As of my
last post, we were just starting into the Book of Numbers, the fourth Book of
the Bible. And yes, it had a lot of numbers. In fact, one of the numbers we’d
just gotten through was a simple math error contained in the inerrant and
perfect Bible, which apparently resulted in Moses and his family ripping off
the Hebrew people.
So as we
move on, the Bible repeats the duties of the Levite clans, just delving into
them in greater detail. It especially takes great pains to specify that Aaron
and his sons must carefully wrap all of the things from the holy implements
from the sanctuary before the Kohathites can go and pick them up for transport,
because even just looking at those implements might kill any non-priest. And
this expansion on the duties includes yet another census count: this time of
all the men between thirty and fifty years old, since those are the ages during
which they are required to provide service (Kohathites: 2,750, Gershonites:
2,630, Merari 3,200). This time they added the total up correctly.
Immediately
after this, God orders Moses to tell the people to put all the lepers and
unclean people out of the camp. This is basically just a start to enforcing the
rules set forth earlier in Leviticus about quarantining people with leprosy
and/o who are unclean. Presumably they were to be admitted back into the camp
once they were “clean” again, as those rules had stated, and this was not
simply an instruction to kick them all out.
Then we
get a reiteration about paying restitution for breaking faith with other
people. Interestingly, there is a clarification here that specifies that if the
person wronged is dead and has no next of kin, then the restitution has to be
paid to the priests. Interestingly how the rules here are focusing more and
more on putting wealth into the hands of Moses’ family.
After
this, we get a rule that’s entirely new: a test for adultery. This is for cases
where a man suspects his wife of sleeping with another man, but has no proof.
Basically, whenever he feels suspicious of his wife, he can subject her to this
bullshit. The test consists of taking her before the priest and giving a grain
offering. Then the priest takes some holy water, sprinkles from dust from the
tabernacle floor into it, and then recites an oath for the woman in which she
swears that, if she’s been unfaithful, when she drinks the water (now referred
to as “the water of bitterness that brings the curse”) her body will swell and
her thigh fall (possibly wither?) away and her name will become a curse among
the people. She agrees to this oath by saying “Amen, Amen.” Then the priest
writes the accusation against her down, scrapes the ink from the accusation
into the holy water/dust mixture, and then forces her to drink it.
Note
that there is no similar test for a man if his wife suspects him of adultery,
nor is there any penalty to the husband for a false accusation. Neither does
the above curse appear to affect the man with whom the woman was sleeping nor
is there any effort to identify and punish him. In fact, the act is repeatedly
referred to as the woman having “defiled herself,” as if the man involved bears
no responsibility in the act whatsoever. Pretty much, as far as I can tell thus
far, the Biblical definition of adultery consists only of having sex with a
married woman, and that a man (married or not) is pretty much free to fuck
whomever he pleases so long as he avoids incest. And just to be sure the
message that women are to blame comes across loud and clear, the section on
this test ends with the following verse:
“Num 5:31 The man shall be free
from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”
Just as
an amusing aside, I did a little research about the test (mostly to try and
figure out what the hell was meant by the bit about her thigh falling away).
And I came across a bit of commentary that claimed that since there aren’t any
known instances of a woman’s name being used as a curse as this test would
require if they failed it, that must mean that the test was an effective
deterrent to adultery. No mention at all of the far more likely conclusion that
the test is bullshit, there is no supernatural curse transmitted by dirty water
blessed by priests (though there’s the perfectly natural one of dysentery), and
therefore nobody ever fails it.
Then the
Bible moves on to discussing Nazirites. These are people (man or woman), who
take a special oath to set themselves aside to God for a period of time. These
people are not allowed to ingest alcohol or grapes, or any grape products in
any form. They’re not allowed to shave or cut their hair, nor go near any dead
bodies (not even those of any close relatives, if one should happen to die
during the period of the oath). Apparently God felt pretty strongly about that
last part, since he goes on to clarify that even if somebody dies suddenly
right next to you with no opportunity for you to save them or get away, you’ve
somehow fucked up and need to atone for it.
“Num 6:9 And if any man dies very
suddenly next to him and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave
his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. 10
On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest
to the entrance to the tent of meeting, 11 and the priest shall offer one for a
sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead
body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day.”
Take note
of the portion I bolded there. The poor Nazirite is blamed for committing a
sin, even though he had no control over the situation, no knowledge it was
coming in order to try and avoid it, and hell, he didn’t even fucking do
anything! But he sinned. Now take
into account that, depending what Christian/Jew you’re talking to, if somebody
just has and aneurism and dies right out of the blue it’s because God gave him
the aneurism (and no matter what believer you’re talking to, he at least had
the power to prevent it and chose not to), you’re right back into Orwellian
nightmare territory. This is a world where God has reserved the right to kill
the guy standing next to you and call you
a sinner for it. And moreover, specifically to do this to people who have gone
out of their way to demonstrate devotion to God. It’s increasingly difficult to
understand how anyone can believe, much less endorse, this world view.
Oh, and
by the way, once the Nazirite has made his little sacrifice of atonement for
the sin, he’s still subject to the additional penalty of having all the time he’s
served on his oath getting wiped out and having to start over.
Once the
Nazirite has finally completed the period of his oath, it’s naturally ended
with more offerings (bread and a ram). And naturally, most of that offering
ends up as free food for the priest.
This
seems like as good a stopping point as any, since this portion of the text
seems to be assembled pretty much at random anyway. Hope everyone is well, and
catch you next time!
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