Deuteronomy 7-20

7:1-12

For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
7:5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. and
7:16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.
7:17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?
7:18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;
7:19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.
7:20 Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
7:21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible.
7:22 And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.
7:23 But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
7:24 And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.
7:25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.


Wow. This book is getting a bit scary. Way to ram home the point, high priest guy pretending this is written by Moses. Sounds a lot like the Puritans.

In 9:5 we're told that God is not doing this because Israel is special and good, but because the other people are just that awful, God just has to kill them. Thing is, we can't ever know for sure know, since so much of the culture of these conquered people was destroyed.



Deut 10-25

Regarding the rules about women and their periods-and I know this is off topic but now is when I thought of it..

Today, we think of isolation during your period as some kind of horrible punishment. But back then, maybe it came as a relief to women. Women had fewer rights, they didn't always even have the right to decide when they'd have sex. Remember that it's only been about thirty years since wealthy, industrialized nations with democratic leadership agreed that a man forcing sex on his wife still legally counts as rape. But what if there were specific times when GOD and the legal authorities mandated that a woman could not be touched? Someone who had to live every day with concerns over being accosted, groped or forced to have sex when she didn't feel like it and couldn't even get much access to birth control might welcome such a law. She can go and be as hormonal and cranky as
She wants to be without having to put on a falsely hospitable mask, and then she gets to pamper herself with a nice long bath. And you know, men don't know what's going on down there, you could stall him for at least a couple of days extra.

Okay, back to the reading. It's been a week or two since I actually read these chapters, and although I took notes they might not be as complete as I thought. Click the links to view some Brick Testament illustrations!

Deuteronomy 10-15
Chapters 10-15
We are told in this chapter once again, to never eat blood.
13:8-11
And if anyone says "let us go and worship other gods (gods we have not known)…
And if the town falls to worshipping another god, the entire town must be killed. It doesn't say how, but everyone's gotta die.
I'll really trying here, but I just have nothing to say to that.

Deuteronomy 16-20
Chapters 16-20
The king must not have too much gold or take too many wives. First off, didn't they only have a judge at this point? What's with the king talk? Or is Mr. Document Forger forgetting that he's supposed to stay in character? Maybe this is "advice for a future king". It's good advice though and if more kings paid heed to it, maybe other things would work out better too.