And some weirdness. BTW I'm going to start doing Wednesday Bible study as well or we'll never get through this. Anyway Leviticus 19, as I foretold, contains some rules for daily life which for the most part conform with our present ethical culture. There are however a few that seem arbitrary or weird, and at least one that is definitely not good. This is the New Revised Standard Version.
19 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. 3 You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. 4 Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the Lord your God.
5 When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, offer it in such a way that it is acceptable in your behalf. 6 It
shall be eaten on the same day you offer it, or on the next day; and
anything left over until the third day shall be consumed in fire. 7 If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable. 8 All who eat it shall be subject to punishment, because they have profaned what is holy to the Lord; and any such person shall be cut off from the people.
This is repetitive from the law of the sacrifice given much earlier in the book. Re-emphasizing it here seems out of context.
9 When
you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges
of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 You
shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your
vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.
11 You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. 12 And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.
13 You
shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not
keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. 14 You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
15 You
shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the
poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord.
The last bit about profiting from the blood of your neighbor seems to confuse many translators. KJV has "thou shalt not stand against the blood of your neighbor." Some versions translate the word as life rather than blood. The obvious interpretation seems to me that you shouldn't try to benefit from a situation which is dangerous or perhaps deadly to someone else.
17 You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18
In other words don't go around nursing a secret grudge. Have it out with the person and get it over with. That's probably good advice most of the time.
You
shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people,
but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
19 You
shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a
different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor
shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.
Now this is weird. It is forbidding farmers from creating hybrids. I am hard pressed to believe they actually obeyed this, which would be highly disadvantageous. As for not wearing clothes containing two different fibers (most translations actually specific wool and linen, not sure why this one doesn't) that's just bizarre.
20 If
a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave, designated for
another man but not ransomed or given her freedom, an inquiry shall be
held. They shall not be put to death, since she has not been freed; 21 but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram as guilt offering. 22 And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he committed; and the sin he committed shall be forgiven him.
KJV, instead of "an inquiry shall be held," has "she shall be scourged." Most modern translations have this inquiry instead, but I wonder if they aren't trying to clean it up? In any case, the whole point of this is that the woman is a sex slave promised to another man. That is the definition of concubinage and it is commonplace among the Israelites. Doesn't seem very holy to me.
23 When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall regard their fruit as forbidden; three years it shall be forbidden to you, it must not be eaten. 24 In the fourth year all their fruit shall be set apart for rejoicing in the Lord. 25 But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that their yield may be increased for you: I am the Lord your God.
Rather than "forbidden," as the footnote says, the Hebrew has "uncircumcised," which is a pretty weird way to describe a fruit tree. Since fruit trees generally don't bear for at least three or four years this seems largely pointless. And harvesting the first yield doesn't actually harm yield in later years.
26 You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft. 27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.
Orthodox Jewish men still follow the latter precepts. Presumably the rationale for this is as a marker of identity.
28 You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord.
29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, that the land not become prostituted and full of depravity. 30 You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
Well that's good, but remember it is legal to sell your daughter.
31 Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
32 You shall rise before the aged, and defer to the old; and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
33 When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. 34 The
alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you;
you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of
Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
35 You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity. 36 You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them: I am the Lord.
1 comment:
Oh my god! (So to speak.)
This is the first time I couldn't "put the book down" when reading a Sunday Sermonette. I read in growing disbelief as Leviticus 19 progressed. With each passing commandment of god's that Donald John Trump has broken--nay, miserably, mockingly, and gleefully smashed--I was hit with the blinding insight that most "Christians" either HAVE NOT read the Bible, or don't give a FLYING FUCK what it says! There has never been a greater stinking gigantic void than djt.
Shitler has repeatedly and flagrantly violated what many Christians refer to as the word of god in Leviticus 19 as follows:
1) Leviticus 19:4: He asks people to turn to him as god ("I alone can fix it"). Whatever at's issue, no one knows shit--forget the KJV, you are to listen only to djt (not worthy of capitalization).
2) Leviticus 19:11: djt steals from his contractors, from the American people, from the future, and he keeps the wages of his laborers--FOREVER, in many cases, by defrauding them and refusing to pay them. Then he takes them to court or settles out of court to cheat them.
3) Leviticus 19:13: All Shitler DOES is lie. He is a pathological liar, no matter the subject--COVID-19, climate change, other people's birth certificates, his own finances, everything. He seems incapable of recognizing or acknowledging truth.
4) Leviticus 19:14: He mocks disabled people. "Fuck god," sayeth Shitler, "and fuck deaf people."
5) Leviticus 19:15: With his special twisted brand of fact-contortion, Shitler abets only injustice, and is partial to people he aspires to be, but never will be--i.e., the rich.
6) Leviticus 19:16: OH BOY, HERE WE GO! The greatest slanderer in the country, out of 330,000,000 people. His lies and slanders are too numerous to recount, even slandering entire nations, the latest being about Joe Scarborough as egregious as any. Name the subject--Obama, any Democrat, all the folks he tries to defame and demean with monikers that won't stick because each one is merely a projection of his inner worthlessness. He is at battle with the entire world--except for other abusers, whose club he dreams of belonging to. You know, Kim Jong Un, Putin, or the man whose speeches he reads (Hitler).
7) Leviticus 19:29: He would if he could. He's made that much clear. He is a prostitute in all ways, and so are his kin.
8) Leviticus 19:31: He constantly turns to Fux and to Russian and, now, Chinese propagandists.
9) Leviticus 19:32: He defers only to the worst of the worst, not to the aged or wise.
10) Leviticus 19:33 through 34: OH BOY, HERE WE GO. Has Shitler EVER respected an immigrant or legal resident? No: he shouts from the top of his anthill that they are to be placed in crosshairs. He demonizes them, when his own family came here as immigrants (I wish they'd turned around and gone back immediately).
Read the Bible, "Christians"! It says: "When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen [!] among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."
No wonder he can't "LOVE THE ALIEN AS [HIM]SELF"--he DOESN'T LOVE HIMSELF! Deep down, he believes he's a despicable piece of shit.
No one--NO ONE--who calls himself or herself a CHRISTIAN can support this horrible failure of a human as a man, a business person, a model, a father, or in any way possible--MUCH LESS AS A LEADER!--if he or she has read and believes in the Bible.
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