The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction:
jealous and proud of it
How jealous and proud is he? Well, his name is Jealous. And he named himself! For thou shalt worship no other god: for
the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Exodus 34:14 Here are some more verses where God brags about his jealousy. I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Exodus 20:5 I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Deuteronomy 5:9 (For
the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 6:15The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and
his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
Deuteronomy 29:20They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
Deuteronomy 32:16 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and
I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
Deuteronomy 32:21 He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
Joshua 24:19 And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and
they provoked him to jealousy with their sins.
1 Kings 14:22And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was
the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. Ezekiel 8:3Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of
the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
Ezekiel 8:5I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and
I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. Ezekiel 16:38So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and
my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.
Ezekiel 16:42And
I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and thy remnant shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire.
Ezekiel 23:25Surely
in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen.
Ezekiel 36:5For
in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath
have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel.
Ezekiel 38:19God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious;
Nahum 1:2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts;
I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. Zechariah 1:14Thus saith the LORD of hosts;
I was jealous for Zion
with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.
Zechariah 8:2All the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. Zephaniah 3:8 a petty,
A golden bell and a pomegranate ... shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the LORD, and when he cometh out, that he die not.
Exodus 28:34-35
Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.
Leviticus 19:19
Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evilfavouredness: for that is an abomination unto the LORD thy God.
Deuteronomy 17:1
Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.
Deuteronomy 22:11
Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself.
Deuteronomy 22:12
He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 23:1 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation.
Deuteronomy 23:2 unjust,
If thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.
Exodus 4:23
The LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast.
Exodus 13:15
I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
Exodus 20:5
Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers.
Isaiah 14:21 See
here for a list of 878 Old Testament injustices.
unforgiving
He is a jealous God;
he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. Joshua 24:19
Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for
I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble. Jeremiah 11:14
When they fast,
I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
Jeremiah 14:12 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and
though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. Ezekiel 8:18 control-freak;
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: ... The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods (hemorrhoids), and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: ... Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: ... The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. ... And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters ... The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them.
Deuteronomy 28:15-68 a vindictive,
I kill .. I wound ... I will render vengeance to mine enemies ... I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh.
Deuteronomy 32:39-42
He will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries.
Deuteronomy 32:43
To me belongeth vengeance and recompence ... for the day of their calamity is at hand.
Deuteronomy 32:35
And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them.
Nunbers 11:1
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:
Jeremiah 11:22
For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood.
Jeremiah 46:10 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
Micah 5:15 bloodthirsty
And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD.
Leviticus 4:17
And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
Leviticus 26:29
I kill .. I wound ... I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh.
Deuteronomy 32:39-42
But God shall wound the head of his enemies ... That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same.
Psalm 68:21-23
For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
Isaiah 34:2-3
For my sword shall be bathed in heaven.
Isaiah 34:5
The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, ... their land shall be soaked with blood, ... For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance.
Isaiah 34:7-8
And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine.
Isaiah 49:26
I will ... trample them in my fury; and their blood ... will stain all my raiment.
Isaiah 63:2-6
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend.
Jeremiah 19:9
For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood.
Jeremiah 46:10
Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
Jeremiah 48:10
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.
Ezekiel 39:17
Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth.
Ezekiel 39:18
And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
Ezekiel 39:19
And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
Zephaniah 1:17 See
here for a list of 769 Old Testament cruelties.
ethnic cleanser;
Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.
Deuteronomy 13:15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts ... go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
1 Samuel 15:2-3 a misogynistic,
Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, an do ye to them as is good in your eyes.
Genesis 19:8
Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.
1 Samuel 18:27
And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged.
Leviticus 19:20
And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.
Leviticus 21:9
And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? ... Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
Nunbers 31:15-19
And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women ... shalt thou take unto thyself.
Deuteronomy 20:13-14
And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her .... Thou shalt go in unto her.
Deuteronomy 21:11-13
If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated ....
Deuteronomy 21:15
If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her ...
Deuteronomy 22:13
I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid. Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city. But if ... the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die.
Deuteronomy 22:14-21
If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city.
Deuteronomy 22:23-24
When two men strive together on with another, and the wife of the one ... putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her.
Deuteronomy 25:11-12
Have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two?
Judges 5:30
Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.
1 Samuel 18:27
Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
2 Samuel 12:11 And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD
Ezekiel 26:6