The Old Testament Revisited
from a Pagan Perspective,
as suggested by Merlin Stone,
in When God was a Woman
The Kingdom of Ebla, capital of the Cannanite Empire, 2400-2250 B.C.
The Lord is my rock. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and
cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, then the earth
shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were
shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,
and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed
the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. At the
brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and
coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest
gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Then the channels of
waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy
rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
(Psalm 18, pre 2000 B.C.)
The Lord reigneth; clouds and darkness are round about him: a fire
goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings
enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted
like wax at the presence of the Lord.
(Psalm 97, pre 2000 B.C.)
And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were
thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice
of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that were in the
camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to
meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount
Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in
fire: and the mount quaked greatly. And Moses went up into the mount,
and a cloud covered the mount. And the sight of the glory of the Lord
was like devouring fire on top of the mount in the eyes of the children
of Israel.
(Exodus 19,24, c1300 B.C.)
The Israelite Conquest, 1225 B.C.
Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the
judgements, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go
in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.
Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor: for all the
men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from
among you. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every
one of you this day. Only take heed to thyself, lest thou forget the
things which thine eyes have seen, specially the day that thou stoodest
before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, gather me
the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may
learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and
that they may teach their children. And ye came near and stood under the
mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with
darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. Take ye therefore good heed unto
yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord
spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: lest ye corrupt
yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the
likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the
earth. And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with
fire, and stamped, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as
dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of
the mount.
(Deuteronomy 4,9)
These are the statutes and judgements, which ye shall observe. Ye
shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall
possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills,
and under every green tree. And ye shall overthrow their altars, and
break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew
down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out
of that place. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or
the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice
thee secretly, saying, let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast
not known, thou nor thy fathers; namely, of the gods of the people which
are found about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one
end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; thou shalt surely
kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and
afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with
stones, that he die. Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out
from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying,
let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known: thou shalt surely
smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying
it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge
of the sword.
(Deuteronomy 12,13)
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and
served Baalim. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which
brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the
gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto
them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and
served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the children of Israel dwelt among the
Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and
Jebusites, and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave
their daughters to their sons, and served their gods. And the children of
Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and forgat the Lord their God,
and served Baalim and the groves.
(Judges 2,3)
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, if ye do
return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods
and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare you hearts unto the Lord, and
serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the
Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and
Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only.
(I. Samuel 7, c1050 B.C.)
King Soloman and the Separation of Israel and Judah, 920 B.C.
And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did
David his father. And he took away the Sodomites out of the land, and
removed all the idols that his fathers had made. And also Maachah his
mother, even her he removed from being Queen, because she had made an idol
in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the Brook Kidron.
(I. Kings 15, c910 B.C.)
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, 869 B.C.
And Jehu gathered all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab
served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much. Now therefore call
unto me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests:
let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice to do to Baal:
whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in
subtilty, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.
And Jehu said, proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed
it. And they came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was full
from one end to another. And when they went in to offer sacrifices and
burnt offerings, Jehu appointed fourscore men without, and said , if any
of the men whom I have brought into your hands escape, he that letteth
him go, his life shall be for the life of him. As soon as he had made an
end of offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the
captains, go in, and slay them; let none come forth. Thus Jehu destroyed
Baal out of Israel.
(II. Kings 10)
The Fall of Israel to the Assyrians, 720 B.C.
And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not
right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all
their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And
they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every
green tree; and their they burnt incense in all the high places, as did
the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them. And they left all the
commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two
calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and
served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass
through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold
themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord.
(II. Kings 17)
And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest to bring forth out of
the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for
the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without
Jerusalem. And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of
Judah had ordained to burn incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the
moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And he brought
out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, and burned
it. And he brake down the houses of the Sodomites, where the women wove
hangings for the grove. And he took away the horses that the kings of
Judah had given to the sun, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which Solomon the king of
Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for
Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of
the children of Ammon, did the king defile. And he brake in pieces the
images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of
men.
(II. Kings 23, c630 B.C.)
(And Jeremiah said) Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as
thou couldest. The Lord said also unto me hast thou seen that which
backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and
under every green tree, and their hath played the harlot. And I saw, when
for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put
her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister
Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to
pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and
committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
(Jeremiah 3, c622 B.C.)
Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto
other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all
the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered
Jeremiah, saying, as for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the
name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly
do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto
the Queen of Heaven, and to put out drink offering unto her, as we have
done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of
victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn
incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to put out drink offerings unto her,
we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the
famine. And when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven, and poured out
drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour
out drink offerings unto her, without our men?
(Jeremiah 44, c600 B.C.)
(And God said,) plead with your mother: let her put away her
whoredoms. For she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread
and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. Therefore,
behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she
shall not find her paths. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her
feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said,
these are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a
forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon
her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked
herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers,
and forgat me.
(Hosea 2)
The Fall of Judah to the Babylonians, 586 B.C.
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