Many in the religious culture insist that the God and the Holy Bible provide the foundation for all morality.
And science.
What did the psalmist mean by "luminaries" in the verse:
Psalm 74:16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the luminaries and the sun. (?)
It almost "goes without saying" that Moses and the Son-of-God Creator who empowered him (who later was named Jesus at His incarnation) - who opened up and closed down the Red Sea which drowned the Egyptian army - were in fact the first real "airbenders" and "waterbenders."
Is it any wonder that the discerning and thoughtfully pensive see Scripture as a trustworthy mirror of humanity-caused horrors not suggested by nor done in the first place by the God of Scripture - but instead a precisely-enough recorded history book of nasties first conceived by errant humans themselves (NOT by God!)?
Thankfully, what is recorded as history of atrocities in the Bible frankly and honestly gives - by Divine inspiration - not only the actual motives for humans committing (not "performing") atrocities, but also (and laudably) gives accurate, understandable, satisfying, and praiseworthy consequential results against sordid actions committed by humans (NOT by God) who - for whatever causes - God allowed to take place in His arbitrarily-selected Overall Plan for Everything.
Again, Scriptural records of human atrocities are neither an advertisement for nor meant to be an advertisement to repeat or mimic despicable acts humans themselves thought of committing in the first place and actually did commit and not perform . . . but is instead an after-the-fact indictment (against humans - not God, who created them with a dangerous free will).
The Bible bravely and courageously exposes, reveals, and "hides nothing under the proverbial rug" in forthright non-deception . . . . . . dissimilar to frequently-distorted, bigoted and biased and prejudiced, deceitfully-fabricated/adjusted partial or altered accounts on the local and network news plus printed media related to typical satanically-secular or cultically-religious news broadcasts.
Another possible reason Scripture records such humanity-caused incidents (concerning which humanity and NOT God is at fault and to be blamed) is to help us after-the-fact readers to realize the purposelessness and senseless in repeating similar degradation with a kind of Been There, Done That attitude.
With that in mind, take a moment to browse some specific examples of God-recorded atrocities. Then, honestly ask yourself how you feel about these historical accounts of humanity-perpetrated rape, incest, abusive slavery, sadistic torture and infanticide perpetrated by human beings of the distant and recent past.
Does your moral code require you to denounce these acts as horrific and monstrous? Is it not intriguing that God has allowed such because He is THE sovereign God, and can do and does whatever he wants?
Think about it. Being that the LORD exists, and has permitted such atrocities, will He not judge those who have committed (and not "performed") such heinous works, for the sake of those who in obedient compliance to Him who regard their Savior of being truly worthy of praise and allegiance? And at the same time the truly moral person is obligated to shun and denounce those whose despising against Him have resulted in their imposing such suffering and misery on more-or-less innocent victims He has created?
It is laughably amusing yet pathetic to see the deplorable waste of time initiated by certain self-proclaimed pseudo-"intellectuals" such as "thinking atheists" imposed on the Web, who in their absurd and childish naivety vainly attempt to discard or pooh-pooh the Bible by their concocted misrepresentations they assert as alleged "contradictions."
One such goof I have in mind fails to see that God created everything in fully-functioning form, rather than piecemeal - a good and logical case against gradual or sudden evolution (no matter how long or short the time period).
For example, even though God created what appears to be stars tens and hundreds and millions of light-years distant from Earth does not mean that He did not create continuously-enroute starlight relating to those stars simultaneously which has been and yet is constantly reaching the eyes of those upon this less-than-9000-year-old planet Earth within this less-than-9000-year-old Universe.
Another supposed discrepancy is the purported "two different" accounts of Biblical creation history, according to revilers claiming to disbelieve in the God they strangely refer to anyway. What the stupid atheist (unduly deemed "wise" or "enlighten" or "educated" when actually a fool) fails to understand is that chapter one of Genesis gives an overall chronology of the ordering of the creating of various environmental phenomena, whereas chapter two of Genesis records a more complex mixture of Garden-of-Eden-only plants formed wherever of the cultivated or to-be-cultivate fields specifically as they related to accommodation for humans, and although the sequential ordering of male Adam created before female Eve is obviously chronological, the exact wording of the Text in chapter two of Genesis clearly omits a starting point of precisely when animals were formed out of the ground to be named by Adam.
The so-called "thinking" atheist in question also capitalizes on and builds false premises upon lamentable mistranslations of various Bible versions, fails to understand that a certain numerical quantity can be contained within a larger quantity for the same event, two different events of a similar nature occurred with slightly different but accurate details, one phenomena (such as Judas Iscariot hanging himself) can be included with a seemingly different phenomena but actually happening also (the tree limb on which he was hanging over the cliff broke so that he fell down on sharp rocks below so that all his bowels gushed out because of that).
It behooves the sane and sensible, unlike deviant conjecture of pseudo-wise fool atheists, to take the exact words of Scripture at face value as the words themselves read . . . and then try to figure out how to imagine complimentary scenarios concordant with those specific words.
One final thing.
The Hebrews and Jews mentioned in Scripture who have committed evil violent acts and also the Hebrews and Jews mentioned in Scripture who have committed righteous violent acts are not to be singled out as non-representative apart from those of other nations and ethnic groups. Hebrews and Jews are merely leaders in both categories, and "Gentiles" are obviously reflective of, associated with, and represented by the Hebrews and Jews in all similar actions with those who happened to have been selected as chief examples.
GENESIS 34:13 Shechem had premarital sex with Jacob’s daughter Dinah, which angered Jacob’s sons. Shechem and his father, Hamor, agreed to circumcision for the men in the city in order for Shechem to marry Dinah and make Jacob’s other daughters eligible for the men of the city. Three days later, while the men were still enduring the pain of circumcision, Jacob’s sons attacked the unsuspecting city, killing Shechem and Hamor with swords, looting the city, seizing the flocks, herds, possessions and wealth, plundering the houses and carrying off their women and children, after Shechem and Hamor had secretly conspired against Jacob and his sons with a "Will not their property become ours?" devious intention.
GENESIS 6 & 7 Angry against the wickedness of humanity in general, God executed every living thing on the planet except Noah’s family. Men, women, infants and animals rightly drowned in unimaginable terror and agony they justly deserved.
GENESIS 19:6- In Sodom, Lot’s home was assaulted by a homosexual mob seeking to have relations with two angels. Lot volunteered his virgin daughters to the crowd, saying "you can do what you like with them" as long as the guests are left alone. After offering his children to be raped, Lot was then appointed by God as worthy of rescue from Sodom’s destruction, and was called "righteous" in the New Testament because he did obediently escape Sodom per God's command, and the Lord mercifully prevented Lot's daughters from being raped by imposing blindness on the would-be sodomites, similar to God preventing Abraham from actually stabbing to death his son Isaac.
GENESIS 19:26: God allow Satan to turn Lot’s wife who disobeyed the Lord's command to not look back, in her possible idolatrous greed, into a pillar of salt for the heinous crime of looking over her shoulder.
GENESIS 38: 8-10 Onan was instructed by Judah to lay with his brother’s wife to produce offspring for his brother (who was put to death by God for wickedness). Onan slept with his brother’s wife but "spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother." God deemed that wicked, so God killed him. No messy seminal emissions wasted on the ground nor in the condom, please.
EXODUS 2:12 Moses saw an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew. He looked around, saw no witnesses, killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand, with the righteous intention of becoming the deliverer of his people against cruel pagan oppressors.
EXODUS 7:2-4 God hardened rebellious Pharaoh’s heart (after that Pharaoh hardened it first) and planned His mighty acts of judgment.
EXODUS 7:20-21 God turned the Nile river to blood. The fish died, and the water was undrinkable. No EPA saving the whales
EXODUS 8: 6-7 God sent a plague of frogs which covered the land.
EXODUS 8:16 God sent a plague of gnats.
EXODUS 8:24 God sent a swarm of flies. No insecticide around, which should have been invented by then.
EXODUS 9:5 God killed all of the Egyptian livestock with a plague. DDT is not fitting for man nor beast
EXODUS 9:10 God sent a plague of festering boils on the people and animals. Shower when you should
EXODUS 9:22-25 God sent a hail storm to Egypt, striking man and animal, stripping the land.
EXODUS 12: 29 God executed (but not murdered) the first-born in every Egyptian home that wasn’t marked with lamb’s blood. Immunizations would have been useless.
EXODUS 17:13 Moses held out the staff of God, allowing Joshua to kill the wicked Amalekites bent on destroying the Hebrews.
EXODUS 21:20-21 According to God’s law, it was wrong to beat a slave to the point of death. But if the slave survived and got back up within a few days, the beating wasn’t punishable, because the slave was the property of the master. (God allowed slavery and the logical beating of slaves who understandably deserved to be beaten.)
EXODUS 32:27 After seeing the golden calf, God commanded the Levites, "Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor." 3,000 were slaughtered, and God was understandably pleased in His understandable jealousy.
LEVITICUS 26:22 God warned that, if the people didn’t listen to and obey Him, He would understandably send wild animals to rob parents of their children, destroy cattle and leave the roads deserted.
LEVITICUS 26:27-29 God threatened hostility, punishing disobedient people for their sins "seven times over," giving them over to eating the flesh of their sons and daughters.
NUMBERS 12:9-14 God was displeased with Miriam trying to become The Big Cheese in sexist insubordination, so he struck her with leprosy and banished her from the camp for seven days.
NUMBERS 15:32-36 A man gathered sticks for a fire on the Sabbath. By God’s command, he was stoned to death. No liquor stores open on Sundays.
NUMBERS 16:27-33 The men were rebellious, so God caused the earth to open and swallow up the men, wives and children. Hurray!
NUMBERS 16:35 A fire from God killed 250 men who defiled the holy fire of sacrifice.
NUMBER 16:48 A plague from God killed 14,700 disobedient sinners.
NUMBERS 21:3 The Lord gave the aggressively-hostile Canaanites over to Israel, who "completely destroyed them and their towns."
NUMBERS 21:6 God sent venomous snakes, which bit and killed many Israelites who had faithlessly complained and doubted the Lord.
NUMBERS 21:35 With God’s approval, the Israelites went into the city of Og, killed the treacherously sinful king, his sons, the army (leaving no survivors) and took over the land.
NUMBERS 25:4 God told Moses to kill rebellious genocidal leaders of Shittim and expose their bodies in broad daylight. Food for the birds. Gotta have them eat something.
NUMBERS 25:8 Phinehas, son of Aaron the priest, executed an Israelite man and Midianite woman with a spear, plunging the spear "into the woman’s body" and thus acquiring the Lord's promise of perpetual peace for him.
NUMBERS 25:9 A plague from God killed 24,000 wicked rebellious and faithless sinners.
NUMBERS 31:9 Under God’s command, the Israelites captured reproductively-potent Midianite women and children, and "they took all the plunder and spoils" to provide nourishment for the new wives.
NUMBERS 31:17-18 God commanded Moses to kill all of the male Midianite children and "kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." Perhaps midwives and female physicians and NOT male gynos gave the new women medical exams to determine virginity.
NUMBERS 31:31-40 God divided the plunder to the soldiers, the priest, the Israelites and for tribute to the Lord. 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys and 32,000 virgin women. The virgin women thing is of interest.
DEUTERONOMY 2:33-34 Under God’s leadership, the Israelites utterly destroyed the murderously-hostile men, women and children of Sihon."
DEUTERONOMY 3:6 Under God’s leadership, the Israelites destroyed the men, women and children of Og. They plundered the livestock and possessions. They roundly deserved it.
DEUTERONOMY 7:2 God told the Israelites, regarding their enemies, to "destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy." None whatsoever. ZERO tolerance..
DEUTERONOMY 20:13-14 God laid down the rules for battle, instructing the slaughter of all of the men. Women, children, livestock and possessions could be taken as "plunder for yourselves." Survival of the fittest.
DEUTERONOMY 20:16 "in the cities of the nations the LORD your god is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes." Environmental pollution could have defiled the entire planet had mass annihilation and purification not taken place.
DEUTERONOMY 21:10-13 According to God’s law, if an Israelite soldier was at war with an enemy, and he saw a beautiful woman that he found attractive, he could capture her to be his wife. She must then shave her head, trim her nails and discard the clothing she was wearing when captured. She could mourn her father and mother for a month. If the soldier wasn’t pleased with her for any reason, he could "let her go wherever she wishes." Sounds like a plan.
JOSHUA 6:21-27 Under God’s direction, Joshua destroyed the entire city of wickedly-pollutive Jericho men, women, Uzi-toting teenagers and infants implanted with booby-trap bombs? with the edge of the sword. The soldiers then pillaged the silver, gold, bronze and iron for God and burned the city. Too many repairs for deteriorating crumbly houses.
JOSHUA 7:19-26 Achan took a robe and some money from the plunder. Joshua and the Israelites took Achan, the loot, his sons, daughters, cattle, donkeys , sheep and possessions to the Valley of Achor, where all were stoned and burned. One sinner destroys much good, as did one Quisling and one John Wilkes Booth.
JOSHUA 8:22-25 God helped Joshua battle and slaughter 12,000 deserving-to-die men and women in the city of Ai. None escaped. Nor should have.
JOSHUA 10:10-27 God helped Joshua slaughter the murderously-pollutive Gibeonites.
JOSHUA 10:28 With God’s approval, Joshua put Earth-defiling residents of the city of Makkedah" to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors." Quarantine the plague perpetrators
JOSHUA 10:30 The Lord gave the city of Libnah to Joshua. Everyone in the city was "put to the sword." Figures.
JOSHUA 10:32-33 God gave his approval as Joshua killed every man, woman and child in Lachish with the sword. Don't mess with the Lord's chosen.
JOSHUA 10:34-35 Everyone in the city of Eglon was killed by the sword of Joshua and his army. Yes!
JOSHUA 10:36-37 God approved as Joshua killed the king of Hebron, its villages and every citizen. "They left no survivors." Uh huh.
JOSHUA 10:38-39 Joshua took Israel’s army to attack Debir. They killed everyone. OK!
JOSHUA 11:6 God commanded Joshua to defeat the enemy at the Waters of Merom. "You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots." Set an example to warn others.
JOSHUA 11:8-15 Joshua’s army, under God’s command, did not spare "anyone that breathed." What part of "anyone" does one not understand?
JOSHUA 11:20 "For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses." They hardened their own heart first, and therefore they not God nor His people "drew first blood."
JUDGES 1:4 God gave the Canaanites and Perizzites into the hands of Judah. 10,000 enemy killed. Count them: 10,000.
JUDGES 1:6 Adoni-Bezek (of the Canaanites) fled, but Judah’s army chased him down and sliced off his thumbs and big toes . . . as they had maliciously and abusively done to others.
JUDGES 1:8 God approved the attack by Judah on Jerusalem. Judah’s army killed and set the city aflame. It was best for humanity's continuing survival.
JUDGES 1:17 With God’s approval, Judah and Simeon utterly destroyed the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath. I wonder why. Duh.
JUDGES 3:29 The Lord delivered the Moabites into the hands of the Israelites. "At that time they struck down about then thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped." Got 'em all. Otherwise, they would have come back against them. Remember the America-saving A-bomb retaliation because of that non-solicited Pearl Harbor attack.
JUDGES 4:21 Jael drove a tent stake through the head of Sisera. You should have seen what Sisera had previous done himself. No, you shouldn't have seen that.
JUDGES 7:19-25 Under God’s direction, the Gideons defeated the Midianites. They killed and decapitated their princes and delivered the heads to Gideon. David thankfully took off Goliath's head, because the giant blasphemer who could have destroy the Israeli army by himself deserved it.
JUDGES 8:15-21 Gideon punisheed the men of Succoth with desert thorns and briers. He then "pulled down the tower of Peniel and killed the men of the town." Of course.
JUDGES 9:53-54 Abimelech was laying siege to the city of Thebez when a woman cracked his head with a stone. "Hurredly, he called to his armor-bearer, ‘Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say "a woman killed him".’ So his servant ran him through, and he died." Heads up. Watch out for wily women.
JUDGES 11:29-39 Jepthah sacrificed his beloved daughter as a burnt offering after God gave him victory in battle.
JUDGES 15:15 Samson killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass. Reminds me of the St Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago. Gun 'em all down, before they gun you all down. Either one or the other. Your choice.
JUDGES 16:27-30 God helped Samson pull down the pillars of the temple, killing 3,000 and himself - an act of misfortunate suicide but for a good cause. Try to toss the grenade away rather than throwing yourself on one.
JUDGES 19:22-29 A traveler from Bethlehem, his concubine and servant stayed as guests of an old man in Gibeah. Wicked men of the city surrounded the house, demanding to have sex with the male guest. The old homeowner offered his virgin daughter and the concubine, imploring the mob to "do to them whatever you wish." The concubine was raped and died. The traveler put her dead body on his donkey, went home, took a knife, and hacked her into twelve pieces. He then sent the pieces to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. His form of FedEx without using UPS. It sure got their attention to do righteous retaliation against a bunch of rapists and those who protected such scum.
JUDGES 20:43-48 The Israelites killed 25,000 men who understandably deserved it. 600 men fled to the desert. The Israelites went and put everyone in the towns "to the sword, including the animals and everything else they found." Then they burned the towns down. Eviction, relocation, and demolition happens all the time in the suburbs to get space to built senior condos and townhouses. Fire crews practice burning condemned houses unfit for living conditions.
JUDGES 21:10-12 The assembly killed every male and non-virgin female in defiant-against-God Jabesh Gilead. They found 400 virgins to bring back for themselves. Better to have a virgin than one with syph, gonorrhea, chlamydia, or some other VD.
1 SAMUEL 4:10 The Philistines killed 30,000 Israelite soldiers. The Japs killed how many at Pearl Harbor? Hitler killed how many in crematoriums?
1 SAMUEL 5:6-9 As punishment for stealing the Ark of the Covenant, God afflicted the Philistines with tumors in their "secret parts." Maybe was selectively radioactive. Should have had a Geiger counter. Should have invented it by then.
1 SAMUEL 6:19 Some of the men of Beth Shemesh looked into the Ark. God punished them by killing all 70 of them. Spock in Star Trek should have never persisted in that high-radiation enclosure. Just can't reason with a self-sacrificial Vulcan at times.
1 SAMUEL 7:7-11 God helped Samuel’s men kill the Philistines, "slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car." Good to have God's help. The Phillies should have gotten out of God's way.
1 SAMUEL 11:11 Under God’s blessing, Saul and his army slaughtered the Ammonites "until the heat of the day." Make an end of those who are hell-bent on making an end of you first.
1 SAMUEL 15:33 "Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal." Actually, he "hewed" him to death, and - again: make an end of those who are hell-bent on making an end of you first.
2 SAMUEL 4:12 David punished Rechan and Baanah by killing them, chopping off their hands and feet and hanging their bodies by the pool at Hebron. And had Rechan and Baanah done the same previously to others?
2 SAMUEL 6:6-7 The oxen carrying the Ark of God stumbled, and Uzzah reached out to steady it. God punished his "irreverent act" by killing him where he stood. Right on the spot. Remember Ananias and Sapphira.
2 SAMUEL 6:22-23 Michal mocked David for dancing with a linen ephod on. Michal was understandably punished by God, who made her barren of children for the rest of her life. Sassy-reviler Michal never had any children by David. I would not have given the arrogant twit any either.
2 SAMUEL 8:1-18 David’s acts included killing 2 out of 3 Moabite soliders, hamstringing 6,900 chariot horses, killing 22,000 Syrians, and striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Verse 6 says "The Lord gave David victory wherever he went." Get them before they get you first, if you have reasonable probable cause.
2 SAMUEL 10:18 David killed 700 charioteers and 40,000 Syrian foot soldiers. Ditto regarding the last comment.
2 SAMUEL 11:14-27 David adulterized Uriah’s adulterous wife. So he had him killed in battle so David could have Bathsheba for himself. And paid the awful price.
2 SAMUEL 12:1 For David’s murder of Uriah, God killed David’s child. So? You play, you pay.
2 SAMUEL 13:1-15 David’s son, Amnon, fell in love with his own sister, Tamar, a virgin. She protested his advances, (verse 14) "but he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her." Afterward, Amnon hated her and cast her out of the room. As Naomi warned Ruth: "Watch out for rapists in the open field."
2 SAMUEL 13:28-29 Tamar’s brother Absalom ordered his men to get Amnon drunk, then kill him for raping his sister. Just retribution.
2 SAMUEL 18:6-7 David’s army slaughtered 20,000 men in the forest of Ephraim. Each one roundly deserved it.
2 SAMUEL 20:10-12 Joab plunged a dagger into Amasa’s belly, spilling his intestines onto the ground. Amasa died, wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road. Everyone got what they deserved later on for whatever they did, whether just of injust.
2 SAMUEL 24:15 God sent a plague on Israel to punish David for sin. 70,000 people died. If the captain is off his base, they crew will also suffer.
1 KINGS 2:24-25 Solomon killed Adonijah for treason. Osama bin Laden was killed for planning 9112001.
1 KINGS 2:29-34 Solomon killed Joab for Joab being guilty of murder. Executioners in San Quentin do the same all the time against those on death row.
1 KINGS 13-15-24 A prophet lied to a man, telling him it was fine to eat bread and drink water in a place the Lord had previously told him not to. The deceived man ate and drank there. God sent a lion to kill him, "and his body was thrown down on the road." God does not go back on His word, and don't let anyone tell you differently - no matter what he or she says, or who they claim to be. If you don't, the consequences could be lethal.
2 KINGS 1:10-12 Elijah called down fire from heaven. 50 men were consumed by the flames. Don't mess with the Lord's firebender Elijah.
2 KINGS 2:23-24 42 Forty-two children made fun of Elisha on the roadside because he was bald. Elisha cursed them. Two bears came out of the woods and mauled them to death. Don't mess with the Lord's Elijah.
2 KINGS 5:27 Elisha cursed Gehazi and his descendants, forever, with leprosy. Don't mess with the Lord's Elijah.
2 KINGS 6:18-19 The enemy came toward Elisha, and he prayed to God, "Strike these people with blindness." God made them blind. Elisha then tricked them and led them to Samaria, where God opened their eyes again. But he did not require their execution. And they never did that again.
2 KINGS 9:30-37 Jehu had Jezebel killed. Horses trampled her and her blood splattered the wall. Dogs ate her flesh and her remains were called "refuse" (trash). A violent end to a woman who had murdered the Lord's prophets and innocent Naboth for his vineyard.
2 KINGS 10:7 Jehu had wicked Ahab’s 70 wicked sons beheaded. He then sent the heads to their grieving father. Do them in first before they do you in first. Matt Dillion in Gunsmoke would have.
2 KINGS 10:14 Jehu ordered the death of Ahab’s family 42 people. Execute the treasonous.
2 KINGS 10:17 According to God’s word (spoken to Elijah), Jehu went to Samaria and "killed all who were left there of Ahab’s family; he destroyed them" Execute traitors.
2 KINGS 10:19-27 Jehu trapped the Baal worshippers in the temple. He then told the guards, "Go in and kill them; let no one escape." They slaughtered the worshippers and burned down the temple, using it as a latrine from that day forward. Got to have something to piss in.
2 KINGS 11:1 Athaliah destroyed the royal family. And she was thankfully stabbed to death later on.
2 KINGS 14:3-5 God was unhappy with Azariah, even though he had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord. The high places had not been removed, and God was jealous of their sacrifices on that altar. So God afflicted Azariah with leprosy as punishment. Don't serve the Lord in a half-ass way.
2 KINGS 15:16 Menahem attacked the city of Tiphsah. He destroyed the town and "ripped open all of the pregnant women." Tits for tat?
2 KINGS 19:35 An angel of the Lord killed 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. That's my favorite. Makes Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Bulge seem like child's play? War of the Worlds?
2 CHRONICLES 13:17 God delivered the Israelites to Abijah and Judah. 500,000 enemy dead. The Allies beat the antisemitic Axis during WW II.
ISAIAH 13:15 Isaiah saw a prophecy regarding Babylon. "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." Naughtiness is punished!
ISAIAH 49:26 God’s punishment on those who came against Israel. "I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior" Yum.(?)
JEREMIAH 16:4 The word of the Lord about the children born in this land says "They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like refuse lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the bests of the earth." Remember the death camps of the Nazis?
EZRA 6:12-13 Darius’ decree said that, if anyone changed his edict, "a beam is to be pulled from his house and he is to be lifted up and impaled on it." Then the house was to be demolished. Cool. Seen that in horror movies. Kinky.
JOB 1 To prove a point, God gave Satan permission to torment Job and test his righteousness. Job’s children were killed. Job’s possessions were destroyed. Job tore his clothes and shaved his head from grief. But he got it all back and his fortunes restored, with interest.
JOB 2 God allowed Satan to smite Job’s body with horrible boils "from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head." Job scraped his afflicted skin with a piece of broken pottery. His wife told Job to "Curse God and die." He understandably called her a fool for so saying. Job’s friends found him unrecognizable. That is how Satan mistreats God's beloved children.
EZEKIEL 23:34 God said that prostitutes would drink a cup of scorn and tear their breasts. Nice. Don't screw around. God's circumstantial and providential anti-vice squad in operation is no joke.
EZEKIEL 23:45-47 God punished adultery. "Bring a mob against them and give them over to terror and plunder. The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses."
Nothing but the best.
HOSEA 13:16 Because Israel had rebelled, a wind from the Lord would blow in. They "will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, and their pregnant women ripped open." Even God's chosen get the shaft if they do not obey.
MATTHEW 8:12 Jesus warned of eternal torture in hell, "into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Not where I'd want to go, but probably some God-hating atheists would rather go there than be forever perfect in Heaven always worshipping the God they despise.
MATTHEW 10:35-36 Following Jesus meant the possibility of turning a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, etc. " . . . a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household." Certainly. Right on. Whoever does not hate his own father and mother and wife cannot be Christ's disciple. Honor your father and mother. Husbands love your wives. Whenever each applies, depending upon the conditions and circumstances. Righteous and not demonic "situation ethics" is the name of the game
MATTHEW 8:21 A man sought to follow Jesus, but he wanted to bury his recently deceased father before he went. Jesus replied, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." Leave the messy stuff to the undertakers, and shoot the endangered-animal mule on the bridge which is blocking Patton's army convoy.
MARK 4:10 In Jesus’ parable of the sower, he told His disciples that he spoke to others in parables so the deliberately froward remain confused... "otherwise they might turn and be forgiven."
MARK 7:10 Jesus taught that any child who cursed his parents should be killed according to Old Testament law. Don't mouth off to daddy or mommy. A mere slap on the wrists or mouth or whack on the rear end is not enough for weapons-bearing devil-possessed shriekers.
LUKE 8:32-33 Jesus cast demons out of a naked man and into a large herd of pigs with trichinosis. They fell over a cliff to their death. The town asked Jesus to leave, and the now-clothed former demonic became one "hell" of a fired-up evangelist.
LUKE 12:47 Jesus warned that a servant of God who does not heed his master will be "beaten with many blows." So heed the master, and avoid the beating. Mind the employer, or he will kick your ass out of the company and into the street of jobless unemployment foreclosures and bankruptcy.
JOHN 6:53-66 Jesus said to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Despite the metaphorical tone, many disciples were uncomfortable with the idea and chose to walk away. Yuck. Cannibalism is not my cup of tea. Good thing Jesus was speaking symbolically. Those who drink blood are damned. What a way to encourage people to not get obese nor become gluttons nor drunkards.
ACTS 5:1-9 Ananias lied about the money he’d made on sold property, keeping some for himself. The Spirit executed him, then executed his wife for being in on it. Lie to the IRS and watch what happens. And don't mess with the Mafia's and the drug lord's stashes. They will get it from you, dead or alive, and won't give up until they do.
ROMANS 1:26-27 Paul said that homosexuals deserve death. Need any more be said? Obviously a no-brainer. Why defile society with AIDS and noxious sane-gender kissie-kissie exhibitionism?
HEBREWS 12:20 God said that animals must be stoned to death if they lay foot upon Mt. Zion. Keep the pets on leash when it counts.
1 PETER 1:20 Despite God’s planned phenomenon in the Garden of Eden, the mass execution of Noah’s flood and the final solution of Christ’s sacrifice, Jesus was predestined to be crucified all along. "He was chosen before the creation of the world." At least God compensated, and is benevolently fair.
REVELATION 6:8 In the End Times, God gives Death permission to slaughter 25% of the earth’s population by "sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth." Could and should be more, if they also do not repent. Who wants a Heaven infested with one or more demented and diabolical downers?
It is interesting to note that, as far as yours truly remembers in his recollection of the entire contents of The Holy Bible, there is NO instance whatsoever of any named human male ever divorcing his wife or concubine, and NO instance whatsoever of any named human female ever divorcing her husband.
The closest it comes to actual divorce are the separations only (NOT divorce) recorded in:
Genesis 16:1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar;
3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her maid.
8 And he said, "Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am running away from my matron Sarai."
9 The angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your matron, and submit to her."
10 The angel of the LORD also said to her, "I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for quantity."
11 And the angel of the LORD said to her, "Hey, you are with child [ not surgical-tissue fetus ], and shall bear a son [ And don't even think about committing and not "performing" abortion-homicide murder ]; you shall call his name Ishmael; because the LORD has paid attention to your affliction.
12 He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him; and he shall reside by all his relatives."
13 So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You are a God of seeing"; for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing Him?"
15 And Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael [ father of Arabs ].
16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
Genesis 21:9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing
[ "playing?" ] with her son Isaac.
10 So she said to Abraham, "Throw out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac."
11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.
12 But God said to Abraham, "Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your descendants be named.
13 And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring."
14 So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she threw the child under one of the bushes.
16 Then she went, and sat down over somewhat near him but not that close, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Let me not look upon the death of the child." And as she sat over against him, the child lifted up his voice and cried.
17 And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.
18 Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand; for I will make him a great nation."
19 Then God made her see, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.
21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Galatians 4:24 Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.
Galatians 4:25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
And:
Judges 14:15 On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?"
16 And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, "You only hate me, you do not love me; you have put a riddle to my countrymen, and you have not told me what it is." And he said to her, "Hey, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?"
17 She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted; and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her countrymen.
18 And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" And [Samson] said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer [i.e. wife], you would not have found out my riddle."
19 And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty men of the town, and took their spoil and gave the festal garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father's house.
20 And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.
Judges 15:1 After a while, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young animal; and he said, "I will go in to my wife in the chamber." But her father would not allow him to go in.
2 And her father said, "I really thought that you utterly hated her; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister prettier than she? Please take her instead."
3 And Samson said to them, "This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines, when I do them mischief."
4 So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches; and he turned them tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.
5 And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards.
6 Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?" And they said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion." And the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father with fire.
And:
First Samuel 18:20 Now Saul's daughter Michal [pronounced: McCall] loved [ lusted for? ] David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
18:27 David got up and went, along with his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines; and David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife.
19:11 That night Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed."
19:12 So Michal let David down through the window; and he fled away and escaped.
19:13 Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with the clothes.
19:17 Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?" And Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go; why should I kill you?'" [ Talk about fraudulently double-crossing defamatory lie! ]
25:44 Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
Second Samuel 3:13 And [David] said, "Good; I will make a covenant with you; but one thing I require of you; that is, you shall not see my face, unless you first bring Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see my face."
3:14 Then David sent messengers to Ishbosheth Saul's son, saying, "Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed at the price of a hundred foreskins of the Philistines."
3:15 And Ishbosheth sent, and took her from her husband Paltiel the son of Laish.
3:16 But her husband went with her, weeping after her all the way to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, "Go, return"; and he returned.
6:16 As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
6:20 And David [ who had worn a linen ephod while breakdancing ] returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' maids, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!"
6:21 And David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD -- and I will make merry before the LORD.
6:23 And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child [ by David ] to the day of her death.
Therefore, it seems that men mentioned in The Bible who, in the past (similar to Christian men presently) have expressed desire for and/or engaged in harem-type polygamy did NOT state that they wanted a replacement wife or concubine, nor even a different wife or concubine, but instead wanted another wife or concubine but ONLY in the sense of her being an additional wife or concubine .... being that whatever wives or concubines one has or continues to accumulate have a permanent marital relationship with their singular husband (without anyone divorcing anyone).