Holy - Exodus 22:28-31

22:28-31 - TB’s commentary on verse 28 gives an insight into the validity of the King James’ version of the Bible. The KJV says “you shall not revile the gods,” and TB notes, “the word here for ‘gods’ is Elohim. And, it CAN mean gods, little ‘g’ gods, in the plural. But that is so far out of context I’m surprised the excellent translators of the KJV chose to translate it this way.” My mom always said when I was a kid that we use the KJV and everything else was blasphemy, so now that I’m coming out of the brainwashing for so long, I’ve naturally rejected a lot of what she taught me just out of self-preservation and because so much has been wrong and harmful. So I always wondered how good or important the KJV of the Bible was, so it was nice to hear TB say that the translators are excellent.

The way that verse 28 is read from the KJV makes it sound like the Israelite’s were being commanded to respect the gods of other nations which goes against everything that we’ve learned already about not having any contact with outside religion. But the JST says “thou shalt not revile against God, nor curse the ruler of thy people,” and that is more in line with what TB says about the translation of that verse. This is sort of like how church members are told to not speak poorly of the church leadership, this sounds like the same type of instruction, so it makes sense.

I wasn’t exactly sure what the following verses meant about not delaying “to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Likewise shalt thou so with thine oxen, and with thy sheep.” Obviously, the first born son wasn’t going to be sacrificed like the animals, but I didn’t know if they meant like “offer” as in sacrifice or devote or something like that because the verse continues “seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.” Like is this a situation where the animals can only be worked for a certain amount of time before the had to have a rest, or like how the ground could only be used for a certain amount of time and then had to have a rest year or something.

TB simply explains that these verses mean “people to give to God their tithes and offerings in a timely manner. We’re not to hold them back, to our own benefit, and then give them at OUR convenience.” Maybe anciently it was more than that, but this is a sufficient explanation for me right now. And all of this comes down to the real purpose for all these commandments, “Ye shall be holy men unto me.” That’s the whole point of all these rules, to make the people holy unto the Lord.