Jinksy

I'm trying to find the most unforgivably cruel and self-evidently stupid (but reltively concise) comments in the bible... Any suggestions?

(It's for this thread)

Javaman

It's not terribly short but it is very much cruel. I've often heard Christians say thier religion doesn't require them to kill but it sure used to. Without going into 'fullfiling' laws, I give you:

Deuteronomy 13
6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), 8 do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. 9 You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. 10 Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Magdlyn

Obviously those Levites wanted to keep their lucrative easy jobs as priests of YHWH. They centralized worship in Jerusalem so they could easily obtain those "sacrifices." They didn't want the sacrifices (best cuts of meat, best wool, even gemstones) going to any other gods or priests thereof. :notworthy

DramaQ

My vote goes for the story of Job.

Look at all the nasty, mean stuff YHWH did to that guy just cuz Satan manipulates him into it!

I think Yah was a few light bulbs short of omniscient that day!

Toto

Skeptics Annocated Bible on cruelty (use the SAB carefully - at times the summary is not especially accurate - such as the link to this verse.)

Psalms 137:8
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

137:9
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Magdlyn

Toto, is that from Psalms?

Jack the Bodiless

Try Hosea 13: 16 "The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,
because they have rebelled against their God.
They will fall by the sword;
their little ones will be dashed to the ground,
their pregnant women ripped open."

Roland

I'm not sure where's it located, but how about the guy who attempts to keep the ark of the convenant from falling into the mud, an act of kindness for which God instantly kills him? That one seems not only cruel but downright ungrateful on the part of God.

If I were that guy, I'd have said to God, "Fine, carry your own damn ark from now on!"

Calzaer

2 Kings, 2:23-24

God sends two bears to maim 42 children that the text specifically tells us are "little", because they made fun of Elisha's baldness.

Overman

2 Kings 18:27
Ezekiel 23:20
Malachai 2:3
go to www.landoverbaptist.org they have several creepy ones.