u/Serious-Anxiety6687

Some translations say of "staring at another man's wife, of playing around with his slave woman" and others say "flirting with a maid servant you have".

The Bible condones many behaviors of what Epstein did. Since Epstein was Jewish, the Bible might've been a great influence to him to rationalize his crimes.

Murdering and enslaving minors for personal use.

Numbers 31:17-18

"Now kill all the boys and kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves the women children who have never slept with a man."

Buying daughters and little girls as sex slaves

Exodus 21:7

"If a man sells his daughter as a slave, she is not to go free as male slaves do. If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed."

Rewarding faithful people with women, children and wealth

Deuteronomy 20:14

"As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may enjoy the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies."

Rape is treated as a property crime and not taken seriously

Deuteronomy 22:28-29

"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."

2 Samuel 24:1

"Again the anger of the Lord burned against israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah."

1 Chronicles 21:1

"Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take his census of Israel"

The Old Testament authors knew that the Hebrew Bible god was actually Satan who caused every evil and sin and deception. Jesus told us to know them by their fruits and Yahweh's fruits are rotten to the core.

Satan is also described as "This great dragon the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world" Revelations 12:9, and "the father of lies" John 8:4.

Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible has been the driving force and the who caused all the deception and lies.

"And a spirit came forward and stood before Yahweh, saying, 'I will entice him.' And Yahweh said to him, 'By what means?' And he said, I will go out, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And he said, 'You are to entice him, and you shall also succeed; go out and do so.' Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; Yahweh has spoken disaster concerning you." 1 Kings 22:21–23

"And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech..." Judges 9:23

"And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel." Ezekiel 14:9

Satan is also concerned with satisfying his followers carnal and earthly desires seducing them into worshipping him through earthly pleasures and gains.

"Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.  When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee." Deuteronomy 8:6-10

"As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may enjoy the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies." Deuteronomy 20:14

According to the New Testament, wicked people can be known through their actions and character.

"You will recognize them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16)

We're told that Satan is the most evil entity, but when we actually read the Bible we find no greater wicked and evil character than Yahweh himself. Jesus even openly calls him the devil because he was a murderer from the beginning.

John 8:44

"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning."

He murdered men, women, children, INFANTS and animals. He enslaved people and allowed his chosen people to murder and enslave. He treated women like objects and property through very horrific and misogynistic laws. He caused the rape of CHILDREN by giving them to his warriors as rewards after slaughtering their families.

1 Samuel 15:3

"Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."

Numbers 31:17-18

"Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man."

Deuteronomy 7

"When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy."

Leviticus 25:44-46

"Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly."

Exodus 21:20-22

“Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property."

Isaiah 14

"The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob. Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations and make them male and female slaves in the Lord’s land."

Isaiah 13:15-17

"Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives raped. See, I will stir up against them the Medes."

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.”

Ezekiel 32:5

"I will spread your flesh on the mountains and fill the valleys with your remains.I will drench the land with your flowing blood all the way to the mountains, and the ravines will be filled with your flesh."

Genesis 3:16

To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;

 with painful labor you will give birth to children.

Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Deuteronomy 22:20-21

"If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by playing the whore while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you."

Deuteronomy 22:28-29

"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."

Deuteronomy 20:10-15

"When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may enjoy the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby."

To frame the relationship between God and Israel, the Hebrew prophets used metaphors and language of marriage. Yahweh (God) is the husband and Israel is the wife.

When the wife (Israel) rebelled against her husband (God) by committing adultery (in this case idolatery), he inflicted upon her severe punishments and discipline in one of the worst and most violent depictions of male authority and absolute patriarchy, god, through his prophets, depict himself as an abusive and jealous husband who grotesquely punishes and tortures his rebellious wife.

These metaphors reflect the nature of the authors of these passages who found punishing a rebellious and unruly wife into submission was just and righteous to the point of imposing their norms on God himself picturing him as the ultimate abuser and patriarch.

Brace yourselves (trigger warning for extreme language, sexual violence, misogyny and domestic violence):

You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you. Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood, therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked. I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked. They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords.

"Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry." (Ezekiel 16:32-42)

The last text perfectly encapsulates the internal logic of an abuser: the violence ceases not because it was inherently wrong, but because the abuser's internal tension has been spent and the victim has been successfully subdued. The responsibility for the violence is implicitly placed on the victim's behavior now that she is quiet and broken he can be "calm."

To frame the relationship between God and Israel, the Hebrew prophets used metaphors and language of marriage. Yahweh (God) is the husband and Israel is the wife.

When the wife (Israel) rebelled against her husband (God) by committing adultery (in this case idolatery), he inflicted upon her severe punishments and discipline in one of the worst and most violent depictions of male authority and absolute patriarchy, god, through his prophets, depict himself as an abusive and jealous husband who grotesquely punishes and tortures his rebellious wife.

These metaphors reflect the nature of the authors of these passages who found punishing a rebellious and unruly wife into submission was just and righteous to the point of imposing their norms on God himself picturing him as the ultimate abuser and patriarch.

Brace yourselves (trigger warning for extreme language, sexual violence, misogyny and domestic violence):

You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you. Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood, therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked. I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked. They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords.

"Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry." (Ezekiel 16:32-42)

The last text perfectly encapsulates the internal logic of an abuser: the violence ceases not because it was inherently wrong, but because the abuser's internal tension has been spent and the victim has been successfully subdued. The responsibility for the violence is implicitly placed on the victim's behavior now that she is quiet and broken he can be "calm."

After reading the Bible especially the Hebrew Bible which contains all of the alleged history of ancient Israel and its religious practices, I can't help but believe it has a huge influence on the current conflict.

Per the narrative of books like Numbers, Joshua, Deuteronomy and Samuel, the ancient Israelites used to engage in wars of conquest to take foreign lands by committing large scaled genocides. We can read explicit commands and instructions to go and kill every man,woman,child,infant and animal, or not to leave alive anything that breathes. In Deuteronomy 20:10-14 we read that the Israelites can go to any city and offer it either subjugation or killing all the men and enslaving women and children.

Now comparing the practices recorded in these books to what the modern Israelites are doing I can't help but sense the influence. Although I have to admit, modern Israelites have not (yet) reached the level of brutality and depravity of the ancient Israelites, but their current practices hold many striking similarities.

I hope I don't wake up one day and read that the IDF soldiers carried out similar commands like this:

"Now kill all the boys and kill every woman who has known a man by sleeping with him. But all the women children who have not known a man by sleeping with him, keep alive for yourselves." Numbers 31:17-18

American slavery main sources were limited to breeding more domestic slaves and purchasing from African slave traders.

Biblical slavery condones and encourages far more sources of slavery.

Debt slavery: Male Hebrew slaves could sell themselves to repay the debt and be released after 7 years. Female Hebrew daughters could be sold by their fathers as sex slaves to repay the debt of the father.

Slave-breeding programs: children born to slaves (either foreigners or Hebrews) are automatically slaves along with the mother. Exodus 21 provides a loophole to force a male Hebrew debt slave into becoming a lifelong slave by blackmailing him with the family he had while being a slave. He has to choose to either go free or remain a slave forever with his family.

Market slavery: Leviticus 25:44-46 allows for buying foreign slaves and possessing them as lifelong, generational chattel slaves.

Warfare slavery: Deuteronomy 20:10-15 allows for raiding a town outside of the land of Canaan (nations within the region are to be completely annihilated) and offering the people either subjugation or killing the males and enslaving the women and children. This source of enslavement, in my opinion, is far more horrific and traumatizing for the victims than anything the Americans practiced.

Worth noting that biblical slavery was ethnic-based unlike American slavery which was race-based which is far more terrible as all non Israelite ethnicities are subjected to enslavement and this's precisely what the biblical prophets envision as the ideal future for Israel where the whole world will be enslaved to Israel and become their farming equipment.

Isaiah 14:1–2

"But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will settle them in their own land; and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them."

Isaiah 60:10–12

"Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you down, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. Your gates shall always be open; day and night they shall not be shut, so that nations shall bring you their wealth, with their kings led in procession. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste."

Isaiah 61:5–6

"Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, foreigners shall till your lands and dress your vines; but you shall be called priests of the Lord, you shall be named ministers of our God; you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory."

Joel 3:7–8

"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."

Moses is considered one of the greatest and most celebrated figures in Christianity. But when we read about him we find things that would make ISIS and AlQaeda blush.

He commanded genocides and the killing of captivated WOMEN and CHILDREN! And right after that he trafficked little girls to his soldiers as rewards.

"Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man" (Numbers 31:17–18).

He commanded Joshua to conquer Canaan which was basically a campaign of wholesale nonstop genocides.

He consistently advocated and commanded the killing of apostates especially relatives and friends.

In the golden calf incident Moses commands the Levites to go through the camp killing neighbors and relatives. Approximately 3,000 people were killed.

He tortured people by hanging them under the sun.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." (Numbers 25:4)

In verse 5, Moses passes this order down to his judges: "Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor."

He tortured people to death for very trivial reasons.

Numbers 15:32–36: Moses oversees the execution by stoning of a man caught gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

He killed his opponents along with their families.

The Rebellion of Korah (Numbers 16): When Korah and his followers challenge Moses's leadership, Moses invokes a divine judgment where the earth opens up to swallow the rebels and their families, followed by a fire that consumes 250 men.

He put forth all the laws regarding slavery, selling daughters into sexual slavery, burning the daughters of priests for committing adultery, killing apostate family members and genociding entire cities for apostasy.

It's very clear if Moses was real and existed today he'd be considered a genocidal warlord, a war criminal, a human trafficker, a slaver and a terrorist.

Moses is considered one of the greatest and most celebrated figures in Christianity. But when we read about him we find things that would make ISIS and AlQaeda blush.

He commanded genocides and the killing of captivated WOMEN and CHILDREN! And right after that he trafficked little girls to his soldiers as rewards.

"Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man" (Numbers 31:17–18).

He commanded Joshua to conquer Canaan which was basically a campaign of wholesale nonstop genocides.

He consistently advocated and commanded the killing of apostates especially relatives and friends.

In the golden calf incident Moses commands the Levites to go through the camp killing neighbors and relatives. Approximately 3,000 people were killed.

He tortured people by hanging them under the sun.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." (Numbers 25:4)

In verse 5, Moses passes this order down to his judges: "Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor."

He tortured people to death for very trivial reasons.

Numbers 15:32–36: Moses oversees the execution by stoning of a man caught gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

He killed his opponents along with their families.

The Rebellion of Korah (Numbers 16): When Korah and his followers challenge Moses's leadership, Moses invokes a divine judgment where the earth opens up to swallow the rebels and their families, followed by a fire that consumes 250 men.

He put forth all the laws regarding slavery, selling daughters into sexual slavery, burning the daughters of priests for committing adultery, killing apostate family members and genociding entire cities for apostasy.

It's very clear if Moses was real and existed today he'd be considered a genocidal warlord, a war criminal, a human trafficker, a slaver and a terrorist.

In many instances and scattered passages all over the Hebrew Bible we read about Yahweh rewarding his faithful men and patriarchs with carnal gifts and blessings to satisfy their selfish desires.

Genesis 24:35

"The Lord has blessed my master abundantly and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys."

This passage is about Yahweh blessing Abraham with immense wealth including male and female slaves.

Genesis 26:12–14

"Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. The man became rich and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him."

Again, washing blessings on his favorite men making them the largest slave owners at that time.

2 Samuel 12:7–8

"This is what the Lord the God of Israel says: I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more."

Here we read an explicit condoning of David's polygamous life and his harem by revealing it was actually a gift from Yahweh himself and that he'd have given him more if he asked. Apparently being a good follower of Yahweh means you live a life of brothels.

Numbers 31:25–35

"The Lord said to Moses: You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the community are to count all the people and animals that were captured. Divide the spoils between the soldiers who took part in the battle and the rest of the community."

The inventory includes:

675,000 sheep

72,000 cattle

61,000 donkeys

32,000 women who had never slept with a man

After a job well done from the Israelites murdering captivated women and children, Yahweh now rewards them with livestock and little girls. Absolutely sickening.

Deuteronomy 20:13–14

"As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may enjoy the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies."

Standard gifts and rewards for the faithful soldiers of Yahweh were women, children and treasures.

In many instances and scattered passages all over the Hebrew Bible we read about Yahweh rewarding his faithful men and patriarchs with carnal gifts and blessings to satisfy their selfish desires.

Genesis 24:35

"The Lord has blessed my master abundantly and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys."

This passage is about Yahweh blessing Abraham with immense wealth including male and female slaves.

Genesis 26:12–14

"Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. The man became rich and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him."

Again, washing blessings on his favorite men making them the largest slave owners at that time.

2 Samuel 12:7–8

"This is what the Lord the God of Israel says: I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more."

Here we read an explicit condoning of David's polygamous life and his harem by revealing it was actually a gift from Yahweh himself and that he'd have given him more if he asked. Apparently being a good follower of Yahweh means you live a life of brothels.

Numbers 31:25–35

"The Lord said to Moses: You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the community are to count all the people and animals that were captured. Divide the spoils between the soldiers who took part in the battle and the rest of the community."

The inventory includes:

675,000 sheep

72,000 cattle

61,000 donkeys

32,000 women who had never slept with a man

After a job well done from the Israelites murdering captivated women and children, Yahweh now rewards them with livestock and little girls. Absolutely sickening.

Deuteronomy 20:13–14

"As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may enjoy the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies."

Standard gifts and rewards for the faithful soldiers of Yahweh were women, children and treasures.

Genocide:

Deuteronomy 20:16–18

"But as for the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God."

Deuteronomy 7:1–2

"When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you... and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them."

1 Samuel 15:2–3

"Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’"

Joshua 6:21

"Then they devoted to destruction all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

Joshua 10:40

"So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded."

Ezekiel 35:7–8

"I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation, and I will cut off from it all who come and go. And I will fill its mountains with the slain; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines those slain with the sword shall fall."

Isiah 13:15-16

"Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives raped."

Rape:

Isiah 13:15-16

"Whoever is found will be thrust through, and whoever is caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses will be plundered and their wives rapes."

Deuteronomy 21:10–14

"When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house... She shall lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. You shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her."

Deuteronomy 22:28–29

"If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days."

Numbers 31:17–18

"Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known a man intimately, keep alive for yourselves."

Deuteronomy 28:30

"You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall rape her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit."

2 Samuel 12:11–12

"Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’"

Jeremiah 13:22, 26

"And if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things come upon me?’ it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you are violated... I myself will lift up your skirts over your face, and your shame will be seen."

Polygamy:

Exodus 21:10

"If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights."

Deuteronomy 21:15-17

"If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved..."

2 Samuel 12:7–8

"Nathan said to David... 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel... I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms... And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more."

Pedophilia:

Numbers 31:17–18

"Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with him. But all the women children who have not known a man intimately, keep alive for yourselves."

Exodus 21:7–11

"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed."

Slavery:

Leviticus 25:44–46

"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly."

Exodus 21:20–21

"When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money."

Exodus 21:3–4

"If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out alone."

Exodus 21:5–6

"But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall be his slave forever."

Isaiah 45:14

"Thus says the Lord: 'The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: "Surely God is with you, and there is no other, no god besides him."

Isiah 14:1-2

"For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel... And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord's land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them."

Psalm 149:6–9

"Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written! This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord!"

Imperialism and hedonism:

Deuteronomy 20:10–14

"When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you."

Misogyny, patriarchy and domestic violence:

Numbers 30:3-8

"If a woman vows a vow to the Lord and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father's house in her youth, and her father hears her vow... and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand... But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers... shall stand. And the Lord will forgive her, because her father opposed her."

Leviticus 27:3-4

"A male from twenty years old up to sixty years old, your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver... If the person is a female, your valuation shall be thirty shekels."

Deuteronomy 22:13–21

"But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones... because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel..."

Numbers 5:11-29

13 If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him so that another man has sexual relations with her....... 29 The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin."

Ezekiel 16:32

You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband!...Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord!... I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked.They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women...."

Deuteronomy 20:10-15

"When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies.This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby."

As we read here this's an explicit allowance for the state of Israel to go out expanding its territories by conquering peaceful cities. The law undeniably pictures the Israelites as the aggressors so this's not a case of a defensive war as most apologists would like to explain it.

The instructions given in this passage to be followed are no more than the usual war crimes you read about in history books.

The Israelites are to march to a specific peaceful city and offer them two options, open your gates and become our slaves or we will kill your men (including the disabled and the old) and take your women, children, livestock and all your valuables as our plunder. And we will enjoy this plunder over your dead corpses. There's not even a third option for conversion so the inhabitants of the city might save themselves from the enslavement or death and enslavement.

This's not even a war driven by theological reasons to fight idolatry or nonbelievers but a mere greedy imperialistic aggression for earthly gains and profits.

I seriously can't understand how anyone can read this whole chapter and not lose their faith in the Bible or lose their whole sanity.

Just imagine with me for a minute. You're an Israelite soldier who went to war against the Midianites under the command of Yahweh. You engage in a massive scale battle killing every man you see (including the old and the disabled). After genociding the male population you start a pillaging spree looting everything valuable you find in the houses or from the bodies of the men you just killed. You run into one of the houses and see a woman carrying her child in her arms and her little daughter is clinging to her clothes as they all cry in fear from seeing a blood soaked man like you whose sword is probably drenched in the blood of their father.

You drag the mother by her hair outside the house not caring for her or her little ones screams and cries. You see your fellow Israelites dragging thousands of other terrified captives, livestock and other spoils and treasures.

After returning to Moses he gets angry and commands you to slaughter the same mother and her baby boy you were just dragging with you. But the little daughter you can keep for yourself. You carry out the command.

Can you imagine how much you should be devoid of empathy and mercy to go through such a massacre? Now imagine how the little girls taken as spoils of war must've felt going through the streets of Israel in chains surrounded by strangers celebrating the death of their loved ones to be dehumanized and treated like an actual property being divided out among the same people who murdered them.

The Bible uniquely contains not only one law regarding apostasy but several laws for different apostasy categories. Current Christians (and Jesus himself) fall under many of those categories which makes them subject to punishment from the old prophets if they were still present, hypothetically speaking.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5

If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. 5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.

If we accept the Christian narrative that Jesus indeed claimed to be god in the flesh and that people should worship him and that he performed many miracles, then from the Hebrew Bible's perspective that Yahweh can never be a man, Jesus falls under the category of a false prophet who must be put to death.

Deuteronomy 13:12

12 If you hear it said about one of the towns the Lord your God is giving you to live in 13 that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known), 14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, 15 you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely,\[a\] both its people and its livestock. 16 You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt, 17 and none of the condemned things\[b\] are to be found in your hands. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors18 because you obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.

Now according to this horrific law, if some residents of a city that worships Yahweh start worshipping other gods and lead other people to do so, then the whole city is to be put under the **herem**. In other words a wholesale genocide that includes even the animals of said city. This's a type of human sacrifice on a large scale since the city is genocided and burnt as an offering to Yahweh. Now Christians are supposedly Yahweh worshippers in origin, but as their theology completely differs from that of the ancient Israelites, they're considered apostates in the eyes of the law and all Christian cities fall under that law.

As we read in the Bible, the old prophets never tolerated any kind of apostasy or idolatery. We read about Moses and Elijah commanding the killing of apostates and false prophets all the time. So, and hypothetically speaking, if those same prophets whom Christians consider holy were present today, they'd consider Christians themselves to be heretics and idolaters.

The Bible uniquely contains not only one law regarding apostasy but several laws for different apostasy categories. Current Christians (and Jesus himself) fall under many of those categories which makes them subject to punishment from the old prophets if they were still present, hypothetically speaking.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5

If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, 2 and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. 5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.

If we accept the Christian narrative that Jesus indeed claimed to be god in the flesh and that people should worship him and that he performed many miracles, then from the Hebrew Bible's perspective that Yahweh can never be a man, Jesus falls under the category of a false prophet who must be put to death.

Deuteronomy 13:12

12 If you hear it said about one of the towns the Lord your God is giving you to live in 13 that troublemakers have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known), 14 then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, 15 you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely,[a] both its people and its livestock. 16 You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt, 17 and none of the condemned things[b] are to be found in your hands. Then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors18 because you obey the Lord your God by keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.

Now according to this horrific law, if some residents of a city that worships Yahweh start worshipping other gods and lead other people to do so, then the whole city is to be put under the **herem**. In other words a wholesale genocide that includes even the animals of said city. This's a type of human sacrifice on a large scale since the city is genocided and burnt as an offering to Yahweh. Now Christians are supposedly Yahweh worshippers in origin, but as their theology completely differs from that of the ancient Israelites, they're considered apostates in the eyes of the law and all Christian cities fall under that law.

As we read in the Bible, the old prophets never tolerated any kind of apostasy or idolatery. We read about Moses and Elijah commanding the killing of apostates and false prophets all the time. So, and hypothetically speaking, if those same prophets whom Christians consider holy were present today, they'd consider Christians themselves to be heretics and idolaters.

This's a genuine question I had in mind for Christians and Jews.

Would you participate in Joshua's army during the conquest of Canaan and actually kill men, women, children and animals?

"They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it, men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys." (Joshua 6:21)

"When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai." (Joshua 8:24–25)

Would you participate in King Saul's army during the war against the Amalekites and kill infants?

"Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys." (1 Samuel 15:3)

Would you participate in Moses's army during the battle against the Midianites and kill everyone then take plunder and little girls as your spoils?

Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident... Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." (Numbers 31:15–18)