You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived;
you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks
me. (Jeremiah 20:7)
Shockingly, the Hebrew text say's something
else. פִּתִּיתַ֤נִי יְהוָה֙ וָֽאֶפָּ֔ת חֲזַקְתַּ֖נִי וַתּוּכָ֑ל הָיִ֤יתִי לִשְׂחוֹק֙ כָּל־הַיּ֔וֹם כֻּלֹּ֖ה לֹעֵ֥ג׃, the word in question
is Pathah פָּתָה
commonly translated as "deceived", But that verb has a context that
goes even beyond “deceived.”
This was first pointed out by Abraham J.
Heschel, in his 1962 book The Prophets. The verb patah is found elsewhere in the
Old Testament. For example:
When a man seduces a young woman who isn’t
engaged to be married yet and he sleeps with her, he must marry her and pay the
bride-price for her. (Exodus 22:16)
The rulers of the Philistines confronted
her and said to her, “Seduce him and find out what gives him such great
strength and what we can do to overpower him, so that we can tie him up and
make him weak. Then we’ll each pay you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
(Judges 16:5)
If my heart has been drawn to a woman
and I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, (Job 31:9)
and I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, (Job 31:9)
Therefore, I will charm her,
and bring her into the desert,
and speak tenderly to her heart. (Hosea 2:16)
and bring her into the desert,
and speak tenderly to her heart. (Hosea 2:16)
while she’s a virgin,
that she not be seduced
and become pregnant
while still living at home;
when she’s married,
that she not go straying;
or having married,
that she not be infertile. (Sirach 42:10)
that she not be seduced
and become pregnant
while still living at home;
when she’s married,
that she not go straying;
or having married,
that she not be infertile. (Sirach 42:10)
The typical context of patah is sexual,
which makes the rest of the verse far darker:
Lord, you seduced me, and I was seduced.
You were too strong for me, and you prevailed.
You were too strong for me, and you prevailed.
The image of overpowering that follows
seduction is less rhetorical and more physical. The image seems to be far
closer to rape than any mere contest of wills. Indeed, this is exactly what
Heschel argues, noting the second verb, hazak, usually translated “stronger” in
Jeremiah 20:7, is also used elsewhere in a sexual context:
But if the man met up with the engaged
woman in a field, grabbing her and having sex with her there, only the man will
die. (Deuteronomy 22:25)
So, the Levite grabbed his secondary wife
and sent her outside to them. They raped her and abused her all night long
until morning. They finally let her go as dawn was breaking. (Judges 19:25)
When she served him the food, he grabbed
her and said, “Come have sex with me, my sister.”
It doesn’t stop here, Yahweh carried on
boasting how he “seduces” his prophets.in Ezekiel 14:9:
As for the prophet who was seduced into
speaking a word, even though it was I, the Lord, who seduced that prophet, I
will use my power against him and cut him off completely from my people Israel.
We can
boldly conclude, Jeremiah was “Raped” by Yahweh!
WAIT! WHAT! they were tricked, deceived, fooled!
Child sacrifice was commanded of the Israelites by Yahweh, the God of the bible. In Exodus we read:
You shall not delay to offer from the fulness [sic] of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The first-born of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its dam; on the eighth day you shall give it to me. (Exodus 22:29-30)
The context of this passage concerns offerings and sacrifices, and it says God requires firstborn sons to be literally sacrificed to him. Later on we find Yahweh admitting he commanded this in Ezekiel where he purportedly said:
Moreover I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life; and I defiled them through their very gifts in making them offer by fire all their first-born, that I might horrify them; I did it that they might know that I am the LORD [Yahweh]. ( Ezekiel 20:25-26)
this was a deceptive premeditated crime against the Israelite's. not only were they commanded to give their firstborn sons they were also statues and ordinances which they were unable to follow.
Disturbing how Yahweh intentionally played with the Israelites to teach them a lesson, later admitting why did he did it. This again goes back to Ezekiel where Yahweh testifies he is a deceiver.
"If any prophets are DECEIVED into giving a false answer, it is because I, the LORD, have DECEIVED them... (Ezekiel 14:9)
In other words Yahweh deceived Moses the Prophet of the Jews and later tried to justify his deeds to what he did to his people. Interesting how Yahweh told Ezekiel of his evil scheme. could it be the later Jews were questioning child sacrifice to Yahweh?
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