The evil intent of the King James translators
is easily seen in the "Book of
Joel,"
For they attempted to assert the validity
of animal sacrifices
Even among the late Jewish prophets
like Joel who were vegetarian.
Joel describes locusts, drought, and desertification, the latter of which we have seen in our own century in rain forests and heavily lumbered areas. In our own time, the droughts of Ethiopia, which had turned to cattle raising in place of agriculture, comprise a classic example of what occurs when the cattle raising interests overcome the interests of farmers. Desertification and famine are the result when the vegetation and water of the land are disproportionally used to feed cattle for carnivores who eat "high on the food chain," instead of being used to raise produce that will feed all the people and animals. The waste products of the cattle ruin the land for immediate reuse by farmers. The meat eating or carnivorous cultures are described with the typical use of lion imagery.
"For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and without number; its number; it's teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines, and splintered my fig trees; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white....The cereal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord....The fields are laid waste, the ground mourns; because the grain is destroyed, the wine fails, the oil languishes." Joel 1: 6-10
In the following scripture Joel repeats what the late prophets and Moses and Joshua (as recorded by the vegetarian Essenes) said, that humankind is to be satisfied with produce, not with animal flesh.
"Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine and oil, and you shall be satisfied..." Joel 2: l9.
And Joel reiterates what all close readers of the Old Testament know, that the vegetarian covenant of Gen. 1: 29-30 was a covenant with all creatures, not just with humans. Unlike the Jewish orthodoxy, Joel recognizes the validity of that covenant.
"Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and the vine give their full yield." 2: 22.
So too in the following scripture Joel recognizes that the long-awaited paradise is one in which all creatures, and not just humans, will share.
"And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my
spirit on all flesh..." 2: 28.
An Example of How the Bible Was Revised
By a Carnivorous Orthodoxy.
The Word Meat in used in Place of Grain,
Implying that the Animal Sacrifices
were Valid.
By comparing the King James translation with the later Revised Standard Version of the "Book of Joel," it can be easily seen how the translators hired by King James intentionally attempted to marginalize the vegetarianism even of the late vegetarian prophets. To translate grain as meat when dealing with the late vegetarian prophets is deception, is lying, pure and simple.
The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, the ministers of the LORD. 1: 9 RSV
In the King James version this scripture reads:
The meat offering and the drink
offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's
ministers, mourn.
The Translations of Joel: 1: 13, 1:
16, and 2: 14
Demonstrate the Same Lack of Integrity
by the translators
of the King James Bible.
1: 13
Put on sackcloth and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, pass the night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God! Grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. 1: 13 RSV
[13] Gird yourselves, and lament, ye
priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth,
ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering
is withholden from the house of your God. 1: 13
Joel 1: 16
16 Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? RSV
[16] Is not the meat cut off
before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 1: 16
King James
Joel 2: 14
2: 14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD, your God?
[14] Who knoweth if he will return and
repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and
a drink offering unto the LORD your God? 2: 14.