Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Leviticus 19

After reading Leviticus 19:

*Here we see Yahweh telling Moses to speak to the Israelites and give them more rules. Some of these have been stated before, so I'll just go over the new ones.
-They are not to reap to the edges of their fields or thoroughly strip the vineyards of grapes, but to leave something for the poor and non-Israelites to gather.
-Do not hold back the wages of a hired man.
-Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind. It's a shame that anyone would have to be told this. Unfortunately, things like that probably happen today.
-Do not pervert justice, judge your neighbor fairly, not based on his social standing.
-Do not endanger your neighbor's life.
-Do not hate your brother in your heart. How would anyone know if you don't tell them?
-Tell your neighbor straight up when he's doing something wrong, so you won't share his guilt.(Verse17)
-Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge, but love your neighbor as yourself.
-Do not mate different kinds of animals. Generally speaking, this is not actually possible, unless we are talking about closely related animals.
-Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. This is monoculture which has advantages and disadvantages.
-Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material. This is a mystifying rule, one broken without compunction throughout the world. I've seen various extra-biblical explanations, but the text does not provide us with one.

*Verses 20-22 are very disturbing. If a man sleeps with a slave girl who was promised to another man, they will not be put to death, because she is just a slave. (Notice that slavery is not said to be wrong, and the woman is treated as an object to be possessed.) The guy has to sacrifice a ram at the tabernacle for a sin offering, then he will be good to go. What will become of the girl? We are not told.

-The fruit of newly planted fruit trees is forbidden to be eaten for three years. On the fourth year, all its fruit is to be given to the priests, um, the lord. That will insure an increase in future harvests. Yeah, riiight. (There is nothing wrong or special about eating any fruit produced by a tree in the first four years. It doesn't do anything to the tree.)
-Do not practice divination or sorcery. You mean like their illustrious ancestor Joseph, who had a special cup for divination? Why doesn't God tell us it is nonsense?
-Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip the edges of your beard. Another mystifying rule.
-No cutting or tattoos.
-Do not make your daughter a prostitute. Duh.
-Do not use mediums or spiritualists. (No seances. Notice we aren't told they are fakes, which they are, of course.)
-Show respect for the elderly.
-Foreigners living among them must not be mistreated, but must be treated as one of their own people.
-Do not use dishonest standards when measuring and weighing in business transactions.

The agriculture rules cannot be enforced until they actually own land. Many of the other rules are only applied to people within the community, as we shall see later.

Edited.

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