Jeremiah 7-9

The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)

7:5-7 - "For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hunt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever."
7:18 - "The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger."
7:31 - "And they go on building the high place of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire - which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind."
7:34 - "And I will bring to an end the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for the land shall become a waste."

8:10 - "Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest everyone deals falsely."
8:19 - "Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: 'Is the Lord no in Zion? Is her King not in her?' ('Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?')"

9:17 - "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skilled women to come; let them quickly raise a dirge over us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids flow with water."
9:20 - "Hear, O women, the word of the Lord, and let your ears receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a dirge, and each to their neighbor lament."

My Comments

I just noticed that the only women God apparently gets all up in arms about is the widows. Anyone else noticed this? If you mess with widows God will surely punish you. Not current wives, or young virgins or prostitutes. Just widows, the women who have already played their role of marriage and child bearing and have had their husbands (unjustly) taken from them. Kind of a bit weird, I think.

8:10 - "Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest everyone deals falsely."

Yeah, glad to know God pretty much cares nothing about women getting raped. I mean, rape is the same as having one's fields taken away, right? Sure, totally the same.

Remember not too long ago when people were having fits about how Justin Bieber apparently thinks that abortion is wrong even in cases of rape because God has a plan and everything happens for a reason? People got upset about this for obvious reasons (even though the quote was later shown to have a bit more to it than what the magazine printed) but I recall someone (I cannot remember who at the moment) saying that any God they would be willing to believe in would not use rape as a tool or as a way to get someone on the right path. I agree, I would never worship a God who thought rape was okay to throw around as punishment or as a consequence of his end goal, whatever that may be. And so I would never worship the Biblical God because he is completely capable and willing to use rape on women as punishment for their sins, as punishment for the sins of others, or even as just a reward to his people for conquering a piece of land he had promised them.

Rape, to the male Biblical authors, is nothing more than the seizing of property. It's easy to think of it this way when you do not view women as anything other than chattel, no different than the cows and sheep that are used for meat or milk.

Monday: More Jeremiah