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Deuteronomy 25-27 Skeptics Annotated Bible
Whoops again. Because of my mistake yesterday, I'm a day off on posting. But, we still got the rest of the year to catch up so;
Judges can order a whipping and you can't muzzle a Ox when he's working the field. WTF? Again with the editing.
The brother of a dead husband has to provide his seed to the deceased's wife so that his brothers line will continue. If he doesn't, she can take his shoe off and spit on him (?!?!).
This harkens back to the Book of Genesis when God smote Onan for spilling his seed on the ground instead of going into his dead brothers wife.
A woman that interferes in a fight between her husband and another man by grabbing the other mans yarbles will have her hands cut-off. Pretty harsh don't you think?
"Thou shalt not have divers weights, great and small." Sounds odd but according to the Skeptics Annotated Bible, it refers to treating people equally and fairly.
Joseph was Syarian? Did we know this before?
Chapter 26 has more laws that we've seen before.
Moses tells the Israelites to put God's laws into stone in Chapter 27. I've always liked this imagery.
We learn of things that will leave you cursed. A lot of it has to do with sleeping with the wrong people/animals.
Say Amen.
"A woman that interferes in a fight between her husband and another man by grabbing the other mans yarbles will have her hands cut-off."
ReplyDeleteIt IS pretty harsh, but I've got to wonder why something like this would make it into law. Were meddlesome women running around grabbing junk to such an extent that a law was needed?
Many of these laws remind me of the riders that special interest groups get tacked onto bills from our congress.
ReplyDelete"OK, we will let you keep in the whippings, but only up to 20 stripes. And we want you to make it mandatory to be nice to orphans."
"Let us whip them up to 40 stripes, and we'll take care of widows too."
"Deal."
@David: Yeah, sounds like the author had a very specific incident in mind. "No balls-grabbing, and you know who you are! Even if you do have a 'history' with a certain priest and even if said priest called you a certain name when you left him to marry a total douchebag!"
ReplyDeleteYes, the word for "judge" used here in ch. 25 is the same as used in "Judges". Even though the Judges judges don't really judge.
ReplyDelete"Thou shalt not have divers weights, great and small." Sounds odd but according to the Skeptics Annotated Bible, it refers to treating people equally and fairly.
25:13 is translated in my bible as "You shall not have unequal weights in your bag, one heavy, the other light.
It's a simple prohibition against cheating people, doing the Israelite equivalent of putting your thumb on the scale. The KJV obscures the meaning by being 400 years old. Like usual.
Random dig at the Amalekites. Let it go, dude. This references a strange E story from Exodus 17. (Besides some law shared with P, all references have been to the JE narrative.)
Ch. 26 was the last law... I think in the entire Bible. We did it! NO MORE LAW. I'm so happy.
Chapter 27 sets up the renewal of the covenant at Shechem, an event we'll witness in Joshua.
The text is confusing. First it says half the tribes will stand on Mt. Gerizim to bless; the other half will stand on Mt. Ebal to curse. Then it gives a list of curses the Levites are supposed to perform. Then (next chapter) there's some blessing. Then some more curses. It looks like various curse-related texts got juxtaposed. And do they have anything to do with the covenant ceremony?
I'm so glad my husband doesn't have a brother.
ReplyDeleteI'm also glad that the Amen's were so short. Could have taken many more verses to cover all that. Aren't the rules already written in stone? Is this a repeat or just more rules they forgot up on the mountain?
@momof atheists,
ReplyDelete"Aren't the rules already written in stone?"
The 10 commandments are written on stone. This is more of the expanded edition.
"Is this a repeat or just more rules they forgot up on the mountain?"
I will defer to Matthew Henry
(MHC)
The former laws are repeated and commented upon, explained and enlarged, and some particular precepts added to them, with copius reasonings for the enforcing of them:...
...There might be a particular reason for the repeating of it now; the men of that generation to which the law was first given were all dead, and a new generation had sprung up, to whom God would have it repeated by Moses himself,that, if possible, it might make a lasting impression upon them. Now that they were just going to take possession of the land of Canaan, Moses must read the articles of agreement to them, that they might know upon what terms and conditions they were to hold and enjoy that land, and might understand that they were upon their good behaviour in it....
I hope that helps.
@Bruce,
ReplyDeleteIt's another MHC night for me.
"Joseph was Syarian? Did we know this before?"
(MHC)
Jacob is here called an Aramite, or Syrian, because he lived twenty years in Padan-Aram; his wives were of that country, and his children were all born there, except Benjamin; and perhaps the confessor means not Jacob himself, but that son of Jacob who was the father of his tribe. However it be, both father and sons were more than once read to perish, by Laban's severity, Esau's cruelty, and the famine in the land, which last was the occasion of their going down into Egypt.