YHWH
 

Just to remind ourselves that YHWH can be a brutal god, who directs humans to kill every living being related to a particular tribe.
I am quoting from the Tanakh: The Jewish Bible:
And Samuel said unto Saul: 'The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over His people, over Israel; now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him in the way, when he came up out of Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'
Quote from The Tanakh: The Jewish Bible – The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text (p. 434).

Of course God himself is the ultimate killer; the giver and taker of all life.

But, when it comes to a document of recorded history in which men write "We killed a bunch of people, because God told us to..."

:confused1:

I often wonder how much of the Bible was written by honestly inspired men, and how much was written by confused men who merely believed themselves to be honest and inspired, and how much was written by tyrants white-washing their own brutality.

the problem is that stories like these become part of a people's DNA, so to speak, a part of their history, a part of their "story", part of who they see themselves to be, their history.
with this kind of a history, how can people in the present overcome these strains in their DNA?

Is not YHWH generally referenced as the Jewish God?

What about some of the other Gods mentioned in other religions. Are not their Gods, in many cases, looked upon as more 'violent' then YHWH?

And as for the scripture cited, I find it interesting a person would seek out such a scripture. Are you interested in the Masoretic Text as your post seems to indicate?

Psychiatrist's would have a field day delving into the minds of some Ancient Scribes through reading their Scriptures :biggrin:

This is not the God I understand....

My God is the creative energy of all things, a giver of what we term life but never a taker of it.

Where the state of being that humankind calls 'life' is concerned, God has provided vehicles for our spirits to use in this dimension - physical bodies. We can discuss why we live in this dimension until the cows can home but that isn't the issue here.

The bodies we live in have a finite life - that's indisputable. They last for several decades before their fabric and their support systems start to deteriorate and eventually fail. Our incarnate lives end at that point but God didn't take any action to cause that - God didn't and doesn't kill us or any other living thing.

All have systems, bodies or structures which fail for various reasons and eventually die. There's no involvement by God in those processes, no taking of anyone's or anything's life.

I'm glad my mind's working is not hampered by all the stuff I hear and read. I am blessed I don't carry such baggage. :hug3:

I have to agree


Namaste

i had posted something about sacrifices to gods, it was deemed inappropriate to some of the
younger audience on this forum.
as far as the text i used in my quote, i try to get to the source material, which is the Jewish Bible.

I too would find postings about human sacrifices inappropriate and I'm one of the senior members here.

This website is supposed to be one concerned with matters spiritual but that's increasingly notional rather than actual. :icon_frown:

i had not posted anything about human sacrifices. simply sacrifices to gods, some of which involve blood.
the bible is full of sacrifices like this. they may be called offerings at times.
even jesus is considered the sacrificial lamb who got sacrificed for our sins so that we may be free from our original sin that traces back to adam and eve.