The Skeptics Annotated Bible (524 page)

(7.1-3)

8
O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.

(8.1) “O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.”

(8.2-4)

2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

(8.2)
“I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.”

3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

(8.3) “His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.”

4 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.

(8.4)
“Stir not up, nor awake my love, until he please.”

5 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.

6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

8 We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?

9 If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver: and if she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar.

(7.9)
“The roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.”

10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers: then was I in his eyes as one that found favour.

(8.8-10) “We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts … [But]
my breasts
[are]
like towers.”

11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.

12 My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

(7.11-12)
“Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field … Let us get up early to the vineyards … there will I give thee my loves.”

13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it.

14 Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine.
—
Isaiah 49:26

In Isaiah we learn that God is the creator of evil (
45.7
) —which is no big surprise considering his behavior in the rest of the Bible.

Here are some highlights:

• “God will “smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion” because he dislikes the way they dress and walk.
  3.16
  
• “The Lord will discover their secret parts.”
  3.17
  
• God will make every man kill his brother and then force him to eat “the flesh of his own arm.”
  9.19-20
  
• “He shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.”
  11.4
  
• If God can find you, he will “thrust you through,” smash your children “to pieces” before your eyes, and rape your wife.
  13.15-18
  
• “Out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.”
  14.29
  
• Every head will be bald, every beard will be shaved, and everyone will howl and weep abundantly.
  15.2-3
  
• “Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp.”
  16.11
  
• God sends a “perverse spirit” among the Egyptians and causes them to err “as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.”
  19.14
  
• God tells Isaiah to take off all his clothes and to wander around completely naked for three years as a “sign and a wonder.”
  20.2-5
  
• “Therefore are my loins filled with pain … I was dismayed at the seeing of it.”
  21.3
  
• “She shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world … and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD.”
  23.17-18
  
• God will destroy the earth, burning everyone and every living thing alive (except maybe a few men).
  24.1-6
  
• “All tables are full of vomit and filthiness.”
  28.8
  
• “Thou shalt cast them away as a menstrous cloth.”
  30.22
  
• “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold.”
  30.26
  
• “The Lord … will bring evil.”
  31.1-2
  
• “Tremble, ye women that are at ease … strip you, and make you bare.”
  32.11
  
• “There stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.”
  34.2-3
  
• God’s sword is “filled with blood.” He plans to kill so many people that the “land will be soaked with blood.”
  34.5-8
  
• “That they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you.”
  36.12
  
• God created evil.
  45.7
  
• God will force people to “eat their own flesh” and be “drunken with their own blood.”
  49.26
  
• God will “plead with all flesh” with his fire and sword. “And the slain of the Lord shall be many.”
  66.16
  
• The carcasses of those killed by God will be piled high. They will rot and burn forever.
  66.24
  

1
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.