Yahweh as the Ultimate Abuser of Power?

In Job 40, Yahweh continues to berate Job for daring to claim that he doesn't deserve all the bad things that have happened to him.  After his sarcastic "Who's your Daddy?' speech in Job 38-39, Yahweh continues to bully Job.  His argument is that he must be fair because he is powerful.  This is an extremely problematic argument from a modern standpoint inasmuch as it is a might-makes-right argument.  It dovetails with the philosophical thread woven tightly throughout Genesis, that God loves the lucky and hates the unlucky.  Luck and even amoral opportunism are rewarded (cf Jacob), the unlucky are deemed deservedly damned by Yahweh. 

 ⁸ "Would you dare to claim that I am not being fair?
      Would you judge me in order to make yourself seem right?
 ⁹ Is your arm as powerful as mine is?
      Can your voice thunder as mine does? 
 ...
¹² Look at proud people and bring them down.
      Crush those who are evil right where they are.
 ¹³ Bury their bodies in the dust together.
      Cover their faces in the grave.
 ¹⁴ Then I myself will admit to you
      that your own right hand can save you.

Yahweh really gets into his description of the hippo in Job 40:15-24.  Lord love a hippo!  Apparently Yahweh didn't foresee man's development of firearms and other ways to bring the great hippo down.

 ²⁴ Can anyone capture it by its eyes?
      Can anyone trap it and poke a hole through its nose?  

Likewise the "leviathan", which sounds like an enormous whale or shark or Loch Ness Monster type of creature.  It is described as having legs, so perhaps it is a now-extinct plesiosaur, although the legs mentioned may just as well be the flippers of a great whale or shark.

Job 41 is actually pretty funny, the way Yahweh rants on and on about how Job can't hook the leviathan, can't put it on a leash for his young women - lol.  Then he gets mean again.  Power as the ultimate arbiter of right and wrong.

 ⁹ No one can possibly control the leviathan.
      Just looking at it will terrify you.
 ¹⁰ No one dares to wake it up.
      So who can possibly stand up to me?
 ¹¹ Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
      Everything on earth belongs to me. 

I could stomach this if it were some abstraction of Death and Misfortune or Blind Fate, which aren't fair, generally, and which can be hideous bullies.   But from what people are trying to pass of as a beneficent deity?  A fair deity?  Nope, not buying that. 

To top it all off, at the end of Job, in chapter 42 (42!), poor Job apologizes in abject misery and then Yahweh proceeds to tell him and his friends that Job was right all along about him, (that Yahweh is fickle and unfair)!

Job:  ⁶ So I hate myself.
      I'm really sorry for what I said about you.
      That's why I'm sitting in dust and ashes."

Yahweh chews out the friends, tells them they were wrong, and that they should bring a whole load of livestock to get slaughtered  (presumably to atone for their arrogance) but that he will forgive that they were wrong about Him, and Job was right.  After Job prays for his friends, Yahweh makes him *twice* as successful as he was before with more livestock, more children, and his family and community rally around him now that he is no longer seemingly cursed and sick.


I wonder what Job thought after all this.  Yahweh said that he was right about Him after all, that He is unfair.  The friends were wrong that misfortune is necessarily a sign of being damned by Yahweh for sin.  That's progress I guess.  So, gather thee rosebuds while ye may?

Job Just Can't Win

It isn't bad enough that Job gets chewed out by his former friends from the neighborhood, he then gets a young whippersnapper, Elihu, berating him the same way, while claiming to be approaching the problem differently.  In Job 38, Yahweh finally chimes in. He basically gets all up in Job's grill with a big, "Who's your Daddy?" speech. 

¹² “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
   or shown the dawn its place,
¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges
   and shake the wicked out of it?

We've seen plenty of Biblical patriarchs and matriarchs express sarcasm, but Yahweh gets some sarcasm in here too.

9 “What is the way to the abode of light?
   And where does darkness reside?
²⁰ Can you take them to their places?
   Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
²¹ Surely you know, for you were already born!
   You have lived so many years!

Nice job, Yahweh!

Complaints and Monogamy in Job

Job really knows how to complain and yet insists he is sinless.  I'm guessing that complaining is not a sin in his religion.  Given what he's been through, he certainly has a right to complain, especially since he thinks that Yahweh is supposed to reward the righteous and punish the wicked only.  As noted previously, this amounts to judging people to a great extent based on their luck.  Modern secular people know that virtuous people can be unlucky and wicked ones lucky.  No matter how much wishful thinking anyone may have about the afterlife, this remains true during life.


In Job 31:7-12, Job makes the case for his being a faithful, sinless husband.  He claims a pretty strict loyalty in 31:9-10.

"Suppose my heart has been tempted by a woman.  Or suppose I've prowled around my neighbor's door.   ¹⁰ Then may my wife grind another man's grain.  May other men have sex with her."  

In Job's estimation, even wanting a woman other than his wife is worthy of punishment.  

¹¹ Wanting another woman would have been a shameful thing.
      It would have been a sin that should be judged.
 ¹² It's like a fire that burns down to the grave.
      It would have caused my crops to be pulled up by the roots.

A litany of punishment-worthy sins is pronounced, followed by Job's assertion that he is guilty of none of them.  He helps his disgruntled servants, widows, the poor, and fatherless children.  He doesn't worship gold or wealth, nor does he worship the sun or the moon, beautiful and powerful though they are. Job 31:26-27

²⁶ Suppose I've worshiped the sun in all of its glory.
      I've bowed down to the moon in all of its beauty.
 ²⁷ My heart has been secretly tempted.
      My hand has thrown kisses to the sun and moon.

He claims his didn't gloat when bad things happened to his enemies, and yet much of Job is concerned with detailing the awful things that allegedly happen to those who are "wicked", or conversely, how those who are unfortunate must be wicked since Yahweh only rewards the good.

Calling out for more misfortune to befall him should he be guilty of any of the many sins he enumerates, he sounds like a desperate lunatic who protests too much.  He has already lost it all, his friends have accused him of being greedy and unhelpful, and he is very ill.  It's not clear whether he is looking to clear his name with those who already consider him guilty, or whether he is just so far gone that he is ranting and raving, trying to understand what has happened and perhaps, in a last ditch effort to Yahweh, to vindicate himself.

Yahweh as Protector of the Lucky

The so-called "friends" of Job tell him to quit complaining and accept that, if he is suffering, he must have done something evil.  The proof?  Unlucky, wretched people are clearly unloved by Yahweh, and therefore they must be wicked.  This is a big problem in old Judaism, in Hinduism, in Chinese Confucianism and even Buddhism.  If someone is unfortunate, sick, or mentally ill, these religions can interpret this as meaning that God is punishing them for some essential wrong.  Poor Job.  At least he tells them where to get off. 

Job

Job certainly has a right to complain.  He shows that you can be a righteous complainer - a quintessential Jewish quality.  Eliphaz, his erstwhile friend, tries to shut him up.  It doesn't make their God look very good that a supposedly righteous person has been so shit upon by Fate.  Eliphaz tries to suggest that Job must have sinned, must have done something wrong to deserve his ill-fortune.  Job is just beside himself with grief and pain and just wants to die.  He does state that those who die do not come back.  They disappear and are never seen again.  This is apparently not at odds with Jewish belief of the time.  Job even states that because life is ephemeral and the dead do not return, this is precisely why he has a right to complain (Job7:9-11).

There is a lot of indignation and a great sense of the futility of life, which is understandable given Job's appalling losses and pain.  The shocking thing is that this story starts with Yahweh allowing Job to be set upon by Satan ("the Adversary") so as to prove that Job is loyal to Yahweh.  Job doesn't deny Yahweh's power (how could he?) but he has to be doubting his beneficence, especially when his friends suggest that he must have deserved it.  Otherwise how could a beneficent God have allowed it to happen to a righteous man?

Genesis 37 - 41

The Bible takes care to give the genealogy of both Ishmael and Esau (father of the Edomites).  Interestingly, one of Esau's wives, Bashemath, is Ishmael's daughter.  The Ishmaelites are noted as being people who drive camel caravans into and out of Egypt to trade spices and fragrance, much as the latter-day Arabs.

Motherhood in Genesis.  Rebecca's conniving and trickery for her favorite, Jacob's benefit is not seem as being wrong.   Leah sees her bearing of sons as a way to win her husband's heart, but it doesn't work.  Rachel experiences infertility early on and, desperate for children, tells Jacob to give them to her "lest I die".  She finally does have two sons, but dies giving birth to the second, Joseph.

Joseph's brothers, other than Reuben and Benjamin, appear to be jealous, vindictive, murderous scumbags.  (Genesis 37)

Genesis 38 - Judah marries a Canaanite woman and has Onan, who doesn't want to ejaculate in his dead brother's wife as suggested by his Dad.  Yahweh didn't like this so he killed Onan.  Supposedly the brother, Er, was wicked and so Yahweh killed him.  Er's wife, Tamar, was promised a third son as husband, but it didn't happen, so she dressed up as a prostitute and got her father-in-law, Judah, to screw her for a young goat so that she could get pregnant!  Judah didn't recognize her and gave her his signet and rod as surety for the goat but when he went to deliver the goat, she had disappeared.  Later, when it was revealed that Tamar the widow, his daughter-in-law, was pregnant, he called for her to be burned!  I assume this is the earliest mention of a proposed honor killing in the Bible.  When she brought out his signet, cord and staff, he realized that he was wrong not to marry her off to the third son as promised.  Honor killing averted!  She gave birth to his progeny.  Tamar's tribal affiliation is not mentioned, but maybe this is a way around having Judah's progeny descended from Canaanites.

Joseph seems to be the only really decent person so far in the Bible.  He works hard, refuses to screw Potiphar's wife out of loyalty to his boss, helps his fellow prisoners, has a creative, practical mind, and makes wise decisions on saving grain for a rainy day.

Angels, Honor and One God

Who are the angels of God?  They're around since the very beginning since they point the way out of the Garden of Eden.  These are minions of Yahweh?  The Sodomites wanted to rape them.  They must be beautiful. 

Jacob is quite the strategist.   In Genesis 32 he devises an elaborate show to appease Esau upon his return with presents, but still arranges a worst-case-scenario in case it fails.  He wrestles all night with some man (a dream?) who renames his Israel in the morning, for 'he has struggled with God and men and prevailed'.   It is never stated that the man was Yahweh, but Jacob believed that he was.  The man touched his hip socket, and this is given as the reason why Jews don't eat the muscle from the hip socket in an animal.    After meeting Esau (who is a genuinely nice guy) with much self-deprecation and servility, Jacob goes to Succoth and makes booths for his animals. This must be the origin of the holiday?

Dinah and Family Honor

Leah's daughter, Dinah was seduced by Shechem.  There's no indication it was actually a rape, and the man and his father did propose marriage and invite Jacob and his people to settle in the land and intermarry with them.  Dinah's brothers Simeon and Levi told them that they would do so if all the men would get circumcised.  They did, and on the third day when then were healing, Simeon and Levi went into the town, killed all the males, took the women and children captive, and looted the place.  Jacob rebuked them saying that now all the locals would be angry with him and mistrust him.  It's interesting that the response to the perceived violation was revenge on the perpetrator, as one would find in European chivalric culture, and not on the woman herself as you find in the Arab culture of honor killing.  Also, only her full brothers felt the need to respond this violently and deceitfully to the(ir) perception that their sister had been made into a whore. 

Purification and Monotheism

In Genesis 35, Jacob is scared of the locals and needs to start anew.  He gets a call from Yahweh to go back to BethEl and he admonishes his people to

“Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.  Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”  So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.

At BethEl, Yahweh talks to him directly, re-naming him Israel and renewing the promises he had made to Abraham and Isaac before him.  

Craftiness Rewarded

Jacob/Israel is one crafty character.  First he figures out how to steal his brother Esau's birthright by exploiting Esau's inordinate hunger.  Then we see where he gets it from - his mother, Rebecca, shows him how to fool his father into stealing his father's blessing by pretending to be Esau.  Jacob tricks his father Isaac into thinking he is Esau by wearing Esau's clothes, putting fur on his neck (since Esau is hairy) and feeding him a stew made by his mother.  This subterfuge is perpetrated shamelessly by Jacob and Rebecca in the belief that Isaac's blessing has some real meaning.

Laban, Rebecca's brother, gets Jacob to serve him for seven years to marry his first cousin Rachel, and then tricks him into marrying her sister Leah instead.  Then he tells Jacob to serve another seven years for Rachel, and after that continues to try and string him along since Jacob seems to know what he is doing with livestock production.

In Genesis 30:25-43 Jacob returns his uncle Laban's craftiness using his knowledge of livestock breeding.  He devises a plan whereby it seems that he is choosing the undesirable livestock when in reality the outcome is that he gets the bulk of the livestock, while the weak ones get sent back to Laban to breed.  Later he tells Leah and Rachel than an angel of Yahweh told him that this was Yahweh's way of getting back at Laban for deceiving Jacob. When Jacob realizes that Laban (and his sons) must be angry at him, he decides to run away with his wives and all their animals.  Rachel decides to secretly steal her Dad's family idols before they leave, and she doesn't tell anyone about it.

When Jacob and Laban finally make amends and agree on a covenant over a heap of stones, Jacob swears "by the Fear of his father Isaac."  I guess he should fear his father's revenge since he  bamboozled his Dad as he lay dying, huh?

Human trickery and divine retribution all over the place.

Evolution of the Human Spirit

In trying to come to terms with the primitivism of Genesis, it occurs to me that its primitivism may be the point.  The Bible chronicles a history of humanity, hopefully the evolution of our kind.  Incest and shameless opportunism are atavistic traits, as are human sacrifice and miscegenation laws.  Jacob's dream of the angels going up and down ladders (Gen.28:12) suggest humanity's ascent and descent through the ages. 

Why Yahweh keeps telling these guys that all the families of the earth shall be blessed through their seed I don't know.  Is he simply saying that his seed will co-mingle with all of the families of the earth?  This doesn't seem to be so insomuch as there is a strong tendency against miscegenation throughout the biblical narrative.   Is he saying that they will be happy or prosperous?  Clearly not when you look at what happens to these people.  Maybe he is saying that the people of the earth will benefit as their lives will be improved through the efforts of his descendants.  Not that the descendants themselves will be happy or prosper, but that they will have this land and influence others in a positive way.  That seems a much more likely interpretation.  The descendants of Jacob/Israel will bless the families of the earth through tikkun olam -  תיקון עולם

Weird Family Relations and Ruthless Opportunism Rewarded in Genesis

Never mind Lot being made drunk and seduced by his daughters - what's with all this pretending that your wife is your sister?  We know that Abraham and Sarah are first cousins, as are Isaac and Rebecca. Jacob, Leah and Rachel are first cousins, as are Esau and his wife Mahalath (Ishmael's daughter). That's a little unsavory to the Western mind, but completely normal in Semitic, and modern Arab culture.  In Slavic culture first cousins are also called sisters and brothers.  This story of pretending that the sister is the wife has occurred three times so far - twice with Abraham and Sarah, and now once with Isaac and Rebecca.  Are these guys cowards? Or are the locals so barbaric that they would indeed kill the husband to get the wife?  In each case the locals turn out to be not so barbaric, but so traditional and superstitious that they express moral outrage upon finding out that the couple is really husband and wife.  Strange.

The episode of Jacob and Rebecca conniving against Isaac and Esau is pretty unsettling too.  This is the behavior of patriarchs and matriarchs to be admired? Deliberately lying and cheating because you feel entitled to a "blessing" which says that others should serve you?  I fail to see anything positive or redeeming in Jacob/Israel.  He's the prototype of the ruthless opportunist who is willing to stab in the back those close to him so that he can get ahead.  He behaves like a walrus or gorilla, not an evolved human.  (Genesis 27)

Rebecca's kvetching about her Hittite daughters-in-law is pretty amusing.  Gen.27:46: "And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

Haggling with Yahweh - Comedy routine

This Yahweh is one weird character.  In Genesis 18:17 he wonders aloud whether he should tell Abraham what he is up to regarding the destruction of Sodom.  He finally decides to, noting that there have been complaints about Sodom that have come to him.  Then in Gen18:23-33 Abraham proceeds to argue and haggle with Yahweh to bring down the number of righteous people found to Sodom necessary to spare it from 50 to 10.  While doing it, Abraham engages in some obligatory kowtowing, but the idea that one can negotiate with God, an ostensibly omnipotent being, is firmly established in this anecdote.  Even in the New King James version, it's a pretty funny story.

¹⁶ Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on the way. ¹⁷ And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, ¹⁸ since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? ¹⁹ For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.” ²⁰ And the LORD said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, ²¹ I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”

 ²² Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD. ²³ And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? ²⁵ Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 

²⁶ So the LORD said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”
²⁷ Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: ²⁸ Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?”
So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”
²⁹ And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose there should be forty found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it for the sake of forty.”
³⁰ Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Suppose thirty should be found there?”
So He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”
³¹ And he said, “Indeed now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose twenty should be found there?”
So He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.”
³² Then he said, “Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?”
And He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.” ³³ So the LORD went His way as soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.

Ba dum bump.

Yahweh the Jerk, Noah the Drunk, Peoples of the Earth

Genesis 8  -  10

Yahweh told Noah to take seven pairs of every "clean" animal, two pairs of "unclean" animals and seven pairs of ever type of bird.  So there were kosher laws before Moses? Guess so.

The dates and chronologies are so convoluted that I suspect that these priests were out of baffle 'em with bullshit - either that, or some storyteller just went apeshit rattling off random numbers in a trance.  Granted, special attention is given to 7 and 40, and we know how numerology is tied up with the Hebrew alphabet.   

Yahweh the Jerk

I really do have a problem with this punitive god, Yahweh/Elohim.  Kill everyone and all the animals because of man's vague crimes?  That's one elemental volcano god, there.  Only after the flood does Yahweh tell Noah that he and his family can now eat animals, and that all creatures will fear him.   Noah is told that he can now eat meat, but only with the blood drained out, presaging the kosher laws.  Then Yahweh launches into some blood feud code, reminding Noah, essentially, an eye for an eye when it comes to human murder.  I guess he didn't realize that this wouldn't work as a deterrent.  The silver lining?  He won't kill everything and everyone again *by flood*. (No mention of asteroids or thermonuclear war though.)  And to seal his pact, a pretty rainbow.   How sweet.

Noah the Drunk

Noah drinks a bit.  He drinks so much that his sons find him spread out trashed and naked in his tent.  Because his son Ham had the misfortune to find him and to tell his two other brothers what was going on, Ham get crapped on big time when Noah wakes up.  The message is that kids are supposed to keep quiet about their parents' foibles, not effect an intervention.

Peoples of the Earth

Genesis 10 provides a list of the descendants of Noah's sons.  Japheth's sons became the coastland gentiles who moved inland (some equate this with the Indo-Europeans); Ham's sons became the people of east Africa, Babylon and the Philistines, Israel's perennial enemy; and Shem's sons include Elam (of the Elamites?) and I'm guessing the bloodline of Israel.

Notes on Genesis 2 - 6

I tried to find some consistency in the usage of Elohim (Elah/Alah-him - plural? gods?) and the use of YHVH/Yahweh/Jehovah in these passages. Elohim is clearly the elemental creator in Gen.1 and then Elohim Yahweh (together) speaks to in and ejects Man/Adam from the garden in 2-4.

By the time we get to Gen 4 and the Cain and Abel story, inconsistencies start occurring. Yahweh alone (translated as Adonai - Lord in the Hebrew version) either doesn't respect or doesn't heed or doesn't make a fuss about Cain's vegetable offering. Depending on the translation, Yahweh appears to be chiding or consoling with Cain. Is Yahweh being some weirdo who doesn't appreciate grain offerings or did he just overlook the grain since Abel's fat little lambs were just so awesome? My guess is that the priestly class wanted the people to know that they prefer meat offerings to grain and so this story. Otherwise, what's the message? Yahweh says, "Work hard and good things will happen to you - meaning what? Cain didn't work hard?

Cain's fratricidal response is in reaction to feeling unappreciated by Yahweh, who could be seen as a punishing, judgmental father figure who threw his parents out of paradise for disobeying authority, for daring to think and act for themselves. It isn't hard to see where Freud drew some of his ideas (speaking of Freud, I also suspect he lifted some from Dostoevsky - but that would be the subject of a thesis).

One could certainly be more abstract about the whole thing and say that the scene in the garden of Eden reflects humanity's essential urge towards duality and distinctions, or be moralistic and say that man will cleave to his impulses. How one interprets those impulses can make for very different story lines. You can say that humanity is weak and will obey its animal impulses and succumb to its appetites and curiosities despite being told (knowing?) what they should do. Is our essential humanity one of instinct that should obey (and often does obey) external authority and power? How is this different from animals that bow to power? Actually the more we learn about the animal world, the more we find that animals, like humans, don't all follow one pattern of behavior either, even within a species. There are animal geniuses, rebels, empaths and lunatics too.

Are our instincts a type of base authority that should be rejected so as to see ourselves as separate from the rest of the world, so as to struggle with duality and diversity and discover for ourselves the meaning of Life? The meaning of these stories is very unclear, which is what makes them so ripe for interpretation - and abuse.

One translation issue I found in these passages was diametrically opposing translations of Gen. 4:23. This is where Lamech, Cain's great-great-great-grandson, reveals that he has killed a man and a child, but it is not clear whether the passage is telling you how he did it, or why he did it. 
The New King James translates is as

“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech!
For I have killed a man for wounding me,
Even a young man for hurting me."

The New International version (2010), which one would assume has the latest in scholarship, has the same as the New King James, above.   Both suggest that Lamech's murders were acts of retribution.

The regular King James has "to my wounding" and "to my hurting" since the Hebrew preposition used is L', meaning "to" (as in L'Chaim).  This is the most neutral (and precise) translation since there doesn't seem to be consensus on the actual meaning.

The Hebrew version here translates this passage as

"Lemekh said to his wives, 'Adah and Tzillah, hear my voice; wives of Lemekh, listen to my speech. I have killed a man by wounding [him], and a child by bruising [him]."

The Stone Chumash, which is used by Orthodox Jews, has "Have I slain a man by my wound and a child by my bruise?" and includes a footnote with a bizarre story from the medieval Biblical scholar Rashi, which purports to fill in the blanks on this story.  It relates that Lamech was blind and while he was out hunting with his son, his son thought he saw an animal in the bushes and told his blind father to shoot it. It turns out the animal was Lamech's great-great-great grandfather Cain and that he was wounded to death by mistake.  When Lamech found out that he had mistakenly murdered Cain, he beat his son to death.  Then Lamech claims that since Cain's punishment was delayed until the 7th generation (although I think it was the 6th), he will be safe since whoever murders him will receive 77-fold vengeance.  Just crazy shit.

I'm reading this stuff because I think a culturally literate person should be familiar with this material, but it shocks me to no end that people really try to live their lives by such an arbitrary, and often ethically reprehensible document.

Genesis 1

I.

In the beginning: Creation. The black cave of the night enclosed us, and vague shadows, a dream of clouds, loomed. Goodness loomed and caressed the wet abyss.

Good willed the Light! Our eyes were open to the pearl of dawn which shone and mirrored Good. Black and White, Day and Night, the dawn of discernment, the very First Day.

The rift was wide and would be wider so Goodness reached away to make the Sky. A sky to split the liquid source. The Seas below and those above, the Seas of Space, the outer reaches, Heaven. A Second Day for us to fathom Heaven.

Then Goodness split the watery mass and out came land, land called Earth as separate from the Seas. And it was Good. Seeds sprouted grass and trees bore fruit. A legacy of plant life flourished. And yes, and yes, and yes, it was Good. Day Three.

"Let us plant the sky with lights, with signs that sparkle and mark the passing of time." So the light of day, the Sun, was placed, as was that of night, the Moon and many stars, into the far-flung Sky. The Sun will guide the day and Moon the night and they will mark the divide of dark and light. Goodness in the Fourth Day.

Creatures of the seas - watery beasts and winged fowl that fly into the sky - these were allowed to breathe and be upon the waters and vapors of the earth, created and counseled to breed, bring forth their kinds to populate the Earth. Again, it was Good. The Fifth Day.

On the next day all the creatures of the land were formed. Cattle and creeping creatures that would live upon the soil, sucking up the grass and seed. Oh, it was Good.

Then Goodness sought to mold an image of itself, its kind - one to guide the fish, the birds, the cattle of the Earth. And so they were created - lad and lass, in Good's image blessed to foster fruit and spread their seed throughout the land, told to guide the beasts on land and sea and in the air, told to lead and fill the Earth with Life.

The lad and lass were shown what they would eat - leaves and seeds and grains and roots and fruit. This food was both for them and for the fish and lark and cow. The food was good, creation good, it all was Good. The Sixth Day.