Deuteronomy

This book has tons of good material: laws, the last events prior to the Hebrew invasion of Palestine, lots of insights into the nature of the Hebrew war god, Yahweh. I know of few people who are familiar with the material in this page. I hope you will find many things to ponder.

Deu 2:30 - But King Sihon of Heshbon was not willing to let us pass through, for the LORD your God had hardened his spirit and made his heart defiant in order to hand him over to you, as he has now done.
God apparently remained in the heart-hardening business after the events in Exodus. This certainly appears to harm the idea of "free will."

Deu 5:11 - You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
It appears that this is an "unpardonable sin." Exactly how many of these are there?

Deu 7:1-5 -When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you - the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you - and when the LORD your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire.
Giving instructions on the fine, Godly art of genocide. Check out the book of Joshua to see how these orders were carried out. Oddly enough, later in tis book, you'll find listed some laws that allow these "holy" people to intermarry with people of outside religions. One has to wonder why this issue of religious purity was handled so haphazardly?

Deu 7:22 - The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little; you will not be able to make a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals would become too numerous for you.
Don't wipe out these people too quickly - God can't protect his special people from wild animals?? Just how powerful is this God, if he can't do that?

Deu 7:25,26 - The images of their gods you shall burn with fire. Do not covet the silver and gold that is on them and take it for yourself, because you could be ensnared by it; for it is abhorrent to the LORD your God. Do not bring an abhorrent thing into your house, or you will be set aside for destruction like it. You must utterly detest and abhor it, for it is set aside for destruction.
Is God saying that if you take metal used in the worship of other gods, the religion will rub off on you? Does he think that faith in him would be that fragile? Or could it be a case of the priests taking these gold and silver things with "anti-Yahweh cooties" off into some tent and just saying they had destroyed the evil, evil metal?

Deu 8:2 - Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments.
So God went through a 40-year trial period to find out something he (being omniscient) should have known already? It appears that God thought that they would follow all the laws. This makes me wonder just where this idea of omniscience comes from.

Deu 8:19,20 - If you do forget the LORD your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
OK, so God threatens complete destruction if his chosen people ever strayed away. We all know that they did stray away - so how reliable is this statement? I think this qualifies as a promise from God that didn't come to pass.

Deu 9:14 - "Let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and more numerous than they."
This is a quote from God. He has decided to erase the Hebrew people because they are stubborn, and start over with Moses. Since Moses is also a descendant of Abraham, it appears to be a viable plan, in keeping with God's original contract. Oddly, this is an exact duplication of a scene from the book of Exodus. Deja vu, or sloppy editing?

Deu 10:5-10 - So I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark that I had made; and there they are, as the LORD commanded me.

(The Israelites journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; his son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. From there, they journeyed to Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land flowing with streams. At the time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day. Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance with his kindred; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him.)

I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, as I had done the first time. And once again, the LORD listened to me. The LORD was unwilling to destroy you.
Hold on! Where did that middle paragraph come from? It makes no sense! Maybe God needed a better word processor, because someone pasted that paragraph in a truly BAD spot. This is an obvious later addition, slapped in at random by a copying scribe, possibly with no clue of what the words he was copying meant. Also interesting is the last line - a continuation of the story Moses was telling in the first place. God had decided to wipe out all the Hebrews, but here, it says that Moses was able to change God's mind!

Deu 11 13-17 - If you will only heed his every commandment that I am commanding you today - loving the LORD your God, and serving him with all you heart and with all your soul - then he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine and your oil; and he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshipping them, for the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit; then you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.
This is known as hydraulic despotism. Threatening the withholding of some vital element until the offending party gets into line. People to this day think of this passage when the rain gets a little scarce. Is this the attitude of a loving being? "Do what I say, or I'll make you die of thirst"? Another way this could be viewed is that the priests who were trying to scare the people into acting the way they wanted them to were taking advantage of the naturally dry climate of Palestine, laying the blame for the droughts and famines on all who didn't follow their rules.

Deu 13:1-5 - If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and promise you omens and portents, and the omens and portents declared by them take place, and they say, "Let us follow other gods" (whom you have not known) "and let us serve them," you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you indeed love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul. The LORD your God you shall follow, him alone shall you fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him shall you hold fast. But those prophets or those who divine by dreams shall be put to death for having spoken treason against the LORD your God - who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery - to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge evil from your midst.
Several things here. It looks like Moses was aware that other religious leaders were likely to show up, capable of pulling the same tricks he could. So he gives the people this line to make sure his power (and the power of following priests, not coincidentally) will be safe from outside challenges. The paper-thin "explanation" of God testing his people this way is logically ludicrous. It implies that the hypothetical prophets and seers are working under God's control, and God is ordering the deaths of his testers. Also, with passages like these, is it any wonder that Jesus made so many enemies among the priests of his day? This orders a person like Jesus to be 1 - ignored and 2 - killed.

Deu 13:12-18 - If you hear it said about one of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you to live in, that scoundrels from among you have gone out and led the inhabitants of the town astray, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods," whom you have not known, then you shall inquire and make a thorough investigation. If the charge is established that such an abhorrent thing has been done among you, you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it - even putting the livestock to the sword. All of its spoil you shall gather into its public square; then burn the town and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It shall remain a perpetual ruin, never to be rebuilt. Do not let anything dedicated to destruction stick to your hand, so that the LORD may turn from his fierce anger and show you compassion, and from his compassion multiply you, as he swore to your ancestors, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God by keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.
Well what d'you know? God gives standing orders (through Moses) to kill entire towns if they commit the crime of leaving the faith. This includes all babies and old people being killed by the sword. It includes all the animals (evil donkeys, goats, cattle and such!). But what is this fierce anger of God? Does this imply that if the death sentence isn't carried out, God will zap the whole people for the straying of one village? It appears, logically, that if one animal is spared (say an evil, evil chicken), God would do his Sodom & Gommorrah act. But at least, this passage orders an investigation, though if passions were to run high, you could easily get a witch-hunt.

Deu 14:7 - Yet those that chew the cud or have the hoof cleft you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you.
Here we have a strange biology lesson. The hare and rock badger (whatever that is) chew their cud? Not a very likely thing for hares or badgers, is it? See the same sort of passage in Leviticus.

Deu 14:21 - You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
My first reaction to this was "EEEeeeeeewwwwwww!" I'll bet the Israelites made lots of friends selling the carcasses of diseased and old animals to the outsiders that were their neighbors. I'd have thought a decent burial would have been in order... BTW, what's this deal with boiling a kid (baby goat, that is) in its mother's milk? This practice is mentioned a couple of times. Is there a problem?

Deu 15:4-6 - There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the LORD is sure to bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as a possession to occupy. If only you will obey the LORD your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today. When the LORD your God has blessed you, as he promised you, you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
Clever. Give out a couple of tons of laws, so that it will be easier than breathing to forget some detail or other, then promise that complete obedience will result in wealth and power over everyone. So if there are poor people, the priests can say: "It's the fault of those who didn't follow all the laws!" This has been going on for millennia, to this very day! What a scam!

Deu 15:12-18 - If a member of your community, whether a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is sold to you and works for you for six years, in the seventh year, you shall set that person free. And when you send a male slave out from you a free person, you shall not send him out empty-handed. Provide liberally out of your flock, your threshing floor, and your wine press, thus giving to him some of the bounty with which the LORD your God has blessed you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; for this reason I lay this command upon you today. But if he says to you, "I will not go out from you," because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his earlobe into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. You shall do the same with regard to your female slave.

Do not consider it a hardship when you send them out from you free persons; because for six years they have given you services worth the wages of hired laborers; and the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do.
For a book that I've been told is neutral about the issue of slavery (some people even say it condemns it!), I find all these rules about slaves rather confusing. This says that even certain Hebrew people could become slaves, though for a limited time. I have a hard time believing any person could be so happy with being a slave that they'd volunteer for the "permanent slave ceremony" outlined here.

Deu 17:14-20 - When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me," you may indeed set over you a king whom the LORD your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community. Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself, or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the LORD has said to you, "you must never return that way again." And he must not acquire many wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself. When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of the levitical priests. It shall remain with him and he shall read it in all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes, neither exalting himself above the other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.
Sometimes, the irony gets too thick to see through clearly. First, I thought Israel was supposed to look to God as its king (theocracy). The books of Judges and 1 Samuel have more material on this. But what's this about horses? And ordering the king not to have too many wives. Could this possibly indicate that this passage was written long after the fiasco with Solomon? Would Solomon (the most wise) actually read this every day and disobey God's law? Also, what could they possibly mean, telling the king to not exalt himself over other folks? Isn't that what being king MEANS?.

Deu 18:21,22 - You may say to yourself, "How can we recognize a word that the LORD has not spoken?" If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.
If this is an acceptable criterion for determining the credentials of a prophet, or anyone who claims to talk for God, I can hardly wait to see how the guys in the rest of the Bible measure up! Guys like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel Jesus and Paul all said things that have never come to pass. Using this passage, we can call them false prophets!

Deu 20:10-18 - When you draw near to a town to fight against it, offer it terms of peace. If it accepts your terms of peace and surrenders to you, then all the people in it shall serve you at forced labor. If it does not submit to you peacefully, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it; and when the LORD your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword. You may, however, take as your booty the women, the children, livestock, and everything else in the town, as its spoil. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you. Thus, you shall treat all the towns that are very far from you, which are not towns of the nations here. But as for the towns of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. You shall annihilate them - the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites - just as the LORD your God has commanded, so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and thus sin against the LORD your God.
Let's see here. Instructions for obtaining slaves from surrounding enemies. Looting, pillaging and plundering, plus keeping all the females (young and old) for slaves. Scorching the earth of all living things is ordered in "the Promised Land." Yep, these folks were being trained for a life of peace and love! BTW, what was to keep the slaves obtained in battles outside the "Promised Land" from contaminating the beliefs of these holy Hebrews, do you think?

Deu 21:10-14 - When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you and you take them captive, suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman whom you desire and want to marry, and so you bring her home to your house: she shall shave her head, pare her nails, discard her captive's garb, and shall remain in your house a full month, mourning for her mother and father; after that, you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. But if you are not satisfied with her, you shall let her go free and not sell her for money. You must not treat her as a slave, since you dishonored her.
First, I thought Israelites weren't supposed to marry foreigners - they could be led astray! Second, I though it slightly less than humane to give a captured, enslaved, orphaned female only one month to get over it. Of course, outsiders were less than human, so they were probably able to handle it OK. But then, that's it! The honeymoon starts without any ceremony. And if not completely satisfied with the captive bride, just send her on her way! And remember - turning her out dishonors her! Man, they knew how to treat a lady right, back in those days!

Deu 21:18-21 - If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard." Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. So you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel will hear, and be afraid.
Town gates must have been real party spots. Hang around long enough, and someone would come along presently, good for stoning. I've known some parents who would love to implement this law. Somehow, though, modern sensibilities tend to look for less drastic solutions.

Deu 22:28,29 - If a man meets a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are caught in the act, the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the young woman's father, and she shall become his wife. Because he violated her he shall not be permitted to divorce her as long as he lives.
So… a man rapes a virgin and gets caught in the act. His "punishment" is to pay the girl's father some money, and she gets bound to the rapist for life. How can this be considered justice?

Deu 23:12-14 - You shall have a designated area outside the camp to which you shall go. With your utensils you shall have a trowel; when you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig a hole with it and then cover up your excrement. Because the LORD your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.
OK, so doing "business" outside of camp and covering it up is good, sanitary practice. Any camper knows that. But one would think that God would be a little less squeamish about such things. Also, this really makes God look small - travelling with the camp, wanting the camp to be clean, otherwise he won't help with the battles.

Deu 30:11 - Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away.
So God thinks following all these laws isn't too difficult. Sounds like a set-up to me.

Deu 32:39 - See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god beside me. I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand.
Looks like God is "da man"! He kills and he wounds people. Funny, I thought bad things were supposed to be Satan's work. The thing about delivering from his hand, though, is interesting. I think it's one of those verses people use to claim "once saved, always saved."

Deu 34:10 - Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.
Here's that "face to face" thing again. I think the writer must have meant it literally.