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The Hebrew Bible is the holy text of most Abrahamic Religions . It records many events and laws that are endorsed or prescribed by Yahweh or carried out by certain people. Judaism teaches that the Torah contains 613 Eternal Commandments , many of which deal with Law and Punishment , on the personal, national and global scales. Christianity has also adapted and adopted many of these directives. To illustrate Yahweh's power, the text openly records what befell nations or individuals as lessons.


IN THE BOOK OF EXODUS


), and after first being the option of freely letting the Israelite slaves go, God hardens Pharaoh's heart, so that Pharaoh does not agree to let the Hebrews leave, then God sends various disasters onto the whole of Egypt, the cycle ends with the story of the killing of every firstborn child in Egypt as the final punishment for having afflicted the Israelites with deathly punishments. (Exodus 6-14)


IN THE BOOK OF NUMBERS


The people of 25:1-2 {Link without Title}

For these alleged transgrations, the Midianties were attacked by Moses and his followers (Num 31:1-54). When Moses learns that some of the Midianties are left alive (Num 31:15), he orders all males and non-virgin females killed, and all the virgin females to be taken captive (Num 31:17,18). Of the 32,000 virgins taken captive, 32 were sacrificed to God (Num 31:40). The rest of the virgins were considered booty (Num 31:32-35), for what purpose is not stated, but generally presumed to be sexual slavery.

For the alleged transgration of not initially killing all the males and non-virgins females, God brought a plague upon the people of Moses (Num 31:16)


OTHER PUNISHMENTS


  • Canaan was cursed to become a slave ("servant of a servant") by Noah. That was a punishment for Ham (Canaan's father) accidentally seeing Noah "naked" (Genesis 9.20-9.25) (which some believe is a Biblical Euphemism meaning Rape . Most scholars dispute this.)

  • Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back when fleeing Sodom (Genesis 19:26) (They were all explicitly warned by God not to look at the destruction of the wicked people of Sodom.)

  • Onan was killed by God for his refusal to marry his brother's widow and carry on his brother's family line. (Genesis 38:5)



EXAMPLES OF THE DEATH PENALTY

The Bible prescribes the death penalty for the following activities
  • Violating the Sabbath (by working, for example, see Exodus 31:14).

  • Men having sex with men, animals, or someone else's wife (Leviticus 20)

  • Rape (Deuteronomy 22)

  • Women not crying out while being raped (Deuteronomy 22:24)

  • Worshipping other gods (Deuteronomy 13:6-13:10, Exodus 22:20)

  • Witchcraft (Exodus 22:18)

  • Taking the lord's name or blasphemy (Leviticus 24:16)

  • Children who curse their parents (Exodus 21:15, 2:17, Leviticus 20:9)

  • Stealing slaves (Exodus 21:16)

  • Wife not being a virgin on the night of wedding (Deuteronomy 22:13-22)



CHALLENGE TO MODERNITY


It is true that in an environment of wide spread literacy, those imbued modern culture and values will see such stories of Mutilation , Rape , various Curse s, Slavery , Capital Punishment , Animal Cruelty , Misogyny , Child Abuse , Homophobia , Cannibalism and so forth as being a challenge to the moral authority of the bible.

These events are sometimes labelled "Bible atrocities and absurdities" by critics of , voiced by Thomas Paine in ''The Age Of Reason''.

"Bible difficulties" is an alternative term used by believers and Apologist s to describe these passages, although the phrase also covers alleged or apparent Contradiction s in the Bible.


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