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The
Nature of The Tribal God of Israel in The Old Testament
Is This
What God of the Universe is Really Like?
Serious Problems with Old Testament Morality.
1) Murder, rape, and pillage
at Jabesh-gilead (Judges 21:10-24 NLT)
So they
sent twelve thousand warriors to Jabesh-gilead
with orders to kill everyone there, including women and children.
"This is what you are to do," they said. "Completely destroy
all the males and every woman who is not a virgin." Among the
residents of Jabesh-gilead they found four
hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them
to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
The
Israelite assembly sent a peace delegation to the little remnant of
Benjamin who were living at the rock of Rimmon. Then the men of Benjamin returned to their
homes, and the four hundred women of Jabesh-gilead
who were spared were given to them as wives. But there were not
enough women for all of them. The people felt sorry for Benjamin
because the LORD had left this gap in the tribes of Israel. So the
Israelite leaders asked, "How can we find wives for the few who
remain, since all the women of the tribe of Benjamin are dead? There
must be heirs for the survivors so that an entire tribe of Israel will not
be lost forever. But we cannot give them our own daughters in
marriage because we have sworn with a solemn oath that anyone who does this
will fall under God's curse."
Then they
thought of the annual festival of the LORD held in Shiloh, between Lebonah and Bethel, along the east side of the road
that goes from Bethel to Shechem. They told
the men of Benjamin who still needed wives,
"Go and hide in the vineyards. When the women of Shiloh come out
for their dances, rush out from the vineyards, and each of you can take one
of them home to be your wife! And when their fathers and brothers
come to us in protest, we will tell them, 'Please be
understanding. Let them have your daughters, for we didn't
find enough wives for them when we destroyed Jabesh-gilead.
And you are not guilty of breaking the vow since you did not give your
daughters in marriage to them.'" So the men of Benjamin did as
they were told. They kidnapped the women who took part in the
celebration and carried them off to the land of their own
inheritance. Then they rebuilt their towns and lived in them.
So the assembly of Israel departed by tribes and families, and they
returned to their own homes.
2) Murder, rape and pillage of
the Midianites (Numbers 31:7-18
NLT)
They
attacked Midian just as the LORD had commanded
Moses, and they killed all the men. All five of the Midianite kings – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – died in the battle. They
also killed Balaam son of Beor with the
sword. Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite
women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth
as plunder. They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived. After they had gathered the
plunder and captives, both people and animals, they brought them all to
Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the whole
community of Israel, which was camped on the plains of Moab beside the
Jordan River, across from Jericho.
Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people
went to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was furious with all
the military commanders who had returned from the battle. "Why
have you let all the women live?" he demanded. "These are
the very ones who followed Balaam's advice and caused the people of Israel
to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor.
They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD's
people. Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a
man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them
for yourselves.
3) More Murder Rape and
Pillage (Deuteronomy 20:10-14)
As
you approach a town to attack it, first offer its people terms for peace.
If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the
people inside will serve you in forced labor. But if they refuse to
make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. When the
LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town. But
you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other
plunder. You may enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the LORD your
God has given you.
4) Laws of Rape
(Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT)
If a man is
caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay
fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young
woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.
5) Death to the Rape
Victim (Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB)
If within
the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with
her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone
them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was
in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife.
6) David's Punishment -
Polygamy, Rape, Baby Killing, and God's "Forgiveness" (2 Samuel
12:11-14 NAB)
Thus says
the Lord: 'I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will
take your wives [plural] while you live to see it, and will give them to
your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight.
You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the
presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.'
Then David
said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan
answered David: "The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall
not die. But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the
child born to you must surely die." [The child dies seven days
later.]
7) Rape of Female
Captives (Deuteronomy 21:10-14 NAB)
"When
you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them
into your hand, so that you take captives, if you see a comely woman among
the captives and become so enamored of her that you wish to have her as
wife, you may take her home to your house. But before she may live
there, she must shave her head and pare her nails and lay aside her
captive's garb. After she has mourned her father and mother for a
full month, you may have relations with her, and you shall be her husband
and she shall be your wife. However, if later on you lose your liking
for her, you shall give her her freedom, if she
wishes it; but you shall not sell her or enslave her, since she was married
to you under compulsion."
8) Rape and the Spoils
of War (Judges 5:30 NAB)
They must
be dividing the spoils they took: there must be a damsel or two for each
man, Spoils of dyed cloth as Sisera's spoil, an ornate shawl or two for me in the
spoil. (Judges 5:30 NAB)
9) Female Slaves (Exodus
21:7-11 NLT)
When a man
sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six
years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her,
he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to
sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with
her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son,
he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his
daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he
may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.
If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman
without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
10) God Assists Rape and
Plunder (Zechariah 14:1-2 NAB)
Lo, a day
shall come for the Lord when the spoils shall be divided in your midst.
And I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle: the city
shall be taken, houses plundered, women ravished; half of the city shall go
into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city.
(Zechariah 14:1-2 NAB)
Then, with Micah's idols and
his priest, the men of Dan came to the town of Laish,
whose people were peaceful and secure. They attacked and killed all
the people and burned the town to the ground. There was no one to
rescue the residents of the town, for they lived a great distance from
Sidon and had no allies nearby. This happened in the valley near
Beth-rehob.Then the people of the tribe of Dan
rebuilt the town and lived there. They renamed the town Dan after
their ancestor, Israel's son, but it had originally been called Laish. (Judges 18:27-29 NLT)
"Go up, my warriors,
against the land of Merathaim and against the
people of Pekod. Yes, march against Babylon, the
land of rebels, a land that I will judge! Pursue, kill, and
completely destroy them, as I have commanded you," says the
LORD. "Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great
destruction". (Jeremiah 50:21-22 NLT)
“You must destroy all
the nations the LORD your God hands over to you. Show them no mercy
and do not worship their Gods. If you do, they will trap you.
Perhaps you will think to yourselves, 'How can we ever conquer these
nations that are so much more powerful than we are?' But don't be
afraid of them! Just remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh
and to all the land of Egypt. Remember the great terrors the LORD
your God sent against them. You saw it all with your own eyes!
And remember the miraculous signs and wonders, and the amazing power
he used when he brought you out of Egypt. The LORD your God will use
this same power against the people you fear. And then the LORD your
God will send hornets to drive out the few survivors still hiding from you!
"No, do not be afraid of those nations, for the LORD your God is
among you, and he is a great and awesome God. The LORD your God will
drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not
clear them away all at once, for if you did, the wild animals would
multiply too quickly for you. But the LORD your God will hand them
over to you. He will throw them into complete confusion until they
are destroyed. He will put their kings in your power, and you will
erase their names from the face of the earth. No one will be able to stand
against you, and you will destroy them all.” (Deuteronomy
7:16-24 NLT)
11) Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another
God.
“Suppose you hear in one
of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble
among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to
worship foreign Gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts
carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a
detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and
completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock.
Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn
it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD
your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be
rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for
destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be
merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great
nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The LORD
your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I
am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him."
(Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)
12)
Kill Women Who Are Not Virgins On Their Wedding Night.
“But if this
charge is true (that she wasn't a virgin on her wedding night), and evidence
of the girls virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the
entrance of her fathers house and there her townsman shall stone her to
death, because she committed a crime against Israel by her unchasteness in her father's house. Thus shall
you purge the evil from your midst.”
(Deuteronomy 22:20-21 NAB)
13) Kill
Anyone who Approaches the Tabernacle
For the
LORD had said to Moses, 'Exempt the tribe of Levi from the census; do not
include them when you count the rest of the Israelites. You must put
the Levites in charge of the Tabernacle of the Covenant, along with its
furnishings and equipment. They must carry the Tabernacle and its
equipment as you travel, and they must care for it and camp around
it. Whenever the Tabernacle is moved, the Levites will take it down
and set it up again. Anyone else who goes too near the Tabernacle
will be executed.' (Numbers 1:48-51 NLT)
14) Kill
People for Working on the Sabbath
The LORD
then gave these further instructions to Moses: 'Tell the people of Israel
to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between
me and you forever. It helps you to remember that I am the LORD, who
makes you holy. Yes, keep the Sabbath day, for it is holy.
Anyone who desecrates it must die; anyone who works on that day will
be cut off from the community. Work six days only, but the seventh
day must be a day of total rest. I repeat: Because the LORD considers
it a holy day, anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.'
(Exodus 31:12-15 NLT)
15)
The Jewish Tribal God Kills for Very Strange Reasons:
From there
Elisha went up to Bethel. While he was on his way, some small boys
came out of the city and jeered at him. "Go up baldhead,"
they shouted, "go up baldhead!" The prophet turned and saw
them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two shebears came out of the woods and tore forty two of
the children to pieces. (2 Kings 2:23-24 NAB)
And he
smote of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they
had looked into the ark of Jehovah, he smote of the people seventy men,
`and' fifty thousand men; and the people mourned, because Jehovah had
smitten the people with a great slaughter. And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to
stand before Jehovah, this holy God? and to whom
shall he go up from us? (1Samuel 6:19-20 ASV)
Meanwhile,
the LORD instructed one of the group of prophets
to say to another man, "Strike me!" But the man refused to
strike the prophet. Then the prophet told him, "Because you have
not obeyed the voice of the LORD, a lion will kill you as soon as you leave
me." And sure enough, when he had gone, a lion attacked and
killed him. (1 Kings 20:35-36 NLT)
The ark of God was placed on a new cart and taken away from the house of Abinadab on the hill. Uzzah
and Ahio, sons of Abinadab
guided the cart, with Ahio walking before it,
while David and all the Israelites made merry before the Lord with all
their strength, with singing and with citharas,
harps, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.
When they
came to the threshing floor of Nodan, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God to steady
it, for the oxen were making it tip. But the Lord was angry with Uzzah; God struck him on that spot, and he died there
before God. (2 Samuel 6:3-7 NAB)
Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of
their fathers; Lest they rise and posses the earth, and fill the breadth of
the world with tyrants. (Isaiah 14:21 NAB)
The glory
of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will die at birth or
perish in the womb or never even be conceived. Even if your children
do survive to grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a
terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone. I have watched
Israel become as beautiful and pleasant as Tyre.
But now Israel will bring out her children to be slaughtered." O
LORD, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs
that don't give birth and breasts that give no milk. The LORD says,
"All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there
I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their
evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are
rebels. The people of Israel are stricken. Their roots are
dried up; they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I
will slaughter their beloved children." (Hosea 9:11-16 NLT)
"Then
I heard the LORD say to the other men, "Follow him through the city
and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have
no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and
little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin
your task right here at the Temple." So they began by killing
the seventy leaders. "Defile the Temple!" the LORD
commanded. "Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you
kill! Go!" So they went throughout the city and did as
they were told." (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)
And at
midnight the LORD killed all the firstborn sons in the land of Egypt, from
the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn son
of the captive in the dungeon. Even the firstborn of their livestock were
killed. Pharaoh and his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up
during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt.
There was not a single house where someone had not died. (Exodus
12:29-30 NLT)
"You are my
battle-ax and sword," says the LORD. "With you I will
shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms. With you I will shatter
armies, destroying the horse and rider, the chariot and charioteer.
With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men
and maidens. With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers
and oxen, captains and rulers. "As you watch, I will repay
Babylon and the people of Babylonia for all the wrong they have done to my
people in Jerusalem," says the LORD. "Look, O mighty
mountain, destroyer of the earth! I am your enemy," says the
LORD. "I will raise my fist against you, to roll you down from
the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of
rubble. You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will
never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped
out," says the LORD. (Jeremiah 51:20-26)
If even
then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey, I will inflict you
with seven more disasters for your sins. I will release wild animals
that will kill your children and destroy your cattle, so your numbers will
dwindle and your roads will be deserted. (Leviticus 26:21-22 NLT)
Anyone who
is captured will be run through with a sword. Their little children
will be dashed to death right before their eyes. Their homes will be
sacked and their wives raped by the attacking hordes. For I will stir
up the Medes against Babylon, and no amount of silver or gold will buy them
off. The attacking armies will shoot down the young people with
arrows. They will have no mercy on helpless babies and will show no
compassion for the children. (Isaiah 13:15-18 NLT)
This is what the Lord of hosts has to say: 'I will punish what Amalek did to Israel when he barred his way as he was
coming up from Egypt. Go, now, attack Amalek,
and deal with him and all that he has under the ban. Do not spare
him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels
and asses.' (1 Samuel 15:2-3 NAB)
Cursed be
he who does the Lords work remissly, cursed he
who holds back his sword from blood. (Jeremiah 48:10 NAB)
Then the
LORD said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading
for these people, I wouldn't help them. Away with them! Get
them out of my sight! And if they say to you, 'But where can we go?'
tell them, 'This is what the LORD says: Those who are destined for death,
to death; those who are destined for war, to war; those who are destined
for famine, to famine; those who are destined for captivity, to
captivity.' "I will send four kinds of destroyers against
them," says the LORD. "I will send the sword to kill, the
dogs to drag away, the vultures to devour, and the wild animals
to finish up what is left. Because of the wicked things
Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem, I will make my
people an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth."
(Jeremiah 15:1-4 NLT)
I will make
Mount Seir utterly desolate, killing off all who
try to escape and any who return. I will fill your mountains with the
dead. Your hills, your valleys, and your streams will be filled with people
slaughtered by the sword. I will make you desolate forever. Your
cities will never be rebuilt. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
(Ezekiel 35:7-9 NLT)
My angel
will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites,
and Jebusites; and I will wipe them out.
(Exodus 23:23 NAB)
When the
Israelite army finished killing all the men outside the city, they went
back and finished off everyone inside. So the entire population of Ai
was wiped out that day – twelve thousand in all. For Joshua
kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was
completely destroyed. Only the cattle and the treasures of the city
were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these for themselves,
as the LORD had commanded Joshua. So Ai became a permanent mound of
ruins, desolate to this very day. Joshua hung the king of Ai on a
tree and left him there until evening. At sunset the Israelites took down
the body and threw it in front of the city gate. They piled a great
heap of stones over him that can still be seen today. (Joshua 8:1-29
NLT)
When the trumpet sounded
“…the Israelites charged straight into the city from every side
and captured it. They completely destroyed everything in it –
men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, donkeys –
everything. (Joshua 6:20-21 NLT)
"You
have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made
other Gods and have made me furious with your gold calves. And since
you have turned your back on me, I will bring disaster on your dynasty and
kill all your sons, slave or free alike. I will burn up your royal
dynasty as one burns up trash until it is all gone. I, the LORD, vow
that the members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by
vultures.'" Then Ahijah said to
Jeroboam's wife, "Go on home, and when you enter the city, the child
will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the
only member of your family who will have a proper burial, for this child is
the only good thing that the LORD, the God of Israel, sees in the entire
family of Jeroboam. And the LORD will raise
up a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam. This
will happen today, even now! Then the LORD will shake Israel like a
reed whipped about in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel
from this good land that he gave their ancestors and will scatter them
beyond the Euphrates River, for they have angered the LORD by worshiping Asherah poles. He will abandon Israel because
Jeroboam sinned and made all of Israel sin along with him." (1
Kings 14:9-16 NLT)
The men of
Israel withdrew through the territory of the Benjaminites,
putting to the sword the inhabitants of the city, the livestock, and all
they chanced upon. Moreover they destroyed by fire all the cities
they came upon. (Judges 20:48 NAB)
That night
the angel of the Lord went forth and struck down one hundred and eighty
five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. Early the next morning, there
they were, all the corpuses of the dead. (2 Kings 19:35 NAB)
(Moses)
stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, "All of you who are on
the LORD's side, come over here and join
me." And all the Levites came. He told them, "This is what
the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and forth
from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers, friends,
and neighbors." The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three
thousand people died that day. Then Moses told the Levites,
"Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, for you
obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Because
of this, he will now give you a great blessing." (Exodus
32:26-29 NLT)
At the
customary time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked
up to the altar and prayed, "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove
that I have done all this at your command. O LORD, answer me! Answer
me so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God and that you have
brought them back to yourself." Immediately the fire of the LORD
flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the
stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the ditch!
And when the people saw it, they fell on their faces and cried out,
"The LORD is God! The LORD is God!" Then Elijah
commanded, "Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don't let a single
one escape!" So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them
down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there.
(1 Kings 18:36-40 NLT)
"Go
up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim
and against the people of Pekod. Yes, march
against Babylon, the land of rebels, a land that I will judge!
Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them, as I have commanded
you," says the LORD. "Let the battle cry be heard in the
land, a shout of great destruction". (Jeremiah 50:21-22
NLT)
The Old Testament Tribal God of Israel Approves of
Slavery
However, you may purchase male
or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You
may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those
who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property,
passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may
treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must
never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)
If you buy
a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years. Set him free in
the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom. If he
was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he
will go free in the seventh year. But if he was married before he
became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him. If his master
gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then
the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will
still belong to his master. But the slave may plainly declare, 'I
love my master, my wife, and my children. I would rather not go
free.' If he does this, his master must present him before God.
Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with
an awl. After that, the slave will belong to his master forever.
(Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)
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