Ami > Recent Status Updates

What an excellent summer "beach read". Monkeypox, anthrax, the viral hemorraghic fevers. I can feel the sand between my toes.

Song of Solomon: The "naughty" book; this is the one that contains such gems as, "Your breasts are like clusters. I said: I will climb the palm tree, I will take hold of its branches". And it's not dirty, because the two lovers are the nation of Israel and God. It's beautiful, okay? But they still won't be reading it in many Sunday schools. I'd rate it higher than Psalms, personally.

Psalms: I've heard a lot about this book, and it is allegedly one of the most beautiful. Indeed, I found lovely little nuggets that are good for prayer, but I don't think there's an entire psalm that I could say I'd use in prayer. And they are incredibly, incredibly repetitive. As in, some of the psalms are actually sliced & diced from other psalms. I was a bit disappointed.

1 Kings: Actually, David doesn't die in 2 Samuel; he dies here, and his son Solomon takes over and builds the great temple in Jerusalem that David wasn't allowed to build because he sinned that one time. Solomon is awesome, but sometimes after his death the kingdom is split in two. The rest of the book recounts a lonnng string of kings of Judah and Israel, who are usually very good or very bad. Mostly bad.

2 Samuel: Pretty much all about the rule of David, the king of Israel with whom God sort of renews his contract (see "covenant", Book of Genesis). David reigns, David fights, David sins, David dies.

1 Sam cont. A boy named David is then secretly anointed king of Israel by the Lord, who also makes Saul go crazier &get paranoid, because...God was bored? Or the people need to learn good vs. evil? Something like that. Ends with the death of Saul. Also includes homoerotic love story of David & Saul's son, Jonathan. D has hoes in every zip code, many many wives, but never seems to care about them like he did for J. Hm

1 Samuel: After the last judge, God calls upon a boy named Samuel to be Israel's prophet. Ancient Israel, being a petulant nation as usual, is not satisfied with that &wants a king like other nations. Saul is appointed king, but offends the Lord by breaking a rule of war (spoils must be sacrificed or destroyed, not plundered for one's own) and God makes him start going crazy.

Ruth: Short, sweet story of a (foreign) Moab woman named Ruth &her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth has also been widowed, but instead of going back to her people, she is loyal to Naomi (and, almost secondary, to Naomi's Lord). She &Naomi move to a new town &Ruth works to support them both, eventually falling in love with her new boss, &with Naomi's help they marry &live happily ever after. Total Bible chick lit.

Judges: Israel has turned into sinful barbarians, and there are several cycles of God punishing them by delivering them to oppressive neighbors, only to later save them via a God-chosen leader, or "judge". Contains the Samson & Delilah story, along with a disturbing repeat of the story of Lot's guest, with different (new) characters. "Not my guest; take my daughter/concubine instead!" is the "moral". Hmm..

Joshua: Moses has died, and the Lord has chosen Joshua to take control of the Israelites. With God's help, they go to war with all the local towns/kingdoms to take the Promised Land. Interesting that the covenant the Lord made with Abraham in Genesis wasn't fulfilled in the Torah, but in this book (which is not part of the Torah, but rather the first book to follow it).

Deuteronomy: By and large, a summary of the laws, rituals, and narrative of Exodus through Numbers.

Numbers, cont: After many rebellions & refusals to trust in the Lord, the 1st generation of freed Israelites are punished by having to wander the wilderness for 40 years, until everyone over the age of 20 (at the time of the first Passover) is dead. The next generation will enter & take the Promised Land, but as further punishment, Moses will not be among them. They begin to conquer their land.

Numbers: The first part of the book (& then repeated at a couple points) is a census of the Israelites, grouped by tribe. Seems to go back & forth between procedural (how to make offerings & celebrate holidays) and narrative. Main conflict appears to arise from groups of Israelites who doubt the Lord's covenant &Moses/Aaron's authority. Smiting & Moses' pleas for God to pardon his people follow. Repeat several times.

Leviticus: Similar to the ending of Exodus in that it gets bogged down in details that are mostly no longer in effect, this time with procedurals for different types of offerings. There are burnt, peace, sin, grain, holiday, etc. offerings, most of which involve slaughtering an animal or three and splattering its blood on the walls of the altar. We also see God continuing to act jealous & tyrant-y.

So far, this is a delightful experience. I'm amazed at how much more modern his writing seems than I'd have previously thought. Franklin turns a witty phrase, &I'm reading with a dictionary close by, but it's in no way dense. His account of how he taught himself to be a more skillful writer by imitating admired works, shuffling & reordering passages, etc. was fascinating. Later, he dares to edit lines of a Pope poem!

My introduction to Sarton.

Exodus cont: The tedium is continued with detailed instruction on the construction of the tabernacle & other ritual tools and clothing. It's here where it become evident that the book of Exodus arose from an oral tradition, because everything is repeated 1-3x. God gives the exact dimensions of the Ark of the Covenant to Moses; Moses gives the exact dimensions to the Israelites; it's done in those exact dimensions.

Book of Exodus: Starts off as an interesting narrative of the Jews' captivity in Egypt, and how God uses his power to both prove his might to the Egyptians and to free the Jews. Things start getting a little tedious once God delivers the 10 commandments, plus a bunch of other very specific rules (such as what to do if one man dig a hole and his neighbor's donkey falls in it, etc.)

Book of Job: A fascinating theological discussion, presented as a debate between Job, whom the Lord is testing (via allowing the Satan to do his worst), and Job's "comforters", who are actually attempting to blame him for his own suffering. Attempts to answer the question "why do bad things happen to good people, and vice versa", with the ultimate answer that God works in mysterious ways & that's His prerogative.

Not sure I'm going to be able to finish this. I usually liked Rumi's poems/quotes when I ran into them, but I'm finding a whole collection to be not nearly as enjoyable.

OH MAN, the Book of Genesis is some crazy shit. This week I've waded through the Abraham--Isaac--Jacob lineage. Sometimes I'll be reading along, and a major LOL will come on, like Esau "sells" his birthright as firstborn to his brother Jacob in exchange for...wait for it...lentil stew. Lentil stew! I'm still trying to figure that one out.

For real, I'm still reading this. I have started it 3 times now, getting a little farther along each time, but only midway through at most. Still feels like an important read, when I'm called to it.