Wow! After this, this there will only be two more posts and then we'll be done with the old testament! I didn't ever think I'd make it this far! And then... Steal This Book! And A Single Man! ...Well, once I finish the new testament too... But considering the new testament is hardly even 200 pages, that should be fairly easy... All right, okay. Let's get on with this.
The Song of Solomon is a love song, it goes from courtship to marriage. It's not overtly religious, but it's considered to be an allegory for God and Israel or God and the church/its people. I can see that allegory working, but at the same time, I like taking this book at face value. It's very sweet.
"Your love is better than wine" Song of Solomon 1:2.
"King Solomon made himself a palanquin from the wood of Lebanon. He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior was inlaid with love" Song of Solomon 3:10.
"Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love" Song of Solomon 5.
Isaiah is a prediction of doom for Israel, because no-one's paying attention to God. Isaiah, as you may have gathered, was a prophet! Apparently he's a rather important figure in Muslim belief, as he is considered a "true Hebrew prophet".
My very first note has to do with Lilith! In Isaiah 34, she is mentioned for the first time in the Bible. The land of those who have suffered God's judgment will be laid to waste and be eternally barren and unlivable, and jackals and hyenas and other vicious creatures shall live there, along with Lilith. Lilith, according to folklore, was Adam's first wife who left him, because she would not bow to him. (She was supposedly made from the same clay as he, though, not from a rib, so there's the problem right there, eh?) And then she... had sex with an archangel named Samael? That I didn't know... But! She's your average soul-sucking sterility-causing female demon-woman-creature with roots all the way back to Mesopotamia. Again, she's a subject that I've done some research into and that anyone else reading this probably doesn't care about. Oh well--guess which one of us is writing this blog? Bam. But why did it take so long for her to appear, if that is her story (the bit with Adam and Samael)? Well, folklore regarding her didn't really spring up until the eighth century BC... And guess when the book of Isaiah have been dated at? You've got it! So... Yeah. That's cool...
"'There is no peace,' says the Lord, 'for the wicked'" Isaiah 48:22.
One thing that threw me is Isaiah 66:The Worship God Demands. "Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever presents a grain offering is like one who offers swine's blood, whoever makes an offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol" Isaiah 66:3. This is curious, considering, well, these were the only acceptable ways to honour God (in sacrifice, at least). I am curious about this verse's origin--food shortage? Sacrifice become unpopular, considered unsightly or what have you? Swung out of favour? Who knows, actual words of God? Or perhaps I missed something and what Isaiah means is those who sacrifice those things to a false God or idol is one who is like a person who has committed those crimes...? That may be a little more likely, because the frankincense thing--well, Jesus was presented with Frankincense at the time of his birth by one of the three wise men. Which could be one of the reasons why he wasn't accepted by the Jewish/Islamic community as being the bona fide son of God?
The Book of Jeremiah has more prophecies, such as God's promise of restoration after Jerusalem's destruction (wait, wasn't it destroyed already? Or did it just take this long to get there!?) and then other various events that took place during Jeremiah's life. (Surprise, surprise?)
"But in the time of their trouble they say, 'Come and save us!' But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them come, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah" Jeremiah 2:27-28. Though this probably will not be looked upon positively by more religious types, I award this passage (up to the semicolon, at least) the "one of the most badass passages of the Bible" award. It seriously is awesome.
"In vain I have struck down your children; they accepted no correction. Your own swords have devoured your prophets like a ravening lion" Jeremiah 2:30. In which God realizes that his creations are stupid, stubborn and rarely if ever learn from their mistakes; rather, choose to learn from their mistakes.
"Yet you have the forehead of a whore" Jeremiah 3:3. ...I'm going to go with they mean 'mind'. You have the mind of a whore.
"Is there no balm in Gilead?" Jeremiah 8:22. I was going crazy trying to figure out where I'd heard this before, but apparently this exact line has lived on in Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven. Thank you for staving off my insanity for yet one more day, Wikipedia! (Ken Kesey also used it in a book as a euphemism for alcohol. I think that's pretty cool.)
"You [God] show steadfast love to the thousandth generation, but repay the guilt of parents into the laps of their children after them" Jeremiah 32:18. Again, this bothers me a lot: "
"Therefore the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I will punish her [Babylon's] idols, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, from me destroyers would come upon her, says the Lord" Jeremiah 51:52-53. / "They broke their backs lifting Moloch to heaven! Pavements, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us! Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies! gone down the American river!"--Allen Ginsberg, Howl.
MLA citation information: Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Edition. American Bible Society: New York, 1989.
Well, there we go... Next post will probably be seven books long, because, although there are a few exceptions, books pretty much dwindle down to 2-10 pages tops, until we get to the new testament. (And even then there are some two-page books happening.)
What else is up? Well, I'd like to point out that my output for this year is two posts more than my output for the year preceding that. 2011: The year of 62 posts? We'll see. (I'll have to keep on reading epics of these proportions to keep my numbers up!)
Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics: The View by Modest Mouse
This post's cryptic song lyrics: All you need is love, all you need is love, all you need is love, love--love is all you need
PS. If you can't get the cryptic song lyrics, you lose. Just saying.
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