0 Exodus : Cruelty & Violence

Exodus : Cruelty & Violence (65)

  1. Moses murders an Egyptian after making sure that no one is looking. 2:11-12
  2. "I will ... smite Egypt with all my wonders." 3:20
  3. God threatens to kill the Pharaoh's firstborn son. 4:23
  4. God decides to kill Moses because his son had not yet been circumcised. 4:24-26
  5. Moses and Aaron ask the Pharaoh to let all the Israelites go into the desert to pray for three days, or else God will kill them all "with pestilence, or with the sword." 5:3
  6. "Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh." 6:1
  7. God will make sure that Pharaoh does not listen to Moses, so that he can kill Egyptians with his armies. 7:4
  8. "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD." Who else could be so cruel and unjust? 7:5, 17
  9. God tells Moses and Aaron to smite the river and turn it into blood. This is the first of the famous 10 plagues of Egypt. 7:17-24
  10. The fifth plague: all cattle in Egypt die.
    But a little later (9:19-20, 12:29), God kills them again a couple more times. 9:6
  11. The sixth plague: boils and blains upon man and beast. 9:9-12
  12. "For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth." Who else but the biblical god could be so cruel? 9:14
  13. God made the Pharaoh king so that God could show off his power. 9:16
  14. The seventh plague is hail. "And the hail smote throughout the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast." 9:22-25
  15. God wants to be remembered forever for the mass murder of little children. 10:2
  16. These verses clearly show that the mass murder of innocent children by God was premeditated. (see 12:29-30) 11:4-6
  17. God will kill the Egyptian children to show that he puts "a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." 11:7
  18. God explains to Moses that he intends to "smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. 12:12
  19. After God has sufficiently hardened the Pharaoh's heart, he kills all the firstborn Egyptian children. When he was finished "there was not a house where there was not one dead." Finally, he runs out of little babies to kill, so he slaughters the firstborn cattle, too. 12:29
  20. To commemorate the divine massacre of the Egyptian children, Moses instructs the Israelites to "sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix" -- all the males, that is. God has no use for dead, burnt female bodies. 13:2, 12, 15
  21. "I will harden Pharaoh's heart." 14:4
  22. After hardening Pharaoh's heart a few more times, God drowns Pharaoh's army in the sea. 14:4-28
  23. The LORD shall fight for you. 14:14
  24. "I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honour." 14:17
  25. "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen." 14:18
  26. "And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians." 14:26
  27. "And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians." 14:31
  28. Moses and the people sing praises to their murderous god. 15:1-19
  29. "The Lord is a man of war." Indeed, judging from his acts in the Old Testament, he is a vicious warlike monster. 15:3
  30. God's right hand dashes people in pieces. 15:6
  31. "For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon them." 15:19
  32. "Horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea." 15:21
  33. If you do what God says, he won't send his diseases on you (like he did to the Egyptians). But otherwise.... 15:26
  34. Joshua, with God's approval, kills the Amalekites "with the edge of the sword." 17:13
  35. "I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." 17:14
  36. "The Lord has sworn [God swears!] that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." So God is still fighting Amalek. I hope Moses can still keep his hand up. 17:14-16
  37. Any person or animal that touches Mt. Sinai shall be stoned to death or "shot through." Did Moses impose such severe penalties because he feared that someone might see him fake his meeting with God? 19:12-13
  38. Like the great and powerful Wizard of Oz, nobody can see God and live. 19:21
  39. God gives instructions for killing and burning animals. He says that if we will make such "burnt offerings," he will bless us for it. What kind of mind would be pleased by the killing and burning of innocent animals? 20:24
  40. A child who hits or curses his parents must be executed. 21:15, 17
  41. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 21:24-25
  42. It's okay to beat your slaves; even if they die you won't be punished, just as long as they survive a day or two after the beating (see verses 21:20-21). But avoid excessive damage to their eyes or teeth. Otherwise you may have to set them free. 21:26-27
  43. If an ox gores someone, "then the ox shall surely be stoned." 21:28
  44. If an ox gores someone due to the negligence of its owner, then "the ox shall be stoned, and his owner shall be put to death.". 21:29
  45. If an ox gores a slave, the owner of the ox must pay the owner of the slave 30 shekels of silver, and "the ox shall be stoned." 21:32
  46. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Thousands of innocent women have suffered excruciating deaths because of this verse. 22:18
  47. "Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death." Is it really necessary to kill such people? Couldn't we just send them to counseling or something? 22:19
  48. "He who sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed." If this commandment is obeyed, then the four billion people who do not believe in the biblical god must be killed. 22:20
  49. If you make God angry enough, he will kill you and your family with his own sword. 22:24
  50. "The firstborn of thy sons thou shalt give unto me." (As a burnt offering?) 22:29
  51. God promises to "send his fear before the Israelites" and to kill everyone that they encounter when they enter the promised land. 23:27
  52. God has hornets that bite and kill people. 23:28
  53. Moses has some animals killed and their dead bodies burned for God. Then he sprinkles their blood on the altar and on the people. This makes God happy. 24:5-8
  54. Get some animals, kill them, chop up their bodies, wave body parts in the air, burn the carcasses, and sprinkle the blood all around -- in precisely the way God tells you. It may well make you sick, but it makes God feel good. 29:11-37
  55. Have you killed and offered your bullock for a sin offering today? How about the two lambs you are supposed to offer each day? 29:36-39
  56. Wash up or die. This is a good verse to use when reminding the kiddies to wash their hands before supper. 30:20
  57. Whoever puts holy oil on a stranger shall be "cut off from his people." 30:33
  58. Those who break the Sabbath are to be executed. 31:14
  59. God asks to be left alone so that his "wrath may wax hot" and he can "consume them. 32:10
  60. Moses burned the golden calf, ground it into powder, and then forced it down the throats of all the people. 32:20
  61. God orders the sons of Levi (Moses, Aaron, and the other members of their tribe that were "on the Lord's side") to kill "every man his neighbor." "And there fell of the people that day about 3000 men." 32:27-28
  62. "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book." 32:33
  63. But God wasn't satisfied with the slaughter of the 3000, so he killed some more people with a plague. 32:35
  64. If you can't redeem him, then just "break his neck." Hey, it's all for the glory of God. 34:20
  65. Whoever works, or even kindles a fire, on the Sabbath "shall be put to death." 35:2-3

Copyright © 1999-2024
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible

Send comments to Steve Wells
at swwells(at)gmail.com