King me

We last saw the Israelites sinking pretty low from deciding to go their own way.

It gets worse.

It gets so bad that even the ark of the covenant (see The Ten Words) is captured by their enemies as booty.

However, the ark acts pretty much like a bad penny to the foreigners who acquired it, and becomes much more trouble than its worth to them (with all the plagues and bad luck that seems to surround it), so it is shipped back to the Israelites who welcome it with open arms.

The ark of the covenant returns

And a rock is erected at the location where the ark returned.

Called the stone of help.

And that is what it means when you "raise your Ebenezer."

Anyway, the first book of Samuel concerns a prophet born to a woman who was having a difficult time getting pregnant.

Barren women and widows giving birth is a dead give-away that the offspring are bound to be involved in something important.

As it happens with Hannah, who although viewed initially as drunk and disorderly, is nevertheless blessed by the judge Eli (whose sons are breaking the rules and eating on the job) and bears Samuel.

Hannah, Eli, and the wee-lil' Samuel

Think about what happened with Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Samson's mother.

And remember that when we get to Elizabeth (John the Baptist's mom) in the New Testament.

After getting sick of going their own way (even the Levites, the sons of Eli, were on the make, taking the fat and meat from the sacrificial offerings to God for themselves), the Israelites decide it was a good idea to have a king appointed over them.

Samuel thinks that's not such a good idea, and tells them that having a human king to reign over them will be a mistake.

Because a human king will basically be an ungrateful leech on society, and will do nothing other than tax and work the people into a pitiable and sorry state.

(Your humble reader's note: Some things never change, do they?)

Anyway, the people don't listen to Samuel, because they're determined to have a king over them.

And God, just somewhat tiffed for being rejected once again by the Israelites, tells Samuel to give the people what they want.

And Saul, the tall and handsome young Benjaminite (the least of the people of Israel, due to all of that hullabaloo with the wayfaring Levite's concubine) is thus annointed as king.

Samuel annoints Saul

Which is where the term to "stand head and sholders over the rest" comes from.

Saul starts out pretty well as a king, and ironically saves the people of the city of Jabesh-gilead.

Ironic, as this is the city that was subjected to herem in order to provide wives for the surviving Benjaminites.  See Losing their religion.

But Saul starts to waiver a bit from the direct path called out by God, and doesn't really fulfill the herem ("utter destruction") called for by God against the Amalekites, and not only spares King Agag, but also keeps the best livestock and all that was valuable.

We've seen that mistake to take devoted things before.  Remember Achan?  See Bloodbath in the Promised Land.

This causes God to look for another to serve as king.

Who turns out to be the youngest son of Jesse.

The sheperd called David.

At the beginning of the relationship, David gets along famously with Saul.  By playing the lyre, David soothes the tormented Saul who is visited by evil spirits sent by God.

Saul also enjoys the success of David in combat.

After all, David is pretty good at chucking rocks.

David and what's left of Goliath

But the relationship sours when the people start favoring David and his abilities, and devolves into a spear dodging contest when Saul grows concerned that David will replace him as the annointed.

Lancing the lyrist

So David goes on the lam hoping things will work themselves out, and actually switches sides to help out the Philistines.

David bailing out of Dodge

Which is also ironic, since David had whupped up on the Philistine Goliath with his sling-shot to prevail in an earlier conflict in the valley of Elah.

Things go from bad to worse for poor old Saul and, since the power of God has left him, he eventually reverts to sorcery and witchcraft for guidance in his final battle.

Saul, the witch of Endor, and the ghost of Samuel

A bad thing, since such behavior is subject to the penalty of death.

Which is what befalls Saul, who takes his own life while being overrun by the Philistines.

The death of Saul

His body is subsequently retrieved and buried by the people of Jabesh-gilead.

The retieval of the dead king Saul's body by the Jabesh-gileadites

Which, again, are the people that Saul saved, even though that city had been subjected to "utter destruction" in order to find wives for the Benjaminites during the time of judges.

Funny how the circle keeps coming back on itself.

Doing the right thing

It’s about time.

Not that the read so far has been unpleasant.

But a breath of fresh air is refreshing.

And that is what the book of Ruth is.

Occurring during the transition between the time of judges and the time of kings.

The story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz.

A bittersweet tale about ordinary people.



Naomi and Ruth

Under pressure.

Acting the way humans should.

And it works out.

Ruth is a story of hope, understanding, loyalty, and perseverance.

Honoring traditional family values that count.

Traditional family values like being generous.

Treating others as equals.

Even if they are widows.

Or foreigners.

Or both.

Which Ruth was.

Providing for the support of those in need.

And how harmless rituals, like “passing the sandal” (I told you it would be something important to remember; see Once more with feeling), can provide a valuable connection to who one is.

Stability.

Consistency.

Roots.

And how love can prevail.

Even in the time of turmoil.

Basic truths of doing the right thing.

Think about it.

The circumstances depicted in Ruth are set nearing the end of the time of judges.

The time of civil war amongst the Israelites.

An ugly, brutal, senseless war.  See Losing their religion.

When the people did what was right in their own eyes.

Yet yearned for someone or something to lead them to a better way.

A better way of living.

And even though the society around them seems to be falling apart, humans can still engage in acts of kindness.

Acts of service.

Acts of goodwill toward others.

Acts of love.

Boaz and Ruth

I like the book of Ruth.

Not because it’s short.

But because it’s to the point.

And it’s what can happen on earth.

When and if people choose to do the right thing.

Which is to love one another.

Anyway, if you’ve been following along, discussing Ruth at this point reveals that I’m reading what is commonly referred to as the “Christian” bible, as it is included within the “Historical” books, instead of the Rabbinic tradition to include it later in the Poetical and Wisdom books.

And, as a Christian, the conclusion of Ruth provides insight that will tie in some important things to consider occurring later in the work.

Such as tracing the lineage.

The roots of the stump of Jesse. 

From Tamar, the widow who posed as a temple prostitute to obtain her promised family in Genesis.  See In the beginning.

To Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute from Jericho who assisted the Israelites spies in the conquest of the Promised Land in Joshua.  See Bloodbath in the Promised Land.

Who was the mother of Boaz.

The husband of Ruth, the Moabite widow.

The mother of Obed.

Which means servant.

The father of Jesse, and the grandfather of David.

One of the first kings of Israel.

Ancestor to another.

The King of kings.

But that’s getting way, way ahead of the story.

Now back to the end of the time of judges.

And on to the histories of the earthly kings of Israel.

Losing their religion

Judges continues the history of the Israelites after Joshua.

It tells of the early period in their history when they were governed by rulers called judges.

And starts off with a fairly gruesome mutilation by the dismemberment of the thumbs and big toes of the Canaanite king Adoni-bezek.

It goes downhill from there.

I must not have read Judges in the past.

Because I sure don’t remember the carnage that is reflected in it.

Sure, I remember the story of Samson.

But I either wasn’t aware of or didn’t appreciate some of the details.

I had a vague recollection that Samson was a nazirite (meaning “one consecrated"), who from birth was to refrain from all things unclean and was not to cut his hair.

But I didn’t realize that killing the lion (and eating honey from its carcass) and touching the jawbone of an ass was unclean.


Now that I've actually read the Pentateuch, I can make the connection.



Samson touching unclean things

And that symbolized the ruler of the Israelites’ natural tendency to violate God’s rules.


Which seems to me to be the point of the book of Judges.

It depicts the loss of morality and faith of the Israelites in a downward spiral of cyclical relapse to the worship of other gods.

Local gods of the indigenous peoples displaced by Joshua’s conquest of the Promised Land, in addition to the gods of the neighboring peoples of the Trans-Jordan.

Peoples including the local Philistines, Canaanites, Sidonians, Hivites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, and Jebusites.

And the neighboring Aramites, Amalekites, Ammonites, Midianites, Maonites, and Moabites.

Many different peoples, with many different gods (including Baal, Astarte, Moloch, Chemosh, and Dagon).

Astarte, concubine of Baal

God (that is Yahweh, the Israelites’ God) determined to preserve those peoples (and their gods) so as to test the faith of the Israelites.

To see whether or not the Chosen People would take care to walk in the way of the LORD.

Unfortunately, the Chosen People’s track record as reflected in Judges is not so good.

As a matter of fact, it’s terrible.

Judges tells the story of repetitive cycles of apostasy and transgression, leading to defeat and subjugation, causing the Israelites to seek repentence and atonement, where God provides a deliverer from those who plundered the Chosen People.

And of how those deliverers are increasingly flawed.

The early judges appear to have been fairly righteous in delivering the Chosen People.

Although a little violent.

Suffice it to say, as shown by the story of Ehud, if a judge comes up and says: “I’ve got a message from God for you,” you might want to start looking for the exit.

And, as shown in the Song of Deborah (viewed by some as the oldest portion of the Bible) celebrating the exploits of Jael wife of Heber the Kenite and the assassination of Sisera, camping with a judge’s messenger can also be a hazardous activity.

Deborah singing her song

A tent peg to the head is a hard way to go.

Jael and Sisera

Integrity with the law begins to slip in the later judges.

Such as the creation of an idol by Gideon/Jerubbaal from Ishmaelite gold to which the people prostituted themselves.

(And, if you’ve been following what has been said about some present day wanna-be leaders and what they say about being called by God to do His work, the tests and signs sought by Gideon weren’t for the fleece to be wet twice, but wet once and dry the second time.

Oh well, right? Big deal.

So what if they got the story wrong. Who cares?

Other than perhaps God.)

Or in the making of oaths by Jephthah, which ends up causing him to sacrifice his virgin daughter.

Jephthah's daughter

Highly ironic since he was delivering the Israelites from the Ammonites, who worshipped Moloch.

And Moloch demanded sacrifice of human children.

Internal conflicts begin to develop within the Chosen People.

Herem (“utter destruction”) moves from application in external wars against foreign peoples and starts to occur in an internal domestic civil war amongst the Israelites.

Which is where the word “Shibboleth” comes from.

Because the Ephraimites couldn’t pronounce the secret word, dropping the initial “h.”

Which gave them away, and they ended up on the edge of the sword from the Gileadites.

Civil disturbance continues with Micah creating an idol from the silver he stole from his mother, which is subsequently stolen and used for worship by the tribe of Dan.

Which, if the second “word” had been considered (that being the second commandment not to make graven idols), would have instead been destroyed.

But the Israelites have gone astray.

All the people did instead what was right in their own eyes.

Which culminates with the story of the wayfaring Levite’s concubine and the tribe of Benjamin.

One of the weirder bible stories of which I had previously been ignorant. 

And it’s a real doozey.

Almost has an “A Rabbi, a Hindu, and a Catholic Priest walk into a bar…” joke ring to it.

But without a funny punch line.

The tribe of Benjamin had become “a perverse lot,” degenerating to the point of roving bands seeking sexual gratification with strangers to their territory, and set upon the house of an old man who had provided hospitality and shelter to a wandering Levite who had been passing through with his concubine in Gibeah.

As did Lot in Sodom, the old man offers his virgin daughter to satisfy the unruly crowd, but to no avail.

So the wayfaring Levite throws his concubine to the mob outside.

Where she is wantonly raped throughout the night by the men of the Tribe of Benjamin, and left to die on the old man’s doorstep the following morning.

The wayfaring Levite and his concubine

And is subsequently dismembered by the wayfaring Levite.

Sending a message

Who thereafter sends the pieces throughout Israel to the Twelve Tribes with this message:

Has such a thing ever happened since the day that the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until this day?

Consider it, take counsel, and speak out.

An out roar ensues, and several more cycles of internal herem are implemented, where most of the house of Benjamin is put to the edge of the sword.

The survivors are cursed by the sworn oath of the remaining tribes never to give their daughters in marriage to a Benjaminite.

They must have forgotten about Jephthah and the problems that can happen with oaths.

Of course, the people immediately regret cutting off one of their own tribes, and try to figure out a way around their oath made in the heat of the moment.

They determine to provide wives for the surviving Benjaminites by devoting to destruction all of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead (who had sat out the herem against the house of Benjamin, and thus had not made any oath) except young virgins, and through the rape of the young women of Shiloh (ironically, the location of prior unity in the initial distribution of the Promised Land to the Twelve Tribes).

The Benjaminites and the virgins of Jabesh-gilead

Clearly, the system of judges to maintain law and order (so to speak) among the Israelites (let alone their holiness) isn’t working.

Maybe they need a king.

Bloodbath in the Promised Land

After God's provision of the Law (the Ten Words and underlying ordinances) in the Pentateuch (the first five books), the Bible enters a collection of books described as the Historical Books.


The first of these books is Joshua.


Which describes the Israelites' entry into the promised land.


And its conquest.


Joshua, as you may recall, was a Benjamite, and was originally named Hoshea until Moses changed it to Joshua.


Hoshea/Joshua was one of the initial spies into the Promised Land under Moses, who along with Caleb reported back that, although they were way outnumbered by humanly superior forces, the Israelites could take the native inhabitants.


Because God was on their side.


Unfortunately, the Israelites lost their nerve based on the reports from the other 10 spies that there was no possible chance of success.


And that ticked God off.


So much so that the "sinful generation" had to die off wandering in the wilderness for forty years until only Joshua and Caleb were left.


And Joshua learned his lesson.


When God says attack, you attack.


Be strong and courageous.


Joshua is shrewd enough to implement some simple rules for success in armed combat.


Which are:

     1) Infiltration and recon;
     2) Use only fearless troops;

Oh, and, most importantly:

     3) Always have God on your side.

The commander of the Army of the LORD appears to Joshua

Prior to bringing that Israelites across the Jordan, Joshua sends out spies to evaluate what they're up against in the Canaanite city called Jericho.

And the spies end up hanging out with a prostitute by the name of Rahab.

Rahab had heard about the way that the Amorites to the east of the Jordan through God's power had been "utterly destroyed."

Which is the Hebrew word "herem" when used as a verb.

Rahab is spared from utter destruction

And she believed in that power, and cuts a deal to help out the spies so long as she and her family escape God's herem.

Herem also can be used as a noun, meaning "devoted thing."

And right before the walls of Jericho come tumbling down, Joshua tells the Israelites to steer clear of the things devoted to God's destruction.

It's God's herem.

Perhaps it was all the marching around and horn blowing for a week, but one of the Israelites couldn't help himself.

Whose name was Achan.

And took some herem for his own from the spoils of Jericho.

Which comes back to haunt the Israelites at the city of Ai.

With the success of Jericho, the Israelites believe that the smaller city of Ai will be a piece of cake, and send in a smaller force in the initial attack.

And is quickly turned back in defeat.

On that day God was not on their side.

Due to the fact Achan had taken some of God's herem.

Achan ultimately confesses, and is thereafter promptly stoned to death for his sin.

The stoning of Achan

And the Israelites learn their lesson to stay away from God's devoted things.

And Ai and all its inhabitants are thereafter put to the edge of the sword and subjected to "utter destruction."

The herem of Ai

Because God is now on the Israelites' side.

The conquest of the Promised Land continues through the southern campaign, and then into the northern campaign, until the indigenous local peoples submit or wind up as herem.

The territory is thereafter split up by lots at a place called Shiloh (ironically, the "House of Peace") and allocated to the Twelve Tribes, which straddle the Jordan with two and a half tribes taking the land of their choice on the east bank. 

And the Israelites proceed into the time of Judges.

Once more, with feeling

Due to the sins and transgressions of the Chosen People, Moses is punished vicariously and cannot join them across the Jordan.

And just when you thought everyone else would be crossing over into the Promised Land, Moses makes some time to give a pep talk to the Israelites and to take a final shot at getting the tribes to accept and follow the rules.

God's rules.

Moses Sees the Promised Land from Afar.

And that is what the Book of Deuteronomy is all about.

The Second Law.

Which is pretty much the same as the first law.

The Ten Words and accompanying ordinances that the Israelites have been presented several times in a variety of different forms throughout Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. 

But Moses wants his people to understand that they won’t get too far without it.

And uses his last chance to embellish the point.

Much of Deuteronomy is reported in the first person.

And provides what one in the future will contend is the first of the two absolute rules upon which all the rest of the law of the prophets is based:

Love the LORD your God
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your might.

If you’ve been following along, you already know what the second absolute rule will be.

It’s in Leviticus.

And it isn’t any of the rules about ritual animal sacrifice.

It’s the one which requires the faithful to love their neighbor as themselves.

Moses also provides several pithy observations:

One does not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

and

Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you,

“Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”

There are also several rules which might at first glance be somewhat obscure.

Rules, for example, regarding execution by hanging, property transfers through intestacy, and fair fighting.

Anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse, and is to be buried the same day.

This might be something useful to remember for further understanding of things that happen later in the Bible.

Inter-spousal marital property transfers are followed by a ritual known as “passing the sandal,” where the succeeding owner takes off their shoes and waves them in the predecessor’s face.

Passing the Sandal

And, for the surviving wife of a marriage without male heirs, if her brother-in-law will not “perform the duty of a husband’s brother,” then she also gets to spit in his face.

Whose name will thereafter be “He who has his shoe untied”.

This might also (believe it or not) be something useful to remember for understanding of things that happen later in the Bible.

As to rules of fair fighting, amputation of the hand is required punishment for any woman who tries to break up a fight between her husband and another man using the technique known in modern times as “the iron claw” (i.e., grabbing the crotch).

Kind of like the Marquis of Queensbury rules.

To the extreme.

Scratching out eyes might be a kosher move, but ladies shouldn’t try anything below the belt.

Because you will be shown no pity if you do.

Not sure if this will be all that useful for further understanding of anything that happens in this Bible.

I can’t see how it will ever come up again.

But one never knows.

As to important things to remember, Deuteronomy, the Second Law, and with it the Pentateuch, the Five Books, concludes with Moses leaving the Chosen People with both blessings and curses.

Their pick.

The blessings of following the rules and obedience to God’s word are peace and prosperity in the Promised Land.

The curses for disobedience and rebellion, are, well, not so good:

The LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit.

Your life shall hang in doubt before you;
Night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life.
In the morning you shall say, “If only it were evening!”
and at evening you shall say, “If only it were morning!”----
because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see.

You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the LORD will lead you.

The choice, according to Moses whom the LORD knew face to face, is simple:

I have set before you today

Life and prosperity
Death and adversity.

Choose life so that you may live.

At the time Deuteronomy was written, there had never arisen a prophet like Moses.

The Death of Moses

Nevertheless, it promises that God will raise up another like him.

We'll see who that might be.