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So this guy Samson has a bit of a Superman backstory, but with a What if Superman were a total jerk twist. It also has a tad of Jesus in it, as if God had made a test run for unexpected pregnancies and what to expect when you werenāt really expecting.
So Samson is born to a couple called Manoah andā¦ well, the woman happens not to have a name because the Bible basically cares fuck all about women. Anyway, Manoah and the wife of Manoah have no children, because the wife of Manoah is āunable to give birthā, as the book of Judges states, or maybe Manoahās little swimmers are just simply recalcitrant little buggers, who knows, letās just go ahead and blame the woman, shall we?
But once again, I digress. Long story short, for reasons unknown Manoah and his wife have no children and have long given up on having any. So when this man visits them and announces theyād be having a kid soon, theyāre sceptic at first, but upon realizing said man is a messenger from God, happily accept this unexpected development. The angel tells them:
āYou will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.ā
Interesting detail: The Israelites are in the hand of the Philistines because God put them there in the first place, after once again having a falling out with his people. God is pretty good at solving problems he created in the first place. Bit like starting a fire to extinguish so you can be the hero.
So Samson is Godās Chosen One, a savior, and he is born to a host couple on earth, not unlike Superman, but unlike Superman, he decides to go down the path of being an outright asshole. Think the movie Brightburn. And speaking of similarities with Superman, Samson does also have his very own Kryptonite:
Cut his hair and he loses all his powers and Godās blessing.
One day Samson is wandering around when his eyes fall upon a Philistine girl, so he tells his parents:
āI have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.ā
Entitled little fuck, if Iāve ever seen one.
His parents arenāt too keen on this kind of daughter-in-law, given sheās the enemy. But Samson is quite adamant about it, so they make the journey down to Timnah to get it over with.
En route, Samson happens upon a lion and kills the beast with his bare hands. A total badass thing to do, but this is where things get bizarre (bizarre by Bible story standards, that is). According to the Bible, after he kills the lion with his fucking bare hands, the following happens:
But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.
Why, though? Only a total psychopath would keep it to himself that he just killed a fucking lion, let alone with his bare hands! Either that, or Samson kills animals as a habit and has been going Dexter all over Judahās fauna and maybe thatās why he doesnāt think itās news. Imagine killing a bloody lion without any weapon. The least you can do is tell the story and then say something badass like āNo biggyā, but keep that to yourself? Thatās a red flag right there. Psycho.
They then get to Timnah, Samson speaks to the woman, decides sheās not just looks and a marriage is arranged. And they live happily ever after.
Unfortunately, no.
Some time later, Samson returns to Timnah for the wedding. On his way there, he seems to have said to himself, hello, didnāt I kill a lion here with my bare hands, letās see what happened to the carcass. The Bible recounts:
In it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lionās carcass.
Now this is really starting to piss me off. For fuckās sake, what kind of batshit mental psycho does not say what happened. If this isnāt the perfect party story, Iāve never seen one.
āGuys, you know, that honey youāre eating? Funny story, actually. I killed this lion a while back, and when I returned to the carcass, some bees had moved in, and thatās where this honey is from.ā
Who doesnāt tell this story?
Well, Samson, for one. At this point it might just be sloppy writing, or this dude has severe mental issues. Speaking of sloppy writing, I believe I discovered some kind of biblical continuity error. Remember when the angel delivered the message about the little wunderkind Samson? He said heād be a Nazirite. Now, a Nazirite was an oathtaker who vowed to dedicate this life to God and had to follow specific rules to retain Godās blessing, the rules being:
* Abstain from all wine and anything else made from grapes.
* Refrain from cutting the hair on one's head
* Not to become ritually impure by contact with corpses or graves, even those of family members
Numbers 6:6 is pretty clear about this, saying:
Throughout the period of their dedication to the Lord, the Nazirite must not go near a dead body.
So what on earth was Samson doing around that lion carcass in the first place? Why didnāt he lose Godās blessing? In his place Iād have socially distanced the shit out of myself and that dead lion. This is literally Game of Thrones Seasons 6 to 8 levels of Hello, weāre DB Weiss and David Benioff and we donāt give a single fuck about anything anymore so fuck you and your loyalty to our show.
Be that as may, Samson arrives in Timnah and a wedding is held. And as weddingās go, pretty normal stuff, including totally stupid wedding games nobody cares about.
Same here: Samson presents a riddle to his thirty companions from his wifeās tribe. If they solve the riddle, they win clothing, if they donāt Samson wins clothing. Hereās the riddle:
āOut of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.ā
Now, I donāt know about you, but this is less a riddle and more like like Samson going, What am I thinking?, channeling his inner Karl Pilkington.
Once again itās Samson being an obnoxious jerk for no damn reason. You and I, we obviously both know the answer, but we have the benefit of the narrator being our friend. But as a Philistine wedding guest?
Little wonder that the Philistines resort to pressuring Samsonās wife to help them solve this, well, riddle of sorts. She agrees and successfully pressures Samson into telling her the answer.
When itās decision time, Samsonās thirty companions solve the riddle:
āWhat is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?ā
Being the cunning asshole he is, Samson didnāt expect this. Heās mad and replies:
āIf you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.ā
I have literally no idea what heās talking about. But realizing heās been outsmarted he decides to honor the bet. So he travels to the neighboring town of Ashkelon where he massacres thirty unsuspecting inhabitants ā as you do ā and steals their garments, which he in turn delivers to the wedding reception. Score settled, I guess.
Still in a rage, Samson travels home, leaving his wife behind. His father-in-law, rightly thinking Samson has called the whole damn thing off gives his daughter to some rando at the wedding.
Fast forward some undisclosed time, Samson has obviously completely forgotten everything that happened, because he returns to Timnah with the intention of spending time with his wife, oblivious to everything that went down.
Now this is awkward, because she technically isnāt his wife anymore. So the would be father-in-law tells Samson he canāt just barge into the ladyās boudoir like he owns the bloody place. He says:
āI was so sure you hated her that I gave her to your companion. Isnāt her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.ā
Samson feels humiliated and gets really, really angry. He vows to harm the Philistines.
Samson collects three hundred foxes and ties them together in pairs at their tails. He fastens a torch to every pair, lights the torches and sends the poor animals into the Philistine fields, sentencing the foxes to their death and burning down all crops, vineyards and olive groves.
The Philistines are taken completely by surprise. After finding out this happened in revenge for Samsonās fiancee being given to someone else, the Philistines arrest the father and his daughter and burn both of them to death.
When Samson hears of this, he seeks out the people responsible and goes Red Wedding all over their Philistine ass ā or as the Bible puts it:
He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
The storyās obviously not over here. The Philistines donāt want to be the first to opt out of this spiral of violence. So they march on Samsonās cave.
The people of Judah politely ask the occupying forces what they can do for them today. The Philistines demand Samson be handed over to them. When the people of Judah hear what Samson has done, three thousand of them ask him whether heās insane, attacking the occupying forces. I believe they have a point.
Long story short, Samson agrees to be extradited to the Philistines, under the condition his fellow countrymen donāt kill him first. The people of Judah hand him over.
But Samson wouldnāt be Samson if he didnāt have an ace up his sleeve. The spirit of the Lord cometh upon him. He bursts his bindings, grabs a donkeyās jawbone conveniently lying around and goes about slaughtering Philistines, killing a thousand of them.
So hereās the thing: Remember the vow he took about not touching corpses? Iām pretty sure you canāt go about happily killing, maiming, mutilating and dismembering a thousand enemy soldiers without coming in touch with a dead body or two in the proceedings. Not that I have any personal experience in this matter, but it seems like a statistical probability that youād inadvertently touch a corpse. So Iām pretty sure heād have lost his superpowers in the middle of this shlamassel. Honestly not trying to be a dick about this, but I seem to smell another continuity error. If the Bible didnāt say it was inspired by God, Iād quite probably assume the writer was making this shit up along the way.
Instead of Samson dying because he touched corpses, Samson there and then puts out a little freestyle rap about his win:
āWith a donkeyās jawbone I have made donkeys of them.With a donkeyās jawbone I have killed a thousand men.ā
The book of Judges then closes out Chapter 15 with the words:
Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Bit lost for words here. Samson in no way is qualified to be in a position of power, but that doesnāt hinder God from appointing him a Judge, as the rulers were called back then before Israel became a monarchy. Just goes to show that even back then it wasnāt about what you can do, it was all about who you know.
At the end of this two decade rule which I can only imagine to be that of a totally demented, brutal, pervert warlord, he falls in love with a women called Delilah (I shit you not ā the first woman in his life to have a name).
And hereās were everything finally goes south for Samson: He doesnāt know sheās an undercover agent for the occupying forces. She betrays him, cuts his hair and delivers him to the Philistines who tear out his eyes and blind him.
Iād like say he probably deserved this, but I do also have my issues with the Philistines who seem to have been totally daft people. Because hereās the thing: Why didnāt they at any point in the past 30 or 40 years just once think of asking some Israelite what the fucking deal is with these Nazirites. What is the secret to their success? Whatās their Kryptonite? Why wait all these years and then send some girl on an undercover mission which could easily have resulted in her death.
Either everyone back then was totally dumb or this is the most unnecessarily convoluted storytelling Iāve seen in a long time. In this regards, the story of Samson is definitely more Zack Snyderās Man of Steel than Brightburn.
But here we are. Samson has been captured, blinded and weakened and is throw in jail, where he is held in some forced labour camp. And again the Philistines make a silly mistake.
Because some time later they throw a party to celebrate the downfall of Samson, and to this end they bring him out of jail to parade him around the location. Plot twist: His hair has grown back. Rookie mistake. Just shave the fucker regularly.
In any case, Samson decides to go out with a bang and executes a suicide attack: He leans against the templeās supporting pillars and collapses the building. As the Bible states:
Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
Like thatās a positive thing. Going out on a high note, I guess.
Thatās it, folks. Thatās the story of Samson, a psychopath and mass murderer who just turned out to be Godās Chosen One. As Chuck Berry wisely said, "C'est la vie", say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell.
Source: The Book of Judges, Chapters 13 to 16
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So a couple of years after the flood, maybe decades, or was it centuries, Iām not sure, I also honestly donāt care, I couldnāt be bothered to research this any further.
Anyhow, some time after the flood, the descendants of Noah aka Humanity 2.0 were wandering about the earth looking for a place to settle. Probably a century or two, given the Noah family had fucked each other enough to spawn Humanity 2.0.
So everybodyās related, your wife is your cousin or your sister (or your mother? Who knows!) and everybody speaks the same language. What a time to be alive!
They finally find a plain that seems like a decent place to settle down in. Soon enough they discover the magic of building houses. And they say:
āLetās make some bricks of clay and bake them in the fire.ā Then they used these bricks as stones, and they used tar as mortar. Then the people said, āLetās build ourselves a city and a tower that will reach to the sky. Then we will be famous. This will keep us together so that we will not be scattered all over the earth.ā
Now bear with me for a second:
Imagine youāre living with your family and your mother is your wife but also your sister and youāre all comfy, but some of you are getting bored, and youāre afraid people might start moving away because thereās nothing much to do after six pm on a Saturday. Wouldnāt you too build a tower for good measure? No? Me neither.
But somehow, according to the scribe of Genesis, this is in part the reasoning behind building the tower. Another reason is they want to be fucking famous. Iām not sure who they want to be famous with as they are the only people on the whole damn earth but if thatās what you want, be my guest. If it makes you feel better looking in the mirror, go right ahead and build that tower.
God, on the other hand, is not happy.
He comes down to take a good look at the city and the tower and pleased he is not. He says:
āThese people all speak the same language. And I see that they are joined together to do this work. This is only the beginning of what they can do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want.ā
Letās take a closer look at this. God is the kind of bloke that wants people to know about him, ergo: he wants to be famous. God creates humans in his image, meaning: they share his traits. But the second humans want to be like God, in this case: be famous, he goes mental.
Also: the fact humans can build towers took him by surprise? Not much of an almighty God, really.
Be that as it may, God decides heās had enough of these shenanigans:
āLetās go down and confuse their language. Then they will not understand each other.ā
At this point Iād also like to ask: Whoās we? Who the hell is he talking to? Is this some Gollum Smeagol type shit going on?
Why does it cry, Smeagol. Donāt worry, filthy little humans wonāt have the precious for long.
So God starts inventing languages and assigns these to different parts of the happy little incest family. The construction on the city is halted and humanity is scattered across the earth. God happy.
Or maybe all that was a huge misunderstanding. According to Josephus, being famous wasnāt the motivation at all behind building that tower.
Rather, humans hadnāt forgot the flood. They remembered in vivid detail how God had let a flood kill everybody apart from their relatives. So Nimrod, the king of the humans at that time, intended to build a tower so high it would rise above any flood God would be able to send.
Sure, God had made an oath that he would never again destroy all living things. But then again: Better safe than sorry. Turns out: With God, youāre never safe, no matter what.
Iām honestly trying not to be a dick about this, and maybe itās just me, but who the fuck is this God? This is just another one of many bible stories that doesnāt paint God in the best of lights (which is weird, given heās supposed to have inspired the writing). In the grand scheme of things this is obviously one his more merciful punishments. But with every new story God appears more and more to be some kind of vain, petty, vindictive, insecure little bastard, torn between narcism and an inferiority complex, less of a friendly old man with a white beard and more of a pale incel penning hateful tweets from his motherās basement.
I mean, seriously: Disrupting human development because youāre scared of their tower? Weird flex but ok.
Source: Genesis 11
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So this guy Balaam is a prophet of God, and Balak, the Moabite king, offers him money to curse the Israelites so the Moabites can fight them proper.
Now in general God never misses an opportunity to do the Israelite people in. Thereās some kind of love-hate relationship going on there. But this time, God draws a line and says no.
So Balaam rejects the offer.
But Balak really is interested in getting that curse, so he sends more important officials and increases his offer.
Balaam tells the delegation that heāll have to check in with God first. After hearing the offer, God allows Balaam to go with them but under no circumstance shall he curse.
So the next morning, Balaam saddles his donkey and accompanies the Moabite delegation. Which really pisses God off.
Ugh, I hate these kind of people. You know, the ones where you ask them whether itās ok if you do the thing, and they say yes, and then you do the thing and they get all mad that you did the thing because it actually wasnāt ok, and youāre like: What the hell, Iām not a fucking mindreader. But I digress.
So Godās mad because Balaam did the thing. So he sends an angel to stop Balaam. The angel descends and stands in the road with his sword drawn, and naturally the donkey stops, refusing to run into the angel.
Unfortunately, itās only the donkey who sees the celestial warrior. Balaam on the other hand sees him not.
So Balaam starts harassing the donkey, telling him to move. And when Balaam starts beating the animal, the poor thing has had enough and starts talking.
What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?
Now I donāt know about you, but if our dog started talking out of bloody nowhere Iād probably have the shock of my life, then Iād ask him a thousand questions and later Iād come up with a scheme to monetize the hell out of this new development.
No so Balaam. Heās so preoccupied with the fact the damn animal isnāt moving he talks back to the donkey like itās nothing.
You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.
The donkey is quick to point out the flaw in his reasoning:
Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?
Balaam must accept defeat, effectively losing a debate with a donkey. Quite the loss, given heās a prophet of God and stuff.
God then lets Balaam see the angel and tells him the donkey saved his life. One step further and God wouldāve ordered the angel to kill Balaam (donāt forget: Balaam wouldnāt have been here in the first place if God hadnāt allowed the travel).
Not exactly sure what the moral of the story is but if Iād have to go with something, Iād say:
Be kind to animals.
Source: Numbers 22
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So Jesus has this reputation of being a chill kind of guy, basically olden days Gandhi.
There are many, many anecdotes to the contrary, but one that stands out is this one time he was hungry.
Jesus was on his way somewhere and spotted a fig tree from afar.
When he got closer he realized it bore no fruit. Jesus was really pissed.
Then he said to it, āMay you never bear fruit again!ā Immediately the tree withered.
His apostles witnessed the episode and were, like, yo, J-Dawg what the fuckās wrong with you, cursing a tree and shit.
Well, actually, they asked:
āHow did the fig tree wither so quickly?ā they asked.
Jesus replied, āTruly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, āGo, throw yourself into the sea,ā and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.ā
So, basically, what we have here is a spoiled brat who got almost almighty powers from his father throwing a tantrum because for once he didnāt get his will. Classic rich kid.
Please include the fig tree in your prayers tonight.
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This is part 2 of the Ezekiel chronicles. Ezekiel has been lying on his side for over 390 days as part of a performance thatās supposed to convey a message of doom to Israel. God had muted Ezekiel to make things interesting.
After 390 days, God has new instructions for the prophet: He should cut off his beard with a sword. Then he is to divide the hair into three parts.
One third is to be burnt in the midst of Jerusalem. He is to distribute another third around the city and strike the hair with his sword. The final third is to be scattered by the wind.
He is also supposed to tie some of the hair into his garment, and then again take some of this hair and burn them. All this a metaphor for how Jerusalem and the people of Israel would be punished. Surely there has to be an easier way to convey this message.
Ah, but of course: Ezekiel is mute. So a performance it is! The message: Jerusalem will be besieged and destroyed. Parents will eat their children and children will feast on their parents. Ears and noses will be cut off; men, women, children and old people will be killed. And the whole city will be burnt to the ground.
When Ezekiel can speak again, the does what anybody would have done:
He prophesies against and curses the mountains. This is what he says, and I quote:
Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: Pay attention! I am bringing a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.
Yeah, fuck you, mountains!
This is the book of Ezekiel in a nutshell. Batshit crazy stuff. And it doesnāt end there. Metaphor upon metaphor describe what God thinks of Israel and what he plans doing with the people. There are prostitutes how pay out money for sex, eagles and wine and lions.
Later some more prostitutes: two sisters, nymphomaniacs, and the prophet goes into explicit detail how their breasts and nipples are touched, and repeatedly so. This seems to be an important detail because Ezekiel canāt get enough of their breasts and nipples being groped.
Then towards the end Ezekiel is led into a field of bones. While Ezekiel stands among the bones and prophesies, the bones come to life, grow sinews, muscles and flesh, and the skeletons arise and walk about. I will go out on a limb and say that Ezekiel most probably was high as a kite throughout the penning of this book.
And I havenāt even mentioned the introduction where Ezekiel has crazy vision of Godās chariot throne. It has to be read to be believed.
All in all, the book of Ezekiel is one of the most entertaining bible books, and also one of the most insane. On a more serious note, it also paints God as a vindictive, evil, jealous, completely toxic entity, akin to that Ex who kills his former girlfriend because if he canāt have her, nobody should.
Iād love to say that Ezekiel was talking out of his ass, but sure enough, Jerusalem was soon destroyed by the Babylonians. So I guess the whole lying around and shit bread eating wasnāt all for nothing.
Source: Ezekiel
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So thereās the prophet Ezekiel who just has to be one of the craziest characters in all of the Bible. Granted, all Bible prophets tend to be borderline insane, I guess it comes with the territory. But Ezekiel and his story sure are something special.
I remember enjoying this Bible book as a kid, and I only liked the crazy ones. In other words: If youād want to make a movie of the book of Ezekiel, youād have to cast Nicolas Cage.
So thereās this dude Ezekiel, and God instructs him to warn the Kingdom of Israel about an impending siege. Once again God and the Kingdom have had a falling-out, and God has decided to deliver a message. Now when the Mafia delivers a message itās usually a horseās head or something, but when God delivers a message because youāve pissed him off, he sends your enemies to attack, pillage and destroy you.
So Ezekiel is chosen as messenger. God says:
Go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them. By the way, your tongue will stick to the roof of your mouth and youāll be mute.
Guess God was trying to spice things up a bit. So instead of warning Israel by word of mouth (because thatās too easy, right?), he was supposed to play a game of Activity. Seriously. You canāt make this up. These are literally Godās instructions, and I quote:
Take a clay tablet; place it in front of you, and draw on it a city, Jerusalem. 2 Lay siege to it: build up siege works, raise a ramp against it, pitch camps and set up battering rams all around it. Then take an iron pan and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it and put it under siege. So you must lay siege to it as a sign for the house of Israel. Then lie down on your left side, while I place the guilt of the house of Israel upon you. As many days as you lie like this, you shall bear their guilt. I allot you three hundred and ninety days[b] during which you must bear the guilt of the house of Israel, the same number of years they sinned. When you have completed this, you shall lie down a second time, on your right side to bear the guilt of the house of Judah forty days; I allot you one day for each year. Turning your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with bared arm[c] you shall prophesy against it. See, I bind you with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.
Surely you can make things easier if you want folks to be saved. I mean, sure, thatās how you can have a warning delivered ā if youāre fucking Jigsaw.
And whatās with the ropes? Seems God didnāt trust Ezekiel to pull through with the whole thing.
Anyway, instead of just telling the Kingdom of Israel theyād be destroyed, Ezekiel is supposed to pull off a weird art performance and hope folk will interpret it correctly.
Obviously Ezekiel will have to eat something. God has him covered. He orders the prophet to make himself some bread heāll be eating during his ordeal. Here are the ingredients:
* wheat
* barley
* beans
* lentils
* millet
* spelt
God tells him to knead the dough in a pot and then bake the bread over fire fueled by human shit. I kid you not, here is the direct quote from the bible:
And the barley cake you eat you must bake on human excrement in the sight of all.
At this point this is just plain bullying from God.
This is also where Ezekiel has had enough and he tells God to fuck himself or words to that effect.
Very well, says God, I will let you use cow manure in place of human dung. You can bake your bread on that.
And again: This is a direct quote from the Bible. 50 bucks God was just making stuff up along the way.
In any case, Ezekiel got lucky: He didnāt have to eat where he shat, which is a good thing. But he still had to lie around for 390 days, playing a human riddle, because once again God and his people didnāt get along.
By the way: Thereās a company that sells Ezekiel bread with said ingredients, but I am still waiting for reply whether that bread is baked over human excrements.
If you are now thinking, this surely canāt be the end of it, it must get still crazier, you guess right.
Stay tuned for the next installment of the Ezekiel chronicles.
Source: Ezekiel 4
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If you are under the impression the story of Lotās wife being turned into a pillar of salt because she wanted to see her home one last time shows how petty God is, you havenāt heard the story of Gehazi yet. But letās start at the beginning.
Naaman is a mighty commander fighting for the king of Aram. Unfortunately heās also leprous, which sucks.
So when Naaman hears of the prophet Elisha who is famous for healing people and even raising the dead, he sniffs a chance to be ridden of his illness.
So Naaman puts together a huge delegation and visits the famous faith healer, bringing presents and whatnot. But Elisha, ever the artist, doesnāt give a ratās arse and stays indoors, telling Naaman via messenger to bathe in the river Jordan seven times.
Naaman is mad. Aint nobody got time for this. He tells Elisha he wants him to do his voodoo and wave his hands over the leprosy or whatever magicians do when they do their tricks.
Naamanās servants beg him to at least give the bathing thing a try. At long last, Naaman agrees and and jumps into the river Jordan.
When he pops his head out of the water for the seventh time heās pleased to see the leprosy has vanished. Hooray!
Naaman is relieved and he wants to show his appreciation by showering Elisha with presents. But Elisha declines, as he was only doing his job and whatnot.
Enter Gehazi, the prophetās assistant, who thinks to himself: What the fuck? Here I am, serving my arse off every day, and my boss doesnāt even consider a little bonus?
So Gehazi makes out to follow Naamanās delegation. Catching up with him, Gehazi lies to Naaman, claiming the prophet is receiving guests and would like to bestow a talent of silver and whatever else Naaman can spare.
Naaman, eternally grateful, doubles the amount and sends Gehazi home with his blessing.
But then everyone finds out and since God is really mad about Gehaziās little ruse, he has the prophet punish Gehazi:
Gehazi is stricken with an incurable leprosy, which he will forever pass on to all of his descendants.
Yes, I shit you not: Because Gehazi in a moment of weakness gifted himself a little bonus, Gehazi and all of his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and their children were to have leprosy and never be healed. Talk about guilt by association, eh?
And hereās us thinking the pillar of salt story was God being petty.
Source: 2. Kings 5
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So David is obviously the most famous King of Israel.
But maybe you are unaware that David began his career as a humble shepherd. He rose to prominence when he killed the giant Goliath with his slingshot.
Thatās when he became a regular at King Saulās court.
King Saul wasnāt too keen of David and he for sure didnāt like the love David was getting from the people. To add insult to injury, David was turning out to be one hell of a warrior.
So here we are. Saul is unhappy about David. But he canāt kill him. God knows he tried, but David survived both attacks, so itās clear heās got Godās blessing.
Saul comes up with a ploy. He promises David his youngest daughter if David can in turn bring him one hundred Philistine foreskins, hoping of course David would be killed whilst harvesting bellends.
But oh fiddlesticks: David not only brought hundred foreskins, but doubled the loot and lay two hundred Philistine foreskins at Saulās feet.
David then married Saulās daughter and subsequently became the heir to the throne.
Thatās how you flip the finger in the Bible.
Source: 1. Samuel 18
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So thereās this guy, Lot, who lives in a town called Sodom.
One evening he spots two strangers at the gates of the city, and invites them into his home. Good guy Lot.
Lotās fellow citizens find out and flock together, forming a mob at his door. They want Lot to produce the guests so they can gang rape them. Not sure if this is the local custom back then but it seems the whole city is on board with the idea.
Lot, alas, isnāt. He values his hospitality. So he proposes a deal: He offers them his daughters to be dealt with at the mobās discretion in return for his guestsā safety. As you do.
But the mob says no. The mob wants male arse. The mob is mad they are being offered some girls instead.
In the meantime, Lotās guests sense the whole deal will be going south soon and they pull Lot back into the house, while God strikes the mob with blindness.
Plot twist: The two guests turn out to be in fact angels sent by God with a warning message about the impending destruction of Sodom and its metropolitan area. The angels beg Lot to leave the city. But Lot has two other daughters and son-in-laws to match. He doesnāt want to leave them behind. But the ungrateful kids laugh at him.
The angels finally manage to get Lot, his wife and their virgin daughters out of the city. Just in time! As they flee, God brings down hellfire on the entire region, killing everyone unlucky to have stayed, men, women, children, animals.
Lots family escapes without harm, courtesy of the two angels. But then the wife disregards one of the most important rules: Never look back at the explosions; walk away from the explosion, looking cool as fuck.
God punishes Lotās wife and turns her into a pillar of salt.
Lot and his daughters make their escape, seeking refuge in a cave in the mountains.
Some time later the daughters get their dad drunk and rape him on two consecutive nights to get pregnant. And it works. Lotās daughters get pregnant from drunk Lot.
In commemoration of their romantic encounter the older daughter names her kid Moab, which actually means: āFrom the fatherā. Sweet.
What a lovely family. And hereās you thinking Game of Thrones was twisted, eh?
Source: Genesis 19
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