After reading chapter 12:
*Meanwhile, the men of the tribe of Ephraim crossed the Jordan over to where Jephthah was. They were offended at not being asked to go with the people of Gilead to fight the Ammonites, and they threatened to burn down Jephthah's house. Jephthah claimed that he did call for help, even though the bible doesn't mention it, but they didn't come. So he had to take matters into his own hands. Why did they come to fight him? A good question. Why would you pick a fight with your allies?
*Jephthah and his men fought the men of Ephraim because the Ephraimites called them renegades. Jephthah also devised a test to keep any of the Ephraimite survivors from crossing back over the Jordan. They took control of the fording places and questioned crossers. Are you an Ephraimite? If they said no, they were required to say the word "Shibboleth," which was apparently difficult for an Ephraimite to pronounce. If he had trouble pronouncing it, he was killed. 42,000 Ephraimites were killed.
*Jephthah led Israel for six years. Wasn't Ephraim part of Israel? Then he died. Next, Ibzan of Bethlehem led Israel. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters. He gave his daughters away in marriage and took thirty young women into the clan as wives for his sons. He led Izrael 7 years then died. Next was Elon the Zebulunite who led for 10 years. After that, Abdon, an Ephraimite, led Israel. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons. Gee, everyone has nice even numbers of children and obviously multiple wives. Abdon led Israel for 8 years. Then he died.
Showing posts with label Jordan River. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jordan River. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Friday, March 18, 2016
Joshua chapter 4
After reading chapter 4:
*The whole nation of Israel has finished crossing the Jordan and they are again told to pick twelve men, one from each tribe. This time they are told why. The men are commanded to go back to the middle of the river, where the priests are still standing with the ark, and each pick up a large stone. They are to bring the stones back to their camp. The stones are to be a memorial of the river crossing. Joshua took the stones and set them up. Supposedly, they were still there at the writing of this book, which would have been hundreds of years later.
*The priests stayed in the middle of the river till all the Israelites were out. Then they took the ark to the other side while everyone was watching. As an aside we are told that 40,000 armed men of the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Mannasseh had also crossed. Plus, Yahweh exalted Joshua and he became just as revered to the Israelites as Moses had been. Do you remember that Moses had been downright hated at times? The author of Joshua doesn't seem to remember.
*Again, we are told that the priests came out of the river with the ark. There are so many redundancies in scriptures, many in odd places, that it is becoming easy to understand why many scholars think that they were composed by multiple authors and kind of smooshed together. Anyway, as soon as the priests set their feet on dry ground (Wait. We had been told that the river bed was dry ground while the priests had the ark there. ) the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, at flood stage as before. Except now, the floods should have raged out of control after being held up for long enough to let hundreds of thousands of people pass. Apparently this was a peaceful flood.
* On the tenth day of the first month (the day the passover lamb was to be selected, Exodus 12:3) the people went up from the Jordan. They had to go up because the Jordan is in a Rift Valley. They camped at Gilgal on the east side of Jericho. The Wikipedia article on Gilgal is very interesting. Essentially, it is not clear where this may have been. Again we are told Joshua set up the twelve stones, but now it appears they were set up at Gilgal. Again, the Israelites are told what the stones mean: Yahweh did to the Jordan what he did to the Red Sea. According to the Gilgal article, this story may be the author's attempt to explain a Neolithic stone circle.
*The whole nation of Israel has finished crossing the Jordan and they are again told to pick twelve men, one from each tribe. This time they are told why. The men are commanded to go back to the middle of the river, where the priests are still standing with the ark, and each pick up a large stone. They are to bring the stones back to their camp. The stones are to be a memorial of the river crossing. Joshua took the stones and set them up. Supposedly, they were still there at the writing of this book, which would have been hundreds of years later.
*The priests stayed in the middle of the river till all the Israelites were out. Then they took the ark to the other side while everyone was watching. As an aside we are told that 40,000 armed men of the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Mannasseh had also crossed. Plus, Yahweh exalted Joshua and he became just as revered to the Israelites as Moses had been. Do you remember that Moses had been downright hated at times? The author of Joshua doesn't seem to remember.
*Again, we are told that the priests came out of the river with the ark. There are so many redundancies in scriptures, many in odd places, that it is becoming easy to understand why many scholars think that they were composed by multiple authors and kind of smooshed together. Anyway, as soon as the priests set their feet on dry ground (Wait. We had been told that the river bed was dry ground while the priests had the ark there. ) the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, at flood stage as before. Except now, the floods should have raged out of control after being held up for long enough to let hundreds of thousands of people pass. Apparently this was a peaceful flood.
* On the tenth day of the first month (the day the passover lamb was to be selected, Exodus 12:3) the people went up from the Jordan. They had to go up because the Jordan is in a Rift Valley. They camped at Gilgal on the east side of Jericho. The Wikipedia article on Gilgal is very interesting. Essentially, it is not clear where this may have been. Again we are told Joshua set up the twelve stones, but now it appears they were set up at Gilgal. Again, the Israelites are told what the stones mean: Yahweh did to the Jordan what he did to the Red Sea. According to the Gilgal article, this story may be the author's attempt to explain a Neolithic stone circle.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Joshua chapter 3
After reading chapter 3:
*The morning after the spies reported to Joshua, the Israelites that were going to cross the Jordon moved to camp by the Jordan river. Remember, we are talking about at least a million people. After they had been camped for three days, Joshua walked among the people giving them instructions. When they saw the priests carrying the ark of the covenant they were to follow in a proscribed order, probably that given back in Numbers chapter 2. However, they were to stay 2,000 cubits back from the ark, which is about half a mile! Think about it. How easy is it to see people half a mile away? Can you see what they are carrying or doing, hear what they are saying? It would partly depend on the terrain and the vegetation, wouldn't it? You can read about the geography surrounding the Jordan River here and here. As far as I can determine, the Jordon River itself is currently a little over half a mile wide at its widest point and could have been up to a mile wide in antiquity. The river is in a depression in the Jordon Rift Valley.
*Joshua promises that Yahweh will do amazing things. Then he tells the priests to take the ark, go to the river and stand in the water. After that, he tells the Israelites they will know God is with them when they are able to drive the previous inhabitants out of the land. Then they are told to choose twelve men, one from each tribe, but we are not told why. As soon as the priests with the ark will set foot in the water, the flow will cease and the water will pile up in a heap.
*The priests and the people did what Joshua said. Supposedly, the river was at flood stage, but as soon as the priest's feet touched the water, it stopped flowing and piled up in a heap "a great distance away" near Zarethan, which was apparently about 30 miles away from the crossing near Jericho. All those people then crossed over on dry ground while the priests with the ark stood firmly in the middle of dry river bed. So how did the all the people cross and maintain the required half mile distance from the ark? How did the river bed dry so quickly? However they did it, we are told everyone got across safely. By that time the heap of flood waters near Zarethan must have reached incredible hieghts. I wonder if anyone in that vicinity noticed?
*Can you see the resemblance of this story to the crossing of the Red Sea back in Exodus 14? This time, however, they are not being chased, they are on the attack. The two crossings are like bookends to the time in the desert.
*The morning after the spies reported to Joshua, the Israelites that were going to cross the Jordon moved to camp by the Jordan river. Remember, we are talking about at least a million people. After they had been camped for three days, Joshua walked among the people giving them instructions. When they saw the priests carrying the ark of the covenant they were to follow in a proscribed order, probably that given back in Numbers chapter 2. However, they were to stay 2,000 cubits back from the ark, which is about half a mile! Think about it. How easy is it to see people half a mile away? Can you see what they are carrying or doing, hear what they are saying? It would partly depend on the terrain and the vegetation, wouldn't it? You can read about the geography surrounding the Jordan River here and here. As far as I can determine, the Jordon River itself is currently a little over half a mile wide at its widest point and could have been up to a mile wide in antiquity. The river is in a depression in the Jordon Rift Valley.
*Joshua promises that Yahweh will do amazing things. Then he tells the priests to take the ark, go to the river and stand in the water. After that, he tells the Israelites they will know God is with them when they are able to drive the previous inhabitants out of the land. Then they are told to choose twelve men, one from each tribe, but we are not told why. As soon as the priests with the ark will set foot in the water, the flow will cease and the water will pile up in a heap.
*The priests and the people did what Joshua said. Supposedly, the river was at flood stage, but as soon as the priest's feet touched the water, it stopped flowing and piled up in a heap "a great distance away" near Zarethan, which was apparently about 30 miles away from the crossing near Jericho. All those people then crossed over on dry ground while the priests with the ark stood firmly in the middle of dry river bed. So how did the all the people cross and maintain the required half mile distance from the ark? How did the river bed dry so quickly? However they did it, we are told everyone got across safely. By that time the heap of flood waters near Zarethan must have reached incredible hieghts. I wonder if anyone in that vicinity noticed?
*Can you see the resemblance of this story to the crossing of the Red Sea back in Exodus 14? This time, however, they are not being chased, they are on the attack. The two crossings are like bookends to the time in the desert.
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