Old Testament Books

"In Deuteronomy 20 and 21, God gives the Israelites a blanket policy for dealing with cities that don’t accept them as overlords: smite the males with the edge of the sword and abduct the cattle, women, and children. Of course, a man with a beautiful new captive faces a problem: since he has just murdered her parents and brothers, she may not be in the mood for love. God anticipates this nuisance and offers the following solution: the captor should shave her head, pare her nails, and imprison her in his house for a month while she cries her eyes out. Then he may go in and rape her. With a designated list of other enemies (Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites), the genocide has to be total: “Thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them ... as the Lord thy God has commanded thee.” Joshua puts this directive into practice when he invades Canaan and sacks the city of Jericho. After the walls came tumbling down, his soldiers “utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.” More earth is scorched as Joshua “smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded.”"

"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: "When you bring an offering to the , bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.""

"If a man commits adultery with another man's wife – with the wife of his neighbor – both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death."

"The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire."

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live."

"You are to slaughter it at the north side of the altar before the , and Aaron’s sons the priests shall splash its blood against the sides of the altar."

"In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!"

"Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly."

"And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin. And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the ; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. And he shall bring them unto the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and wring off his head from his neck, but shall not divide it asunder: And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it is a sin offering."

"In this way the priest will make atonement for them before the , and they will be forgiven for any of the things they did that made them guilty."

"The secret things belong unto the our God."

"He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him."

"He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye."

"And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you."

"Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out."

"Thou shalt 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."

"For I the thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."

"Thou shalt not take the name of the thy God in vain; for the will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

"And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was."

"But let not God speak with us, lest we die."

"I am the thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

"The is a man of war."

"Thy right hand, O , is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O , hath dashed in pieces the enemy."

"I will sing unto the , for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation."

"Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea."

"Would to God we had died by the hand of the in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

"Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the thy God giveth thee."

"Thou shalt do no murder."

"I couldn’t help but go to the Book of Exodus, where it talked about where God said, “If you don’t let my people go, I’m going to cause flies to come as a sign of what’s wrong. But I won’t let the flies be on the people, but the fly will be a symbol that you’re just wrong. You’re lying. Let my people go.”"

"[H]istoricity is not important! What's important is what the text means, what is the text trying to say."

"Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live."

"And he was there with the forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments."

"And the spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend."

"Joshua, the son of Nun."

"Tell them, I AM, Jehovah said To Moses; while earth heard in dread, And, smitten to the heart, At once above, beneath, around, All Nature, without voice or sound, Replied, "O Lord, THOU ART.""

"Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

"A stiffnecked people."

"Jacob’s descendants, the Israelites, find their way to Egypt and become too numerous for the Pharaoh’s liking, so he enslaves them and orders that all the boys be killed at birth. Moses escapes the mass infanticide and grows up to challenge the Pharaoh to let his people go. God, who is omnipotent, could have softened Pharaoh’s heart, but he hardens it instead, which gives him a reason to afflict every Egyptian with painful boils and other miseries before killing every one of their firstborn sons. (The word Passover alludes to the executioner angel’s passing over the households with Israelite firstborns.) God follows this massacre with another one when he drowns the Egyptian army as they pursue the Israelites across the Red Sea. The Israelites assemble at Mount Sinai and hear the Ten Commandments, the great moral code that outlaws engraved images and the coveting of livestock but gives a pass to slavery, rape, torture, mutilation, and genocide of neighboring tribes. The Israelites become impatient while waiting for Moses to return with an expanded set of laws, which will prescribe the death penalty for blasphemy, homosexuality, adultery, talking back to parents, and working on the Sabbath. To pass the time, they worship a statue of a calf, for which the punishment turns out to be, you guessed it, death. Following orders from God, Moses and his brother Aaron kill three thousand of their companions."

"And there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead."

"And they spoiled the Egyptians."

"Who is on the ’s side? let him come unto me."

"Your lamb shall be without blemish."

"And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof."

"And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the ."

"And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the ’s passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the ."

"Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt."

"Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared."

"Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him."