God does not kill anyone today! Yay! I like days of not killing. Instead, Moses conducts another census.
Let's see how each tribe fared in God's recent string of killings (original numbers from the beginning of Numbers):
- Reuben: 46,500 → 43,730 (-2,700)
- Simeon: 59,300 → 22,200 (-37,100)
- Gad: 45,650 → 40,500 (-5,150)
- Judah: 74,600 → 76,500 (+1,900)
- Issachar: 54,400 → 64,300 (+9,900)
- Zebulun: 57,400 → 60,500 (+3,100)
- Ephraim son of Joseph: 40,500 → 32,500 (-8,000)
- Manasseh son of Joseph: 32,200 → 52,700 (+20,500)
- Benjamin: 35,400 → 45,600 (+10,200)
- Dan: 62,700 → 64,400 (+1,700)
- Asher: 41,500 → 53,400 (+11,900)
- Naphtali: 53,400 → 45,400 (-8,000)
And, because it entertains me, a list of names from today's reading (* indicates a woman): Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, Carmi, Jemuel, Jamin, Jakin, Zohar, Shaul, Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ozni, Eri, Arodi, Areli, Shelah, Perez, Zerah, Hezron, Hamul, Tola, Puah, Jashub, Shimron, Sered, Elon, Jahleel, Makir, Gilead, Iezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Shemida, Hepher, Mahlah*, Noah*, Hoglah*, Milcah*, Tirzah*, Shuthelah, Beker, Tahan, Eran, Bela, Ashbel, Ahiram, Shupham, Hupham, Ard, Naaman, Shuham, Imnah, Ishvi, Beriah, Heber, Mlkiel, Serah*, Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, Shilem.
New Testament
The prophet Anna praises Jesus. Even though I have read this before, I did not remember the prophet Anna. She plays a minor role in this story, but given that the Gospel of Luke supposedly contains the most sympathetic treatment of women, seeing a female prophet seems kind of neat.
Jesus grows up to be healthy and strong and full of wisdom. At the age of twelve, he amazes the religious teachers in the Temple with his questions and answers. He did not tell his parents he was going to be there, so they were rather worried about him. However, Jesus seemed to think that they ought to have known he was there. But, in any case, Jesus was a very obedient child and
grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.Despite the better narrative structure of this gospel, I am really having trouble getting into it. Somehow "and everyone was perfect and wonderful and obedient to God" does not make for an engaging story.
Psalms and Proverbs
A lot of the psalms have little notes at the beginning. Today's psalm has the most detailed of these yet.
For the choir director: A psalm of David useful for teaching, regarding the time David fought Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah, and Joab returned and killed 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. To be sung to the tune “Lily of the Testimony.”The psalm itself is same old, same old.
Today's proverb has good advice.
There’s danger in putting up security for a stranger’s debt;
it’s safer not to guarantee another person’s debt.
Thanks for pointing out the numbers; they show just how terrible all of God's murders really are. The population of the tribe of Manasseh went up by about two thirds, so I suspect that under normal conditions (which include food raining from the sky), the population of all the Israelites would have gone up by at least two thirds (and possibly more). Since the overall population stayed roughly constant, I conclude that God has killed off roughly two thirds of the population.
ReplyDeleteYes, the real math is harder than that (I'm overcounting the early murders because they would have lead to dozens or hundreds of offspring, and I'm therefore counting those as dozens or hundreds of murders, which is an overcount on my part). but still, this is pretty striking.
On an unrelated note, it just occurred to me that the Israelites keep sacrificing cattle and goats and other animals to God, and then they complain that they have no meat to eat. Really? Where did the sacrificial animals come from, and how is it that they just barely have enough for God and definitely no extras for themselves? It's a good thing no one did any extra sinning; apparently they wouldn't have enough animals to appease God any more than the current amounts.
\facepalm
ReplyDeleteI fail at math this early in the morning. If the population would have gone up by two thirds but stayed constant, God killed off only two fifths of the population (population increases from 3 to 5, then decreases back to 3; it's an increase of two thirds and a decrease of two fifths).
::nods knowingly:: Math is hard when it involves actual numbers.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to meat, I do think it is odd that the Israelites complain about not having meat to eat, given that they are shepherds. However, if you take "no meat" as an exaggeration and interpret it as "little meat", then it might be reasonable. The normal rate of sacrifice (as the Mar 18 reading will remind us) is only 2 lambs a day. I could imagine that one you distributed that load across all the clans, you could easily get into a situation where the Israelites could sacrifice 2 lambs a day, but perhaps could not eat meat more than a couple times a month (made up number) without decreasing their flocks.
Now, I can easily see why the people would complain if they had to make sure the priests had meat daily when they got it rarely.
Hokay. Calculator + not early morning = better math.
ReplyDeleteSuppose the population of the Israelites is increasing continuously (rather than everyone having children all at once every 9 months). To reach the growth rate of Manasseh, they'd need to be growing at about 49.3% per wandering period (i.e., 32200*e^(0.493) is roughly 52700).
but God keeps killing people so that the actual population decreased ever so slightly. Although I realize that he tends to kill bunches of people at once, let's suppose that he kills them at a continuous rate, because I don't see an easy way to figure out when he killed how many people (the dates of the massacres are pretty vague). Now, God is killing about 49.6% of the population per wandering period. Which is to say, 603550*e^(0.493)*e^(-0.496) is roughly 601730).
In other words, if the Israelites never had children, God would have killed off just about half of them by now. Sure, he has saved the rest by feeding them manna, but that hardly excuses what would be called genocide by any modern definition. The Ottoman empire killed on the order of 200,000 Armenians and it's now called genocide; there have been on the order of 300,000 people killed in the genocide in Darfur. I see no reason to treat God's actions differently, and I'd say this would count as a crime against humanity (thank goodness it didn't actually happen!). What a horrible, barbaric character this God is!