An Atheist Explores the Bible Part Fifteen: A miscellany of harsh punishments for weird things (Exodus 21-25)

Exodus 21-25

A miscellany of harsh punishments for weird things.

Exodus 21

“And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished”

Yes folks, don’t beat your servants. Too much. This chapter follows on from the “Ten Commandments” of last chapter, with some refinements of the laws, and punishments for transgressing them. I won’t go into great detail, suffice to say that this covers violence against others, be they your servants or animals or whatever. Also, animals get punished for violence towards humans., as do their owners. Punishments are generally harsh – this is the chapter that gives us “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth” after all. (Also” hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe”). I suspect there’s going to be more rules to come (especially when we get to Leviticus). I may not have much to say overall on these kinds of chapters, but we shall see.

Exodus 22

“If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it; he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep”

Mainly property law in this chapter, not just theft but also more problems with livestock – what happens of your livestock eat your neighbour’s crops, or if you sell him a lame donkey, and various other things. Also tucked away in this chapter – Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, a little verse that has caused a lot of trouble in history, probably because the term “witch” isn’t defined at all so if you are some 17^th century idiot zealot you can use it to mean “woman with opinion”. Also death for bestiality, if you seduce a woman you must marry her, and don’t “vex a stranger”. Finally a mix of rules covering lending money and goods, and also an expansion on rules of sacrifice. A couple of other troublesome verses here amidst some otherwise fairly sensible sounding rules. V 28 “Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.” Not sure about that second part, sounds a bit too much like state censorship to me. Also “Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.” I’m presuming here that offering first-born sons means “offering” in the sense of sanctifying (and probably circumcising) them, and not actually some kind of death and burning sacrifice. Although the fact that Isaac was happy to do so way back when perhaps indicates that once this was a practice. I dunno, maybe been reading The Golden Bough too much.

Exodus 23

“Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Some more laws, mostly to do with keeping circumspect and moderate, which all seem fair enough to be honest. There’s nothing in these ones that seem particularly outdated or unnecessarily cruel. The line about not cooking a kid in its mother’s milk is an odd proscription, but I’m all for ethical foodstuff so I guess I can get behind that.

There are then some guidelines for religious holidays (three per year, what foods to use and so on) and the chapter ends with another iteration of God promising land and conquest to the Israelites, with an angel leading them into lands that are already inhabited by other people., which is all a bit nationalistic, especially as the last couple of verses specifically forbid any kind of covenant with these people in case their other gods prove too much of a temptation.

Exodus 24

“And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.”

This chapter basically covers the Israelites agreeing to Moses’ covenant and the celebrations that ensue. Having written down his laws, Moses again ascends up onto Mount Sinai, which again is covered by a fiery cloud, and stays there for forty days and forty nights (a biblical time period if ever there was one). Now, I thought he’d already done that before so I’m a bit los there why he’s doing it again; perhaps one of those episodes that got accidentally repeated in the compilation, or perhaps we’ll see next chapter.

Exodus 25

“And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.”

More building instructions in this chapter, mainly for the Ark of the Covenant (and really, I can’t be the only person whose mind immediately went to Indiana Jones), but also for some gold bowls and candlesticks (a menorah by the sounds of it) to decorate the altar to God. That’s really about it, there’s nothing on the symbolism of the number of branches of the candlestick or the almond shape and flower decorations of the bowls, maybe that will come later. And yes, as well as thinking of Raiders of the Lost Ark I’m afraid I did snigger at “shittim wood”.  Which is pathetic of me and I’m sorry. Apparently it’s a kind of acacia, in case you wanted to know.