1 Kings
Introduction

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22

Contradictions
Cruelty and Violence
Injustice
Absurdities
Family Values
Intolerance
Language
Women
Interpretation
Homosexuality
Science and History
Sex
Prophecy
Good Stuff

Other Versions
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Cruelty and Violence in 1 Kings

1. In David's last words, he commands his son Solomon to murder Joab and Shimei. 2:1-9

2. Solomon has his brother (Adonijah) murdered. 2:24-25

3. Solomon carries out the deathbed instructions of his father David by having Joab murdered. 2:29-34

4. Solomon justifies the murder of Joab by saying that Joab also was a murderer, and that the blood of Joab's victims "shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever." 2:33

5. But Solomon is not done murdering yet. He has Shimei murdered -- or as Solomon put it, "The Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head." 2:44, 46

6. When the ark of the covenant was brought into the temple, Solomon killed more animals than could be numbered. 8:5

7. When dedicating the temple, Solomon kills 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. All this blood and gore must have made God very happy. 8:63

8. Joab (David's captain) spent six months killing every male in Edom. 11:16

9. King Josiah is prophesied to sacrifice the priests of the "high places" on their altars. And he does so in 2 Kg.23:20. Note that this is a guy who "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord" (2 Kg.22:2). 13:2

10. Ever the playful spirit, God withers, and then restores, the hand of king Jeroboam. 13:4

11. There were these two prophets. The first prophet lied to the second. To the punish the second for believing the first's lie, God sends a lion to kill him. Get it? 13:11-24

12. God promises to "bring evil upon the house of Jerobaom," saying he will "cut off" anyone "that pisseth against the wall." Then, after he is done with them, their dead bodies will be eaten by dogs (if they are city dwellers) or fowls (if they are country folk). 14:10-12

13. Baasha kills "all of the house of Jeroboam" leaving none "to breath." This slaughter was done "according to the word of the Lord." 15:29

14. God says that "him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth of his in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat." 16:4

15. Zimri kills everyone "that pisseth against a wall ... according to the word of the Lord." 16:11-12

16. When Hiel rebuilds Jericho, he lays the foundation with the body of his oldest son and sets up the gates with his youngest son's body "according to the word of the Lord." 16:34

17. Elijah kills 450 prophets of Baal. 18:22, 40

18. God delivers the Syrians into the Israelites hands, and 100,000 were killed in one day. Of those that escaped, 27,000 were crushed by a falling wall. 20:28-30

19. There was this son of a prophet that said to his neighbor, "kill me." But the neighbor refused. So God sent a lion to devour him. 20:35

20. The prophet tells king Ahab that he, and his people, shall be punished for releasing Ben-hadad: "Your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people." 20:42

21. Although Naboth was set up here by Jezebel to steal his land, the text assumes that the proper punishment for "blaspheming God and the king" is death by stoning. 21:10-13

22. "Thus saith the Lord, in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine." 21:19

23. God will "bring evil upon" Ahab and "cut off" all those "that pisseth against the wall." 21:21

24. Jezebel (Ahab's "strange" wife) "stirred up" Ahab to "work wickedness in the sight of the Lord." To punish her, God will feed her dead body to the dogs. (He also plans to feed the city folk to the dogs and country folks to the birds.) 21:23-25

25. Jehoshaphat "did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord" and "took" the homosexuals (sodomites) "out of the land," or as the RSV says, "he exterminated" them. 22:43, 46