I think a lot of people are reading to much into the ass and oxen passage. There is a much more simple explanation, donkeys are fucking mean.
There is a reason the term “Jack Ass” is still in popular use. Donkeys (especially males) are stubborn and aggressive. When coyotes first showed up in the mid 80’s a lot of the local farmers started to keep donkeys in cow pastures when the calf’s were born. The donkeys would run off the coyotes, I have also seen donkeys in fields with goats for same reason.
If one were to hitch an ass and an ox up to an old time blade plow I could easily see the donkey bite the ox and cause trouble or even death for the plowman.
I would lump this into the same vein as don’t eat pork, or shell fish.
I don’t see this as a veiled medaphore for racial purity. I can’t quote the verse but I seem to remember that certain people’s were off limits for marriage but that may have had to do with the treatment of some of the Israelites war time enemies during the conquest. I just do not see the Old Testament writes as that concerned about hiding a message like that.
There is a reason the term “Jack Ass” is still in popular use. Donkeys (especially males) are stubborn and aggressive. When coyotes first showed up in the mid 80’s a lot of the local farmers started to keep donkeys in cow pastures when the calf’s were born. The donkeys would run off the coyotes, I have also seen donkeys in fields with goats for same reason.
If one were to hitch an ass and an ox up to an old time blade plow I could easily see the donkey bite the ox and cause trouble or even death for the plowman.
I would lump this into the same vein as don’t eat pork, or shell fish.
I don’t see this as a veiled medaphore for racial purity. I can’t quote the verse but I seem to remember that certain people’s were off limits for marriage but that may have had to do with the treatment of some of the Israelites war time enemies during the conquest. I just do not see the Old Testament writes as that concerned about hiding a message like that.
