Monday, February 27, 2012

Deuteronomy 15-17

Deuteronomy 15
They had to cancel the debts to other Israelites every seventh year. Obviously, this would impact whether or not they lend money to people. God anticipates this and says that they must not withhold money to lend to poor people because of the upcoming debt forgiveness. The language in the text refers to it as "give" and "giving", which it would be as opposed to lending.

Similarly, they had to release their Israelite slaves after 7 years of work. Note, it did not say that they had to release their slaves every 7 year (I.e., on a community-wide level) but rather it is calculated after 7 years of work.

Finally, they must sacrifice their firstborn male herd animals, but they get to eat them at the yearly feast pilgrimages. Yay!!!

Deuteronomy 16
Passover and the week of unleavened bread have designated places of worship throughout the country. For the unleavened bread, they could not let leavened bread be found in their homes, nor eat it.

Pentacost requires a voluntary offering. They language says they must celebrate with the community, so my guess is the offering is for community feasting at this point. It sounds like a pot-luck dinner.

Festival of shelters is similar to the week of unleavened in that it lasts a week. But it at the end of the harvest seasons and there is no requirement for unleavened bread.

Deuteronomy 17
People worshipping foreign must be stoned to death the gates of town, but not on the testimony of one person. The witnesses must throw the first stones.

The priests get to judge the hard criminal or civil cases and their decisions stand.

Some guidelines for the king - even though there is no king yet. He must be an Israelite, but cannot use his authority to amass personal wealth. He also must read these instructions to himself every morning.

He cannot send people to Egypt to buy horses, because the Israelites are commanded never to go back to Egypt, not even to buy horses for a king they do not have yet.

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