The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)
Jonah 1 - No mention of any women.
Jonah 2 - No mention of any women.
Jonah 3 - No mention of any women.
Jonah 4 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
So I had a really long post started for this book and then kind of got cold feet about it. I really want to finish it, so it's been sitting in the drafts since Thursday night waiting for me. I don't know if I'll have a lot of time to sit and work on it this week since my life is pretty much gonna be hella crazy for a while. I managed to land myself a new job that actually has benefits and paid vacations (along with better pay and a *hopefully* better work environment) so this week is going to be filled with general anxiety about forms and preparation to get security clearance into my new office building and then anxiety about handing in my two weeks notice to my current boss. I know I shouldn't be anxious about the second part but I have a great fear of letting people down so I can't NOT be stressed about telling my boss so suddenly that I'm leaving. And then, after that, it'll be good old new job anxiety that I'll have to push through my first couple of weeks at my new job.
Needless to say, the next month or so is gonna be a bit weird on the blog updating. I'm sure I'm gonna have plenty of days where the sheer stress of it all will just leave me so drained that I won't even have any energy to check up on my Facebook for a few minutes.
But I am excited about my new job even if I don't feel like I am. I don't do well with change and I overcompensate with worry and anxiety so I don't mess up while everything is busy testing my ability to adapt. After a couple of months I'm sure I'll be nestled comfortably in my new position and enjoying the fuck out of my paid vacation days.
TL;DR: I'm Anxiety Cat in human form and due to current random anxiety I have no new (completed) post and due to a new job coming up I'll have even more anxiety and thus shit will be crazy for a while for me.
Coming Soon *Hopefully*: An actual post about Jonah, even if there aren't any women in it.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Obadiah
The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)
Obadiah - No mention of any women.
My Comments
Nothing, nothing, nothing, and more nothing.
I was feeling a bit nostalgic today, thinking back on all the fun I had in my college classes (yeah, I'm a nerd, and my personal college experience was not all that great so the classes are all I really look back on fondly) engaging my brain and learning new things. I often think about how much I miss engaging my brain while at work which is, to say the least, definitely not stimulating in any sense of the word. This made me think back to a class I took called Gender, Sex and Violence in the Bible. We may want to blame this class on my future atheism since this class was literally the first time the idea of QUESTIONING stuff in the Bible (not even questioning in a bad way, just the ability to ask questions about it at all) was shown to me as an option. Hell, asking questions was the point of the class.
I believe this was during my sophomore year of college (may have been early my junior year...), so it was still fairly early in my development into the huge dirty hippie I am now. I was still going to church more or less every Sunday at this point in time, more for a sense of regularity and normalcy than anything since I was still a bit homesick from time to time. So this class was a nice change of pace and, for once, I was actually reading and really looking at what I was supposed to be learning from all those church sermons I went to. Long story short, that was a rather enlightening semester in many ways and I'm honestly grateful that such a class was offered at my college.
The point of this trip down memory lane, though, is to give a bit of back story to the video I am about to link to.
See, at the end of the semester we had to do a big project for my Gender, Sex and Violence in the Bible class. I decided to do mine over our discussions on Genesis. We had classes where we pondered if Adam was sexless/hermaphroditic when he was first created (before Eve). Or whether God bringing the animals to Adam before Eve was implied bestiality. It was good times. And since I had spent a lot of that semester in my free time playing with Macromedia Flash (a program I desperately miss and didn't get as much time to play with it as I would have liked) I decided to make an animation of Genesis with ideas from our discussions mixed in. I gotta say, I was damned impressed with the video at the time and I got a really good grade on it. Rewatching it now it's still hilarious but oh how I wish I still had a copy of Flash so I could fix stuff like timing and slow animations. I also want to reiterate my youth and naivety at the time. I may not have made the same jokes today that I did when I made this. Please let your judgments be gentle on my youth. :x
So since our reading for today has given me nothing, I present to you my flash animation of Genesis - when Adam met Eve.
Friday: Jonah
Obadiah - No mention of any women.
My Comments
Nothing, nothing, nothing, and more nothing.
I was feeling a bit nostalgic today, thinking back on all the fun I had in my college classes (yeah, I'm a nerd, and my personal college experience was not all that great so the classes are all I really look back on fondly) engaging my brain and learning new things. I often think about how much I miss engaging my brain while at work which is, to say the least, definitely not stimulating in any sense of the word. This made me think back to a class I took called Gender, Sex and Violence in the Bible. We may want to blame this class on my future atheism since this class was literally the first time the idea of QUESTIONING stuff in the Bible (not even questioning in a bad way, just the ability to ask questions about it at all) was shown to me as an option. Hell, asking questions was the point of the class.
I believe this was during my sophomore year of college (may have been early my junior year...), so it was still fairly early in my development into the huge dirty hippie I am now. I was still going to church more or less every Sunday at this point in time, more for a sense of regularity and normalcy than anything since I was still a bit homesick from time to time. So this class was a nice change of pace and, for once, I was actually reading and really looking at what I was supposed to be learning from all those church sermons I went to. Long story short, that was a rather enlightening semester in many ways and I'm honestly grateful that such a class was offered at my college.
The point of this trip down memory lane, though, is to give a bit of back story to the video I am about to link to.
See, at the end of the semester we had to do a big project for my Gender, Sex and Violence in the Bible class. I decided to do mine over our discussions on Genesis. We had classes where we pondered if Adam was sexless/hermaphroditic when he was first created (before Eve). Or whether God bringing the animals to Adam before Eve was implied bestiality. It was good times. And since I had spent a lot of that semester in my free time playing with Macromedia Flash (a program I desperately miss and didn't get as much time to play with it as I would have liked) I decided to make an animation of Genesis with ideas from our discussions mixed in. I gotta say, I was damned impressed with the video at the time and I got a really good grade on it. Rewatching it now it's still hilarious but oh how I wish I still had a copy of Flash so I could fix stuff like timing and slow animations. I also want to reiterate my youth and naivety at the time. I may not have made the same jokes today that I did when I made this. Please let your judgments be gentle on my youth. :x
So since our reading for today has given me nothing, I present to you my flash animation of Genesis - when Adam met Eve.
Friday: Jonah
Monday, September 12, 2011
Amos
The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)
Amos 1 - No mention of any women.
2:7 "...they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned..."
Amos 3 - No mention of any women.
4:1 - "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, 'Bring something to drink!'"
5:1-2 - "Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel: Fallen, no more to rise, is maiden Israel; forsaken on her land, with no one to raise her up."
Amos 6 - No mention of any women.
7:17 - "Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'"
8:13 - "In that day the beautiful young women and the young men shall faint for thirst."
Amos 9 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
Will there ever be a book in the Bible that does not deal with the severe punishment of God's people for reasons that are long forgotten because they are rarely (if ever) mentioned? Seriously, how many books do we need that go on and on and on and on about what exactly shall befall God's people for their terrible sins of... adultery? Is it still just adultery? Amos had some bits about how God's people were supposedly greedy and took bribes and left the poor to rot. So maybe we've added avarice to the list of Godly no-nos? It's really vague about it either way and I can't be sure if it's some sort of general badness that is used to just kind of show why God's people are, in fact, evil or a serious infraction that adds to pile of sin that isn't just all around whorish-ness.
The addition of greed to the sins and the lack of mention of the whoring around may be a reason why there is very little gendering of the towns/tribes in this book.
What I can be certain about is that I am really, really, really getting tired of book after book of just general nastiness and hatred towards God's people. To end with something interesting, here's Amos 4:5-13 -
"O people of Israel! says the Lord GOD. I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered; so two or three towns wandered to one town to drink water, and were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. I struck you with blight and mildew; I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards; the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword; I carried away your horses; and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a brand snatched from the fire; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel! For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth-- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!"
God just can't seem to understand why his people would leave him or not want to return to him. Imagine that. -_-
Wednesday: Obadiah (spoilers: I skimmed ahead a bit and thankfully it's incredibly short but I'll give you one guess as to what the theme of the book is...)
Amos 1 - No mention of any women.
2:7 "...they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned..."
Amos 3 - No mention of any women.
4:1 - "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on Mount Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, 'Bring something to drink!'"
5:1-2 - "Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel: Fallen, no more to rise, is maiden Israel; forsaken on her land, with no one to raise her up."
Amos 6 - No mention of any women.
7:17 - "Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'"
8:13 - "In that day the beautiful young women and the young men shall faint for thirst."
Amos 9 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
Will there ever be a book in the Bible that does not deal with the severe punishment of God's people for reasons that are long forgotten because they are rarely (if ever) mentioned? Seriously, how many books do we need that go on and on and on and on about what exactly shall befall God's people for their terrible sins of... adultery? Is it still just adultery? Amos had some bits about how God's people were supposedly greedy and took bribes and left the poor to rot. So maybe we've added avarice to the list of Godly no-nos? It's really vague about it either way and I can't be sure if it's some sort of general badness that is used to just kind of show why God's people are, in fact, evil or a serious infraction that adds to pile of sin that isn't just all around whorish-ness.
The addition of greed to the sins and the lack of mention of the whoring around may be a reason why there is very little gendering of the towns/tribes in this book.
What I can be certain about is that I am really, really, really getting tired of book after book of just general nastiness and hatred towards God's people. To end with something interesting, here's Amos 4:5-13 -
"O people of Israel! says the Lord GOD. I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. And I also withheld the rain from you when there were still three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered; so two or three towns wandered to one town to drink water, and were not satisfied; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. I struck you with blight and mildew; I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards; the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword; I carried away your horses; and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a brand snatched from the fire; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel! For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth-- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!"
God just can't seem to understand why his people would leave him or not want to return to him. Imagine that. -_-
Wednesday: Obadiah (spoilers: I skimmed ahead a bit and thankfully it's incredibly short but I'll give you one guess as to what the theme of the book is...)
Friday, September 2, 2011
Joel
The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)
1:6 - "For the nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable; it's teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness."
1:8 - "Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth."
2:16 - "Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy."
2:28-29 - "Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even in the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit."
3:3 - "[They have divided the land] and cast lots for my people, and traded boys for prostitutes, and sold girls for wine, and drunk it down."
3:8 - "I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away; for the Lord has spoken."
My Comments
I need a small break from the blog so there will not be any posts next week. Just need a bit of time to let my brain rest a bit.
Next Monday: Amos
1:6 - "For the nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable; it's teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness."
1:8 - "Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth."
2:16 - "Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy."
2:28-29 - "Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even in the male and female slaves, in those days, I will pour out my spirit."
3:3 - "[They have divided the land] and cast lots for my people, and traded boys for prostitutes, and sold girls for wine, and drunk it down."
3:8 - "I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away; for the Lord has spoken."
My Comments
I need a small break from the blog so there will not be any posts next week. Just need a bit of time to let my brain rest a bit.
Next Monday: Amos
Monday, August 29, 2011
Hosea 12-14
The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)
12:3 - "In the womb he tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God."
12:12 - "Jacob fled to the land of Aram, there Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he guarded sheep."
13:8 - "I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and will tear open the covering of their heart; there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild animal would mangle them."
13:16 - "Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open."
Hosea 14 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
So I guess in this post I shall introduce a new category for the blog topics: Body Parts. I was gonna just go with "Wombs," but I don't know if wombs will be the only body parts often completely disembodied from the women they should be attached to. So I'm just gonna go with the general "Body Parts" for now.
Of course this isn't the first time the woman has been completely removed from the birthing process or disregarded as playing a large part in the process. Just a bunch of men busy using a womb, here. What woman?
Also more complete lack of caring on Gods part of small infants and fetuses. Everyone must be punished, doesn't matter how young and innocent. I mean, killing and torturing babies (actual alive babies, I'm not referring to fetuses here) is generally considered as evil as maiming puppies and kittens. It's pretty much a sure sign of villainy if someone is found spattering infants against stones ESPECIALLY if they seem to be enjoying themselves immensely while they do it.
Well, Hosea is over. Maybe this next book we can finally leave the Israel is an evil, treacherous whore motif?
Wednesday: Joel
12:3 - "In the womb he tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God."
12:12 - "Jacob fled to the land of Aram, there Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he guarded sheep."
13:8 - "I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and will tear open the covering of their heart; there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild animal would mangle them."
13:16 - "Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open."
Hosea 14 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
So I guess in this post I shall introduce a new category for the blog topics: Body Parts. I was gonna just go with "Wombs," but I don't know if wombs will be the only body parts often completely disembodied from the women they should be attached to. So I'm just gonna go with the general "Body Parts" for now.
Of course this isn't the first time the woman has been completely removed from the birthing process or disregarded as playing a large part in the process. Just a bunch of men busy using a womb, here. What woman?
Also more complete lack of caring on Gods part of small infants and fetuses. Everyone must be punished, doesn't matter how young and innocent. I mean, killing and torturing babies (actual alive babies, I'm not referring to fetuses here) is generally considered as evil as maiming puppies and kittens. It's pretty much a sure sign of villainy if someone is found spattering infants against stones ESPECIALLY if they seem to be enjoying themselves immensely while they do it.
Well, Hosea is over. Maybe this next book we can finally leave the Israel is an evil, treacherous whore motif?
Wednesday: Joel
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Hosea 8-11
The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)
Hosea 8 - No mention of any women.
9:1 - " Do not rejoice, O Israel! Do not exult as other nations do; for you have played the whore, departing from your God. You have loved a prostitute's pay on all threshing floors."
10:11 - "Ephraim was a trained heifer that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will make Ephraim break the ground; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself."
Hosea 11 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
This verse just seems so... scattered. I wasn't sure if I should put it in the facts section. First it seems Ephraim is a woman being denied the only glory a woman can gain - a child. But then in the next verse Ephraim is leading "his" children to slaughter. Then Ephraim shall no longer bear fruit, which I guess could go either way, but then God will kill the cherished offspring of their womb and it's no very clear if that's referring to the people of Ephraim individually or Ephraim as an entity made up of people. Ugh, I dunno. But here's the verses so you can see them for yourself.
9:11-16 - "Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird-- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them until no one is left. Woe to them indeed when I depart from them! Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow, but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter. Give them, O LORD-- what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal; there I came to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their officials are rebels. Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb."
These chapters have suddenly flipped the sex of these cities and tribes. Suddenly Israel is "he" and "him" and Ephraim is "his" and it's just weird why. The language has definitely changed, and I doubt this is any sort of "bias" that some people who don't see the inherent woman-hating in the Bible might assume I have. Seriously, read Hosea 10 and 11 for yourself. Then compare those chapters to Hosea 2 or Ezekiel 23 or Ezekiel 16. You would have to be seriously kidding yourself if you believe these chapters are even remotely similarly to each other in the way they treat Israel and other cities/tribes. Hosea 10 comes nowhere close. None of the verses or sections referring to these places are male are anywhere near close to the treatment the female versions at dealt.
And I can say with pretty fair certainty that verses like Hosea 11:8-9 ("How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. "), filled with such seeming remorse are not often found in the chapters concerning female Israel, et. al. When God states how his punishment of female Israel hurts him more than it does her and he will raise her back up and won't hurt her again as long as she remains faithful it's stated in almost a begrudging tone. It doesn't at all seem completely sincere or like God really thinks Israel didn't completely deserve what she got.
But in that one verse (surrounded by the light weight "punishment" verses) makes it really seem like God is honestly upset that he's had to do this to his people and he truly wishes to never have to do it again. Male Israel is surely a victim of God's wrath, while female Israel is simply a whore that God had to beat back into submission.
But, seriously, do not take my word for it. Hosea 10 and 11 aren't very long, go have a read and see if I am just blowing everything out of proportion. If anyone honestly thinks I am, I would love to hear about it.
I will give a SMALL benefit of the doubt and say that it looks like Hosea will continue to refer to Israel, et. al. as male and thus maybe some horrendous chapters are just around the corner. It's a VERY SMALL benefit of the doubt, but I will state no clear absolutes until the book is over.
I'm taking a MUCH needed mental health day from the world on Friday so no new posts until Monday. Hope everyone stays safe and the world treats you well enough until then. :)
Hosea 8 - No mention of any women.
9:1 - " Do not rejoice, O Israel! Do not exult as other nations do; for you have played the whore, departing from your God. You have loved a prostitute's pay on all threshing floors."
10:11 - "Ephraim was a trained heifer that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will make Ephraim break the ground; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself."
Hosea 11 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
This verse just seems so... scattered. I wasn't sure if I should put it in the facts section. First it seems Ephraim is a woman being denied the only glory a woman can gain - a child. But then in the next verse Ephraim is leading "his" children to slaughter. Then Ephraim shall no longer bear fruit, which I guess could go either way, but then God will kill the cherished offspring of their womb and it's no very clear if that's referring to the people of Ephraim individually or Ephraim as an entity made up of people. Ugh, I dunno. But here's the verses so you can see them for yourself.
9:11-16 - "Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird-- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them until no one is left. Woe to them indeed when I depart from them! Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow, but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter. Give them, O LORD-- what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal; there I came to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their officials are rebels. Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb."
These chapters have suddenly flipped the sex of these cities and tribes. Suddenly Israel is "he" and "him" and Ephraim is "his" and it's just weird why. The language has definitely changed, and I doubt this is any sort of "bias" that some people who don't see the inherent woman-hating in the Bible might assume I have. Seriously, read Hosea 10 and 11 for yourself. Then compare those chapters to Hosea 2 or Ezekiel 23 or Ezekiel 16. You would have to be seriously kidding yourself if you believe these chapters are even remotely similarly to each other in the way they treat Israel and other cities/tribes. Hosea 10 comes nowhere close. None of the verses or sections referring to these places are male are anywhere near close to the treatment the female versions at dealt.
And I can say with pretty fair certainty that verses like Hosea 11:8-9 ("How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. "), filled with such seeming remorse are not often found in the chapters concerning female Israel, et. al. When God states how his punishment of female Israel hurts him more than it does her and he will raise her back up and won't hurt her again as long as she remains faithful it's stated in almost a begrudging tone. It doesn't at all seem completely sincere or like God really thinks Israel didn't completely deserve what she got.
But in that one verse (surrounded by the light weight "punishment" verses) makes it really seem like God is honestly upset that he's had to do this to his people and he truly wishes to never have to do it again. Male Israel is surely a victim of God's wrath, while female Israel is simply a whore that God had to beat back into submission.
But, seriously, do not take my word for it. Hosea 10 and 11 aren't very long, go have a read and see if I am just blowing everything out of proportion. If anyone honestly thinks I am, I would love to hear about it.
I will give a SMALL benefit of the doubt and say that it looks like Hosea will continue to refer to Israel, et. al. as male and thus maybe some horrendous chapters are just around the corner. It's a VERY SMALL benefit of the doubt, but I will state no clear absolutes until the book is over.
I'm taking a MUCH needed mental health day from the world on Friday so no new posts until Monday. Hope everyone stays safe and the world treats you well enough until then. :)
Monday, August 22, 2011
Hosea 5-7
The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)
5:3-4 - "I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know the LORD."
5:7 - "They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields."
6:10 - "In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's whoredom is there, Israel is defiled."
Hosea 7 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
Now, I present the above verses with a bit of uncertainty. They do not specifically state any female pronouns in these verses. But I put them with the facts because of the words "whore" and "whoredom" which have never once been used to describe a man and so I feel it would be odd for the Bible to start doing that now. Plus, it has been shown that a lands perceived sex can change without any warning or fanfare. Therefore, despite a lack of female pronouns I do believe these verses are still referencing these places/tribes as female.
Now, for some fun, let's contrast the male punishment of these tribes with the female punishment Israel as been forced to suffer for the past few books.
5:11 - "Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity."
7:8-9 - "Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Foreigners devour his strength, but he does not know it; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, but he does not know it."
7:11 - "Ephraim has become like a dove, silly and without sense; they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria."
Holy shit, what atrocities!? Grey hairs, strength taken away, calling Ephraim SILLY?! Oh, the injustice! My God, why am I focusing on the women when it's so clear just how horrible the Bible treats men?! D:
Yeah... no. Ephraim may be crushed, oppressed, grey haired, weak and pronounced "silly," but I think that really doesn't even come close to Israel's oppression, destruction, repeated rapes, repeated unclothing and public shaming, constant condemnation of her "whoredom" and her "lusts" and "whoring," her constant reminder of her less than status. I mean, if they are equal then those must be some REALLY horrible grey hairs.
I'm gonna be honest, the line about Ephraim becoming like a dove and being "silly and without sense" left me with some very mixed emotions. I was at once hit with how RIDICULOUS that sounds after so many books of the suffering and unfair treatment of Israel and her other female tribes mixed with an extreme feeling of anger that that is how Ephraim is described after dealing with single chapters that used the word "whore" and "whoredom" 23 TIMES and that was not even counting synonyms of "whore" and "whoring" and "whoredom" which brings the number to truly ridiculous amounts.
If anyone wanted to see just how differently women or female designated cities/tribes
are treated from men or male designated cities/tribes then there ya go. If you want to read the entire chapters just to see if I'm just pulling out the weaker male quotes then be my guest. These chapters aren't very long. But the punishments do not get any worse than this and anything male Ephraim is meant to suffer Israel suffered and then some. But if you doubt this then, really, go look up the chapters are tell me I'm bullshitting.
And just one more verse that stood out to me:
6:6-7 - "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But as Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me."
Adam transgressed the covenant and was faithless to God because Adam took the word of woman over the word of God. Woman is, indeed, the greatest enemy when it comes to man's relationship with God. Hell, this trust of a woman over God is the main reason God has to spend all this time making his people suffer and sending people to hell. Honestly, as far as I am concerned, the Original Sin wasn't eating the apple but trusting a woman. This was man's first act of "adultery" and, really, God hasn't forgiven woman since. Now God spends book after book, chapter after chapter warning men of just how evil woman is. Just how little woman is to be trusted. Heaven forbid men give woman even an ounce of freedom or control lest men "cheat" on God again and force God to punish them to an even greater extent.
"For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know the LORD."
Again I think to myself, how can anyone say the Bible isn't woman hating?
Wednesday: More Hosea
5:3-4 - "I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know the LORD."
5:7 - "They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields."
6:10 - "In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's whoredom is there, Israel is defiled."
Hosea 7 - No mention of any women.
My Comments
Now, I present the above verses with a bit of uncertainty. They do not specifically state any female pronouns in these verses. But I put them with the facts because of the words "whore" and "whoredom" which have never once been used to describe a man and so I feel it would be odd for the Bible to start doing that now. Plus, it has been shown that a lands perceived sex can change without any warning or fanfare. Therefore, despite a lack of female pronouns I do believe these verses are still referencing these places/tribes as female.
Now, for some fun, let's contrast the male punishment of these tribes with the female punishment Israel as been forced to suffer for the past few books.
5:11 - "Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity."
7:8-9 - "Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Foreigners devour his strength, but he does not know it; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, but he does not know it."
7:11 - "Ephraim has become like a dove, silly and without sense; they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria."
Holy shit, what atrocities!? Grey hairs, strength taken away, calling Ephraim SILLY?! Oh, the injustice! My God, why am I focusing on the women when it's so clear just how horrible the Bible treats men?! D:
Yeah... no. Ephraim may be crushed, oppressed, grey haired, weak and pronounced "silly," but I think that really doesn't even come close to Israel's oppression, destruction, repeated rapes, repeated unclothing and public shaming, constant condemnation of her "whoredom" and her "lusts" and "whoring," her constant reminder of her less than status. I mean, if they are equal then those must be some REALLY horrible grey hairs.
I'm gonna be honest, the line about Ephraim becoming like a dove and being "silly and without sense" left me with some very mixed emotions. I was at once hit with how RIDICULOUS that sounds after so many books of the suffering and unfair treatment of Israel and her other female tribes mixed with an extreme feeling of anger that that is how Ephraim is described after dealing with single chapters that used the word "whore" and "whoredom" 23 TIMES and that was not even counting synonyms of "whore" and "whoring" and "whoredom" which brings the number to truly ridiculous amounts.
If anyone wanted to see just how differently women or female designated cities/tribes
are treated from men or male designated cities/tribes then there ya go. If you want to read the entire chapters just to see if I'm just pulling out the weaker male quotes then be my guest. These chapters aren't very long. But the punishments do not get any worse than this and anything male Ephraim is meant to suffer Israel suffered and then some. But if you doubt this then, really, go look up the chapters are tell me I'm bullshitting.
And just one more verse that stood out to me:
6:6-7 - "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But as Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me."
Adam transgressed the covenant and was faithless to God because Adam took the word of woman over the word of God. Woman is, indeed, the greatest enemy when it comes to man's relationship with God. Hell, this trust of a woman over God is the main reason God has to spend all this time making his people suffer and sending people to hell. Honestly, as far as I am concerned, the Original Sin wasn't eating the apple but trusting a woman. This was man's first act of "adultery" and, really, God hasn't forgiven woman since. Now God spends book after book, chapter after chapter warning men of just how evil woman is. Just how little woman is to be trusted. Heaven forbid men give woman even an ounce of freedom or control lest men "cheat" on God again and force God to punish them to an even greater extent.
"For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know the LORD."
Again I think to myself, how can anyone say the Bible isn't woman hating?
Wednesday: More Hosea
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