The Skeptics Annotated Bible (176 page)

(7.16-26) Kill everyone that the Lord delivers to you. Show them no mercy. God will send hornets to help you with the genocide. After you have killed everyone, destroy their religious symbols. They are abominations to God. If you bring an image into your house you will become “a cursed thing like it.”
120 Is God merciful?

16 And
thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them
: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee.

(7.16)
“Thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; Thine eye shall have no pity upon them.”

17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt;

19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.

20 Moreover the LORD thy
God will send the hornet among them
, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them:
for the LORD thy God is
among you,
a mighty God and terrible.

(7.20-21)
“God will send the hornet among them … for the LORD thy God is … a mighty God and terrible.”

22 And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

23 But
the LORD
thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and
shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

(7.23)
“The LORD … shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.”

24 And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and
thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.

(7.24)
“Thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.”

25
The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire
: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein:
for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.

(7.25)
“The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire … for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.”

26
Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

(7.26)
“Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.”

8
All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.

2 And thou shalt
remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee,
to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments
, or no.

(8.2a)
“Remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years.”
See note for 2.7.

(8.2b)
“To know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments.”
149 Does God know what is in everyone’s heart?
18 Does God know everything?

3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

4
Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.

(8.4)
“Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.”
The Israelites clothing didn’t wear out while wandering around in the desert for 40 years. (God made the children’s shoes grow with their feet so they wouldn’t need new ones!)

5 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.

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

7 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;

8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;

9 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.

10 When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.

11 Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:

12 Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;

13 And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;

14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;

16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;

17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

18 But thou shalt remember the LORD thy
God
: for it is he that
giveth thee power to get wealth
, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

(8.18)
“God … giveth thee power to get wealth.”
God makes people wealthy (or poor).