Page 81 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

God intends to drive them out. The land itself is defiled, made unclean, by these actions (18:24-28).
When God brought Israel into the land, he took care to teach them a different way to treat one another.

It is difficult to explain the part sexuality played in the ancient near eastern religions. The people
believed in multiple gods who were in charge of different parts of creation: river, sea, death, animals,
storm, etc. Having wandered from God’s revelation in nature, they invented gods who were like them.
They thought they could appeal to the gods with the same activities they enjoyed. When they wanted
good crops, healthy children, and strong livestock, they tried to get the gods to give them these things
by making sex part of their religion. The religions were extremely oppressive and degrading for women.
The literature and the idols are frequently pornographic.

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Herodotus, a Greek historian living in the 5 century B.C., is often quoted.
He wrote at a later time than the exodus, but his observation illustrates the
thinking present in the ancient near east for many centuries. “Every woman
born in the country must once in her life go and sit down in the precinct of
Venus, and there consort with a stranger….A woman who has once taken
her seat is not allowed to return home till one of the strangers throws a
silver coin into her lap, and takes her with him beyond the holy
ground….The woman goes with the first man who throws her money, and
rejects no one. When she has done with him, and so satisfied the goddess,
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she returns home.”

Chapter 19 goes over most of the Ten Commandments with some additions
to illustrate. “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy (19:2)” starts
Fig. 55: Ancient Asherah the chapter. Some new instructions are offered about gleaning (vv. 9, 10)
and defrauding one’s neighbor (v. 13). The summary command to love your
neighbor is in the middle of the chapter (v. 18). We puzzle over some of the laws. “Do not plant your
field with two kinds of seed (v. 19).” Is this nothing more than good plant genetics? “Do not cut the hair
at the sides of your head or chop off the edges of your beard (v. 27).” Could this be a practice of other
nations in excessive mourning for their dead? Yet others are quite understandable and transfer well to
almost all societies. “Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity (v.
35).” No nation is completely “common” in disregarding God’s laws.

Chapter 20 begins with warnings about the worship of other God’s, especially the human sacrifice to
Molek (20:1-5). God is also against all occult practices (v. 6) and views cursing father or mother as
worthy of death (v. 9). His people are to be different. Again he says, “Consecrate yourselves and be holy,
because I am the LORD your God (v. 7).” More instructions on sexual practices follow (20:10-21). He
vividly warns of the consequences. The land “may vomit you out (v. 22),” If Israel adopts the same
standards as these nations, Israel will also be expelled from this good land.

In these instructions about everyday life, Moses now turns to the priests in chapters 21-22. As men who
approach God on behalf of the entire nation, they are held to a higher standard. Their family life is quite
different, whether they are mourning for a dead relative or taking a wife or disciplining children. A priest
must be a whole man without physical defect. As those who stand before God, they especially must
observe the laws distinguishing the clean from the unclean. Making a mistake is more severe in the case

88 Gerda Lerner, “The Origin of Prostitution in Ancient Mesopotamia,” Signs: Journal of Women in
Culture and Society 11 (1986): 243.

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