Biblical Atrocities - Compiled by Donald Morgan (Note:
In the Bible, words having to do with killing significantly outnumber words having to do
with love.)
GE 3:1-7, 22-24 God allows Adam and Eve to
be deceived by the Serpent (the craftiest of all of God's wild creatures). They eat of the
"Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil," thereby incurring death for themselves and
all of mankind for ever after. God prevents them from regaining eternal life, by placing a
guard around the "Tree of Eternal Life." (Note: God could have done the same for
the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil" in the first place and would thereby
have prevented the Fall of man, the necessity for Salvation, the Crucifixion of Jesus,
etc.)
GE 4:2-8 God's arbitrary
preference of Abel's offering to that of Cain's provokes Cain to commit the first
biblically recorded murder and kill his brother Abel.
GE 34:13-29 The
Israelites kill Hamor, his son, and all the men of their village, taking as plunder their
wealth, cattle, wives and children.
GE 6:11-17, 7:11-24 God is unhappy with the
wickedness of man and decides to do something about it. He kills every living thing on the
face of the earth other than Noah's family and thereby makes himself the greatest mass
murderer in history.
GE 19:26 God personally sees
to it that Lot's wife is turned to a pillar of salt (for having looked behind her while
fleeing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah).
GE 38:9 "... whenever he
lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing
offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked ..., so the Lord put him to death."
EX 2:12 Moses murders an
Egyptian.
EX 7:1, 14, 9:14-16, 10:1-2, 11:7 The purpose of the devastation
that God brings to the Egyptians is as follows:
to show that he is Lord;
to show that there is none like him in all the earth;
to show his great power;
to cause his name to be declared throughout the earth;
to give the Israelites something to talk about with their children;
to show that he makes a distinction between Israel and Egypt.
EX 9:22-25 A plague of hail
from the Lord strikes down everything in the fields of Egypt both man and beast except in
Goshen where the Israelites reside.
EX 12:29 The Lord kills all
the first-born in the land of Egypt.
EX 17:13 With the Lord's
approval, Joshua mows down Amalek and his people.
EX 21:20-21 With the
Lord's approval, a slave may be beaten to death with no punishment for the perpetrator as
long as the slave doesn't die too quickly.
EX 32:27 "Put every man
his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay
every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.
EX 32:27-29 With the
Lord's approval, the Israelites slay 3000 men.
LE 26:7-8 The Lord
promises the Israelites that, if they are obedient, their enemies will "fall before
your sword."
LE 26:22 "I will also
send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children."
LE 26:29, DT 28:53, JE 19:9, EZ 5:8-10 As a punishment, the
Lord will cause people to eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and fathers and
friends.
LE 27:29 Human sacrifice
is condoned. (Note: An example is given in JG 11:30-39)
NU 11:33 The Lord smites the
people with a great plague.
NU 12:1-10 God makes
Miriam a leper for seven days because she and Aaron had spoken against Moses.
NU 15:32-36 A Sabbath
breaker (who had gathered sticks for a fire) is stoned to death at the Lord's command.
NU 16:27-33 The Lord
causes the earth to open and swallow up the men and their households (including wives and
children) because the men had been rebellious.
NU 16:35 A fire from the
Lord consumes 250 men.
NU 16:49 A plague from the
Lord kills 14,700 people.
NU 21:3 The Israelites
utterly destroy the Canaanites.
NU 21:6 Fiery serpents, sent
by the Lord, kill many Israelites.
NU 21:35 With the Lord's
approval, the Israelites slay Og "... and his sons and all his people, until there
was not one survivor left ...."
NU 25:4 (KJV) "And the
Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord
against the sun ...."
NU 25:8 "He went after
the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and
the woman through her belly."
NU 25:9 24,000 people die in
a plague from the Lord.
NU 31:9 The Israelites
capture Midianite women and children.
NU 31:17-18 Moses,
following the Lord's command, orders the Israelites to kill all the Midianite male
children and "... every woman who has known man ...." (Note: How would it be
determined which women had known men? One can only speculate.)
NU 31:31-40 32,000
virgins are taken by the Israelites as booty. Thirty-two are set aside (to be sacrificed?)
as a tribute for the Lord.
DT 2:33-34 The
Israelites utterly destroy the men, women, and children of Sihon.
DT 3:6 The Israelites
utterly destroy the men, women, and children of Og.
DT 7:2 The Lord commands
the Israelites to "utterly destroy" and shown "no mercy" to those whom
he gives them for defeat.
DT 20:13-14
"When the Lord delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the males .... As for
the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these
as plunder for yourselves."
DT 20:16 "In the
cities of the nations the Lord is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive
anything that breathes."
DT 21:10-13 With the
Lord's approval, the Israelites are allowed to take "beautiful women" from the
enemy camp to be their captive wives. If, after sexual relations, the husband has "no
delight" in his wife, he can simply let her go.
DT 28:53 "You will
eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given
you."
JS 1:1-9, 18 Joshua receives the Lord's
blessing for all the bloody endeavors to follow.
JS 6:21-27 With the Lord's
approval, Joshua destroys the city of Jericho men, women, and children with the edge of
the sword.
JS 7:19-26 Achan, his
children and his cattle are stoned to death because Achan had taken a taboo thing.
JS 8:22-25 With the Lord's
approval, Joshua utterly smites the people of Ai, killing 12,000 men and women, so that
there were none who escaped.
JS 10:10-27 With the help
of the Lord, Joshua utterly destroys the Gibeonites.
JS 10:28 With the Lord's
approval, Joshua utterly destroys the people of Makkedah.
JS 10:30 With the Lord's
approval, Joshua utterly destroys the Libnahites.
JS 10:32-33 With the
Lord's approval, Joshua utterly destroys the people of Lachish.
JS 10:34-35 With the
Lord's approval, Joshua utterly destroys the Eglonites.
JS 10:36-37 With the
Lord's approval, Joshua utterly destroys the Hebronites.
JS 10:38-39 With the
Lord's approval, Joshua utterly destroys the Debirites.
JS 10:40 (A summary
statement.) "So Joshua defeated the whole land ...; he left none remaining, but
destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded."
JS 11:6 The Lord orders horses
to be hamstrung. (Exceedingly cruel.)
JS 11:8-15 "And the
lord gave them into the hand of Israel, ...utterly destroying them; there was none left
that breathed ...."
JS 11:20 "For it was the
Lord's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in
order that they should be utterly destroyed, and should receive no mercy but be
exterminated, as the Lord commanded Moses."
JS 11:21-23 Joshua utterly
destroys the Anakim.
JG 1:4 With the Lord's support,
Judah defeats 10,000 Canaanites at Bezek.
JG 1:6 With the Lord's
approval, Judah pursues Adoni-bezek, catches him, and cuts off his thumbs and big toes.
JG 1:8 With the Lord's
approval, Judah smites Jerusalem.
JG 1:17 With the Lord's
approval, Judah and Simeon utterly destroy the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath.
JG 3:29 The Israelites kill
about 10,000 Moabites.
JG 3:31 (A restatement.)
Shamgar killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad.
JG 4:21 Jael takes a tent
stake and hammers it through the head of Sisera, fastening it to the ground.
JG 7:19-25 The Gideons
defeat the Midianites, slay their princes, cut off their heads, and bring the heads back
to Gideon.
JG 8:15-21 The Gideons
slaughter the men of Penuel.
JG 9:5 Abimalech murders his
brothers.
JG 9:45 Abimalech and his men
kill all the people in the city.
JG 9:53-54 "A woman
dropped a stone on his head and cracked his skull. Hurriedly he called to his
armor-bearer, 'Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can't say a woman killed me.' So
his servant ran him through, and he died."
JG 11:29-39 Jepthah
sacrifices his beloved daughter, his only child, according to a vow he has made with the
Lord.
JG 14:19 The Spirit of the
Lord comes upon a man and causes him to slay thirty men.
JG 15:15 Samson slays 1000
men with the jawbone of an ass.
JG 16:21 The Philistines
gouge out Samson's eyes.
JG 16:27-30 Samson, with
the help of the Lord, pulls down the pillars of the Philistine house and causes his own
death and that of 3000 other men and women.
JG 18:27 The Danites slay the
quiet and unsuspecting people of Laish.
JG 19:22-29 A group of
sexual depraved men beat on the door of an old man's house demanding that he turn over to
them a male house guest. Instead, the old man offers his virgin daughter and his guest's
concubine (or wife): "Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me
bring them out now. Ravish them and do with them what seems good to you; but against this
man do not do so vile a thing." The man's concubine is ravished and dies. The man
then cuts her body into twelve pieces and sends one piece to each of the twelve tribes of
Israel.
JG 20:43-48 The Israelites
smite 25,000+ "men of valor" from amongst the Benjamites, "men and beasts
and all that they found," and set their towns on fire.
JG 21:10-12 "... Go
and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword and; also the women
and little ones.... every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall utterly
destroy." They do so and find four hundred young virgins whom they bring back for
their own use.
1SA 4:10 The Philistines
slay 30,000 Israelite foot soldiers.
1SA 5:6-9 The Lord afflicts
the Philistines with tumors in their "secret parts," presumably for having
stolen the Ark.
1SA 6:19 God kills seventy
men (or so) for looking into the Ark (at him?). (Note: The early Israelites apparently
thought the Ark to be God's abode.)
1SA 7:7-11 Samuel and his
men smite the Philistines.
1SA 11:11 With the Lord's
blessing, Saul and his men cut down the Ammonites.
1SA 14:31 Jonathan and his
men strike down the Philistines.
1SA 14:48 Saul smites the
Amalekites.
1SA 15:3, 7-8 "This is what the Lord
says: Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them,
but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass ....' And
Saul ... utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword."
1SA 15:33 "Samuel
hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord ...."
1SA 18:7 The women sing as
they make merry: "Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands."
1SA 18:27 David murders 200
Philistines, then cuts off their foreskins.
1SA 30:17 David smites the
Amalekites.
2SA 2:23 Abner kills Asahel.
2SA 3:30 Joab and Abishai
kill Abner.
2SA 4:7-8 Rechan and Baanah
kill Ish-bosheth, behead him, and take his head to David.
2SA 4:12 David has Rechan
and Baanah killed, their hands and feet cut off, and their bodies hanged by the pool at
Hebron.
2SA 5:25 "And David did
as the Lord commanded him, and smote the Philistines ...."
2SA 6:2-23 Because she
rebuked him for having exposed himself, Michal (David's wife) was barren throughout her
life.
2SA 8:1-18 (A listing of
some of David's murderous conquests.)
2SA 8:4 David hamstrung all
but a few of the horses.
2SA 8:5 David slew 22,000
Syrians.
2SA 8:6, 14 "The Lord gave victory to
David wherever he went."
2SA 8:13 David slew 18,000
Edomites in the valley of salt and made the rest slaves.
2SA 10:18 David slew
47,000+ Syrians.
2SA 11:14-27 David has
Uriah killed so that he can marry Uriah's wife, Bathsheba.
2SA 12:1, 19 The Lord strikes David's child
dead for the sin that David has committed.
2SA 13:1-15 Amnon loves
his sister Tamar, rapes her, then hates her.
2SA 13:28-29 Absalom has
Amnon murdered.
2SA 18:6 -7 20,000 men are
slaughtered at the battle in the forest of Ephraim.
2SA 18:15 Joab's men murder
Absalom.
2SA 20:10-12 Joab's men
murder Amasa and leave him "... wallowing in his own blood in the highway. And anyone
who came by, seeing him, stopped."
2SA 24:15 The Lord sends a
pestilence on Israel that kills 70,000 men.
1KI 2:24-25 Solomon has
Adonijah murdered.
1KI 2:29-34 Solomon has
Joab murdered.
1KI 2:46 Solomon has Shime-i
murdered.
1KI 13:15-24 A man is
killed by a lion for eating bread and drinking water in a place where the Lord had
previously told him not to. This is in spite of the fact that the man had subsequently
been lied to by a prophet who told the man that an angel of the Lord said that it would be
alright to eat and drink there.
1KI 20:29-30 The
Israelites smite 100,000 Syrian soldiers in one day. A wall falls on 27,000 remaining
Syrians.
2KI 1:10-12 Fire from
heaven comes down and consumes fifty men.
2KI 2:23-24 Forty-two
children are mauled and killed, presumably according to the will of God, for having jeered
at a man of God.
2KI 5:27 Elisha curses Gehazi
and his descendants forever with leprosy.
2KI 6:18-19 The Lord
answers Elisha's prayer and strikes the Syrians with blindness. Elisha tricks the blind
Syrians and leads them to Samaria.
2KI 6:29 "So we cooked
my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Give up your son so we may eat him,' but
she had hidden him."
2KI 9:24 Jehu tricks and
murders Joram.
2KI 9:27 Ahaziah has Jehu
killed.
2KI 9:30-37 Jehu has
Jezebel killed. Her body is trampled by horses. Dogs eat her flesh so that only her skull,
feet, and the palms of her hands remain.
2KI 10:7 Jehu has Ahab's
seventy sons beheaded, then sends the heads to their father.
2KI 10:14 Jehu has forty-two
of Ahab's kin killed.
2KI 10:17 "And when he
came to Samaria, he slew all that remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had wiped them out,
according to the word of the Lord ...."
2KI 10:19-27 Jehu uses
trickery to massacre the Baal worshippers.
2KI 11:1 Athaliah destroys
all the royal family.
2KI 14:5, 7 Amaziah kills his servants and
then 10,000 Edomites.
2KI 15:3-5 Even though he
did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, the Lord smites Azariah with leprosy for not
having removed the "high places."
2KI 15:16 Menahem ripped
open all the women who were pregnant.
2KI 19:35 An angel of the
Lord kills 185,000 men.
1CH 20:3 (KJV) "And
he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of
iron, and with axes."
2CH 13:17 500,000
Israelites are slaughtered.
2CH 21:4 Jehoram slays
all his brothers.
PS 137:9 Happy will be the
man who dashes your little ones against the stones.
PS 144:1 God is praised as
the one who trains hands for war and fingers for battle.
IS 13:15 "Everyone who
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 ... wives will be
ravished."
IS 13:18 "Their bows
also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the
womb; their eye shall not spare children."
IS 14:21-22 "Prepare
slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers."
IS 49:26 The Lord will cause
the oppressors of the Israelite's to eat their own flesh and to become drunk on their own
blood as with wine.
JE 16:4 "They shall die
grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall
be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by
famine; and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of
the earth."
LA 4:9-10 "Those
slain by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they
waste away for lack of food. ... pitiful women have cooked their own children, who became
their food ..."
EZ 6:12-13 The Lord says:
"... they will fall by the sword, famine and plague. He that is far away will die of
the plague, and he that is near will fall by the sword, and he that survives and is spared
will die of famine. So will I spend my wrath upon them. And they will know I am the Lord,
when the people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on
all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak ...."
EZ 9:4-6 The Lord commands:
"... slay old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women
...."
EZ 20:26 In order that he
might horrify them, the Lord allowed the Israelites to defile themselves through, amongst
other things, the sacrifice of their first-born children.
EZ 21:3-4 The Lord says
that he will cut off both the righteous and the wicked that his sword shall go against all
flesh.
EZ 23:25, 47 God is going to slay the sons
and daughters of those who were whores.
EZ 23:34 "You shall ...
pluck out your hair, and tear your breasts."
HO 13:16 "They shall fall
by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be
ripped up."
MI 3:2-3 "... who pluck
off their skin ..., and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my
people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in
pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron."
MT 3:12, 8:12, 10:21, 13:30, 42, 22:13, 24:51, 25:30, LK 13:28, JN 5:24 Some will spend eternity
burning in Hell. There will be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.
MT 10:21 "... the
brother shall deliver up his brother to death, and the father his child, ... children
shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death."
MT 10:35-36 "For I
have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law a man's enemies will be the members of his own
family."
MT 11:21-24 Jesus curses
[the inhabitants of] three cities who were not sufficiently impressed with his great
works.
AC 13:11 Paul purposefully
blinds a man (though not permanently).
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