Judges chapter 1

After reading chapter 1:

*After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked Yahweh which tribe should continue the fighting. Yahweh chose the tribe of Judah. Who was Yahweh speaking through now? We are not told, but presumably it was the current high priest, Phineas. The men of Judah invited the Simeonites to accompany them.  Together they killed ten thousand men. They captured the king of Bezek and cut off his thumbs and big toes. The king viewed this as a kind of divine Karma, because he had done the same thing to 70 other kings.

*Next, they attacked Jerusalem, slaughtered its inhabitants, and burned the city to the ground. Then we are told they attacked Canaanites living in Hebron and Debir, which had already been totally conquered in Joshua chapter 10! We are also retold the story of Caleb's daughter marrying Othniel, the conqueror of Debir. We are also retold the story of her asking for land with springs of water from Joshua chapter 15. Only this time it all happens after the death of Joshua, not before!

*The Judahites and Simeonites, with the help of Yahweh, went on conquering Canaanites and took Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron. (History says these Canaanite cities were actually conquered by the Philistines or the sea people.) They also took possession of the hill country, which appears redundant because Joshua is said to have done the same thing in Joshua chapter 11. Again, we are told they could not conquer the people of the plains because they had iron chariots. Foiled again, Yahweh!

*Caleb was given Hebron and drove three sons of Anak from it.The sons of Anak, or Anakim, are interesting fellows. They are considered to be Giants. Also, Numbers 13 says they are descendants of the Nephilim, introduced in Genesis 6. The big question is how did they survive the flood?

*The Benjaminites could not drive out the Jebusites. Manasseh could not drive out four tribes that were determined to live in that land. Ephraim could not completely drive out Canaanites living in Gezer. Zebulon could not drive out Canaanites living in Kitron nor Nahalol. Asher could not drive out 7 tribes of Canaanites living in "his" land, so he just had to live with them. Naphtali could not drive out two tribes. The Amorites  confined the tribe of Dan to the hill country and wouldn't let them come down into the plain. Sounds like Yahweh's powers either waned or experienced limitations. It is quite clear that the Israelites did not completely control the land of Cannan, no matter how you look at it. Nevertheless, this chapter insists that the Israelite tribes grew stronger and eventually subjected these pesky leftover Canaanites to forced labor. Yeah, right.

Genesis chapter 6

After reading chapter 6:

* According to Ussher's chronology, Noah would have been of the tenth generation from Adam, born about 2,950 B.C.E. 

*In the 3rd millenium, world population is estimated to have been about 30 million. Before and during Noah's supposed lifetime of about 950 years (Gen. 9:29) , history records civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, and more. 

*Who were the sons of God?  Depending who you ask, they were angels or God-fearing  humans. They couldn't be other gods, could they? That would make the story too much like mythology.

*In verse three we come closer to reality when God sets the human life span at 120 years.

*Who are the Nephilim? They wouldn't be anything like mythical demigods would they? 

*It appears that the omnicient God got cranky when people began to misbehave, almost like he didn't see that coming. So, to rectify his own mistake he decided to use a big wet eraser called a flood. Not only would all the bad people be gone,  but the whole earth would be washed clean by the killing of every living thing. Sometimes it's just better to start over.

*So because Noah was good, he was given instructions to build a giant boat and fill it with 8 people and two of all living creatures, male and female, plus food for all of them. Hmm, this would mean he would need extra animals and some fish  to feed the meat eaters, insects to feed the insectivores, plus fresh  fruit and vegetation for all the herbivores. 

*Every school child wonders about the solid waste generated by all those animals. I wonder about the liquid waste. Really.