Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Deuteronomy, Chapters 11-13

This book is so boring I almost want a mass killing or plague just to break up the monotony.

Chapter 11

Blah blah blah. Left slavery in Egypt. Israel is the land of milk and honey (it's not) if they obey, but god will smite it if they don't.

Chapter 12

An exhortation to destroy the places of worship of the pagans. Then a reminder about tithing and sacrifices in the promised land. They can also slaughter their own animals, and both clean and unclean people can feast on them, but no eating blood! No eating food for the tithe, either, except in the temple. This is repeated. Also, no worshipping other gods. Finally, you have to follow all the laws in the Old Testament forever. Of course Jerry doesn't touch this.

Chapter 13

The Israelites are told not to believe in false prophets, even if their prophesies come to pass. He'll be sending them along periodically as a test, and they are not to follow them, but rather to kill them. See here for an example of this.

If your kids, brothers, half-brothers or wives try to convert you to another religion, you are to kill them immediately by stoning. Jerry even feels the need to point this out in his footnotes to this chapter, which makes me think a theocracy under his direction would resemble the Spanish Inquisition.

If you hear of people worshipping another god in one of your cities, you are to destroy them and their cattle. Then you have to burn everything in the town square and you can't rebuild. This does not bode well for Salt Lake City. Also, Martin Luther, for all he seems like a happy-clappy good guy you'd want to have a beer with now, used this chapter to go after Jewish enclaves, which lowers my opinion of him considerably.

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