#old testament

Shoutout to Eve today who helped us all out of the tutorial level!

Lines by Lisa http://lisadossonart.tumblr.com/

Colors by me!

goandannouce:

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

Jn. 1:1

December 25 2016, Latin Mass, Nativity of Our Lord, Cornelius A`Lapide Commentary: The Gospel of Saint John

tauron:

SAMSON AND DELILAH 

_{When Samson fell for Delilah, a woman from the Valley of Sorek, it marked the beginning of his downfall and eventual demise.}

prosetitutes:

OF GODS AND MONSTERS (4/?) | THE NEPHILIM

The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.

-Genesis 6:1-4

The Nephilim (נפילים‎) were offspring of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men” before the Deluge according to Genesis 6:4; the name is also used in reference to giants who inhabited Canaan at the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan in Numbers 13:33. The story of the nephilim is further elaborated in the Book of Enoch, where the Greek, Aramaic, and main Ge'ez manuscripts of 1 Enoch and Jubilees connect the origin of the nephilim with the fallen angels, and in particular with the egrḗgoroi (watchers). According to these texts, the fallen angels who begat the nephilim were cast into Tartarus^{[Greek Enoch 20:2 ]}, a place of ‘total darkness’. However, Jubilees also states that God granted ten percent of the disembodied spirits of the nephilim to remain after the flood, as demons, to try to lead the human race astray until the final Judgment.

nabooqueen:

                                  _{biblical women modern aesthetics: dinah
                            “We cannot let our sister be treated like a prostitute.”}

clairelizabethfraser:

The Bible:S a m s o n & D e l i l a h

_{And it came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.(Judges 16:4)}

A-moát 3:3
Nếu hai người không đồng ý với nhau, thì há cùng đi chung được sao?

(Can two walk together, except they be agreed?)
—Amos 3:3 | Vietnamese Bible 1934 (VIET)
The 1934 Vietnamese Bible is in the public domain.
Cross References: Amos 3:2; Amos 3:4

Give Thanks to the LORD, for He is Good

1 Praise the Lord!

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

2
Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord?
Who can declare all His praise?
3
Blessed are those who keep justice,
And he who does righteousness at all times!

4
Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people.
Oh, visit me with Your salvation,
5
That I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones,
That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,
That I may glory with Your inheritance.

6
We have sinned with our fathers,
We have committed iniquity,
We have done wickedly.
7
Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders;
They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies,
But rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea.

8
Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake,
That He might make His mighty power known.
9
He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up;
So He led them through the depths,
As through the wilderness.
10
He saved them from the hand of him who hated them,
And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11
The waters covered their enemies;
There was not one of them left.
12
Then they believed His words;
They sang His praise.

13
They soon forgot His works;
They did not wait for His counsel,
14
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness,
And tested God in the desert.
15
And He gave them their request,
But sent leanness into their soul.

16
When they envied Moses in the camp,
And Aaron the saint of the Lord,
17
The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan,
And covered the faction of Abiram.
18
A fire was kindled in their company;
The flame burned up the wicked.

19
They made a calf in Horeb,
And worshiped the molded image.
20
Thus they changed their glory
Into the image of an ox that eats grass.
21
They forgot God their Savior,
Who had done great things in Egypt,
22
Wondrous works in the land of Ham,
Awesome things by the Red Sea.
23
Therefore He said that He would destroy them,
Had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach,
To turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them.

24
Then they despised the pleasant land;
They did not believe His word,
25
But complained in their tents,
And did not heed the voice of the Lord.
26
Therefore He raised His hand in an oath against them,
To overthrow them in the wilderness,
27
To overthrow their descendants among the nations,
And to scatter them in the lands.

28
They joined themselves also to Baal of Peor,
And ate sacrifices made to the dead.
29
Thus they provoked Him to anger with their deeds,
And the plague broke out among them.
30
Then Phinehas stood up and intervened,
And the plague was stopped.
31
And that was accounted to him for righteousness
To all generations forevermore.

32
They angered Him also at the waters of strife,
So that it went ill with Moses on account of them;
33
Because they rebelled against His Spirit,
So that he spoke rashly with his lips.

34
They did not destroy the peoples,
Concerning whom the Lord had commanded them,
35
But they mingled with the Gentiles
And learned their works;
36
They served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
37
They even sacrificed their sons
And their daughters to demons,
38
And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with blood.
39
Thus they were defiled by their own works,
And played the harlot by their own deeds.

40
Therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled against His people,
So that He abhorred His own inheritance.
41
And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles,
And those who hated them ruled over them.
42
Their enemies also oppressed them,
And they were brought into subjection under their hand.
43
Many times He delivered them;
But they rebelled in their counsel,
And were brought low for their iniquity.

44
Nevertheless He regarded their affliction,
When He heard their cry;
45
And for their sake He remembered His covenant,
And relented according to the multitude of His mercies.
46
He also made them to be pitied
By all those who carried them away captive.

47
Save us, O Lord our God,
And gather us from among the Gentiles,
To give thanks to Your holy name,
To triumph in Your praise.

48
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”

Praise the Lord!
—Psalm 106 | New King James Version (NKJV)
The Holy Bible; New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Cross References: Genesis 15:6; Genesis 43:14; Exodus 3:7; Exodus 6:25; Exodus 9:16; Exodus 14:11; Exodus 14:27-28; Exodus 14:31; Exodus 15:24; Exodus 32:10; Leviticus 26:17; Leviticus 26:33; Numbers 10:9; Numbers 11:31; Numbers 16:1; Numbers 16:32; Numbers 16:35; Numbers 33:52; Numbers 35:33; Deuteronomy 4:3; Deuteronomy 8:14; Joshua 23:12; Judges 2:14; Judges 2:16-17; judges 10:12; 1 Samuel 7:6; 1 Chronicles 16:34; Psalm 1:3; Psalm 9:14; Psalm 15:2; Psalm 18:15; Psalm 66:5-6; Psalm 81:7; Psalm 81:11; Psalm 97:7; Psalm 107:3; Psalm 107:11; Jeremiah 2:11; Hosea 9:10; Luke 1:68; Luke 1:71-72; Acts 7:41; 1 Corinthians 10:6; 1 Corinthians 10:20; Hebrews 3:11; Hebrews 3:19

God encourages Joshua to attack Ai

1 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”

3 So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 4 with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. 5 I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. 6 They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, 7 you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.”

9 Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai—but Joshua spent that night with the people.

10 Early the next morning Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. 11The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. 12 Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So the soldiers took up their positions—with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.

14 When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. 15Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled toward the wilderness. 16 All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. 17 Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.

18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand. 19 As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire.

20 The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. 21 For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from it, they turned around and attacked the men of Ai. 22 Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. 23 But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. 25 Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. 26 For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. 27 But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua.

28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. 29 He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.

The Covenant Renewed at Mount Ebal

30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, 31 as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses—an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. 32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. 33 All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.

34 Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—just as it is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.
—Joshua 8 | New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.
Cross References: Genesis 12:8; Genesis 22:3; Genesis 28:19; Exodus 14:16; Exodus 17:11-12; Deuteronomy 13:16; Deuteronomy 20:14; Deuteronomy 20:16; Deuteronomy 27:2-3 and 4; Deuteronomy 27:5-6; Deuteronomy 31:11; Joshua 1:9; Joshua 10:1; Joshua 15:61; Judges 20:29; Judges 20:31-32; Judges 20:34; Judges 20:37-38; Judges 20:42; 1 Samuel 23:4; Zechariah 8:23; John 4:20; John 19:31

Honored to have placed third at the fifth annual Judeica Show this year! Many thanks to the Hillells of the Florida Suncoast for hosting the event. 

This year the theme was, The Book of Numbers. It felt nice to take some time and do some reading and research for this piece. 

It is said that Aaron’s rod, was made of an almond branch, and upon his appointment as resurrected High Priest, his rod budded and flowered, as a sign that he was chosen to lead the generations forward.

The almond tree is a progressive symbol in the Jewish faith of new life and new beginnings. As it’s amongst the first to bloom and awaken from winter’s sleep, I noted strong parallels with the new generation of Israelites who awaken in faith and new leadership to move their people forward to a better life.

Audrey Benjaminsen 2014

modern-vampires-of-art-history:

Tintoretto,Moses Drawing Water from the Rock (1575) / Vampire Weekend, Worship You (2013)

Leviathan

If Behemoth’s domain is the land, then Leviathan is the supreme monster of the sea from the Old Testament. In Jewish lore, both creatures will be slain by the might of God at the end of time and their bodies will be used to provide sustenance and shelter for the righteous.

“Who can open the doors of his face? His teeth are terrible round about.
His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.” (Job 41: 14-19 KJV)

Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, King Arthur, Abel (12th c.) Mosaic floor, Cattedrale Di Otranto, Italy

The Holy Fore-Mother Ruth.  Original illustration for a client in Virginia, 2014, inspired by the work of turn-of-the-century artist Ephraïm Moses Lilien.  Print available here.  For more original art and illustration by Matthew Alderman, visit matthewalderman.com.