Yahweh and Elohim: Yahweh and Human Sacrifice

Yahweh and Elohim Part 5

This is part 5 of a multipart series.

We have already seen numerous examples that show that Yahweh is not a benevolent god that treats his chosen people – let alone other human beings – with respect and dignity. We will round out this discussion in the post that follows this one, but in this essay, I’d like to focus in on a particularly odious demand of Yahweh on the people of Israel: human sacrifice. Once again, all quotations from the Old Testament are from the Robert Alter translation.

Probably the most famous story of human sacrifice found in the Old Testament is that of Abraham and his son Isaac. In Genesis 22:2, Yahweh says to Abraham, “Take, pray, your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go forth to the land of Moriah and offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall say to you.” Now, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were quite old, and had tried unsuccessfully for years to have a child. Isaac was born well past what they thought was Sarah’s child-bearing age, and the boy was precious to them both. But Abraham goes ahead and starts preparations to fulfill Yahweh’s command, without a single complaint or plea. Is this because he trusts Yahweh to be a righteous God, holy and pure? Does he think, perhaps, that Yahweh does not mean harm, but has some greater purpose that Abraham does not, for the moment, understand? Perhaps he knows that to even question Yahweh’s command risks bringing on a wrathful outcome that could be worse than even losing his only son.

Abraham has his son bound upon the altar, and is ready to perform the sacrifice, when “the LORD’s messenger” intervenes. In Genesis 22:11, the messenger says, “Do not reach out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God and you have not held back your son, your only one, from Me.” Why does Yahweh send a messenger here, instead of speaking directly to Abraham as he does earlier in the story? The Old Testament often speaks of messengers, and these are generally understood to be angels. In the worldview of later Judaism, who would have had the last word on the contents of this text as we have it, if there are divine beings in the world other than Satan himself and his minions, then these are angels who work under Yahweh’s command. However, as we have seen in earlier essays, Yahweh was merely one of the Elohim, and probably not their leader, Elyon. One possibility, then, is that this “messenger” is another of the Elohim who is working at cross purposes to Yahweh. Perhaps some of the other Elohim do not have the same callous disregard for human lives and emotions as does Yahweh.

Either way, once Isaac has been spared, Yahweh speaks through this messenger again. Genesis 22:15-19:

And the LORD’s messenger called out to Abraham once again from the heavens, and He said, “By My own self I swear, declares the LORD, that because you have done this thing and have not held back your son, your only one, I will greatly bless you and will greatly multiply your seed, as the stars in the heavens and as the sand on the shore of the sea, and your seed shall take hold of its enemies’ gate. And all the nations of the earth will be blessed through your seed because you have listened to my voice.”

If we take my above speculation that this “messenger” stopped the sacrifice against Yahweh’s will, then here, Yahweh seems to capitulate, and create an excuse for why he asked Abraham to sacrifice his son: It was only a test! Yahweh seems pretty impressed by Abraham’s ability to follow the gravest of orders without question. Perhaps he decides here that his descendants will make great soldiers, and great commanders of armies that unquestionably follow Yahweh’s orders. No matter how we interpret this, it is, on its face, incalculably cruel of Yahweh to have put Abraham and his son through this ordeal.

Another story of human sacrifice of an only child is found in Judges 11:30-39:

And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, “If You indeed give the Ammonites into my hand, it shall be that whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return safe and sound from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s, and I shall offer it up as a burnt offering.” And Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to do battle with them, and the LORD gave them into his hand. … And Jephthah came to his house at Mitzvah, and, look, his daughter was coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dances, and she was an only child – besides her, he had neither son nor daughter. And it happened when he saw her, that he rent his garments, and he said, “Alas, my daughter, you have indeed laid me low and you have joined ranks with my troublers, for I myself have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot turn back.” And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD. Do to me as it came out from your mouth, after the LORD has wreaked vengeance for you from your enemies, from the Ammonites.” And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done to me: let me be for two months, that I may go and weep on the mountains and keen for my maidenhood, I and my companions.” And he said, “Go.” And he sent her off for two months, her and her companions, and she keened for her maidenhood on the mountains. And it happened at the end of the two months, that she came back to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed, and she had known no man.

Of course, Yahweh could have intervened at any time during those two months, but he did not.

It strikes me as interesting that this story of Jephthah makes no direct reference to him sacrificing his only daughter. This adds to the poignancy of the story, and here as well as elsewhere, the authors of the Old Testament are masterful story-tellers. That said, there is a distinct change in the mindset of the people of Israel over the period of time in which the Old Testament was written. In earlier times, sacrifice of firstborn – human or animal – was not an uncommon practice. Later on, this came to be seen as barbaric, and later authors of the Old Testament probably did what they could to erase evidence of this embarrassing practice.

In Exodus 13:2, Yahweh explicitly claims every firstborn human and animal for himself:

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Consecrate unto me each firstborn, breach of each womb among the Israelites in man and in beast – it is Mine.”

Here, the word “consecrate” is a translation of the Hebrew word קָדַשׁ (qadash), which means to set apart, or to sanctify. Does this mean they are to be sacrificed? Moses clarifies a bit when relaying the command to the Israelites. In Exodus 13:15, he says, “Therefore do I sacrifice to the LORD every womb-breach of the male and every firstborn of my sons I must redeem.” Redeem here is from תִּפְדֶּ֣ה (tip̄·deh), which means to ransom. So, instead of sacrificing their firstborn son, they can make a payment. Robert Alter further explains in his note on this verse:

The permanent “redemption” of every firstborn son, in remembrance of all the firstborn Hebrew sons rescued from death on that dire night in Egypt, is evidently a payment in silver or goods to the priests. The notion that this is a substitute for human sacrifice of the firstborn, as Sir James Frazer contended, is at best a part of the shadowy archaic antecedents of this practice, here firmly anchored in historical commemoration.

Later on, another substitute for the sacrifice is offered up. Yahweh claims the people of the tribe of Levi to be his priests. They handle all the animal sacrifices, and tend to the Tabernacle, which is a movable tent and temple that holds the Ark of the Covenant. In Numbers 3:40-41, Yahweh claims all the Levites, and their livestock, in place of all the firstborn of Israel:

And the LORD said to Moses, “Reckon every firstborn male of the Israelites from a month old and up and count the number of their names. And you shall take the Levites for Me – I am the LORD – instead of every firstborn among the Israelites, and the cattle of the Levites instead of every firstborn among the cattle of the Israelites.”

Even later in the Old Testament, Yahweh is seen to have pushed the Israelites into child sacrifice as a punishment. Yahweh is angry (once again) that the Israelites did not follow his rules, and so he ordered them to sacrifice their children, so that they would be “defiled” by the barbarous act. In Ezekial 20:24-27, the prophet channels Yahweh as saying:

Inasmuch as they did not do My laws and they spurned My statutes and they profaned My sabbaths and their eyes went after the foul things of their fathers. And I on my part gave them statutes that were not good and laws through which they would not live. And I defiled them with their gifts when they passed every womb-breach in sacrifice, so that I might desolate them, so that they might know that I am the LORD. Therefore speak to the house of Israel, man, and say to them, Thus said the LORD: In this, too, your fathers insulted Me in betraying me.

It’s hard to imagine how, when reading texts like this, one can see Yahweh as a benevolent figure. Not only does he demand child sacrifice from his people, he then turns around and blames it on them. This is somehow a form of punishment in his eyes. Of course, it’s quite common for abusive people to pass off all varieties of their abuse as punishment.

This idea of a substitute for a sacrifice of the firstborn is carried over into the New Testament as well. Jesus himself is redeemed in this way in Luke 2:22-24 (David Bentley Hart translation):

And when the days of their purification were completed, in keeping with the Law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present to the Lord – As has been written in the Law of the Lord: that “Every male that opens the womb shall be declared holy to the Lord” – And to offer a sacrifice – in keeping with what is stated in the Law of the Lord: “A pair of turtledoves or two nestling pigeons.”

We recognize that times change, and odious practices that were once commonplace, are now just embarrassing and repugnant memories. Perhaps Yahweh – if he is still with us – also changed with the times. But the Yahweh of the Old Testament is not just a party to human sacrifice. He is demanding it. We have seen so much evidence that contradicts the idea that Yahweh is a benevolent figure. Quite the contrary. We might accept that Yahweh was simply a creature of his time, “going with the flow,” so to speak. And we might forgive him the cruelties he perpetrated. But we should never forget, or block out the memories. Instead, we should make efforts to come to terms with the traumas of our past.