marry her grandfather's brother's son (1st cousin once removed if you're interested).In case you hadn't anticipated it already, Rebekah passes the test (she draws water for the servant's camels!), and the servant hands her some gold (dowry I assume). When the servant learns of the incestuous nature of things, he thanks the lord! He does a 'previously in Genesis' to Rebekah's brother, Laban (including a 'previously in Genesis 24'). There is a little bit of confusion over leaving plans, but it gets cleared up and they all head back to Isaac who gets a 'previously in Genesis 24'. Isaac promptly takes his cousin into his mother's tent and 'takes' her and falls in love with her and was comforted in his mother's death.I'm not making this up, you know.skip to the Gen 32Last time, on Genesis, Abraham lost his wife and married off one of his sons, Isaac to one of his relatives, Rebekah whilst on his deathbed.Genesis 25: Abraham gets another wife, and fathers a whole host of children, but maintained Isaac as his heir and any bastard children of whores he had he gave them gifts and exiled them. Abraham eventually '{gives} up the ghost' at the age of 175. Ishmael only gets to 137 before giving up the ghost.Isaac, on the other hand, like his father - makes a sterile woman pregnant (when he was aged a mere 60 years old), and she had twins who kicked off in her womb. As seems to be case, God informs them that the two kids will be founders of nations and that 'the elder shall serve the younger' - the twins are born, the eldest was hairy and red, and was named Esau (he becomes a hunter) and Jacob (who is a plain man) came out 'on his heels'. So as they grow older, Esau is starving to death and he begs his younger twin for some stew/soup/porridge. Jacob in a fit of morality makes a deal: Gimme your birthright and I'll give you some grub. Nice.Genesis 26: God warns Isaac to avoid Egypt, and his reward for living where God wants him to is lots of descendants. Like his father, he pretended his wife was his sister out of fear of being killed. (Was having a beautiful wife so dangerous in the Middle East or something? No wonder men started insisting they cover their faces...). This time nobody tries to sleep with her, but when the King sees Isaac bonking sporting her he still gets annoyed and makes it a crime to harm them.Eventually Isaac is so wealthy he is exiled by the King and he starts making camp nearby. There is some squabbling over well rights before Isaac heads off to Beersheba. After a while the King that exiled him approached him for a Non-aggression pact covenant.Esau, like Isaac, got married at 40 years old. He had the audacity to not marry a family member, and instead married a Hittite which really pissed of Isaac and Rebekah.

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I can't help but notice that ever since Abraham started to get old, the story got boring - reusing some of the same story elements. It's like Genesis jumped the shark when it killed off half the long running cast in Genesis 25.

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Genesis 27: Starts with Isaac old (what another classic character is going to die? Man why am I even watching this show) and he gets Esau (yawn) to go hunting for him. Meanwhile, Rebekah tells Jacob what just happened and gets Jacob to go get a goat or two so she can make Isaac some goat chops: since Isaac is going blind we'll pretend you are Esau. But, says Jacob - Esau is uber hairy and I'm not. Rebekah has a cunning plan though, Esau's hair is a little hircine so she'll just past the goat skin to Jacob and Isaac will never know the difference.Isaac didn't know the difference and they had a merry time and he blessed his son Jacob. Just as Jacob leaves, Esau returns. Apparently Isaac was only able to bless one of the twins because Esau was really upset that Jacob had stolen his birthright as well as his blessing. Esau spits out his dummy and vows to kill Jacob (possibly the worst plot contrivance to get a man mad enough to kill his twin brother I have ever seen in the history of bad plot contrivances (and I have been a GM in Fantasy Role Playing games)). Jacob, learning about his fratricidal...brother, is told to flee by his mother to her brother's.Genesis 28: Jacob is sent to his mother's homeland and on the way has a dream. He sees a ladder with divine beings climbing up and down with heaven at the top with God overlooking the whole affair. God makes some familiar promises to Jacob about how he will have many descendants. He wakes up somewhat chuffed with himself and sets his stone pillow upright as a pillar.Genesis 29: Following somewhat in his father's footsteps Jacob goes back to his mother's homeland to meet the family. There he meets Rachel: the daughter of Laban - his mother's brother and falls in love with her and offers to do seven years of service to have her (he beat Isaac who only managed 1st cousin once removed).Alas: seven years of servitude and all he got was a lousy sister of the woman he loved (Leah). Tricked into marrying the wrong sister he's kind of annoyed but Laban says, try Leah for one week and you get Rachel free...your mileage may vary, the price of your dowry may go up as well as down, the Haran clan is not liable for any damages as a result of having multiple wives, you also agree to serve Laban for another seven yearsGod, the sadistic motherfucker, sees that Leah is disliked by Jacob and so he makes Leah hyper-fertile and makes Rachel infertile. Not just content with teaching Jacob a lesson for getting tricked into marrying a woman he doesn't live, he decides to punish an innocent woman as well. Once again: nice. I suppose the misogynists that wrote this thought this was perfectly good.Continuing the misognystic front, Leah bares Jacob four sons (he doesn't hate that much then does he?): Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah.Genesis 30: Also known as Jacob gets a crap load more sons. Rachel, like Sarah, gives Jacob her handmaiden so that he might have a son by her. He has two: Dan and Naphtali. Leah, not to be outdone gives Jacob her handmaiden who bares him Gad and Asher.Leah then sells her son's mandrakes to Rachel for a chance to have sex with Jacob (?), and he has two further sons, Issachar and Zebulun. Oh and a daughter, Dinah.God wakes up, and let's Rachel produce children and she bares Joseph. Then Jacob decides to leave Laban and take all the speckled cattle as payment...but Jacob knows about heredity (he had plenty of kids!) and so he engaged in a bit evolution/artificial selection and he bred the cattle so that the speckled ones were strong, and the none speckled ones were weak and sickly. Puh - bloody Darwinist.Genesis 31: *zzzz* oh. Yeah, Jacob runs off with his ill-gotten gains and Laban chases after him and berates him. Laban was looking for some stolen property but Rachel was sat on them so he didn't find them. *zzzz* oh sorry. This show's going downhill again. Laban and Jacob bicker and then make up.Genesis 32: Angels to Jacob: I know its been a whole geneation, but your brother is still pissed off - he's coming with 400 mates to kick your ass. So Jacob sent lots of presents to Esau to placate him, sent his family off in another direction and wrestled with some guy who renamed him Israel.
back to the Gen 25Jacob's name was changed to Israel and this marks a turning point in his character.I recently highlighted the wrestling with the ambiguous 'divine one' as an important scene, but I thought I'd add one more thought - I think I might have mentioned it before but now seems a good time to reiterate anyway. God has been trying to figure out how to develop a relationship with mankind who are nearly His equal, and who use their freewill to disobey Him. He tried the "kill 'em all" method, and that didn't work. He tried the blind obedience method in Abraham, but He quickly sees that won't work either (and thus stops Abraham from killing his son).In Jacob there is an obedient but independent servant. A man who wrestles with God, neither prevailing and both somewhat better for it. A Jyhad, if you will.skip to the endGenesis 33: Esau and Jacob meet, and reconcile their differences.Genesis 34: A prince's son rapes Dinah, one of Jacob's daughters (to Leah) and asks the sons of Jacob for her hand in marriage. The brothers are happy to oblige, but request that all the men of the town be circumcised so that they are of one people. This done, and all the men in pain and indisposed - Not content with this act of rather disproportionate vengeance they also kidnap the children and women. Genesis 35: Worried about retaliation from other cities, Jacob is visited by God who tells him to go to Bethel where he had the 'Ladder' dream. He monotheizises his household before setting off. Rachel dies during childbirth, the child is Benjamin or Benoni. God reiterates that Jacob should be calling himself Israel now and the book starts referring to him in that fashion. Israel now has the famous 12 sons:To Leah - Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun.To Rachel - Joseph, and BenjaminTo Bilhah - Dan, and NaphtaliTo Zilpah - Gad, and AsherThen Isaac gives up the ghost at 180 years old.Genesis 36: Details the history of Esau's lineage, the Edomites. Mindnumbingly boring list of names of people I really don't care about.Genesis 37: The flow of the story becomes a little more domesticated. Less God even more familial disputes. It starts with Israel making a coat of many colours for his favourite son, Joseph. His brothers are a little pissed with this favouritism, and Joseph had some seemingly derogative dreams about his brothers and told them about them which they weren't best pleased about either. Apparently not any dream will do (sorry).Israel sends Joseph to meet with his brothers and gain word how things are tending their flock. He catches up with them and they conspire to kill him. The eldest, Reuben, puts them off killing him violently and suggest they throw him into a pit. Judah hits upon the idea of selling him into slavery and reaping the profit. Unfortunately by the time they return to the pit someone else has already rescued and sold him and he was on his way to Egypt.The brothers dip his coat in goat's blood and try to make it look like he was attacked by an animal.Genesis 38: Judah has three sons, Er, Onan and Shelah. God didn't like Er so he killed him. Judah asked Onan to make babies with Er's wife, but Onan infamously pulled out so God killed him too. Judah promised the woman his final son, Shelah when he came of age.When Shelah came of age, she went to Judah in a veil, and thinking her prostitute he succesfully solicits sex from her - on credit. When he sends a man with payment for the sex, the man can find no prostitute, and so the matter is thought to be concluded. Of course she gets pregnant and Judah hears about it - apparently she has become so by playing the whore so Judah, the hypocrite one might say, orders her burnt.She then produces the items of collateral for the sex transaction and all is magically forgiven. She has twins, the first one to begin to emerge was called Zarah (because they tied a scarlet ribbon around his hand thinking he was the first born, and Zarah means sunset, and scarlet is the colour of the sunset) but he went back in and Pharez (breach) was actually the first out.Genesis 39: Meanwhile Joseph had managed to rise to a sort of seneschal or overseer rank in Egypt. His new master's wife came on to him, but Joseph refused her: she subsequently framed him for attempting to lie with her so Joseph was sent to prison. But God was looking out for him (!) so the jailor was a nice guy.Genesis 40: So Pharaoh gets annoyed with his Butler and Baker and throws them into the same prison that Joseph was in. They have dreams but no interpreter. Joseph steps in, and stressing that God is the interpreter not Joseph, sets about interpreting them. Joseph asks them (or rather one of them, the butler) to tell the Pharoah when his dream prophecy comes true, but the butler didn't.Genesis 41: At least not until Pharaoh has an uninterpretable dream, when suddenly the toadying sycophant 'remembers' Joseph and helpfully refers Pharaoh to him. Once again, Joseph stresses he isn't like the magicians and doesn't use special rites to interpret dreams - it is God that interprets them as He sees fit; he then prophesises seven prosperous years followed by seven years of famine. This impresses Pharoah and Joseph becomes a member of great power in his household.Joseph has two kids, Manasseh (which means 'to forget' because he helped his father forget his toll) and Ephraim (meaning 'Double fruitfulness').Then the famine struck, and Joseph had stored up lots of food and people began to solicit him for it. He opened up the storerooms, and even foriegners would come begging.Genesis 42: Eventually, Joseph's brothers come to Egypt to get food from the governer, who is Joseph. Disguised he devises a test for the brothers, and asked that they bring Benjamin to him (Benjamin was back with his father). So off they went, but Israel was not happy to relinquish Benjamin.Genesis 43: Israel is talked around, and sends the brothers back with Benjamin to get more corn. They are greeted warmly and have a meal together.Genesis 44: Joseph frames Benjamin for theft, when they are brought before him he demands that the culprit be given over to him as a servant for recompense for the crime. Judah steps up and pleads with Joseph about how losing Benjamin would cause fatal grief to their father. Instead, suggests Judah, take me instead.Genesis 45: Joseph, overwhelmed by Judah's change of character reveals himself and tells them not to feel bad for effectively selling him into slavery: It was all part of God's divine plan to help save lives in the upcoming famine. It was not the brothers that sent Joseph to Egypt, but God. So come and stay with me, says Joseph, for the famine is going to continue for another five years.Genesis 46: The household moves to Egypt. God promises he will go with them, and come back with them...neglects to mention what will happen in the next book.Genesis 47: They are received in Egpyt and allowed to stay in Goshen. The famine hits hard, land deals are made to buy food. Israel is ill and 147 years old, his dying request was to be buried with the other Patriarchs.Genesis 48: Israel blesses Joseph's two sons, but breaches ettiquette by blessing the youngest with his right hand. Joseph is upset but Israel assures him that the younger will be the greater - hearkening back to the old Esau twin scenario.Genesis 49: Israel is still dying, and he gives a prophecy about the fates of his 12 sons: the progenitors of the 12 tribes of Israel. He then curls up and gives up the ghost.Genesis 50: Joseph buries his father as he requested, but Joseph's brothers are a little worried about their fate given their past crimes against him - Joseph reassures them: The book ends with Joseph on his deathbed, promising his brothers that God will visit them and then he died aged 110.

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Phew, that's Genesis done and dusted. All 38,300 words (approx, KJV). Exodus next, which is just about as long - joy of joys. In Genesis, God appears to be experimenting with mankind, trying to work out a way of dealing with a creature of freewill. Eventually a mutual relationship of sorts is developed the neither being completely dominant of the other: both parties with some obligations and responsibilities to live up to.God is often mysterious and acheives his ends in the most circumspect of ways. Setting up plans for the nation of Israel that first requires Abraham to leave Ur, engage in a whole adventure, for his son to likewise have adventures for his son to have adventures that take him to Egypt which is where Exodus picks up: the leaving of Egypt and the setlling of the Israelites.Not only that but God likes to do things in a way that would be deliberately confusing to the readers/listeners and presumably the characters in the books - the younger son often assumes the position of his father rather than the eldest for example. Not a bad read in all, it's been many years since I properly read it and writing thoughts down about what was happening helped follow the overarching plotline: I'd never been able to get through the Patriarchs section before it just killed me: Having google handy to look up place names and the like has helped.
back to the topEdited by Modulous, : changing 'blockquotes' into qs quotes.

Incidentally, though I am mostly reading KJV, I am periodically switching to other versions including the JPS, NIV, and whatever strikes my fancy.skip to exodus 11
Exodus 1And lo! The Israelites are multiplying down in Egypt, but a new 'king', not familiar with the great deeds of those Genesis dudes starts to get worried so he starts tapping into the Jews as a source of slave labour Since that didn't stem the flow of Israelites, he starts to order the midwives to kill the Israelites sons. The midwives ignore them because they 'feared' God (awe, reverence, respect rather than terror).Exodus 2Fearing he will be killed, one woman places her baby in an ark (its the same word used for Noah's boat) and sends him down the river where he is ironically found by Pharoah's daughter who rescues him and decides to raise him, calling him Moses (the name meaning approximately 'saved (or drawn out) from the water').As a grown man, the first thing the Bible records about Moses is that he killed an Egyptian for smiting a Hebrew meaning that Moses had to flee to Midian. Once there, he continues his 'aid the defenseless' schtick by helping some young women get water seemingly protected by some shephards.Their father was well pleased with Moses so he gave Moses one of his own daughters who promptly bares Moses' son, Gershom because he was a Robert A. Heinlein fan as well as partial to a bit of Iron Maiden and other 80s 'rock' music.Not content with the chapter moving fast enough, the King of Egypt dies and there is a great sighing in the land which causes God to do a double-take and remember that he made a promise to the ancestors of these people.Exodus 3Moses goes to Mount Sinai and a bush sets alight but doesn't burn and God speaks to Moses: Go to Pharaoh and ask for your people to be released. Moses is a little skeptical that he's the man for the job and asks: They bound to ask me your name, oh alleged God of my people. So what is it?I AM THAT I AM, tell them I AM has sent you.(Sometimes God likes to talk like Death).Exodus 4Moses continues: They won't believe me.He casts down his rod which then turns into a snake. He picks it up and it becomes a rod again.Awesome trick, God.WAIT, says God. Now put your hand on your chest, withdraw it...hey look its leprous. Do it again. It's healed. How AWESOME am I? That'll convince them. Well, maybe not. Try the old, pouring water on the sand and it turns to blood trick - that one goes down a treat.B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-buh-buh-buh-buh-buuuuuuuuht G-g-g-God, I have a t-t-terrrrr-terrrr-terrible sta-sta-sta-sta-stammer.Yes I know you moron, says God. I made your damned mouth. Don't worry about that. I'll just climb into your mouth and teach you what to say. Well, not literally - look your brother, Aaron, will do the talking, I'll do the words, and you, Moses...well...just go along with the plot will you and do the cool tricks. It'll be fine. Well, when I say fine, what I mean is that I will manipulate Pharoah's freewill so that he will ignore your pleas - so that I can smite his ass.The proles were happy with the parlour tricks of Moses so they rejoiced.Exodus 5M: Let my people go!
P: No, get back to work you lazy buggers.Moses to God: Why have you forsaken me? Things have gotten worse, not better!Exodus 6Shut up Moses. I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham; I was not known to Abraham as Yahweh - but as el; interesting point: Genesis does have humans worshipping Yahweh, which indicates that Genesis has seemingly been edited by the Yahwists to support their claims) Everything will be fine. Unfortuntely, the children of Israel were not easily reassured.Y: Go to Pharaoh, tell him to let your people go.
M: Dude, if the Israelites won't listen, what chance has that uncircumcised bastard Pharaoh of listening to me?Exodus 7Y: No, even using your magic tricks and Aaron's persuasive tongue, you cannot get the Pharoah to listen - because I'm interfering in freewill again.So off they go, and Moses does his rod/snake trick, but Pharoah has his magicians do likewise and smirks.After making sure that the Pharaoh wouldn't be impressed, Yahweh tells Moses to GO TO Pharaoh and warn him they will turn the rivers to blood for his refusal. And so they warn Pharaoh and then perform the plague.Then, somehow, Pharoah's magicians replicated the stunt (given that all the rivers were blood already - what rivers did they use?)Exodus 8Y: GO UNTO Pharaoh and tell him to let your people go, otherwise Frogs are going to plague the land.And Frogs ended up plaguing the land.And Pharaoh's magicians replicated the stunt.This is a supernatural standoff. Israel's LORD GOD vs the Egyptian pantheon.P: OK Moses, if your God can get rid of the frogs, I'll let your people go.So God killed all the frogs, and they began to rot and stink, and Pharaoh's heart hardened again. (God's having too much fun to let the Pharoah get away with just two pieces of special effects).Then, with no warning or threat, a third plague: Lice.The Pharaoh's magicians shrugged and said, that's God's work, but Pharaoh didn't care (he couldn't, Yahweh made sure of it).Y: Go to Pharaoh and tell him to let your people go, or there will be huge swarms of flies.And so there were huge swarms of flies.P: OK OK Moses, I'll let your people go if you just get rid of these damn flies.
M: Promise not to lie? OK then, done.
P: I'm not letting your people go.Exodus 9Y: Moses, go to Pharaoh and tell him to let your people go.
(This does sound like the build up to a long joke, or is it just me? ) Otherwise there will be a plague amongst your cattle.All of Egypt's cattle died. Pharaoh did not let his people go.Once again, the third punishment was without warning - boils and blains.y: Moses, go to Pharaoh and tell him to let your people go. Otherwise there will be terrible hailstorm.And there was hail (and in a Trogdoresque twist of special effects fanboydom, there was also fire!).P: Moses, stop the hail and I will let your people go.
M: OK.
P: I'm not letting your people go.Exodus 10M: Let my people go, otherwise Locusts!*Locusts*P: Stop it.
M: OK.
P: I'm not letting you go.Third time, no warning, but surprising three days of darkness.P: I'm still not letting you go. Now sod off.
back to the topskip to Exodus 22Exodus 11Don't worry Moses, says Yahweh, I'll do one more plague (and it's a good 'en I promise you). Tell everyone the plan: I'll kill all the firstborn, but I won't bother the Children of Israel.Exodus 12So awesome will it be, that you will call this month your first month - and this year your first year, says God.**Incidentally, this is really the start of a flurry historicization of Israelite practices. This obviously roots the Jewish calendar at a meaningful historical singularity much like the Gregorian calendar rooted in a 'historical' story of the birth of the Christ.He continues: Tell every household to get a lamb. Make sure it newly born. Keep it for five days. Kill it, smear its blood around the door and then eat it along with unleavened bread.**Here are some spring-time rituals, sacrifices of the lamb for shepherd-types and for the agricultural types a sacrifice of the first crop, historicized and given a new meaning. Actually I thought I'd add here a note about Moses' name. In the Hebrew it has come to mean 'drawn from the water', but I'm not sure whether that was because of Moses or if it came before then. Either way, M^S^S is an Egyptian name too meaning 'son of'. Just about everyone has heard of Ramses, Son of Ra or perhaps Thutmose, son of Thoth.The blood on the door thing is because I have spontaneously lost the ability to discriminate the children of Israel despite my having done so in some of the previous plagues. Then again, its likely that this is only the case because a whole bunch of stories have been mashed together to form a singular entity.And so the first born died - including the firstborn cattle.The Pharaoh finally relents to Moses' full demands for all his people and their livestock to get out. For good measure Yahweh 'leant on' the Egyptians so that they gave the Israelites lots of jewels of silver and gold.600,000 men left Egypt, along with their massive array of cattle, women and children.Yahweh to Moses and Aaron: Uncircumcised scum don't get to celebrate Passover. Uncircumcised scum don't get to celebrate Passover. (yes it's so important I'll basically say it twice) Exodus 13So they set off, with Joseph's bones, avoiding the war-torn Palestine whilst Yahweh explained some more rituals surrounding the Passover celebrations. Instead of Palestine they went by the Yam Suf. The translation is controversial. Some say it is the Red Sea, and they point to other usages of Yam Suf in the Bible which do support the Red Sea hypothesis. Some say the Reed Sea and others say the Sea of Seaweed. Yam means 'sea'; Suf is sometimes translated as 'rushes' (Moses' basket was placed amongst the Suf).And Yahweh was doing a good impression of a certain storm god, riding the clouds to guide the way.Exodus 14Yahweh was still content that the Egyptians thought he was awesome enough (he evidently has a low self-esteem), makes them pursue the children of Israel. The children of Israel are not impressed: Yahweh has Moses raise his magic rod and part the sea. Guarding him during this process was an angel in cloud form that gave them light throughout the night (and was a cloud of darkness to the Egyptians so they came no closer). God created an eastward wind that by the end of the night had divided the water related obstacle. The children of Israel walked across, with a wall of water to their left and their right.In pursuit once more, the Egyptian host, on chariots (Said Pharoah to Benny: Bring me EVERYONE!!!).The Egyptian chariots seemed to be having difficulty courtesy of God (though if this were a marshy environment rather than a full blown sea, the mud would probably do the job) and they decide to quit the chase. At which point God sends the wall of water crashing over them.Exodus 15Starts with a song. A poetic retelling of the Yam Suf affair. This seems to be akin to a battle at sea though, Sank to the bottom? Sounds like a boat crossing which was disturbed by a storm as per the storm god Hadad Yahweh.After that, the 'people' realize that they have no water and so the complaining starts again. And thus starts the 'Battlestar Galactica' part of Exodus. The twelve tribes of Israel, a rag tag group of people trudging through the wilderness, trying to survive and find a legendary land that has been promised to them in ancient scripture.Exodus 16They arrive at the wilderness of Sin (some controversy over where this is, but Sin probably refers to the early semitic Moon God who the Arabs called al-illah).The people complain some more, no food! So Yahweh rained bread/manna down upon them. They became a communist based economy: They tried stocking up on it, against Moses' instructions and in true pre-Pasteur spontaneous generation style the day-old food bred worms and began to smell.The only time they were allowed to gather up more than they could eat was on the day before the Sabbath when they could gather twice as much so they wouldn't have to do any gathering on the Sabbath. The chapter ends oddly: Exodus 17The complaining begins again. Moses is scared that things will turn nasty, but Yahweh teaches another rod-trick to Moses, this time getting water out of stone.Still there were other problems, nomads began to raid the children of Israel, the Amalek people. So they fought the Amalek and Moses got out his big rod and the Israelites prevailed. Exodus 18 Jethro then chastizes Moses for being a micro-manager and advises that Moses needs laws and judges for the small things rather than being the gopher running for advice to God on all the little things: Exodus 19God sets up a gig on Mount Sinai. Nobody is allowed in until they hear the trumpets - on pain of death! Turns out, there was a pyrotechnic display and a fog machine and everything. Moses went up to the top and was told that the very top was only for the 1337 not the proles.Exodus 20"Thou Shalt"

1. have no other gods before me.
2. not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:
3. not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I Yahweh thy God [am] a jealous deity visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
4. not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain
5. Remember the sabbath day
6. Honour thy father and thy mother
7. not murder
8. not commit adultery
9. not steal
10. not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
11. not covet thy neighbour's house...nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's.
    

They aren't numbered in the text so I just plucked them at random. Turns out I picked 11. Some people have an additional "I am the Lord your God" as the first commandment, whereas most denominations consider this part of the preface. The Jews generally use the same last commandment as I did but they amalgamate my number 1, 2 and 3 together as the second (with I am Yahweh your God as number 1).Most Christian denominations merge 2 and 3.Orthodox Christianity has "I am the Lord your God" merged with my number 2 as the first commandment.Catholics and Lutherans also have "I am the Lord your God" and they merge it with 2 and 3 for the first. They split my number 11 into two commandments.Islam uses the same numbering as the Jews.Exodus 21How to sell people, including your own daughters, and how to punish and brand slaves (using this device), under what circumstances you are allowed to kill or beat your slaves. Also, what to do if an Ox should kill someone and when the owner should be punished. Compensation costs for what must have been a common source of dispute: if someone digs a pit (and doesn't cover it) and livestock falls in, the digger compensates the owner and covers the pit. Also, if one Ox should hurt an Ox owned by someone else, there's details on how to deal with that too.
back to the exodus 11skip to Exo 32Exodus 22Continues with more laws from God to Moses. It starts by telling us the price of stealing or killing livestock: "five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.", goes on to justify shotgun weddings, 22:16: "And if a man entice a virgin that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife. " and the infamous verse 22:18, that as a single verse has resulted in a great deal of innocent bloodshed. But the Israelites should not be nasty to foreigners (for the Israelites were once strangers in Egypt). There is law against being a moneylending/usury (Israelites are not to charge interest against each other (though technically its OK to charge interest against Gentiles hence why Jews and moneylending became synonymous. Christians read this verse to instruct them to not charge interest to their own 'kind' as well so the Jews were the only people that would loan any money to them - then they had the gall to have a go at the Jews for Usury a few centuries later).Exodus 23The laws from God continue: Don't be a lying witness, avoid mob mentality, don't be mean to foreigners for you were foreigners in Egypt, keep the Sabbath, observe festivals, do commit genocide against the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusite (and I will even send Angel's to help in doing it) "thou shalt utterly overthrow them" (Ex 23:24) Exodus 24So Moses tells the people what God just said " and all the people answered with one voice, and said 'So say we all'." (Ex 24:3, kind of). Then Moses built twelve pillars representing the twelve tribes and sealed the deal with sacrifices. Then Moses went to go see God, along with Aaron (Moses' non stuttering brother) and the two eldest sons of Aaron as well as seventy elders of Israel went to go see God, who was standing on a Sapphire pavement."Moses", says God, "I haven't finished with giving you laws. Come here and I will give you stone tablets.". Then Moses and Joshua set out but only Moses went up Mount Sinai telling the others not to follow. And Moses went into a burning cloud for forty days/nights.What's the obsession with mountains and religions anyway?Exodus 25"Moses,", says God "I want those that can to give me stuff. I want gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows ; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod (high priest's robes) and breastpiece."I want a sanctuary matching these specifications as I lay them out exactly. I want chest made of acacia wood, overlayed with gold, in and out, with a gold molding around and about, I want it to have four gold rings fasten to its four feet (two on either side), then I want acacia wood poles with gold all around it. I want you to realize this dream, or I'm going to scream. Then put the Testimony I am going to give you in it. And don't let the Nazis have it or their faces will melt and that'll give a generation of eighties kids nightmares for years.(There is a whole crap load more stuff God wants for his Holy Box of the covenant) "Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand." etc etc etc...Exodus 26Now I want a tabernacle (a tent) made to certain very specific regulations. And then...Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place."Actually this "Most Holy Place" is better translated I think as "Holy of Holies", pages could be filled about the Jewish concept of sacredness (seperated or dedicated to God) versus profane (the mundane everyday things). Its quite interesting but moving on.Exodus 27Next, says God, build an altar in a very particular way.Exodus 28Nepotism time: Aaron and his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar (so your brother and your nephews), are going to be priests and they get all those nice garments you asked the people to donate towards. Make some of the people make the speledid garments. Here are the highly particular specifications for the garments I want you close family to wear "Have them use gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen. Make the ephod of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen--the work of a skilled craftsman." And on and an about gold filligree settings, rows of ruby, topaz, sapphires, beryl, emeralds etc etc.Ex 28:30 has an interesting line: The Urim and the Thummim (pron. Toomim) are thought to be some kind of Hebrew oracular device(s), presumably some kind of Cleromancy.Exodus 29God lays out the ritual of consecrating priests via sacrifice and anointment with oils. Ex 29:13-14 More details about the sacrifice follow: Exodus 30More altar building specifications.Then the Lord said to Moses: "When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them...The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives.". He is such a greedy bastard.Here is how to make Holy incense. If anybody makes this incense for their own enjoyment, they should be 'cut off' (a euphemism for...kill them. Yep, death penalty for illegal fragrance making.Exodus 31God's wishlist concludes. Oh, but Keep the Sabbath! And finally, God gives Moses two "tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God."
back to the Exo 22skip to the endExodus has been fun, though the last section was a little dull it detailed God's instructions after 'Israel' accepts the suzerain-vassal relationship with God. Moses is gone for over a month, and we pick things up now back at the bottom of Mount Sinai:Exodus 32The people: Hey Aaron, this guy Moses, what's up with that? He's been gone so long and we want gods to worship.
Aaron: Gimme your jewellery: I will make a Golden Calf.This is thy god, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of EgyptGod: Holy Fuck! I just said...I mean....I was pretty clear....I...Moses, I'll do an Abraham on you and a Sodom on those bastards.Moses: If I'm Abraham, allow me to argue. You went through a lot of effort to bring us out of Egypt only to kill us in the Mountains. The Egyptians would laugh at you.God:...Good point.Later that day. Moses is walking back to camp when he sees the Golden Calf for himself.Moses: Holy Fuck! I just said...I mean....I was pretty clear *throws the tablets carved in God's own hand onto the ground, smashing them in a tantrum*And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. Moses: Aaron you dickhead. I turn my back for one minute... Right - who is on God's side? The Levites? Right Levites - go slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. That'll make about 3,000 dead. When the Muslims do it in the future that'll be a terrible crime, but now its OK. Go!(Levi had three sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Kohath begat Amram and Amram begat Aaron and Moses. The descendants of Levi were the Levites: clearly the Levites are being propagandised here as the steadfast protectors of the covenant.)God: And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee *smites some more sinners*Exodus 33God:: You're all mean and you worshipped that bull. You 'stiff-necked' bastards. Fine. Go to the land of milk and honey. I'm staying here.
Moses: Oh! Please?
God: Fine. Whatever.Exodue 34Since you broke the last load of tablets, I'll make some more, says God. I am merciful. But I am just. So while I may forgive transgressions, I will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.Moses: We are stubborn, God, forgive us.I will forge a new covenant. And we'll still get those Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Per'izzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb'usites and you'll destroy their idols and places of worship coz I is Jealous, innit? And....*more covenant details about keeping the Sabbath and keeping festivals, not keeping molten idols, etc *Then Moses goes back to the people and his face is shining/glowing and everyone is scared so he wears a veil.Exodus 35Moses tells the people everything, the tabernacle, the boxes, the clothes, the sabbath all that jazz.Exodus 36They make the stuff God told them to make, to spec. The guy that makes the Tabernacle (the foreman anyway)...his name translates to "Father's tent"Exodus 37Still making the stuff.Exodus 38Making things still. It is basically a repeat of all the specifications given in the original covenant only everything prefixed with 'he made....' Exodus 39They make more stuff.... And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, so had they done it. And Moses blessed them.Exodus 40Every month, here is a list of instructions on how to do the service, said God. Then the rest of the chapter is Moses doing the things God listed.

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And here ends the book of Exodus. With these two books read I'm about 10% of the way through the OT and about 8% of the way through the whole thing.
back to the Exo 32

I wrote this back in February but neglected to post it here. I now rectify that fault. Oh, and if you are offended by bad language, capital punishment, horrible diseases, animal sacrifice or misogyny - you probably shouldn't be reading this. With the exception of a few edits and clarifications - these are the notes I wrote as I read through it.skip to the verse 18Leviticus 1: Starts with explicit(!) instructions on how to sacrifice an animalBull: sprinkle its blood around and upon the altar, flay it, and after some more ritual, burn it: "a sweet savour unto YHWH"
Sheep/Goat: Same as above, but also: "kill it on the side of the altar northward "
Fowl: wring off its head wring the blood out of it by the side of the altar, pluck it (casting the feathers on the east side with the ashes), tear off its wings and then burn it.Leviticus 2: How to give grain offerings (fruits, flour etc) to YHWH. "thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy...offering"Leviticus 3: How to give 'peace offering'. Seems to be some kind of 'thanksgiving' offering. It implies that you can eat some of the offering: "that ye eat neither fat nor blood."Leviticus 4: How to give a sacrifice of repentance: The bias of the translators shows through a little here. In KJV it says "If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD...{then do this sacrifice}". As far as I can tell, 'souls' are something of a Hellenistic concept that seems to be largely alien to the Israelites. Jewish Bibles translate this as "person" or "any one" or some such (though they do sometimes use 'soul' as well). A sin offering is kind of like a scapegoat (that comes later).Leviticus 5: Seems to be a sacrifice made for 'trespassing' though not in the "going somewhere you shouldn't" sense, it seems to be more moral or sacred trespass or something.. From the JPS: (The JPS has HaShem (meaning The Name) instead of YHWH but you get the picture).Leviticus 6: "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.", as for the Burnt offering, says YHWH to Moses, tell Aaron that the sons of Aaron (the priests) that they can eat some of the sacrifices for themselves after some of them have been burned (but not the blood!)Leviticus 7: We're still on the ins and outs of sacrifices, this is the last detailed part. I didn't realize there was so much about sacrificing stuff in Leviticus. It's really anally detailed (I guess it wasn't really meant for consumption 'by the people' but to provide a framework for the Priests on how to do their job.Do not eat blood or fat or you will be cut off from your people.Leviticus 8: Moses tells the people about the last 7 Chapters pertaining to sacrifice. Moses then dresses his brother in the priestly garments: "He placed the breastpiece on him and put the Urim and Thummim in the breastpiece. Then he placed the turban on Aaron's head and set the gold plate, the sacred diadem, on the front of it, as the Lord commanded Moses.", then he annointed Aaron before sacrificing a bull and some rams. Moses then told/commanded Aaron to stay in the Tabernacle for a week.Leviticus 9: After the week has passed, they sacrifice more animals. Weird-ass rituals galore. Then YHWH goes pyrotechnic and "when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces. "Leviticus 10: So Nadab and Abihu (who had a bit part in Exodus 24) are very naughty boys and God strikes them dead using Awesome powers. And YHWH said: No 'strange fires' and don't get drunk in the tabernacle for my sake!And then Moses gets all pissed off with the two remaining sons of Aaron for not following the last few chapters of instructions to the letterLeviticus 11: Hurray! Dietary laws. Don't you love 'em?

Yay	Nay
any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.	only chew the cud (eg rabbits and camels) or only have a split hoof (eg pigs)
marine animals (rivers or sea) that have fins/scales	marine animals that...well...that aren't fish.
	the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,the red kite, any kind of black kite,any kind of raven,the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl,the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey,the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
locust, katydid, cricket or grasshopper.	any other flying insects that walk on all fours
	those that walk on their paws (eg the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard, the gecko, the monitor lizard, the wall lizard, the skink and the chameleon.
	any creature that moves about on the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet;

(this list is from NIV, different translations give different species names.)The chapter gives various means for dealing with what happens if objects are 'defiled' by 'unclean' animals. It generally involves washing it with water...though cooking pots should be destroyed. All rather sensible really.Levitcus 12: A woman that becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son, is unclean for seven days just like she is during menstruation. The boy should be circumcised on the eighth day. The woman cannot touch anything sacred until 40 days after the birth.Giving birth to a daughter renders her unclean for two weeks and she won't be able to touch anything sacred for eighty days. Misogynistic fuckheads.Once she becomes clean she needs to make a sin sacrifice.Leviticus 13: Quarantine practices for skin infections. Its almost sixty verses of instructions for priests to examine sores,boils, scales, and so on. Nice I confess, I only skimmed through all of them.Leviticus 14: You think the diseases had been covered? Nope. Instructions for ritually cleansing a leper follow (it involves dipping live birds in the blood of dead birds shaving hair/beard/eyebrows...everything...washing clothes...then making 'trespass offerings' of lamb, take the blood and annoint the victim on the right ear, and big toe on his right foot etc etc)It goes on to describe how priests should check to see if a house is infected with the plague (YHWH quickly points out that this will only apply once they get somewhere with houses..."When you have come into the land of Canaan") and what to do if it is (tear it down perform sacrifices etc etc).Leviticus 15: Moving on from gross diseases...oh wait what's that? Oh, I can tell this is going to be another one for the kids... Dozens of examples of what is unclean (just about everything basically) in this case (it even tells us that if he spits at someone they are unclean). Water or destruction seem to be the only solutions....with the associated sacrifices obviously. And of course - the solution involves sacrifices. Being unclean isn't morally bad, incidentally. Just to clear that up. Unclean literally just means that they cannot get involved in cultic practices lest they profane something that is holy/sacred. They are just 'earthy' or 'human' things which the 'sacred' is to be seperated from (the Hebrew for 'sacred' stems from 'seperate').Leviticus 16 Actual scapegoat time. One goat should be killed, another goat should be let go into the wilderness. Bull should be sacrificed too - don't forget the bulls. You must do this atonement once a year, says יהוה, and it shall be called "NOM! Kipper" Yom Kippur, יוֹם כִּפּוּר.Leviticus 17: The start of 'The Holiness Code'. Don't sacrifice animals to other entities, don't eat blood.Leviticus 18: Dear Children of Israel, (Lev 18:2)DO NOT WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN (Leviticus 18:3)(Or a Canaanite)Follow my laws, don't look at your naked: sister (or half sister, or sister-in-law), mum, dad, mother in law, grand daughter, aunt or uncle (and your uncle's wife counts as an aunt btw before you pervs get any ideas), the daughter of a woman you have previously looked at naked (or her grand daughter), an unclean woman.Don't marry your wife's sister. Do not shag your neighbour's/freind's wife. Do not sacrifice your child to Molech/Ba'al, and guys - don't shag other men, don't shag animals: these are the crimes committed by your enemies whose land I'm going to give you.
back to the topskip to the end
Leviticus 19: The Covenant reiterated. (One might get the impression that it was important). Respect your parents, observe the Sabbath, dont' worship idols, some more sacrifice laws (don't eat sacrifices past the third day) do not go back and get the gleanings. The gleaning system could be seen as an early form of the welfare system. Don't steal/lie/defraud/say bad things about the deaf/place obstacles in front of the blind/commit slander/pervert justice If you have sex with a slave who is pledge to be married then you should be punished - but not killed (its' not like the slave was free after all)Don't eat blood, don't do sorcery, don't cut the sides of your head or the edges of your beardDon't make your daughter a prostitute, respect the elderly, treat foreigners well as you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt, be honest with your weights and measures.Leviticus 20: The covenant reiteration continues. Don't sacrifice your children to Moloch, don't go to mediums or shamans (instead: kill them), don't have sex with a woman on her period. Other things which can get you the death penalty include: adultery, gay sex, having a daughter-mother love fest, bestiality and incest. Also: don't take on foreign customs. And stick to the dietary laws.And my side of the bargain, says YHWH? I'll give you the land of those that do these things.Leviticus 21: The priests should not make themseleves unclean unnecessarily, don't take YHWH's name in vain, don't marry a prostitute, kill your daughter if she becomes a prostitute, only marry a virgin. The disfigured, the lame, the blind, those with a squashed nose, hunchbacks, dwarves, scabby people or people with twisted nuts...can not engage in the priestly side of sacrifice for YHWH.Leviticus 22: That previous chapter? It includes lepers, or any priest who is unclean as per earlier in Leviticus, basically they cannot eat the offerings. Your slaves can. If a daughter of a priest marries a foreigner...she cannot eat the offerings (unless she gets divorce/widowed AND is childless AND returns to her father).And no deformed animal sacrifices!Leviticus 23: List of religious feasts and days and how to do them. It's quite dull to read through Leviticus 24: So a halfbreed Israelite and Egyptian lad blasphemes and is imprisoned. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are tolay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him... If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death....what irony?..eye for eye tooth for tooth"Actually it should be noted that although 'eye for an eye' seems barbaric, if we look at it in context - we see that the statement being made is morally revolutionary. Now - I've heard people try and excuse the barbarism that is still inherent in the system for decades and almost all of them are bad (though there are some potentially good arguments too) - I am not doing that.It's just that in other areas of the ancient near east, other 'nations' had laws that differentiated between classes (aristocracy/normal/slave) - so for example if a slave took out the eye of an aristocrat he's have to pay with his life and if an aristocrat took out the eye of a slave, he'd just pay a fine.For example: So Leviticus' 'eye for an eye' is an equal opportunities punishment, at least in principal. By omission, it ends up being morally superior to its neighbours.Leviticus 25: reaping/sowing laws. Helping others (don't charge interest of any kind from your country man when he needs help (and don't sell food for profit to the poor countrymen). I am going to give you the land of Canaan. Do not make slaves of your countrymen). There follows some stuff about redeeming kinsmen: If a person becomes poor and is sold into slavery, a blood relative can redeem him.The Jubilee: Either every 49 or 50 years, everything is reset, all property is returned to its original owners (thus property is only ever leased and not sold), indentured servants are returned to their clans etc etc.The English word Jubilee, comes from yobhel, referring to a 'ram'. The ram's horn being the loud trumpet used to sound the Jubiilee.
Leviticus 26: And now YHWH really sets out his side of the covenant: If you don't: If that doesn't work, If that still doesn't work. But, says YHWH, I will still keep my side of the bargain. I will not destroy them completely.Leviticus 27: Seems to be about dedication rituals and tithing.Holiness, purity and YHWHAlthough this Venn diagram probably murders thousands of years of mystic debate, here is an approximate way of looking at the relationships between pure and holy.In Leviticus (and Exodus and presumably further on too), YHWH would quite literally be present in the sacred Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle (in glowing cloud form). The closer you were, the holier you were (so the Venn diagram kind of serves as almost a birds eye view spatial diagram...see the final quote in this post). You could be pure without being Holy, but priests were encouraged to keep Holy. As they approached the inner sanctum, they would be getting closer to God in a very literal sense. You could not approach YHWH if you were impure.I didn't want to confuse the diagram any more but profane things can be pure or impure. One could sanctify a knife (knives are normal mundane items and so are 'common' or 'profane'). It is easy to mix them up because of some of the secondary meanings that have been injected into these thigns - scholars and Rabbis have debated amongst themselves on this one since the ideas were introduced.I'll finish with a lengthy quote from someone who knows much better if you want a more complete explanation:
back to verse 19

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Leviticus is done! Hurray!

Not really. Leviticus 17 is quite a short chapter being only sixteen verses, so it only made a brief note on it. 17:10-12 is a proclamation to not eat blood, and yes, one of the several verses dealing with not eating blood gives a quick justification for the commandment.It doesn't look to me like any other covenant mentioned in the Torah. And it isn't like I skipped over the concept of sacrifice and atonement. Yes, maybe. If you hadn't noticed I've only read up to Numbers in the OT (though I've read through the NT previously).Of course, it might be that your understanding is also limited. I'm skeptical that there is any 'central' 'truth' to the collection of books beyond that which people like to read into it. Of course, I'm sure you are absolutely convinced you KNOW the TRUTH etc which is why I rarely bother to reply to you.However, I am also not the kind of person that believes my knowledge of a subject is infallible. The first time I went through Genesis taking notes - an early reader pointed out that I had missed Genesis 28 - Jacob's Ladder! Talk about a critical failure!Anyway - I am going to be reading other holy books, some of which have a grounding in the Old Testament - when I get to them, I'll try and remember all the allusisons, references and interpretations that have their origins in these works. But I'm not going to comment on them until I get to those later works - including the Book of Mormon, The Apocryphal stuff, the Qu'ran and so on. It is impossible to read them all simultaneously - I have to go in an order. I appreciate that Christians interpret the whole OT through a NT lens, as Muslims interpret them both through a Qu'ranic lens.So, if/when I get to John 6 I might reference the unusual contrast between the admonition not to drink the blood of the sacrifices and Jesus' eat my flesh/drink my blood refrain if I happen to remember back this far. Maybe it would been an idea to raise that this is a verse that Christians love to harp on about, but I won't lose sleep over not doing so. If the character is real, he's a big boy and has faced a lot worse than anything I can dish out. Not only that, but I'll get my just reward for my 'mocking'. If he's not real, it doesn't matter.So it all balances out, so don't stress too much about it.If you have any substansive comments about my observations of Leviticus, or any of the previous books I read through - I'm happy to hear them. Alternatively - if you are just going to sit at the back of the class throwing popcorn and quoting verses from the book of proverbs while acting like some kind of elitist biblical master verily I say unto you, you have your reward and I'll put you back on /ignore.

Numbers 1: Yahweh to Moses: Take a census of the entire Israelite community. Take names of men over twenty who can fight in an army because there is going to be some ass kicking..The men who can fight and are over twenty:

Tribe	         Number
Reuben	        46,500
Simeon		59,300
Gad		45,650
Judah		74,600
Issacher        	54,400
Zebulun         	57,400
Ephraim	         40,500
Manasseh	         32,200
Benjamin        	35,400
Dan		62,700
Asher		41,500
Naphtali	        53,400
Total:		603,550
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The Levites, are exempt. They don't need to go to war. What was that? This document was written by Levites? Is someone over there suggesting that this is a classic piece of early priestly corruption/convenient laws?Number 2: Camping structure:

	North Dan Asher Naphtali
East Judah Issacher Zebulun	Tabernacle Levi	West Ephraim Manasseh Benjamin
	South Reuben Simeon Gad

Numbers 3: Saith the Lord: The Levites are awesome. Count all of them over a month old with Y Chromosomes. This goes into how they are to camp around the Tabernacle (essentially a 'zoomed in' version of the above diagram concerning only the Levi tribe and their responsibilities).Numbers 4: Yahweh to Moses and Aaron:Count the Kohathite gang of Levites between 30-50 (men only). You see, the other Levites will do all the careful wrapping up of the holy stuff when the camp moves and the Kohathites will carry them. Make sure they are covered properly though, if the Kohathites touch the holy items, they will die. In fact, they can't even look at them or they will die: there were 2,750 of them.Also, count the same demographic of Gershonites - their duty is to bring the curtains in. There were 2,630 of them.And the Merarites whose duty is to carry the frames, poles, tent pegs ropes and related equipment. There were 3,200 of them.And that, is apparently that: a total of 8,580.Numbers 5: Yahweh to Moses - kick out those with infectious diseases or who are ceremoniously unclean.
If you wrong another, you must confess, and repay the victim + 20% - if there is nobody who can be repaid the money goes to the priests as well as a ram for sacrifice. What he gives to the priest belongs to the priest.
If a man suspects his wife of infidelity: make a jealousy offering and a reminder offering. Then a priest will give the wife some cursed water. If the woman is innocent she won't die because god will preserve her.

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The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.

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7Numbers 6: On becoming a Nazarite (a jewish Ascetic): not drinking, touching the dead, cutting the hair and what to do in one inadvertantly breaks the vow (sacrifices, cutting and burning own hair etc).Numbers 7: The Tabernacle is completed and consecrated. The heads of the tribes present oxen (every other leader presents a cart too). Conveniently God says that the gifts should be given to the Levites. But of course, the Levites weren't involved in making that decision or writing this book. No sir.They get distributed among the various gangs of Levites, but the Kohathites did not get anything - since they have to carry all the Holy stuff around and it shouldn't be done by beasts of burden.I'm told that numbers gets good. So I'm sticking with it, but it starts pretty poorly. Damn priestly source.There follows about 70 verses(!) of boring stuff which can be summarised with

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Num 7:84 These were the offerings of the Israelite leaders for the dedication of the altar when it was anointed: twelve silver plates, twelve silver sprinkling bowls and twelve gold dishes.

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As well as lots and lots of animal sacrifices:The total number of animals for the burnt offering came to twelve young bulls, twelve rams and twelve male lambs a year old, together with their grain offering. Twelve male goats were used for the sin offering.
The total number of animals for the sacrifice of the fellowship offering came to twenty-four oxen, sixty rams, sixty male goats and sixty male lambs a year old. These were the offerings for the dedication of the altar after it was anointed.Numbers 8: Yahweh to Moses:
Tell Aaron to set the lighting up. Purify the Levites. The Levites are mine. I take them instead of the firstborn which are by rights mine between the ages of 25 - 50.
Moses: Done and done.Numbers 9: In the wilderness of Sinai...Yahweh to Moses (are we noticing a pattern?): Celebrate Passover.
Moses: OK.Some people: Moses, we cannot celebrate passover because we are unclean on account of a dead body.
Moses: Hang on a sec. God?
Yahweh: Even if you or your descendants are away on a trip or are unclean on account of a dead body you can celebrate Passover.
Refusal to take part will result in that person being 'cut off'. Oh, and foreigners can celebrate Passover - but they must follow all of the rules!And Yahweh hung around in cloud form, at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud lifted, the Israelites would move on, whenever it dropped they would set up camp.Then the cloud lifted and left Sinai for the wilderness of Paran (possibly the Negev desert).Numbers 10: Yahweh to Moses: Make silver trumpets to signal setting out and community meetings. Also in battle. And feasts.Moses: Let us go to the promised Land. Hobab - I promise good things for you.
Hobab, son of a Midianite: Nah, I'm going home.
Moses: Please don't.And then they set off. Wait wait wait. You can't introduce a new character, create a dramatic tension and then not resolve it. Is Hobab going with them or not? Gargh!Numbers 11:
Israelites: Whine whine moan moan.
Yahweh: WRATH! Fire! Burning of the camp!
Moses: Calm down. Calm down.
Yahweh: Fine.And that's why Taberah is called Taberah (which means 'burning'), good old AetiologyIsraelites: In Egypt we used to have free fish, cucumbers and stuff. No we just have this crappy manna. Oy, what we wouldn't give for a melon. This manna is like coriander seed.Moses to Yahweh: Dude - the people are complaining, why have you put me in this position that I have to deal with this? Actually there is some geniune Pathos here, so in all seriousness:

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Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers?
Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!'
I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.
If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now--

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Yahweh: Bring me seventy elders and I will take the prophetic spirit, the breath of God, the wind of heaven, the Holy Spirit from you and spread it amongst the elders.Moses: Thank y-Yahweh: I haven't finished. Tell the people that they should consecrate themselves for they will eat meat, for I heard their cries!Moses: Thank y-Yahweh: They will eat so much meat it will come out of their nose! (Num 11:20)Moses: There are 600,000 men here, where are you going to get all that meat from?Yahweh: I am the Lord your God, idiot.And so the elders turned up at the Meeting Tent and Yahweh gave them the spirity and prophesised. But two guys did not turn up and this freaked out somebody when they began spontaneously prophesising (because the spirit went to them too) and Moses calmed it all down.Then suddenly lots of Quail turned up. LOTS of quail. The whole place was 3 foot deep with fucking Quail, a man would have to walk over a whole day before he'd get out of the metre high pile Quail. Why have I never heard of the miracle of the ludicrous Quail before? But all those that ate of the Quail were struck with a plague by good old Yahweh. And that is why this place is called Kibroth Hattaavah (Graves of Craving). Incidentally - this might actually be the same place as Taberah - since later accounts don't consistently list Taberah as being part of Moses' journey to the promised land (though the Deuteronomist does...), so the issue is not concrete.Numbers 12: So Miriam and Aaron start bitching about Moses being the one who gets to speak with Yahweh. So Yahweh gives Miriam a week long bout of a horrific skin disease.

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Afterward the people traveled from Hatzerot, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.

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Numbers 13: Moses organises it so that one guy from each tribe goes on a scouting/espionage type mission checking out the land of Canaan. Check out if the land is fertile, if the people are strong and all that jazz. The scouts went through a valley and found grapes so they called it the Valley of Grapes/things that hand like grapes/figs etc (aka the Valley of Eshcol). They returned forty days later, "It's a land of milk and honey! Behold - Grapes!" Unfortunately they are big and strong. There are Amalekites / Hittites / Jebusites / Amorites / CanaanitesSaid Caleb, one of the spies: But we can take 'em - one at a time or all at once.Said the rest of the spies: Are you nuts?And so the rest of the spies spread rumours that exaggerated how strong they were by saying that amongst them include the Nephilim (or rather the Anakites, descendants of the Nephilim since the flood killed all of the Nephilim) essentially these guys were just giants.Numbers 14: And a great moaning and complaining and whining went up amongst the Israelites: If only we had died in Egypt!And yea, they (including Caleb) took Moses and Aaron threw them facedown into the sand and tore their clothes off them and began to debate stoning them, deciding on a new leader and heading back to Egypt.Yahweh intervenes: I should give all these people a terrible and deadly plague, and have the descendants of Moses be raised as a great nation.Moses: No, no no. Remember we went over this in Exodus: If you do that the other nations will laugh at you, they will say "Yahweh was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath; so he slaughtered them in the desert."Yahweh: Oh yeah, forgot about that. Fine, but nobody that has shown me contempt will see the land of milk and honey!

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Your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.
But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.
After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my alienation.

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Then Yahweh kills the spies that created the false rumours and who sowed discontent.The Israelites got annoyed and moved to attack the residents of the land that had been promised them, even though the Ark remained and the Tent of Meeting was not broken up. They were defeated by the Amalakites and Canaanites.Numbers 15: Yahweh to Moses: When you do get to land I'm giving you, you must practice a rigid regime of sacrifices. This was definitely written before you got there. This is not retrodiction. No sir. Oh, and foriegners, if they join you, must do exactly as you do. There are also sacrifice rules for should a person accidentally commit a moral sin.One day, a man was gathering wood on the Sabbath. The good Israelites didn't know what to do with him. Moses cleared things up: He obviously must be executed by the whole community lobbing stones at him.To avoid forgetting about the commandment you should wear tassles. Because that makes a lot of sense.Numbers 16: Another revolt (despite the public plagues, stoning, and curses) lead by Lieutenant Junior Grade Felix Gaeta Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi.And Moses said: For Yahweh's sake! What is it with you Levites? Haven't you been favoured enough? Fine, come to the Tent of the meeting with censers and we'll ask Yahweh.Some of the leaders of the rebellion: Isn't it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert? And now you also want to lord it over us? We will not come!But Korah did come with his followers. And Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, stand back so I can kick some heathen arse!
Moses: No! Only punish the wicked, Lord!And so the sheeple were told to step away from the tents that belonged to the transgressors. And Moses said:

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If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the Lord has not sent me.
But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt.

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Does anyone need to read on to learn what happens next? After the ground swallowed them up, and those that remained were burned by Yahweh's fire. None but descendants of Aaron can approach Yahweh with censors.And, then people still openly complained about all the killing and how Moses and Aaron were responsible. Yahweh, like a petulant child, instead of thinking 'Hey, maybe they have a point, it does look like I am treating them like shit, instead killed 14,700 people from the plague.He killed 14,700 people.For having the gall to criticise his excessive violence.!?Numbers 17: Said YHWH to Moses, Each tribe needs a staff, written upon each staff is the name of the head of the tribe. Eg the Levites' staff should have Aaron's name on it. "I have a cunning plan", says YHWH, "I will choose a leader and will miraculously make the leader's staff sprout as if it were living - that should convince everybody that that person is chosen by Me".And so they put all the staffs in the sacred Tabernacle which was really only accessible to the Levites and shockingly enough, overnight Aaron's staff blossomed into an Almond tree. Clearly there was no possible motivation for the Levites to cheat here - it certainly wouldn't pass muster in the demanding world of stage magic these days.Numbers 18: The Levites are in charge, they get a share of all the sacrifices that are made, says YHWH.Oddly, in the middle of the Chapter it says "The Lord said to Moses", this wasn't chosen as the beginning of a new chapter.Numbers 19: YHWH to Moses: Get a priest to sacrifice an unblemished cow that has never done any labour. Everyone involved must burn all of their clothes and they will be unclean until the evening.Touching dead bodies makes you unclean.If a person dies in a tent, anyone entering the tent over the following week will be unclean (as will all open containers within).YHWH details the purification ritual involving a clean person sprinking magic water over them

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and a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and on all the vessels, and on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave:
and the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify him; and he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.

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Numbers 20: So they arrive at Midbar Tzin - the wilderness of Zin (which might be the same as the Desert of Sin from Exodus 16, but it might not). Like the Desert of Sin story, the Israelites complain about a lack of water.
So Moses asks YHWH how to handle this latest grumbling. YHWH tells Moses to take his rod and strike a rock and water will come out. So he did, and it did.
But, says YHWH, since you have lost your faith in me, nobody here will get to the land that I have promised you.Then they sent a message to the King of Edom asking for clearance to travel through his land, promising to keep to the highway and not even draw water from a well. Yet the King of Edom refused and threatened them with violence should they make the attempt. Then Aaron dies on a mountain for some undisclosed reason. I would have thought he'd have got a more interesting send off than:

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They went up Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community.

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Moses removed Aaron's garments and put them on his son Eleazar. And Aaron died there on top of the mountain.

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Numbers 21: The Canaanites attack! So the Israelites make a Deal with the Dev...YHWH.

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If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities

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And so the Israelites committed a massive genocide and destroyed all of the cities. Hurrah.Then they set off, carefully avoiding Edom (after all, committing genocide on aggressors is fine, but trespassing is a faux pas). But once again the Israelites starting moaning about the food and water situation so YHWH sent snakes to bite them. But he was merciful enough to tell Moses to construct a Bronze snake statue and anybody bitten by a poisonous snake could survive just by looking at the statue. They continue their journey and there is a tantalising reference to Book of the Wars of the Lord - but unfortunately that book is completely lost.Eventually the Amorites would not let them pass even with all the provisos of not drawing water etc. The Amorites raised an army and so the Israelites commited some more genocide and took over all of their cities. Then Og, king of Bashan did the same, so the Israelites did the same.Bloody Chapter. But then, Exodus 23 told us this was going to happen, so it was only a matter of time I guess.Numbers 22: So the Israelites camped up next to the Moabites. Given their track record, the Moabites were a little worried. If the book of Genesis was in complete existence at this time, they might have been a bit put out about what the Israelites had to say about their origins as a people (The post Sodom Father-daughter incestfest with Lot).

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Indeed, Moab was filled with dread because of the Israelites.

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So the Moabites speak to God(s) (in the text it is elohim rather than YHWH or Adonai) trying to get God to curse the Israelites, but it refuses to do so because they are blessed. The Moabite princes are not happy with this declaration and so attempt to bribe the Shaman/Diviner/Priest who was named Balaam refused.Balaam conferred with God who said, "Go with the Princes, but only do what I say". So he got on his donkey and road off. But God got pissed off and a sword wielding Angel blocked Balaam's donkey's path and the donkey went crazy and Balaam beat the donkey: The Angel tacticaly moved around so that the donkey crushed Balaam's foot against a wall in its efforts to avoid it.**Then the donkey said - why are you beating me?**And Balaam said - I'd kill you if I had a sword! You are making a fool of me!Then YHWH 'opened Balaam's eyes' and he saw the Angel and prostrated (It was God speaking through the donkey!)The Angel then berates Balaam for beating his donkey who was doing the right thing since the Angel was actually trying to stop Balaam. "Sorry", says Balaam, "I'll go back if you want."
"No no", says the Angel. "Carry on. But say only what I tell you to."So Balaam arrived and the king of Moab berated for being late and then animals were sacrificed.Numbers 23: After a bit of a to do, Balaam makes a public oracle: But instead of cursing the Israelites he Blesses them!

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"How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced? ....Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!"

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Balak was not happy, after all he paid for a good curse! So he asked Balaam to speak with YHWH again and this time make it a curse. God replies via Balaam that he doesn't change his mind, he is not a human. And once again has Balaam give blessings to the Israelites:

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The people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion that does not rest till he devours his prey and drinks the blood of his victims.

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Balak was not happy, "maybe it would be an idea to stop blessing or cursing them. No - I have an idea, let's relocate, maybe God will curse them if we set this up elsewhere....prepare the sacrifices!"Numbers 24:
Balaam is really impressed with the Israelites camp, and their martial might and he says so as part of his Oracle:

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24:8-9:
"God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox. They devour hostile nations and break their bones in pieces; with their arrows they pierce them.
Like a lion they crouch and lie down, like a lioness--who dares to rouse them? "May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!"

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Balak is really annoyed and tells Balaam to go home. Balaam reminds him that he is just doing as Yahweh commands, and warns that the enemies of the Israelites will come to a sticky end:

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"...A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth."

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Numbers 25:The Israelite men started getting frisky with Moabite women, sacrificing to their gods and worshipping Baal. Yahweh was not happy and instructed Moses to have the leaders of these men executed.One Israelite man (called Zimri) had the gall to bring a Midianite woman (called Cozbi) to the Tent of Meeting to meet his family (there is some implication that adultery was afoot). So Aaron's grandson took a spear and executed them both (impaled them both with one single jab).This stopped a plague that had killed 24,000 people, presumably one of Yahweh's plagues.Yahweh was so impressed with Aaron's grandson (Phinehas), he made a covenant with him and his descendants. Priesthood in return for comitting genocide against the Midianites. Being an Aaronite (or Cohen), I thought priesthood was already agreed upon, but there you go.Numbers 26: It's time to count the Israelites again, says Yahweh, specifically those who can serve in the military.

Clans of Reuben:  43,730
Clans of Simeon:  22,200
Clans of Gad:     40,500
Clans of Judah:   76,500
Clans of Issachar:64,300
Clans of Zebulun: 60,500.
Clans of Manasseh:52,700.
Clans of Ephraim: 32,500
Clans of Benjamin:45,600.
Clans of Shuhamite: 64,400.
Clans of Asher:   53,400.
Clans of Naphtali:45,400.
Total             601,730

And an land based inheritance was worked out according to their sizes.Numbers 27: All the male heirs to one clan vanish. The women of this clan ask Moses to give them the inheritance so that the name of the clan does not vanish. Yahweh establishes an inheritance hierarchy:Sons->Daughters->Brothers->Father's Brothers->Nearest clan relativeThen Yahweh tells Moses to publically give Joshua some authority so that the people will follow him.Numbers 28: "Barbecues are a religious ritual you must regularly obey - I like the smell.", saith Yahweh.Numbers 29: "Seriously, barbecues smell awesome.", reiterates Yahweh (These two chapters discuss burnt offerings).Numbers 30: "Keep your vows. If you are a girl and you make a vow, but your father or husband objects then the vow is void. ", says Yahweh.Numbers 31: "Send 1,000 men from each tribe (that's 12 thousand) to fight the Midianites."

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They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man.

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Including Balaam, the oracle that blessed Israel three times!!!!?

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The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder.

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And burnt everything else.However, Moses was very angry that they didn't kill enough people,

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Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,
but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man

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Kill everyone who isn't a female virgin!So here is the plunder:
675,000 sheep
72,000 cattle
61,000 donkeys
32,000 virginsNumbers 32: Reubenites/Gadites say: There's perfectly good land there, why do we need to use land way over there?
Moses replies: Think yourself lucky and stop complaining. Yahweh cursed us to not enter the promised land last time we moaned about what he'd given us. Now, get yourself armed up to the teeth and join in the fighting so we can get more land, and put your women into cities for defence.
Reubenites/Gadites: Fair shout.Numbers 33: The journey so far:Rameses (fifteenth day of the first month)->Succoth->Etham->Pi Hahiroth->Marah ->Elim->Red Sea ->Wilderness of Sin -> Dophkah -> Alush ->Rephidim -> Wilderness of Sinai -> Kibrothhattaavah -> Hazeroth -> Rithmah -> Rimmonparez -> Libnah -> Rissah -> Kehelathah -> Shapher -> Haradah -> Makheloth -> Tahath -> Tarah -> Mithcah -> Hashmonah -> Moseroth -> Benejaakan -> Horhagidgad -> Jotbathah -> Ebronah -> Eziongaber -> Wilderness of Zin (Kadesh) -> mount HorThen Aaron died at aged 123.mount Hor -> Zalmonah -> Punon -> Oboth -> Ijeabarim -> Dibongad ->Almondiblathaim -> Abarim -> MoabAnd Yahweh said - kill everyone here and take their stuff or they'll irritate you for the rest of your life.Nunmbers 34: And the borders of your land shall be from the Med to the Red to the Dead, said Yahweh. (I'm sure I'm not the only person to make that joke throughout history). And it should be divided amongst the tribes.Numbers 35: The Levites should have towns and pastureland. They should have towns of refuge where those who have killed someone may flee to.

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The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to: and besides them you shall give forty-two cities.

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Then there seems to be a break in the text and it clarifies that cities of refuge should be for people that commit manslaughter.So what is murder, and what is manslaughter? It seems that if the intent was harm, it is murder but if there was no intent to harm it is manslaughter. So, if you throw a punch at someone, intending to hurt them, but they hit their head and die - that is murder and it is a capital offense (there needs to be more than one witness).If someone is accused of murder, they are sent to the city of refuge. If they should leave the city of refuge and the 'avenger of blood ' (a redeeming kinsman), should execute the accused it won't count as murder.An accused can only leave the city of refuge upon the death of the high priest.Numbers 36: Somebody notices that if a daughter should marry outside of a tribe, then the tribe she marries into would inherit the land of the tribe the girl belonged to. As such Yahweh says

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No inheritance in Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal land inherited from his forefathers.

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So girls must marry people within their own clan. Simple. And that's how it ends.

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Will probably add some images update spelling and add a few notes at some point, but my notes are spread around documents from April through to September so it is a little wonky right now and I might have missed bits.Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.

A series of speeches by Moses. It is called ”{spoken} Words’ in Hebrew again after the opening:

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These are the words which Moshe spoke to all Yisra'el beyond the Yarden (Jordan) in the wilderness

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Deuteronomy is the Greek for ”second law’ referring to the fact it is a second telling of the law. The setting is on the plains of Moab just before the Israelites enter the Promised Land. Deu 1: It starts by saying this occurred on the other side of the river Jordan or 'beyond the river' meaning that it is being told from the perspective of people already in the Promised Land.Says Moses: It’s time to break camp and enter the Promsied Land. We number as many as there are stars in the sky, and here’s hoping we increase in size a thousandfold. I set up judges to rule over your disputes - and I advise you show no partiality (hearing both small and great alike).You were worried about the big guys, the Amorites, but I assure you that Yahweh will fight for you. This doubt meant that no man of that generation will see the Promised Land. I Moses am no exception to this decree. Joshua, son of Nun, will enter it and he will lead Israel.But you guys prematurely attacked, and you got beaten down. And yea did god say, ”don’t come crying to me’ (Deut 1:45). Deu 2: Says Moses: So we went back to following directions. We were told not to provoke war, to pay for food etc.They wandered around not attacking people, being instructed to go from place to place.Then they were instructed to pass through the land of Heshbon, but because God hardened his heart (like he did with Pharaoh) he refused to allow them to pass through his land. So, with help from Yahweh, they kicked their asses (ie., We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones; we left none remaining ) Deu 3: Now it’s Og’s turn:

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So the LORD our God delivered into our hand `Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we struck him until none was left to him remaining.
We took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we didn't take from them; sixty cities, all the region of Argov, the kingdom of `Og in Bashan

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(with the women and the little ones.)There follows a description of which regions to go which tribes/families. Another reference to Joshua and then a plea from Moses: please let me see the Promised Land. To which Yahweh replies ”No, never speak to me again about this’. Deu 4: Neither add nor subtract from my commandments, says Yahweh.
Moses says ”Do not forget the covenant - I will die in this land but you are about to cross over and take possession of it. Yahweh is a jealous consuming fire. If you become corrupted and start worshiping idols you will be destroyed, scattered among the peoples.’Moses continues: ”Yahweh is awesome and has done amazing things that no other god has been said to do.’ Then Moses set aside three cities (Bezer, Ramoth and Golan) for where manslaughterers can go to save his life (See also: Numbers 35) Deu 5: This appears to be roughly the start of a new speech. It jumps straight into the ten commandments (see Exodus 20).
1: No other gods before me
2: No making of idols - Do not bow to idols
3: Do not misuse the name of Yahweh.
4: Observe the Sabbath
5: Honour your father and your mother.
6: Don’t murder.
7: Do not commit adultery
8: Do not steal
9: No false testimony against neighbour
10: No coveting your neighbours property.No-one can hear the voice of Yahweh (except us that one time). Deu 6: Says Moses, Put reminders up about the commandments, tie them around your hands, your foreheads, write them on doorframes and gates and so on.Fear Yahweh, take your oaths out in his name
Do not forget Yahweh
Do not test Yahweh
Keep the commandments
Do what is right in Yahweh’s opinion.We keep these commandments so that we may prosper. Deu 7: More bloodshed is predicted/commanded:

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. the Hittite, and the Girgashi, and the Amori, and the Kana`ani, and the Perizzi, and the Hivvi, and the Yevusi, seven nations greater and mightier than you;
and when the LORD your God shall deliver them up before you, and you shall strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them: you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them;

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Yahweh loves the Israelites, and will destroy anybody that hates him. If you stick to the commandments then Yahweh will keep his covenant of love, keeping you free of disease. But you must commit genocide at Yahweh’s request (Deu 7:16) and yea, thou shalt destroy them, wiping their names from heaven, their gods will burn in the fire. Deu 8: Says Moses: In case I hadn’t mentioned it every three seconds, don’t forget that Yahweh lead in the desert for those forty years and your clothes miraculously did not wear out - so keep those commandments! The promised land will be awesome. There will be water and wheat, honey and olive oil. But after you eat - praise Yahweh. Because all this comfort is likely to cause you to forget Yahweh. If that happens, I will destroy you. Deu 9: Continues Moses: You will have to fight Anakites (descendants of the Nephilim), but Yahweh will destroy them as a fire, annihilating them. Not because Israelites are righteous but because of the wickedness of the nations that are to be destroyed.I was awesome in the desert, that whole stone tablets from the finger of Yahweh? Remember that? Remember that cast idol thing you guys did, pissing Yahweh off? Yahweh almost destroyed you over that, but I am so great Yahweh listened to me! And that wasn’t the only time Yahweh got annoyed at you, don’t forget that! Deu 10: Moses: So after destroying the tablets carved by the finger of Yahweh, I made some copies and I created the Ark.Love Yahweh:

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Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.

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Remember Yahweh is fantastic and accepts no bribes, but can apparently be swayed by rhetoric. You should love foreigners (who live with you as aliens) as you were foreigners yourself. Deu 11: Moses: Remember that your children didn’t get to see all those fantastic things that happened over the last 40 years. Observe the commandments so that you might live long in the land of milk and honey. If you follow the rules I give you you will get rain in season, grass for cattle but you will be enticed away and Yahweh will be angry and will deny these things (the author really does want to drive this point home as often as he is repeating it). Tie the commandments around your hands, bind them to your head, teach them to your children, write them on your doorframes and so on and so forth.In short (and to repeat again) Follow commands and you will be blessed. Disobey and you will be cursed. Deu 12: Moses: So here are the laws:Destroy other religion’s alters, sacred stones and sticks, cut down their idols, wipe out their names. You will put Yahweh’s Name in a special place that He chooses and bring your burnt offerings/sacrifices/gifts etc. Do not sacrifice your burnt offerings in any old place, it must be where Yahweh’s Name is. You are free to slaughter outside of this special place, but still do not eat the blood.(It is thought that this might have put the wandering Levites out of business, so):

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Take heed to yourself that you don't forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land

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Do not be ensnared to follow other gods.Do not add nor diminish from the things I command you. Deu 13: If a prophet comes, or a dreamer and he makes miracles occur - do not follow him if he suggests following other gods. In fact, you should kill said prophet.Indeed, even if your brother, your son, your daughter, your wife or a friend suggests following other gods: Kill them without pity with stones. You should strike the first blow, with the rest of the people following soon after.If one of your cities starts worshiping other gods. Take the sword to them, and destroy it completely, including the cattle -burning all the spoils. Deu 14: Eat only clean animals. Not the unclean (eg: rabbits and camels) (see Leviticus 11). You can’t eat animals that are found dead, but you can sell it to a foreigner. You are holy to Yahweh. And tithe, some of the tithe should go towards the Levites who have no property or inheritance of their own. Deu 15: All debts should be cancelled at the end of every seven years . except for foreigners who you can require payment from. If you fully obey Yahweh there will be no poor among you. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none. Don’t deny loans just because the seven years deadline is near. Don’t even think about it. There will always be poor (which is it, there will be no poor, or there will always be poor? Maybe it is suggesting that Yahweh doesn't expect full obedience to ever happen.) so open your hand to them. Servants/slaves from the Israelites will be freed after seven years, and they will not be released empty handed (note: this generosity is an addition to the Exodus rules covering slavery release). Unless he happens to like you, then you can pierce his ear and he will be a slave to you forever. (see Exodus 21)Firstborn males of your livestock will be sanctified to Yahweh unless it is blind or lame. Deu 16: Celebrate Passover (eating unleavened bread as did those that had to leave Egypt in haste)
Celebrate the Feast of Weeks
Rejoice before Yahweh at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name (Yahweh is becoming increasingly abstract, rather than literally sitting on a throne in the Tabernacle, now his Name dwells in the temple.
Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.Do not pervert the course of justice or take bribes. Do not set up Asherah poles or sacred stones since Yahweh hates these. Deu 17: Again, do not sacrifice flawed livestock. If anyone is found doing evil in Yahweh’s eyes (eg., worshipping other gods or the sun or the moon or the stars) stone them to death. This should be done only on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Not just one. The witnesses should cast the first stones.
If it is too complicated, speak to a Levite or a judge to get a verdict. You must adhere to their decisions. Showing contempt to a judge or priest is punishable by . .death.
Only appoint brother Israelites to be King who is to be modest and humble. Deu 18: The Levites are to live on the offerings to Yahweh, they have no allotment or inheritance (I can see why Deuteronomy is considered to have been written by a non-priestly source).
Let none of you sacrifice his child, practice divination, sorcery, interpret omens, engage in witchcraft, cast spells, or consult the dead.
Any prophets that speak in the name of other gods or presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say: put them to death. Deu 19: Again, set aside three cities so that anyone who kills a man unintentionally may flee there. If someone kills in anger or hatred, then he can be handed over to the blood avenger to die. Show him no pity.
If a witness is proven to be a liar, then do unto him that which he would have had done to his brother he lied about. This will guarantee nobody lies.

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Your eyes shall not pity; life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

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Deu 20: And priests and officers shall give rousing speeches before the battles. And they shall send home those that have not properly dedicated their property or are fainthearted.
You can make an offer peace to the people you are about to crush. If they accept, they shall go into forced labour.
You may take the livestock and the children and women as plunder for yourselves when attacking the cities ”at a distance’. But the cities of the nations that Yahweh is giving you - leave no plunder or survivors.
Don’t cut down fruit trees for siege engines. Deu 21: If someone is murdered, and it is not known who the murderer is. Break the neck of a cow as atonement for the blood of the innocent.
If you notice a beautiful woman among the captives, you may take her as your wife. Shave her hair and trim her nails. Allow her a month mourning and then she is yours. If you are not pleased with her, let her go - she is not a slave.
You must give right of the firstborn (double share) to your actual firstborn, even if that firstborn was from a wife that you do not love.
If you have a rebellious son, stone him to death.
If you hang someone, be sure to bury him that same day since he is under God’s curse. Deu 22: If you come across stray livestock, take it back to the owner or keep it until the owner comes looking. This applies to any lost property.
Do not be a transvestite.
If you come upon a bird’s nest and the mother is sitting on the young/eggs you may take the young or the eggs but leave the mother so that you may have a long life(!?)
Build parapets around the roof so you are not morally culpable if someone falls from your roof.
Do not plant two kinds of seed in the vineyard or the fruits and crops will be forfeited.
Do not plow with an ox and a donkey together
Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven togetherIf you marry someone and dislike them and slander their name as not being a virgin you must stay married and pay a fine to the girls father. But if the charge is true (meaning it can't be proven she was a virgin with the appropriate bloody sheets) then the woman must be stoned to death.
Adultery is punishable by death.
If a man sleeps with a virgin who is betrothed to another in a town they shall be both stoned to death since she didn’t cry out for help.
If it happens in the countryside where there was no one to rescue her, then just the man should be stoned.
If a man rapes a virgin who is not betrothed he should pay a fine and marry the girl. Deu 23: No castrated men may enter the assembly of Yahweh
No one born out wedlock or their descendants to the TENTH generation (which is like two centuries!) shall enter the assembly of Yahweh.
No Ammonites or Moabites (to the tenth generation) shall enter the Assembly of Yahweh (spoiler alert: Unless his name is David)
Be cool with Edomites and Egyptians: The third generation born to them may enter the assembly of Yahweh.
If a man becomes unclean while camping against the enemy, he should leave the camp.
Cover up your crap.
Give refuge to slaves.
Do not become a prostitute.
Do not bring the earnings of prostitution into the house of Yahweh.
Do not charge interest (to other Israelites)
Keep your promises. Deu 24: You can’t marry someone you’ve previously divorced.
Newlywed males don’t have to go to war for 1 year.
Do not take a man’s livelihood as security for a loan.
Kidnapping another Israelite or enslaving him is punishable by death.
Don’t take advantage of hired men who are poor, pay them quickly since they are counting on it.
Fathers should not be executed for their child’s sin nor the other way around.
Let the leavings of your harvest stay there for the aliens, and the needy.
Again, to reiterate myself for the billionth time: You were slaves in Egypt, that is why. Deu 25: Don’t give someone more than 40 lashes.
Do not muzzle an ox while it treading the grain.
A man shall marry his brother’s wife if the brother dies and they live together - their first son will carry the dead brother’s name.
If the brother refuses, spit on his shoes and that man’s line shall forever be known as The Family With No Shoes (or similar):

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His name shall be called in Yisra'el, The house of him who has his shoe untied.

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If a wife defends her husband by grabbing the nuts of the man he is fighting with - cut off her hand without pity.
Be honest with your weights and measures. Deu 26: When you enter the Promised Land take some of the firstfruits of your produce to the place that Yahweh will choose as a dwelling for his name and make a lengthy declaration about coming from Egypt.
Remember to tithe 10 percent for the benefit of the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widow. And then declare to Yahweh that that is what you have done. Deu 27: This is describing a covenant renewal ritual of some kind. I am informed that these kinds of ceremonies were common practice amongst those that conquer at supposed divine will.Set up some large stones, cover them in plaster write the words of the law onto them and place them on Mount Ebal. Make an alter of stones (no iron tools allowed) and make sacrifices.
These tribes will bless the people from Mount Gerizim
Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Benjamin
These tribes will pronounce the curses from Mount Ebal
Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and NaphataliCursed be he who:
Carves an image or casts an idol
Dishonours his parents
Moves a boundary stone
Leads the blind astray
Withholds justice from a foreigner, fatherless or widow.
Sleeps with his father’s wife
Has sex with any animal
Sleeps with his sister (the daughter of either parent)
Sleeps with his mother-in-law
Kills his neighbour secretly.
Kills for payment.
Does not uphold The Law Deu 28: Obey Yahweh and follow the commands carefully. Blessings will come to you:
Your enemies will be defeated
Your barns and anything you put your hand to will be blessed.
You will be established as the holy people and everyone else will know it.
Abundant prosperity (children, livestock and crops)
You will receive rain in its season.
You will always be at the top, never the bottom.If you disobey then curses will be upon you:You will be cursed in the city and the country,
You will be on the bottom, not the top.
Your kneading will be cursed.
Your children, your livestock and your crops will be cursed until you are ruined.
You will be plagued with diseases.
The sky will be bronze, the ground: iron.
Rain will turn to dust.
Your enemies will defeat you.
Your carcasses will be bird food.
You’ll have boils and festering sores.
Madness, blindness and confusion
You will be unsuccessful in everything you do, you will be oppressed and robbed.
Your betrothed will be raped. Your house will be unlived in, your vineyard will never be enjoyed.
Your oxes will not feed you, your donkeys stolen, your sheep taken by enemies, your children given to other nations.
You will suffer nothing but cruel oppression for all your days and it will drive you insane.
You will become an object of scorn and ridicule.
The locusts will devour your crops.And so on. God is a pretty harsh bastard, that's arguably a worse set of curses than Adam and Eve received.The last curse is nothworthy:

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The LORD will bring you into {Egypt} again with ships, by the way whereof I said to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies for bondservants and for bondmaids, and no man shall buy you.

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There are notable Assyrian influences here. The treaties of Esarhaddon are structured quite similarly to the Deuteronomic approach, including the use of curses to seal the deal. In fact, some of the curses used can be found in those Assyrian texts. I can't find any accessible versions online so I can only take expert word that that is the case. Deu 29: This seems to be a new speech. It starts by reiterating what has be reiterated so often: Moses/Yahweh led you out of Egypt, clothes did not wear out, no new shoes were needed, you ate no bread, no wine no beer. We defeated Og, king of Bashan and divided up his lands follow the commandments for uninterrupted prosperity.Make sure nobody’s heart turns away from Yahweh. If a person thinks they can go it alone without Yahweh, Yahweh’s wrath be upon him and all the previously mentioned curses will fall upon him. Deu 30: But if you return to obeying Yahweh - the blessings will be given back to you. Even if you have been banished to distant lands, Yahweh will gather you back. Yahweh will circumcise your hearts and will visit the curses upon your enemies instead.
It’s not like the commandments are that hard. Deu 31: Says Moses: I am 120 and will not be crossing the Jordan. Yahweh will cross it ahead of you and destroy the nations before you. Joshua will cross ahead of you. Yahweh will commission Joshua as the official successor to Moses.
So Yahweh appears as the good old pillar of cloud and spoke to Moses.
These people will soon worship foreign gods and break the covenant with me and I will become angry and destroy them and I will hide my face.
So I’m going to give you a song they can sing.
Then Yahweh, spoke to Joshua, son of Nun: Be strong - you will bring the Israelites into the Promised Lands and I will be with you.Allow this book stand as a witness against you for when you all rebel. Deu 32: The song of Moses: Starts off praising the wonderful Yahweh and how his works are perfect and he is of perfect judgement of truth and justice and righteousness.
The people are a now a 'perverse and crooked generation'
The people of Jacob are his and he shielded him and led him and generally looked after him in nice ways.
Israel grew fat and turned to foreign gods, sacrificing to demons.
Says Yahweh 'I will hide my face from them'.
'They made me jealous'. Yahweh is very angry and so will heap calamaties on them because nothing justifies calamaties than good old wrath.
I will send famine and plagues, fangs and venom, yea even the sword. Foolish people.Where are your pagan gods now, bitches? Eh? How do you like that!? There is no god besides me, idiots.And so Moses finished the song and said 'So carefully follow the commandments...or else!'And then Yahweh coughed politely. 'Erm Moses...time to die! You broke faith in me, so climb the mountain. Let your eyes see the Promised Land that you will never enter. The reason can be found in Numbers 20. Deu 33 A blessing from Moses upon various groups. It's too tedious to list them. But he wishes good things for the various tribes. It might give some insights into the possible stereotypical characters of the tribes. Deu 34 So Moses climbs his last mountain at 120 years old, having spend most of his elderly life wandering through the desert acting as ambassador between the people and their God. He looks over the land that was Promised to his People who left Egpyt so many years ago and he dies. Tragic, really. They buried him in Moab.
Then the people grieved for thirty days.Joshua was then filled with the spirit and would now be their leader. Moses was awesome, the end.

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Again since it is largely a repeat of the laws, there isn't much new to analyze without going deep into biblical scholarship. Apologies if I shifted from first to third person, but unlike the other books this one is mostly first person (Moses). The whole thing reads a little like the covenants of the earlier books, though the language is much better -there's more pathos I think. There some agreement that Deuteronomy was written some time after the other books of the Pentateuch.As I said, Deuteronomy is broken into what appear to be three speeches.
The first is a quick recent history recap, setting the scene so to speak, on their grand entry into the Promised Land. It's not a full review, just basically relatively recent stuff that happened in NumbersThe second is some more history, and an immediate forecast of their coming battles. But mostly it is filled with commandments, The Law followed by the blessings and curses. The law is slightly different than earlier versions. For instance debt slavery release now comes with a gift package, and the treatment of 'aliens' is on the whole more positive.The third speech seems to imply that evil fortune is the responsibility of the person and of the community.From what I have learned in my limited studies is that scholars tend to believe that the second speech existed first. Specifically the laws part. That these were later reframed as being a speech made by Moses. Later additions were the first speech giving a historical review and the final speech as well as the miscellaneous sections at the end(The Song, the Blessings and the Death).Another interesting thing to note is how the book ends. After all the events in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers we might anticipate that we will read about the Israelites actually entering the Promised Land. It's strange to end things the way they did, but some have suggested this represents feelings of exile from the composers/editors.And that just about exhausts what I think about Deuteronomy. Hopefully it will prove readable and of interest. I wonder if anyone else out there wants to play catchup with me and give us their views of the Bible, cover to cover.

The passage was about residents of the Israelites land who were not Israelites. It is not about loving ones enemy. The Old Testament makes some pretty clear comments about enemies, and love isn't high on the agenda there:

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you shall utterly destroy them: you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them

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I see the word 'neighbour' as being roughly synonymous with 'fellow Israelite', not 'denizens of neighbouring cities'. Of course the New Testament puts its own spin on that, but I don't think that was how it was meant to be understood at the time. I disagree. It appears to be easy, but given how many people come to such different ideas about it I think this serves as evidence that it isn't as easy as one might believe. Cheers, and here's to you too.Edited by Modulous, : No reason given.

What part of that is about enemies? It says 'strangers'. Strangers refer to aliens, not enemies. It is ger. Enemy is 'oyeb. And Deuteronomy talks of 'oyeb in Deu 33:27 :

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The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, 'Destroy him!'

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You should instead be looking to Exd 23:4 for evidence of a love thy enemy vibe:

quote:

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If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.

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But it's slim pickings, and only seems to refer to personal enemies, not 'national' ones. I don't disagree.