(October 1, 2011 at 12:04 pm)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:These people in these lands would go to a temple and to worship their God throw their children alive into fire.
And of course your precious "Hebrews" would never do such a thing.
Judges 1: 11
Quote:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break.”
36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”
38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
Umm, that passage isn't about human sacrifice. Jephthah offered his daughter to the Lord for lifelong service in chastity. Human sacrifice was forbidden under the law:
Deuteronomy 18:10
There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer
38 So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains.
39 And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel
She was mourning for her virginity, not her life, on the mountain. Notice it says after he did according to his vow that "she had never known a man".
And as you were discussing earlier, in regards to the bears, those weren't "little children", they were young men. The words used to refer to the so-called children are ascribed to adults as old as 39.
Would a bunch of small children be allowed to roam around outisde the city by themselves without any supervision? Not only that but they were specifically mocking Elisha because he was a prophet..which shows they knew good from evil. The insult "go up, go up" is a mocking reference to his mentor Elijah, who was assumed into Heaven. So it was deliberate blasphemy against a prophet..that isn't going to come out of the mouth of babes.
