Exodus : Interpretation (6)

  1. "The LORD met him [Moses], and sought to kill him." 4:24-26

    God decides to kill Moses because his son had not yet been circumcised. Luckily for Moses, his Egyptian wife Zipporah "took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he [God] let him go." This story shows the importance of penises to God, and his hatred of foreskins.

    Strange Flesh: Moses and God 4:24-26

  2. "God spake all these words." 20:1

    These words" are generally considered to be The Ten Commandments. But the text doesn't call this un-numbered list "The Ten Commandments"; it only says that "these words" were spoken by God. (See Exodus 34:28 where the phrase "Ten Commandments" is actually used.)

  3. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." 20:4-5

    This verse is the basis of the Jehovah's Witness ban on saluting the flag. The governing body says that saluting the flag is a form of idol worship.

    The Flag Salute Cases: A Turning Point for Religious Liberty Douglas O. Linder (2018)

  4. "If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine." 21:22

    If a man causes a pregnant woman to miscarry, he must pay the woman's father some money. But if the woman dies, the man must be killed.

    This passage shows that the biblical author considered a woman's life to be more valuable than that of the fetus.

  5. "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in a kid in his mother's milk." 23:19

    Jewish dietary laws forbid the mixing of milk and meat in the same meal. This is one of the verses that form the basis of that law. (See also Ex 34:26 and Dt 14:21.)

  6. "The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel." 30:15

    The Christian Right uses this verse to justify an absolute flat tax, where everyone, rich or poor, pays the same dollar amount in taxes.

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