Thirty-ninth. What must we think of a man impudent enough to break in
pieces tables of stone upon which God had written with his finger? What
must we think of the goodness of a man that would issue the following
order: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by
his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and
slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man
his neighbor. Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord, even every
man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a
blessing this day"?1 Is it true that the God of the Bible demanded human
sacrifice? Did it please him for man to kill his neighbor, for brother
to murder his brother, and for the father to butcher his sou? If there
is a God let him cause it to be written in the book of his memory,
opposite my name, that I refuted this slander and denied this lie.
Fortieth. Can it be true that God was afraid to trust himself with the
Jews for fear he would consume them? Can it be that in order to keep
from devouring them he kept away and sent one of his angels in his
place?2 Can it be that this same God talked to Moses "face to face, as a
man speaketh unto his friend," when it is declared in the same chapter,
by God himself, "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see
me, and live"?3
Forty-first. Why should a man, because he has done a bad action, go and
kill a sheep? How can man make friends with God by cutting the throats
of bullocks and goats? Why should God delight in the shedding of blood?
Why should he want his altar sprinkled with blood, and the horns of his
altar tipped with blood, and his priests covered with blood? Why should
burning flesh be a sweet savor in the nostrils of God? Why did he compel
his priests to be butchers, cutters and stabbers?