#the descendants of Ishmael

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Abraham Marries Keturah

1 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Ketu′rah. 2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Mid′ian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshu′rim, Letu′shim, and Le-um′mim. 4 The sons of Mid′ian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abi′da, and Elda′ah. All these were the children of Ketu′rah. 5 Abraham gave all he had to Isaac. 6 But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.

The Death of Abraham

7 These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life, a hundred and seventy-five years. 8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. 9 Isaac and Ish′mael his sons buried him in the cave of Mach-pe′lah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, 10 the field which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife. 11 After the death of Abraham God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac dwelt at Beer-la′hai-roi.

Ishmael’s Descendants

12 These are the descendants of Ish′mael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maid, bore to Abraham. 13 These are the names of the sons of Ish′mael, named in the order of their birth: Neba′ioth, the first-born of Ish′mael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Ked′emah. 16 These are the sons of Ish′mael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes. 17 (These are the years of the life of Ish′mael, a hundred and thirty-seven years; he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his kindred.) 18 They dwelt from Hav′ilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria; he settled over against all his people.

The Birth and Youth of Esau and Jacob

19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethu′el the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean. 21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is thus, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.”

24 When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25 The first came forth red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they called his name Esau. 26 Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand had taken hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Esau Sells His Birthright

29 Once when Jacob was boiling pottage, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red pottage, for I am famished!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. — Genesis 25 | Revised Standard Version (RSV) Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. Cross References: Genesis 2:11; Genesis 10:15; Genesis 12:2,3 and 4; Genesis 15:15; Genesis 16:15-16; Genesis 17:20; Genesis 21:14; Genesis 22:23; Genesis 23:8; Genesis 24:35-36; Genesis 24:67; Genesis 26:1; Genesis 27:1; Genesis 27:3; Genesis 27:36; Genesis 32:3; Genesis 38:27; Deuteronomy 21:16-17; Judges 8:24; 1 Samuel 10:22; 2 Kings 4:38-39; 1 Chronicles 1:30; 1 Chronicles 1:32-33; 1 Chronicles 5:19; Isaiah 60:6; Matthew 1:2; Acts 7:8; Romans 9:10; Romans 9:12; Hebrews 11:9; Hebrews 12:16

Genesis 25 Bible Commentary - Matthew Henry (concise)

[proclaimtheword]

Two Covenants

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic.

For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now.

Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭4‬:‭21‬-‭26‬, ‭28‬-‭31‬ ‭NKJV

[gnnbloupthworld]

Extract from Seung-Hui Cho's manifesto:

You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today, but you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off, you Apostles of Sin.

Congratulations. You have succeeded in extinguishing my life. Vandalizing my heart wasn’t enough for you. Raping my soul wasn’t enough for you. Committing emotional sodomy on me wasn’t enough for you. Every single second wasted on your wanton hedonism and menacing sadism could have been used to prevent today. Ask yourselves, What was I doing all this time? All these months, hours, seconds. Only if you could have been the victim of your crimes. Only if you could have been the victim ...

The blood of the Innocents should never be shed, but the wicked we shall spread our wings and strike. We do not want the Weak, the Defenseless, or the Innocent, but the sadistic, the corrupt, and the wicked who prey and rape from the Weak, the Defenseless, and the Innocent. We will seek and demolish them until our last breath. You Lifetakers may have succeeded in raping our souls and shattering our dreams — but mark our words — the vendetta you have witnessed today will reverberate throughout every home and every soul in America and will inspire the Innocent kids that you have fucked to start a war of vendetta. We will raise hell on earth that the world has never witnessed. Millions of deaths and millions of gallons of blood on the streets will not quench the avenging phoenix that you have caused us to unleash

All of you who have ever been fucked by these Descendants of Satan Disguised as Devout Christians, all of you who have went through what I went through, all of you who have felt what I have felt in my life, all of you who have suffered the wrath of these Democratic Terrorists, all of you who have been beaten, humiliated, and crucified — Children of Ishmael, Crusaders of Anti-Terrorism, my Jesus Christ Brothers and Sisters — you’re in my heart. In life and death and spirit. We’ll soon be together.

As the time approached, I wished for a last minute miracle and discard this mission you’ve given me. Heaven knows I wouldn’t hurt a single leaf of a flower. But when the time came, I did it. I had to. What other choices did you give me? All this time... You never know that a human being is capable of doing until you fuck him to the edge.

Are you happy now that you have destroyed my life? Now that you have stolen everything you could from me?

INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY ❤️

[worfsbarmitzvah]

I've thought about how gentile Abrahamic religions are antisemitic religious colonialism before and it pisses me off a ton and I'm thankful you said it, but now that it's someone besides me saying it, I'm gonna give some criticism (please don't take this personally)

Everything up to Abraham (particularly Adam and Noah) have G-d creating and tending to the entirety of humanity, right?

During Abraham's time, it should stand for something that G-d tends to Hagar and Ishmael, right? Especially since Hagar gives her own name for G-d and He makes a promise to Ishmael that he'll be the father of nations (or something like that). And I think the Prophet Muhammad is supposed to be descended from Ishmael.

And Noahides are a whole Thing in all this too ofc.

But the bigger thing is there are definitely texts and interpretations that take G-d being the G-d of the Hebrews and extend it to Henotheism, but for the Jews who are purely monotheists and say there is truly only one G-d in existence and He belongs only to us, isn't it cruel to totally deny the vast majority of humanity the Divine, especially if He is still their Creator and controls the world(s) they live in?

this whole thing is coming from the assumption that judaism was always monotheistic. it wasn’t. at one point in time we were monolatrous, meaning we only worshipped one g-d but didn’t deny the existence of others. hell, the language used in the torah supports this (the way the text treats egypt’s g-ds being perhaps the most prominent example). hashem has always been our specific g-d, since before the idea emerged that he is the only g-d. our/the world’s perception of him may have since evolved into this idea of one singular deity, but it has not always been that way.

hagar and ishmael still come from our mythology surrounding our particular g-d. the idea then emerged in islam, which was born with the same jewish roots that christianity was, that muslims were descended from ishmael. and, like, i don’t really mind or care about that either way. ishmael’s not a super major figure in our folklore. the story, along others in breishit, genuinely does lend itself to the idea that hashem can be the guardian of many different peoples, families, and nations. and to tell the truth i don’t genuinely have much of a problem with sharing some folklore and roots.

but it NEEDS to be acknowledged where those roots come from. for so much of history, right up until today, christians and muslims have pretended they know our g-d and our folklore and our history better than we do. they have MURDERED us for worshipping our g-d and practicing our customs in OUR way, the way we have been since before their religions and cultures emerged. if the religions that find their roots in our culture were more willing to listen to us, respect us, and learn from us, maybe i’d be less angry. but they’re not. they’ve tried and tried and tried to eradicate us and erase where they came from and make our stuff theirs. i don’t think it has to be like that forever but i don’t think we’re very close to it not being like that as of now.

also, i can’t think of a single cultural mythology that doesn’t have a creation story of some kind. it’s just the kind of thing that societies do when they try to make sense of their place in the grand scheme. the fact that we believe our g-d created the entire world does not actually mean that that story or that g-d belongs to the entire world. the fact that everybody thinks our creation myth applies to and belongs to them is just more evidence of how widely our culture has been co-opted.

there’s nothing we can do to change the fact that our g-d has been made universal (either through the natural evolution of our theology or from colonialism and cultural theft, more likely a combination of both) and i have to be fine with that. sure, fine, the people who have adopted our g-d as their own without actually bothering to understand us at all can outnumber us by orders of magnitude.

but why does our holy city have to also be their holy city? the christians have the vatican and rome and islam has mecca and medina. why do they need jerusalem? why can’t even that just be ours?

again, i have to push this aside and be okay with sharing if i truly want to have peace in our land. and i do, because i love eretz yisrael and yerushalayim more than i hate what has been done to her. the situation has grown so far beyond the injustices i am angry about that it is impossible to right those injustices without creating brand new ones. so i will be okay with sharing our g-d, our texts, and our land. but that doesn’t mean the injustice of it won’t burn like a fire in my heart.

[desperateknot]

Chimera Queequeg, traced from that one iconic Falin frame from Dungeon Meshi!

Ref:

If you think hard enough about it, it really fits. Queequeg emerging after a wave of Pequod Villagers have been defeated to beat up the Sinners: Falin descending after some of the harpies have been defeated to beat up the party.

They are at varying degree of not conscious of themselves, and Falin can't really speak in her dragon form either.

I was going to trace the Woah Hey frame for Ishmael, but I got lazy.

[bijoumikhawal]

Re-envisioning Hagar

Hagar, Keturah, mother of Ishmael, slave of Sarah, “wife” of Abraham. There are few midrashim that discuss Hagar or reference her. One of the few is quite telling:

After God dismissed His Bride, the Shekhinah, from His presence, at the time of the destruction of the Temple, God brought in a maidservant to take Her place. Who is this maidservant? She is none other than Lilith, [...] She rules over the Holy Land as the Shekhinah once ruled over it. Thus the slave-woman has become the ruler of the House, and the true Bride has been imprisoned in the house of the slave-woman, the evil Lilith. There the Bride is held in exile with her offspring, whose hands are tied behind their backs, wearing many chains and shackles. [...] Her joy has fled because She sees Her rival, Lilith, in Her house, deriding Her. [...] So it is that in the days to come news will come to God’s consort, Lilith, that the time has come for her to go. Then she who plays the harlot will flee from the sanctuary, for if she were to come there when the woman of worth was present, she would perish. Then God will restore the Shekhinah to Her place as in the beginning, and God and His true Bride will again couple with each other in joy. As for the evil slave-woman, God will no longer dwell with her, and she will cease to exist. This startling myth describes the ascent of the demoness Lilith, in which she becomes God’s consort after His separation from his Bride. It is based on an interpretation of the verse A slave girl who supplants her mistress (Prov. 30:23). The identification of Lilith as once living behind a mill is based on the verse about the slave girl who is behind the millstones (Exod. 11:5) [...] It is impossible to read this myth without seeing a parallel to the story of Abraham and Hagar. Hagar was Sarah’s maidservant, but when Sarah remained barren, Abraham conceived Ishmael, his first child, with Hagar, And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was lowered in her esteem (Gen. 16:4). The enmity between Sarah and her maidservant is thus parallel to that of God’s Bride and the maidservant Lilith. 59-60, “Lilith becomes God's Bride”, Tree of Souls by Howard Schwartz.

In 16:4, the word translated to “lowered in her esteem” is qalal. This word can refer to many things: to be light, swift, slight, cursed, despicable, and more. Another translation of this same line from a reference site I like to use is “And he went in unto Häqär and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.”¹ While it isn't unreasonable to attribute this to Hagar thinking better of herself because she is fertile, it is of note that she did not initiate this situation with Abraham, and never consents to it. In fact, as a slave, she cannot. Abraham is the husband of her enslaver, another enslaver himself, and further, her enslaver wants her to have sex with him. Is it her despising Sarah because she feels superior, or is it because she is being forced to bear a child? When Sarah notices this, she treats Hagar “harshly”, and she flees. Hagar is advised to return despite her mistreatment by an angel, and is given a parallel promise to Abraham about her descendants.

There are multiple layers to this passage. For now, we will note that the angel does nothing to indicate that Sarah's behavior is good or bad. The word used for Sarah's behavior is ‘anah, which can mean “to afflict, to oppress, to humble, to humiliate”. The specific phrase later advising Hagar to return is “‘anah under her (Sarah's) hand”. This is sometimes translated as “submit”, but may be better rendered as “suffer”. Like the word qalal, there is some ambiguity in the word. However, both words are intentionally read in a way that degrades Hagar and valourizes Sarah. The angel does not say that Hagar disrespected Sarah. The advice of the angel can indicate that it is “right” for Hagar to be a slave, and Sarah is correct to punish her. It can also indicate that Hagar, as a runaway slave and a single woman, is sadly in better circumstances if she stays with her enslaver while pregnant, and until her son is old enough to travel. It can indicate that the current suffering will lead to later merit for Hagar, as the prediction of HaShem to Abraham about his descendants suffering does. Later, the word for Ishmael's behavior toward Issac remains ambiguous- it can either mean play, laugh, or mock. The way in which the text is read is a choice someone makes.

Another choice made by readings of the text is the choice not to really consider Hagar Jewish. The entirety of Abraham's household converted alongside him. Hagar is apart of that household as a slave and as a “wife”, though the former inherently complicates the latter. If one does not identify Hagar with Keturah, there is no reason to think she is impious; in fact, the text directly contradicts that by noting her naming of HaShem and ability to converse with an angel twice. If one thinks she is Keturah, then only Rashi's word- not the Torah- says Hagar reverted to idol worship, and that very reading is apart of a narrative where she repents doing so, and this is how she takes the name Keturah. Even in progressive readings, Hagar is identified with Islam, despite not being Muslim, upholding her alienation. Is King David a Christian because Jesus allegedly descends from him? Is Isaac an Edomite because he fathered Esau? Even if you insist that it makes sense, Ishmael himself is not always so aggressively cast out as people think. There are Jews named for him. These progressive readings also often fail to recognize the very real harm done by Sarah to Hagar as an enslaver, and some even attempt to place all the blame on Abraham. Abraham has plenty of blame to bear, of course, but Sarah is the instigator within the narrative.

This alienation is not Hagar's alone to bear; Egyptian Jews in scripture are often alienated. Some midrash make Asenath a child of rape, and Jacob's niece, so they don't have to deal with two of the founders of the 12 tribes being half Egyptian. Some offensively read the son of Shelomit as a gentile, despite him having a Jewish mother, simply because he has an Egyptian father. Bithiah is not allowed to breastfeed Moses because even as a convert, her milk is unclean. The term “Erev Rav” is used as an insult, and the group is blamed for the Golden Calf and said by some to reincarnate solely to cause suffering, despite there being no textual evidence for any of it. This alienation has nothing to do with the actual behavior of these people; it is simply a polemic against their ethnic origin.

As I have mentioned, Hagar is often associated with Abraham's wife after Sarah's death, Keturah. How is this so? Quite simply, the genealogies overlap. The names of each woman's sons and grandsons do not repeat, but they both populate the same geographic area of the Arabian Peninsula (as a result both are sometimes connected to the same trade of incense and spices). Additionally, Hagar has a seperate line of descendants from Ishmael named Hagarites, implying she had more children. These children keep to the same geography. Similar (negative) behaviors are ascribed to all these descendants in Midrash. Additionally, the promise to make Hagar have many descendants doesn't quite make sense if she only has one child, and while there are many tribes within it, there is only one Ishmaelite nation. Abraham is promised the same, and he has at least 8 children, who beget far more than one nation.

In the Rabbinic tradition, one of the main explanations for her name Keturah is about her chastity- evoking the idea that she was “closed up” until she met Abraham again. I reject this. Keturah is also related to the word for incense; she is the only human to give HaShem a name. Her voice rose to the Heavens to do this, rose up like incense smoke. This second interpretation is similar to an existing one also found in Rabbinic scripture, that she was “perfumed with good deeds”.

In midrash, Ishmael is often painted extremely negatively. The word mezahek (meaning to play, mock, or laugh) is taken to mean that he was an idol worshipper, (attempted) murderer, and rapist in some literature. This goes along with multiple negative midrashim on Keturah's children. They are seen as “waste” of Abraham, idolatrous, robbers and thieves who intentionally did not receive Abraham's blessing and refused the gift of Torah and won't have a portion of the world to come. “The offspring of Keturah” is sometimes used as an insult because of this. There are also some positives- some use the basis of the midrash that Abraham chose not to bless these descendants to state that he actually did bless them, and because HaShem confirmed the blessing of Issac, the blessing of Keturah’s children was also affirmed. Some also believe that the gifts of Abraham to them were not sorcery, but wisdom and ethics, and that these went on to influence “Eastern Religions”. People also refute that “sorcery” was fully a forbidden thing; arguably, Abraham and Moses were both sorcerers, as men who had power from a contract with a Celestial being (in this case, HaShem). Further, Solomon is sorcerer that had a contract with an earthly supernatural being. Such arguments put forth that only specific kinds of harmful sorcery are forbidden, and that attempts to make blanket bans (such as by Saul) have no positive textual effect that would indicate they were the correct stance.² Some also dispute the idea that Hagar Keturah was a concubine and therefore “lesser” to Sarah, by stating the confusing language around wives and concubines refers simply to unnamed concubines, and that Hagar Keturah was a full wife. Some also use the basis of the midrash to say that other cultures have wisdom equal to Judaism.

Interestingly, few midrashim connect the fact that rather directly after the casting out of Hagar and Ishmael, HaShem tests Abraham by asking him to take Issac to Moriah. “Your son, your only son, who you love” can be read as angry mockery of Abraham for his behavior towards his firstborn. After Abraham almost gets Ishmael and Hagar killed so Ishmael won't mistake himself for Issac's equal and share Abraham's inheritance, he is told to sacrifice the very child he did that on the behalf of. Even if Abraham did not give the demand and was encouraged to have Hagar and Ishmael leave, he only sends them away with a waterskin and the clothes on their back into the desert. Even Sarah did not demand such treatment. HaShem certainly did not tell him to behave in such a way.

The fact that Abraham does this also means that Issac can no longer hold illusions about his father. He may not have known the circumstances of his brother leaving, though he likely knew his mother's hatred of Ishmael and Hagar. If so, he knows now the low his father sank to. An Islamic interpretation of Eid al-Adha, which commemorates their version of the events at Moriah, is that what Abraham is being asked to kill is not Ishmael, but his sense of ownership over him. In the reading I present, Abraham kills that ownership over both sons by failing in his parental duties. Issac is still his father's heir. But Abraham descends from Moriah alone.

In the story of Hagar, there is a resonance between her life and the archetype of the Wandering Goddess from Egypt. This was one of two myth cycles in Egypt that had primary importance; the other, which one will likely be familiar with, is the kingly succession that occurs between Ra, Osiris, Set, and Horus. The Wandering Goddess is not an individual, but again, an archetype. The most famous story about it is the story of Sekhmet³/Hathor as the blood thirsty Eye of Ra, but Tefnut, Horit, Mehyt, Nehemtua, Ai, and arguably Isis, all also have myths on this mold.

The characteristics of the Wandering Goddesses are that (1) a woman or someone important to her is wronged in some way (in many stories the female protagonist is raped), (2) the woman wanders in the wilderness as a result, sometimes to seek revenge, other times just the escape the situation, or in one instance, she is imprisoned (3) she is convinced to return (often by Thoth or another deity) or is freed, (4) her leaving and returning is connected to water, and specifically may be connected to the Inundation of the Nile with varying degrees of narrative explicitness. Often at her return, she may be ritually purified with water (a navigation of the goddess in a sacred lake).

This is not a perfect fit, but listen; Hagar is (1) taken from her home as a slave and offered to a man without agency on her part, and is subsequently mistreated by her mistress, (2) she flees out of despair and likely not a small amount of anger (3) she is convinced to return by an angel acting on behalf of HaShem, (2) after a length of time her angry mistress demands she be cast out, where she ends up in the wilderness again, (3) an angel appears to help her and her son, and (4) both instances of an angel appearing are connected to a well of water.

From a historian's perspective, I don't know if this echo is deliberate or not (Egyptian art and literature does, provably, impact ancient Jewish scripture), but from a devotional perspective I recognize it. It reminds me of Miriam, who also had a well- a magical one, that followed her. I think Hagar had another well that was much the same, and this well one day overflowed and became the Red Sea. After all, it is through the Red Sea that Moses had to lead the Hebrews and the Erev Rav to freedom. The incident is full of birth imagery, and there already is a strong parallel between the first Jew having an Egyptian slave, and his descendants ending up as slaves in Egypt. The same word is used for both Hagar's treatment by Sarah and the treatment HaShem predicts Abraham's descendants will experience in Genesis 15: ‘anah. The promises of HaShem in Genesis 15 overall are a mirror image of the message of the angel to Hagar in the next passage. It is also only after being slaves that Jews really become Jews- it is only after slavery that the Torah is given at Mount Sinai. It merely makes sense to me that the waters that made a passage to freedom were the waters of Hagar. Hagar is also apart of the first generation of Jews, where the entire concept is born, and the crossing of the Red Sea precedes a rebirth of the nation, signified by the giving of the Torah and 10 Commandments. Hagar's name also mirrors the future slavery in Egypt, where the Hebrews are “strangers”. We are told that, because we know what it was to be strangers in Egypt, we should treat the stranger kindly. Upon freedom, like Hagar, the new Jewish nation struggles through the desert- and I have already mentioned that both Miriam and Hagar have a well.

The echo between Hagar and slavery in Egypt has been noted before, of course. I have read a few midrashim and other religious writings, mostly authored in the past decade, connecting the two. However, not many simultaneously draw the lines between Hagar and Moriah, or use the perspective of comparative religion.

Central to the Wandering Goddess archetype is also the contrast between rage/suffering and mercy/joy. When the heroine leaves to wander, having suffered or occasionally seeking to cause suffering, she is full of rage, and this is connected to the dryness of the Nile during Shemu, the harvest season. When she returns, the water returns, starting the Season of Akhet (Inundation), granting mercy upon the people of Egypt even though she was wronged. This would be marked by various festivals of merry making. This is also connected to the behavior of the star Sirius, whose movements and color match up to the behavior of the Nile (red as it recedes, blue as it returns with the water). These goddesses are also associated with lions and fire, which are used to underscore the wrath element. There are other explanations around the myth as well, from another expression of Kingly authority; to the cycles of the sun (all of these goddesses are connected to a solar diety in some way, usually as their “Eye”- which also connects a bit to “El Roi”) or moon; or to menstruation. In the story of Horit, her suffering is seen as ensuring that she is compassionate to all women.

Hagar is seen as “haughty” by many, and while her perspective is primarily portrayed as despairing, she is also angry with Sarah- either because she thinks Sarah is beneath her or because of her role in Hagar's situation. Her mercy is also vaguely present (mostly in regard to Ishmael), but not emphasized. Both are partly due to Hagar's emotions and thoughts not being emphasized in the text next to Sarah and Abraham's- the main times we are given her perspective are in her desert wanderings, and even there it is limited.

These heroines also have titles or are associated with figures who have titles referring to them as “the Distant One”; which really isn't that far off from being “The Stranger”. Butler argues that the “Wrath” of the Wandering Goddess is the same quality as her distance. The primordial Nun is a state where there are no distinctions between things- all is one. This is the site of the “first” Wandering Goddess myth, where Tefnut becomes distant from Atum after being created. In creating distinction from Nun, one is no longer part of “all things” and therefore risks becoming “no thing”. The act of becoming is the act of alienation, and the act of alienation is the act of destruction. In many stories, to express this idea, the wrath of the heroine is also less important than the distance of her. In this way, the act of being “the Stranger”, and the lesser loved consort (another form of alienation) ties Hagar to the theme of wrath even with the limited information the Torah gives us about her emotions and perspective. The joy and mercy of the heroine's return are about undoing the alienation and re-establishing their relationship to the totality of existence while maintaining individuality. This is an inherently liminal idea, and Wandering Goddess stories and rites were often associated with welcoming foreigners into Egyptian society and trans people⁴ (“women-men” and “men-women” are referenced, likely meaning both transmasculine and transfeminine individuals). In the bounds of the text, Hagar is reintegrated through her relationship to HaShem, an act which saves her from death, even if one does not identify her as Keturah. The act of identifying her as such presumes there was some sort of reconciliation with Abraham, and therefore reintegration not only with HaShem, but with the (at this point) only other human worshippers of Hagar's “El Roi”. Hagar Keturah's liminality extends further. Her first name can mean “the stranger” but it can also mean “the convert”. Her distance and returning and bolster this theme, as would the fact that some of her descendants are among the Erev Rav who stood at Sinai (such as many of the Midianites).

Yet more resonances also occur in that the Inundation of the Nile was the New Year for Egypt (once called the Opening of the Year, now called either the Crown of the Year or most commonly Nayrouz by Copts). This was, again, around the time some of the Wandering Goddess festivals were celebrated,⁵ and was relevant to the myth even for goddesses who did not have late/mid summer celebrations. What portion of the Torah do we read on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year? Why- the one with Hagar! Specifically, Genesis 21, when she is cast out with Ishmael. This chapter, though only part of Hagar's story, also is the best one to represent the Wanderer archetype at play if one was only allowed to pick one chapter to do so. With careful analysis, it contains all 4 of the basic elements that most stories in that archetype had, though restructured into a narrative that glorifies only one god, with the Wanderer becoming a mortal being.

Again, I don't know if it would be at all fair to hypothesize if this was intentional or otherwise an exhibition of cultural exchange. However, this kind of influence isn't unheard of. The Song of the Sea has similarities to Egyptian literature (and as a result, repurposes ideas that are Egyptian in origin and glorify the deeds of Pharaohs into a war song that glorifies HaShem's victory over the Pharaoh), the Seraphim are likely based on Uraeii imagery that was popular in ancient Palestine, the Tale of Two Brothers has a narrative beat also found in Joseph’s life, and the story of Moses has similarities to the Story of Sinhue. Intentional readings also exist; Bithiah has been connected to the breastfeeding goddess Thermouthis by Josephus, the Sybiline Oracles (written by Egyptian Jews) list Isis as Ham's wife, and Artapanus wrote about how Thoth/Hermes was actually Moses.

Moving on from comparative religion: another layer to this is the idea of seeing and being seen. A matter I am particularly concerned with is what I call “the violence of the gaze”- the idea that perception itself can be violent. This comes largely from my experience with gender; with being sexualized young, with being harassed when I covered my hair, with being transgender in a time where increasing awareness has led to increased hatred. Something you may hear from a trans person is that they no longer go swimming. This is because most swimwear exposes the body, especially when wet and clingy, to the point where it can be very easy to be “clocked” and opened to harassment. Even if nothing bad happens, the exposure itself can lead to feelings of dysphoria and humiliation.

However, at the same time, I was taught to be secretive as a child. “Never write something down that you don't want read in front of a judge”, lectures about not talking about my home life, fear that I would suppressing my freedom to even do community service, and other such lessons spilled almost constantly from my mother. In her absence during my teen years, I found verbally disemboweling myself to be a rush. All the secrets, filthy and wretched, in the air. I managed to restrain myself from doing it constantly, and I keep things to myself now, but I know why I did it. It was not only the pressure, but the idea of someone seeing me, understanding me, and helping me.

What a wonderful world that is, where someone seeing you means they will save you!

This violence of seeing haunts Hagar alongside her salvation through being seen. We are told that Sarah thought Hagar to be “haughty”, despite the issues of translation. This perception has been taken as truth, and used as justification for viewing Hagar as a villianess by many Jewish thinkers. This is sometimes taken to the point of Sarah causing her to miscarry and this being seen as right. The reason I do not take Sarah at her word is simple; every slaver thinks their slave is haughty, or in America, “uppity”, especially when that enslaved person is a woman. The act of believing you are a person despite being enslaved is enough to be declared “haughty”. In doing so, you believe you have worth and resist total subservience, which to the person exploiting you is incredibly inconvenient, and is your “fault”. You are acting above your “proper place”. Even trying to be stoic about your situation can be labeled as such. “Haughtiness” in concept is also commonly applied to abuse victims and marginalized people. Anyone in a situation where another person thinks they are inferior and expects they have a right to dominate and use them lives under the weight of the idea, though it is especially racialized and applied to women. In a way, the accusation itself is a confession.

There is a monster of the Red Sea, which I have before identified as Hagar's well. This monster is named Rahab. In scripture it is vaguely identified with Egypt, and defeated by G-d. The name means pride, splendor, and insolence. Something interesting one finds allusions to in some midrash (I have not personally found one more explicit on the matter) is that Pharaoh did not drown. He was eaten- by some manner of creature that dwelled in the Red Sea. Such a wild, prideful creature; surely Rahab would not have only accidentally eaten Pharaoh, and it seems it would buck a command. But even a terrible dragon must yield. As it is her well, it is her responsibility. Did Hagar, acting as the hand of G-d, as many humans do, subdue Rahab? Did she manage to bring such a terrible creature to heel?

This is a matter for a future midrash.

There is also a tangential matter, that of Hagar and other strangers. A poem I love dearly and which influences my religious thoughts is Sheyd (more accurately, שׁד‎‎) by Ezra Rose. The poem is entirely about the sheydim's plea to be treated with respect, evoking the line “Love the stranger as yourself”. Though Ezra likely does not know of it, the poem rings true to the elements of the spiritual/philosophical system of adorcism, and specifically the zār of North Africa and West Asia. Adorcism is not novel to Judaism; there is evidence that prophets in the ancient kingdoms were adorcists. Saul's “afflicting spirit” from HaShem sounds a bit like a zār spirit; it causes him illness and is soothed by music, specifically, of a lyre. Zār specifically is also practiced by some Jews, alongside other adorcist rites like Stambeli. The spirits in zār represent “Others”, strangers to the main cultural identity of a specific zār lineage. They also represent memory and history (also evoked in Ezra's poem). This has been especially important as zār is heavily practiced by women, and one of the ways it spread was through the enslaved and their descendants- people who often do not get to write history. The other main way it spread was through pilgrimage and migration. It is, of course, mischaracterized as devil worship, and given the oh so fearsome label “sorcery”. This is not dissimilar to how the sheydim have been, somewhat erroneously, called “demons”.⁶ There are many ways of conceptualizing the spirits, or “winds”, as zār is heterogeneous and has no dogma beyond some basic ritual concepts. However, the ideas I resonate with as, admittedly, one uninitiated, are such; the spirits were once human, or intended to be so. They are separated from us by some distant mishap or punishment. When the spirit enters our body, it is an opportunity for reconciliation, reunion, healing of an old wound. By knowing the stranger, they cease to be strange. You undo the alienation. By loving and honoring the stranger, one is healing a rift. Rose's poem reminds us that the sheydim's cries also reach the heavens. The sheydim are everywhere.⁷ The strangers are constantly in our midst. How do we love them?

For me, Hagar is a matriarch (even though she is not considered a Matriarch). Not only that, she is the only matriarch to have been one in her own right for a time, as a woman with a child, as she spent time as a divorcee, and she is individually given a promise by HaShem. Another interesting detail is that Hagar is very brave. Most who meet angels in scripture are afraid and “fall on their face”. Hagar does neither. Further, the prediction the angel gives about Ishmael is interesting- while in our modern era, it is often simply understood to mean that Ishmael (and perhaps his descendants, i.e. Arabs) will be troublesome and always in conflict, it can also be taken to mean that like a wild ass, Ishmael will never be forced to submit to anyone. He will never be a slave.

My relation to Hagar and my private midrash making about her still doesn't make things simple. For example, when I search for experiences in my community that relate me to her, what will inevitably come up is the kidnapping, assault, and forced conversion of Coptic girls. Hagar, after all, is a slave taken out of Egypt, who is used for her reproductive capacity, who calls on the god of her enslaver- implying acceptance of their religion. Do I wish to sacralize that? And this is before considering that in accepting that Hagar is Keturah, one accepts that she eventually went back to Abraham. I understand why; a woman in her position would lack options, and may have no choice. I moved back in with my abuser after 4 years apart for similar reasons, after all, before leaving again. But in veneration of her, in wanting to give her power, my brain recoils against it. I don't want to sacralize that either.

I want Abraham on his knees before her.

This is the tension of rage and mercy, specifically forgiveness, that I mentioned, and I am struggling with it. I never forgave my abuser, and I don't think I will. I don't think it's valuable to myself. This doesn't mean I think constantly about it. There is a difference between forgiving and letting go. Between forgetting what wrongs someone did and recognizing the value and significance someone brought to you

I relate to Hagar as an Egyptian. I relate to her as a stranger. I relate to her as a survivor. I relate to the bowshot; I have at times, weeped over so much as the torn wings of butterflies. The tradition is to name converts “ben Avraham bat Sarah”, the child of Abraham and Sarah, because they are thought of as the first Jews. But I am sure it surprises no one that I think of Hagar as my mother, and a reflection of myself. B'nei Keturah- child of incense, child begging my cry to fly to heaven. Yes, I am such a child, yes, I am an Egyptian, yes, I am of the Erev Rav.

¹ This website lays out a Hebrew text, a transliterated text, and a translated text with hyperlinks for specific words and other things of interest. I referenced Gen 15, 16, and 21 while writing this article. http://www.qbible.com/hebrew-old-testament/genesis/16.html

² Magic of the Ordinary by Rabbi Gershon Winkler covers a lot of interesting ground about Judaism and how it isn't actually that alien from ideas like sorcery and “shamanism”. However, I am critical of several elements of his writing, ranging from the way he presents Christianity (he displaces a lot of misogyny in Judaism as being Christianity's fault, as well as the shift in Judaism from a more “shamanic” religion despite that shift starting during the Second Temple period, and ignores the existence of Indigenous Christians who were not converted by force), to the use of the word “shamanism”, which I think is used too broadly by most people. His view of the idea of being Indigenous (or more accurate to his writing, Aboriginal) is also one I am personally skeptical and lukewarm regarding, as a Copt. I think it is a valuable book that should be read critically.

³ Sekhmet is also interesting as she has notably similarities to the gods Anat and Kali, who I have researched together. There seems to have been some cultural exchange at some point that spread the imagery and ideas behind all three figures, associated with the trade of spices that required one to travel the Arabian Peninsula. This trade route seems to also be referenced in Song of Songs. Anat is also interesting as Anat is recognizably transmasculine.

⁴ Here used expansively to include all gender variant people.

⁵ The Opening of the Year used to have a floating date based on astronomical observations and the measurements of the Nile's water level. Today, the date of descendant festivals is fixed.

⁶ This has its partial origins in Greek translations of Jewish scripture, which rendered "sheydim" as "daimones". Daimones were originally a more vague concept of lesser divinities/spirits that overlap with the modern idea of guardian angels, but the term is where we get the word "demon" from today due to Christianity rendering the daimones as a group of evil spirits. Interestingly, the word "sheyd" was possibly borrowed from Assyrian/Sumerian/Akkadian and would have denoted a protector quality.

⁷ These ideas are not exactly new to me. As someone of Irish American descent from my mother, I grew up with a vague sense of "fairy stories", and the perception of the natural world as full of spirits one must respect is one I doubt I will ever shake.

If you like what I write, a few dollars my way via ko-fi.com/rosebijoumme is always appreciated.

Further Reading:

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/keturah-midrash-and-aggadah

https://www.thetorah.com/article/our-stepmother-keturah

https://aish.com/keturah-origins/

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hagar-midrash-and-aggadah#pid-13229

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7021-hagar

https://www.reconstructingjudaism.org/article/hagar-stranger/

Inconsistency in the Torah by Joshua Berman

Egypt’s Returning Goddesses: A Theological Inquiry by Edward P. Butler

On the Heels of the Wandering Goddess: The Myth and the Festival at the Temples of the Wadi el-Hallel and Dendera by Barbara Richter

Isiopolis has a series of posts with citations avout the theme of the Wandering or Returning goddess: https://isiopolis.com/tag/returning-goddess/

Notes on Transgressing Gender Boundaries in Ancient Egypt by Mark DePauw discusses the women-men and men-women, though notably uses some offensive language.

Dancing for Hathor by Carolyn Graves-Brown: https://archive.org/details/DANCINGFORHATHORWOMENINANCIENTEGYPTCAROLYNGRAVESBROWN/mode/2up

Dogs, Raging Goddesses, and the Summer Solistice in Ancient Egypt by Jeff Newman: https://open.substack.com/pub/ancientnow/p/dogs-raging-goddesses-and-the-summer

Wine and Wine Offering in the Religion of Ancient Egypt by Mu-Chou Poo

Racial Offense Taken When 'Uppity' Rolls Off Certain Tongues by Justin Grant https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=5823018&page=1

Ezra Rose's poem: https://www.tumblr.com/sheydgarden/700116676335812608/feygele-2020-a-sheyd-jewish-demon-inspired-by?source=share

Zar: Spirit Possession, Music, and Healing Rituals in Egypt by Hager Al Hadidi

Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan: The Red Wind of Sennar by Susan Kenyon

Changing Masters: Spirit Possession and Identity Construction among Slave Descendants and Other Subordinates in the Sudan by G.P. Makris

[ranticore]

Chapter 2 - To Be Human

for tdov i'll post my most trans coded character, more trans than any of the others tbh. obviously it's ishmael

---

Forward by the author | Chapter 1

In a bright white room with a single large round window, a young Ishmael sits on a bed. The edge of a rock ridge curves across the view beyond the window. Ishmael looks out through the window at the sheer sides, one hand pressed to the glass so that the light diffuses red through his skin. He is twelve years old and wears a shapeless blue and green garment that does not fit him, pinching tight around his neck but loose across his shoulders. A sipho nymph flies past the window and he turns to follow it.

Voice of Maris: What was that? Did you see it?

Ishmael: Not really. Too fast.

Maris: That was one of those – what are the zoologists calling them again? It’s a different name every time I hear it.

Ishmael: Exosiphonid.

Maris: I think they’re scary. Like giant dragonflies.

Ishmael: Did Surwan see it?

Maris: Who’s Surwan?

Ishmael: This girl in the biology class. She wanted to see an exosiphonid.

Maris: I didn’t know you were in the biology class. Was it good?

Throughout the video, Ishmael does not make eye contact with Maris or the recording device. He appears to hide behind a curtain of hair and hunch in on himself while he is not looking out through the window.

Ishmael: Dan said I could join next semester. I was waiting outside.

Maris: And eavesdropping?

Maris: I think it’s admirable to want to learn. What do you want to learn about? Is there anything that interests you? I’m no biologist, really.

Ishmael: Surwan likes the flying ones, like siphos. Callum wants to learn about leviathans.

Maris: That sounds exciting. Would you like to learn about leviathans too?

Ishmael: Lee doesn’t think they’re real. He said the betas wouldn’t get made if there were monsters in the water.

Maris: I don’t think Lee is a trustworthy source on that, if you want my opinion. Would you like to find out the truth? Imagine if you were the first to see a leviathan, they might name it after you.

——

The video transcribed above is a very typical example of Maris’s early sessions with Ishmael. He appears to resist all of her attempts to get him to submit an original thought, and repeatedly refers to the Human children instead, those who are undergoing a structured education about the zoology of Siren.

Maris’s notes echo my own understanding – that Ishmael struggled to articulate anything beyond a constant wish to be included with the other children, to the point of eavesdropping on classes he was not allowed to attend.

His passing curiosity about the wildlife around the settlement served only as a means to connect with the other children. And he was repeatedly shunned for these attempts, as Callum’s diary later noted. Those children whose likes and ambitions he carefully memorised did not think of him the way he thought of them. In fact, as far as I can tell, they did not think of him at all, because he was not a peer in any real sense.

This video also acknowledges the existence of the beta generation of Sirenians, who largely resembled modern phocids, though smaller and with shorter tails. It is important to state that although modern phocids descend from this beta generation, they do not descend from Ishmael. In fact, nobody descends from Ishmael, despite legends and myths to the contrary. This was stated explicitly several times by both Ishmael as an adult and Dan Loris, but made clear to Ishmael by Maris during these sessions.

“The other children are learning about how to make babies,” Ishmael announced at a session one day. “Dan wouldn’t let me stay. He never lets me stay.”

“You don’t need to know any of that,” Maris said. “You’re different to the other kids, remember? You don’t have a body that makes babies. Honestly, that’s a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Can we swap?”

Her attempts at reassuring him seemed to fall on deaf ears, because reminders of his differences were often poorly received by Ishmael, or ignored. He paused to think about what she said, wondering how she could envy him when all he wanted in the world was to be like her.

“How do I get one?” he asked.

“A baby?”

“A body that makes them. I asked Dan and he said the betas can do it.”

“Well, yes,” Maris said, now wondering exactly how much it was appropriate to delve into he topic. “You don’t want to be like a beta, though, do you?”

Ishmael visibly shuddered. “No! But I want to be like Callum, can Dan do that? I’m getting better at being upright, so maybe if I practice more I can change.”

Thwarting Ishmael’s one desire was the absolute fact that his genetics were set in stone, and he could not be retroactively made fully Human. These sessions reveal a seam of anxiety, too, over the beta generation. At the time there were twenty of them, living in a separate location where they had access to a test pool.

Repeatedly, during the sessions with Maris, Ishmael brings them up as a potential bad ending for him, the inverse of his great desire to become like the other Humans. Those beta phocids were less Humanoid than Ishmael himself was. He believed that by mimicking the Human children he could become more similar to them, but the opposite could also be true, and the wrong actions might cause him to degenerate into a beta phocid.

Unfortunately for him, his efforts at being ‘upright’ did not result in any permanent bipedalism. When he was fourteen, his unpredictable growth had shifted his proportions away from the more Humanlike ratio he’d been born with. He was finding it more difficult to stand up straight, instead adopting a hunched and arched posture which still left him standing taller than the children of his age whose attention he coveted. The onset of puberty and these shifts in his body were tortuous, and it was a time that lasted until his mid-thirties when he finally reached his adult size and proportions.

But there was an improvement noted by both Dan Loris and Maris – despite repeatedly displaying signs of distress and depression in his sessions with her, he was no longer wordlessly violent, and did not give himself to his rages anymore.

Maris had provided him with the one thing he needed at the time – a safe person to talk to, someone who asked him how he was feeling without taking it as some scientific data point. She reported it all to Dan Loris, of course, but did not tell Ishmael that. He believed that she was his only safe harbour in the entire world.

Maris, in her own notes, says pretty much the same. And she was fond of him, too, revealing a genuine affection towards him alongside a deep abiding worry that she was not doing enough to ease his distress, and that she could have done more. She admits that she was not a trained psychologist, just someone in the settlement who had spare time and some textbooks. Her actual job was as a water quality specialist and she was acutely conscious that she had not the qualifications nor educational background necessary to help Ishmael properly. The settlement had a number of psychologists but they were not associated with the lab and did not volunteer their time.

To pre-empt the same problems with tantrums arising in the beta phocids, Maris was also supposed to spend some time with them, too. But she discovered that, with the exception of one, they were actually rather well-adjusted compared to Ishmael, likely as a result of their group all living together and being able to form a small close-knit community. Ishmael was deprived of this.

And, most importantly, the beta phocids could see themselves reflected in their community and use their bonds as a lens to make sense of themselves. Ishmael lacked this factor, and had no reflections or counterparts that he could use to understand himself. He was isolated by being unique, and by his inability to see the phocids as anything other than strange creatures he was embarrassed to somewhat resemble.

But it’s also patently clear that Maris, and Dan Loris and the other Precursors Ishmael was in contact with didn’t do much to raise Ishmael’s opinion of the beta phocids, as evidenced by the transcript above. Perhaps if they’d thought to assuage his fears by treating the beta phocids as people worthy of dignity and understanding, he might not have feared becoming like them.

The beta phocids, for their part, were born in a similar manner to Ishmael – the same deep dream, the same delayed birth, though their bodies were ten years old by the time they emerged from their dream and took their first breaths. Ishmael had been subject to numerous digestive trials measuring the suitability of his body for life on Siren. It was found that he was somewhat lacking in the production of a digestive chemical called an enzyme which would have allowed him to better deal with the high concentrations of silica present in Siren organisms.

He could eat and digest local plants and animals, but sometimes showed signs of digestive upset. Taking this information, Dan Loris was able to tweak his beta phocids before they were born, cloning and increasing the number of cells in their bodies which could produce the appropriate enzyme. He also took samples of Ishmael’s gut microbiome, which had taken years to properly develop, and implanted those samples within the digestive tracts of the beta phocids.

They were born as a group, though not all at once, allowing for correct monitoring of the newborns during the most tenuous periods. One suffered from the most common cause of death due to delayed birth; they simply never woke up, having rejected the dream at some point over the past several years. They were removed from the amniotic chamber where they passed on, a ten year stillbirth. We might remember the legacy of ‘Ishmael’, our Ishmael who was first born on Siren, but I feel it is only right to remember ‘Charity’, the first Sirenian to die here. They were given then to the assistants of Dan Loris who performed a post mortem examination.

The others suffered no more from the effects of delayed birth than Ishmael himself did. Although their bodies were more divergent from Precursor Humans than Ishmael’s was, at the time of his birth, and the discrepancies between their dream selves and their true selves must have been more jarring, this was offset somewhat by the communal nature of their upbringing. As soon as one was deemed fully awake, aware, and of sufficient health, they were placed in the boarding chamber with the other phocids and an assigned nursery worker. The birthing process took the better part of a year, so that the last born of the delayed-birth phocids was one year ‘younger’ than the rest, despite all technically being the same age.

Cherta, who gave their name to the wandering moon, was the fifth born beta phocid. There is very little to distinguish Cherta from the rest of the group, at this early stage, but I have on file their original description - “‘Cherta’, named for a sponsor of the project who donated three million nua*. Unisex ‘phocid’ of the Beta generation. Born age 10 years and 5 months, in [Year 3]. Melanistic colouring was chosen as protection against solar radiation, but it is expressed in heterogenous patches with a strong dorsal stripe. Length 5’1 nose to tailtip at time of birth and weight 54kg. Unusually violent birth, needed sedation.” In fact, Cherta assaulted Dan Loris’s assistants as they were born, reacting to the event as though it were an invasion of the bedroom of their dream. It was by all accounts an auspicious start compared to the others, and perhaps an indication that Cherta’s experience with the deep dream was not standard.

Cherta had fallen victim to another rare phenomenon of the incubator, referred to by Dan Loris as ‘dream rot’. This occurrence is a result of differences in the receiving brain, rather than the dream machine itself. The brain begins to understand, in some form, that what it is witnessing is not reality, and the structure of the dream begins to unravel.

At the time of Cherta’s delayed birth, the dream had been in the early stages of this process. If allowed to continue for too long, permanent damage to the psyche’s ability to judge reality is the result. Cherta would be haunted by this for the remainder of their life, but it was not severe enough to significantly alter their treatment compared to the other beta phocids.

The violence of their birth began to circulate in anecdotal form, eventually reaching the ears of Ishmael. He was curious – in fact, it was the first time he showed open curiosity about anything other than the opinion of a Human child. He asked Maris if she was going to speak to Cherta too, and she told him that she had spoken to all of the beta phocids, and had given Cherta in particular some extra guidance.

He did not take it well. The realisation that Maris’s time was not solely devoted to his needs was a source of distress, and likely another painful forced grouping with the phocids he feared. He would not participate in Maris’s sessions as he had before, and appeared afterwards to despise Cherta in a way that seemed quite targeted and personal.

Maris was forced to lie – she told Ishmael that she also spoke to the Human children, thus drawing him back under the umbrella of Humankind. In the following sessions, Ishmael revealed that he had greater knowledge of the beta phocids—and Cherta in particular—than anyone had previously guessed.

“Why do they look like that?” Ishmael asked. “They don’t stand up. They’re like animals.”

“They’re adapted to move in the water, like you,” Maris said. Her voice sounded nervous. “This means they had to have short arms and long, streamlined bodies. Like an otter. They’re very graceful in the water.” She had begun to introduce a less dismissive attitude towards the phocids, even praising them at times. Ishmael would tense every time she did.

“I don’t swim,” Ishmael said.

“Well, you’re not here to swim,” Maris said. “You have other things to teach us, so Dan didn’t wanna risk you in the pool.”

Ishmael was quiet for a long time. He rarely changed his facial expression, to the point that Maris often noted that she wondered if he heard her at all, or if his facial muscles had not developed properly.

“I saw Cherta playing with the floating ball at the bottom of the pool. In the water.” Ishmael sounded somewhat disdainful. “Like a child.”

“You’re all the same age,” Maris reminded him. “And I think you’re a child too. What’s wrong with having fun in the pool? Are you jealous?” She was fascinated by Ishmael’s sudden willingness to offer his opinion, particularly as discussion of the Human children never provoked this in him.

But Ishmael didn’t answer that one. At that point, he did not want to admit to any jealousy, and likely did not consciously recognise the feeling as such. Instead, he felt annoyance - he had to spend time in the lab doing work with Dan Loris, providing test feedback, having his organs scanned, letting himself be pawed all over by technicians who did not particularly care for him, only for what data he could provide. He did not endear himself to them, his quiet and obtuse personality proving difficult to grow fond of. But he still knew that it was work, he was producing data, and the phocids were just playing around in a pool all day, as far as he could tell. He was filled with righteous indignation at their laziness, at how easy their lives were, and wished that they knew what it was like to be him, so that they might stop looking so happy any time he peered in through the test pool windows.

I have recovered video footage of this behaviour, too. At odd hours of the day, with no real schedule, Ishmael would approach those windows. They were set in the side of the corridor outside the lab, affording an underwater view to onlookers. Access to the aboveground phocid enclosure was limited, so Ishmael only had the windows. He would walk there—painstakingly upright, though often with a hand on the wall to help support what was increasingly a difficult posture—and then sit on his tail and watch. The beta phocids spent most of their time in the water, as one might imagine. Ishmael would later learn that their lives were not as blissfully relaxing as he first thought, but it is true that they spent a lot of time playing in the pool, as teenagers will do. And he would watch them, until he heard an approaching Human, and quickly retreat.

The windows did not allow the phocids to look out. Cherta was unaware that they were the target of Ishmael’s most intense scrutiny. Despite a somewhat disturbing, moth-eaten childhood dream, Cherta was, on the surface, as lively as the rest of the phocids. They weren’t exactly easygoing, though, preferring to impress upon the others the importance of following rules, and of doing things the right way.

What Ishmael did not realise was that the phocids, as they swam together, built jigsaws and played card games underwater, were providing data too. They showed Dan Loris how their body plan could deal with the aquatic environment as easily as a Human could walk around on land. And so, when Ishmael and the phocids were fifteen, Dan Loris began to build his gamma generation of genetically engineered Humans, those who would be born on Siren without the use of a deep dream, and who could be introduced to the world outside.

Long days and nights spent in the lab occupied almost all of Dan Loris’s time, and his child Callum had nowhere to go after his classes but the lab itself. And with Ishmael and Callum once again forced into close proximity to one another, Ishmael would soon learn one of the most valuable lessons of his childhood.

*’nua’ is a form of currency

[lu-is-not-ok]

horrid thought i had: if your theory on k corp hong lu being semi-conscious during stasis is right, does that not mirror carmen during lobotomy corporation?

...

Wait. Hold on. Wait. Wait hold on.

Ok, so here's the thing: For a while now I've already had a suspicion that Hong Lu's deal is like, way more important than he lets on.

This might sound like a conspiracy Game Theory Matpat rant, but here me out.

First of all, Hong Lu has this weird tendency to break patterns in much less obvious ways than the other suspicious Sinners, to the point it's been driving me insane?

Like.

Okay.

First.

Remember those promo PVs of each Sinner? And how each of them ended on a glimpse of their trauma and All of them either directly referenced a potentially traumatic event or had the Sinner sound distraught? Except for Hong Lu, who doesn't sound in any way distressed like the others did, and then after the game logo is revealed he asks if something he said was weird.

Like, sure, it does make sense for him to say that in context of what he says during that video, but isn't it so fucking weird that the one Sinner with a section in his promo that seems slightly off is also the one who asks if anything he said during that section was weird?

Second.

You know those intro segments during the prologue, that are also on the official limbuscompany.com website? The ones that offer managerial instructions for each Sinner?

Pay close attention to those. For every Sinner, these instructions specify how to deal with that specific Sinner's eccentricities.

Don't show Gregor your disgust. Wait for Rodya's bad mood to pass. Give Sinclair positive reinforcement. Wait patiently for Yi Sang to finish thinking. Look Ishmael's way for sound advice, but don't break her trust. Understand Heathcliff is simple-minded and contact HR if he causes problems. Play along with Don's Fixer act. Don't make Ryoshu breed personal resentment towards you. Give clear and concise commands to Meursault. Give Outis short replies of agreement but keep an eye on her. Simply nod and get it over with when conversing with Faust.

...But then there's Hong Lu's. Which says nothing how to deal with his eccentricities, but rather to not let Other Sinners get physical with him over them. It's not about keeping him in line, it's about keeping other people's reactions to him in line.

I want to note this especially because several other Sinners break patterns in their introductions as well. Meursault's is one sentence. Ryoshu and Outis have a warning. Don Quixote's particulars include a [REDACTED] on the website. Faust's directly asks the manager to fuck around and find out. However, the way Hong Lu's intro instructions break the pattern is the most subtle out of all of them, to the point I genuinely did not realize that was the case until I had read all of them over multiple times.

Third.

Hong Lu's Base E.G.O animation. If you watch all of the Base E.G.O animations in a row, you'll notice that for all of them, the Sinners start already in frame... Except for Hong Lu, who visibly jumps into the frame from off-screen.

Now, you could argue that, technically, Don runs into her animation from off-screen as well, however I think there is a bit of a difference here. Don's animation is too quick to see her actually run in. We see she's not there for maybe a frame, before she pops with an animation that implies she had just run in and needs to break her momentum. This is unlike Hong Lu's, whom we Actively See descend from Off-Screen.

Now, I know what some of you may be thinking.

That I am coping. That these are coincidences. That I'm looking too deeply into things.

However. Here's a connection that I just recently realized, that has been Fucking Me Up.

Mild spoilers for Canto IV and like the first two chapters or so of Dream of the Red Chamber, if anyone cares.

You know how Limbus Company has this... fixation on stars? There's the whole thing with Dante following a star, stars granting wishes, people turning into weird beings from wishing to be stars, and there's this general connection to the sky and space because of Demian also doubling as a reference to The Little Prince.

And then something weird hit me.

See, Dream of the Red Chamber starts with a bit of a backstory to the jade that would later be reincarnated into Bao-yu. You see, it was one of the many stones used by a godess to create the sky. However, this one specific jadestone ended up being the only one not used in that creation, which then led to it feeling horrible about itself, which then led to a monk and a taoist deciding to have that stone reincarnate as a human and live through a human life, kickstarting the rest of the novel.

I'm like, heavily simplifying this, but that's the gist of how that whole thing starts.

Which. Made me think. A jadestone that was part of the ones meant to build the sky, but ended up being left unused. The sky. Stars. Hong Lu being seemingly named after the jade rather than Bao-yu directly.

Holy shit there's no way they won't reference this in some way, right? Right?

So, now imagine me, at my fucking wit's end, having the biggest crackpot theory brewing in my mind.

And you send this ask comparing K Corp Hong Lu to Carmen.

I am going insane.

[mulberriesandtea]

I've been somewhat trying to on off work on this to make it a complete theory video, but I've decided just to talk about it a bit here and leave other thoughts for the video(if I finish it)

So Dante's Inferno. What if the canto order is descending through the circles of hell?

There's only 8 circles of course. However, violence has 3 fairly distinct parts that allows us to make it 11. We can also split off Satan himself to make it 12.

Taking this order, and applying to to what we believe is the canto order would give us:

Limbo: Gregor

Lust: Rodion

Gluttony: Sinclair

Greed: Yi Sang

Wrath: Ishmael

Heresy: Heathcliff

Violence(Others): Don Quixote

Violence(Self): Hong Lu

Violence(God): Ryōshū

Fraud: Meursault

Treachery: Outis

Satan: Faust

would like to note that Ulysses from Dante's inferno- y'know, who Outis is based on, is in Fraud, not Treachery. I do think that this movement means that Outis has done something different, though- something more deserving of Treachery.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Abraham’s Family

28 Abraham’s sons were Isaac and Ishmael. 29 These are their descendants:

Ishmael’s first son was Nebaioth. His other sons were Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 30 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, 31 Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These were Ishmael’s sons.

32 Abraham also had sons by Keturah, his slave woman. They were Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

Jokshan’s sons were Sheba and Dedan.

33 Midian’s sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah.

These men were the descendants of Keturah.

Isaac’s Descendants

34 Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac’s sons were Esau and Israel.

35 Esau’s sons were Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

36 Eliphaz’s sons were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. Also Eliphaz and Timna had a son named Amalek.

37 Reuel’s sons were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.

The Edomites

38 Seir’s sons were Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.

39 Lotan’s sons were Hori and Homam. Lotan had a sister named Timna.

40 Shobal’s sons were Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

Zibeon’s sons were Aiah and Anah.

41 Anah’s son was Dishon.

Dishon’s sons were Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran.

42 Ezer’s sons were Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

Dishan’s sons were Uz and Aran.

The Kings of Edom

43 There were kings in Edom long before there were kings in Israel. These are the names of the kings of Edom:

Bela was the son of Beor. The name of Bela’s city was Dinhabah.

44 When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah became the new king. Jobab came from Bozrah.

45 When Jobab died, Husham became the new king. Husham was from the country of the Temanites.

46 When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad became the new king. Hadad defeated Midian in the country of Moab. Hadad’s city was named Avith.

47 When Hadad died, Samlah became the new king. Samlah was from Masrekah.

48 When Samlah died, Shaul became the new king. Shaul was from Rehoboth by the Euphrates River.

49 When Shaul died, Baal Hanan son of Acbor became the new king.

50 When Baal Hanan died, Hadad became the new king. Hadad’s city was named Pau. Hadad’s wife was named Mehetabel. Mehetabel was Matred’s daughter. Matred was Mezahab’s daughter. 51 Then Hadad died.

The leaders of Edom were Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, 52 Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, 53 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, 54 Magdiel, and Iram. This is a list of the leaders of Edom. — 1 Chronicles 1:28-54 | Easy-to-Read Version (ERV) The Holy Bible, Easy-to-Read Version Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International. Cross References: Genesis 25:1-2; Genesis 25:4; Genesis 25:13,14 and 25; Genesis 32:28; Genesis 36:2; Genesis 36:4; Genesis 36:11,12 and 13; Genesis 36:20,21 and 22; Genesis 36:26-27; Genesis 36:31-32; Genesis 36:35-36; Genesis 36:38,39,40 and 41; 1 Chronicles 1:27; 1 Chronicles 2:1; 1 Chronicles 5:19; Job 2:11; Isaiah 34:6

[elacular-kink]

Hicvember 20: Throat

It's funny that the idea for this one came to me almost immediately, because I've never put a whole lot of focus on throat movements, nor have I ever had really big feelings about vampires. Oh, by the way, this one has vampires.

Contents: Hiccups, neck focus, vampires, blood drinking and blood talk generally, enemies with benefits, degrading language (slut) (not affectionate), burping, inducing hiccups.

"Will you hold still, you insufferable bendy straw!?"

"W-well i–*ULP* if you keep ma–*HUK*–king me laugh, *HULK* of course no–*HOK* not, Wall–*AUK*–ace!"

"I will chain you to the fucking wall again! Don't think I won't."

"Oh n–*HOK* nooo, please! *HIUK* Don't throw me in tha–*UCK* that briar patch!"

Wallace snarled, showing off his gleaming white fangs through his unnaturally wide-spread lips. That just made his uncooperative slurpee laugh even harder.

Wallace Chain (AND YES THAT WAS HIS FUCKING NAME!!!) was a dignified vampire! He'd lived centuries longer than any of these walking wine bottles ever could! He was a scion of the proud immortal lines of Great Britain! He was technically still a lord, probably! This ambulatory black pudding was supposed to be his prophesied enemy, the descendant of those who had pointlessly fought his kind for centuries all across the globe! Ishmael Văn-Hall was supposed to be his generational foe to be dramatically warred with, then eventually killed in an orgiastic celebration of vampires' triumph over the pathetic cattle that was mortal man!

SO WHY WAS THIS OBSTINATE FUCKING SMOOTHIE LAUGHING AT HIM?!?

Ishmael, whose name Wallace really shouldn't have bothered remembering, was offensively mediocre and absolutely not stunningly handsome with his dark brown skin and curly hair and sharp eyes and offensively wide grin. He worked as a data entry drone, for fuck's sake! The only method of fighting he knew was taking Taekwondo lessons in a strip mall as a child, a fact which he had proudly informed Wallace of within minutes of meeting him! And here he was, tied to a chair, absolutely refusing to let Wallace get a decent drink from him because his jugular wouldn't hold fucking still because he kept fucking hiccuping and that kept making the insufferable stolen blood that pumped through Wallace's veins go inconvenient fucking places! He could only stare as the man's Adam's apple bobbed in his throat with each hiccup.

"Oh come o–*OCK* on, Vladdy *HNK!*" Ishmael tilted his neck offensively at Wallace, waggling his eyebrows. "B neg–*GUK*–gative. Very rare. *HUK* Your faaaaavori–*ICCUP*–iiiiite." His whole body bounced with every hiccup, but the way the triangle at the bottom of his neck caved in over and over again was particularly obscene. "None of th–*HUP* those gross, che---chewy RhD pr–*HUK* proteins."

"RhD proteins are not fucking 'chewy'!" Wallace jabbed a finger into Ishmael's vulgarly bouncing chest. "And do you have a death wish? With your neck fucking..." his blood inconveniently filled up his stupid fucking face "...spasming in that fashion, I could rip you open and let you bleed out accidentally instead of doing it on purpose!"

"Are you su–*HURK* sure they're not ch---chewy? I feel li–*UCK* like it ha–*HUCK* has to be like an o–*HUP* orange juice pu–*HULP* or no pulp kind o---of thing. *HMNK*"

"DO YOU WANT ME TO MAKE YOU A VAMPIRE SO YOU CAN FIND OUT?!"

"Oh do it! *HMK!* Vampirize m–*HEEK* me, Vladdy!" Ishmael twisted in his chair so he could make aggressive eye contact with Wallace, who felt his dead husk of a heart beating faster than it had any fucking right to. Even as his head jerked back over and over, exposing his delectable fucking neck like a slut, his eyes fell half lidded and his voice dropped low and smoky around his hiccups. "Make me im–*hmp* immortal so you ca–*UCK* can deal with m---me for th---the rest of your fu–*huk*–ucking life."

Wallace forced his body not to tremble.

He turned around and kept his back to the stupid fucking wine bottle. "Fine. I've lived for over two centuries. I can be patient. I can outlast any little mayfly like you."

"Don't lie to me, Wallace. *hmp*. You're not good at it."

A growl escaped Wallace's throat as he glared into the wall. "Your weak attempts to delay the inevitable are fading."

"Hmm. Yeah. Guess my hiccups are going away." Ishmael hummed.

Wallace knew what was coming. Wallace fucking knew what was coming. He knew he could do it, he'd seen Ishmael do it before. What Wallace should have done right now was turn around faster than the human eye could see and bury his fangs in that bendy straw's fucking neck so he could drain him into the husk he was meant to be, finally filling his belly with all of the brilliant red wine that he could drink.

...he kept facing away anyway.

"It'd be a real shame if I were to do something like..." Wallace's face burned as he heard Ishmael start swallowing air, the bobbing of his throat offensively audible as he did before belching shamelessly. And then he did it again. And again.

"I will kill you, you know," Wallace said. "Your artery is going to impale itself on my fangs."

"Yeah yeah," Ishmael's voice strained slightly around an audible gulp before he opened his mouth. "*SuuuuUUUUUUUUuuure* you will. *HRMK-mmmrp* I'm sure you d–*llk* don't have an–*glp*–ny other way *lgk* you rea–*lkt* to drinking from so–urk–gff...from somebody w-with—ulk—" The audible struggle in his throat made it almost unbearable for Wallace to keep facing away. "...with the hi–*IC–GUUUUUUUUUUUUPS!* *HIULK–UUUUUURRRR–CUP!*

"GOD DAMMIT!" Wallace wrenched around and before he could stop himself he had his fangs buried in Ishmael's neck. In his stupid fucking warm, delicious, bubbly, spasming neck, slurping hot blood in big clumsy gulps as it bounced out of him, desperately trying to control his body and avoid what he knew was fucking inevitable as he drank and drank and drank and drank and—"*HMLK!*"

Ishmael's neck shook around his teeth and beneath his lips for a completely different reason and Wallace felt like he was on fire under the fucking sun. "Oops. *uuuuuur–CUP!* Now look wh–*huk* what I've done. *mmmmrrr–GUP*–mmf. 'scuse me."

Wallace's diaphragm spasmed with renewed life and vigor as Ishmael's neck kept moving under his lips.

He hated that bendy straw so fucking much.

[some-stars]

Did y'all know it's bizarrely and inexplicably difficult to find the full text of Dylan Thomas's "Altarwise by owl-light" online? A bunch of places have what they claim is that poem but it's only the first few stanzas. I eventually found one (1) PDF of his complete poems, and then I had to extract it from the PDF except I didn't have all the tools I use at work to make that take about three minutes total. FYI if you ever need to process a PDF thru your browser, the IT guys at my work (a very large, very risk-averse corporation) have us use ilovepdf for some tasks that acrobat can't do (but it can also replicate various adobe functions), so I'd recommend that as the least-likely-to-damage-your-computer free option.

ANYWAY the point is, this poem is SO good and SO important and SO cool, and it shouldn't be so incredibly hard to find, so here it is. It's long. I strongly suggest reading it aloud, and don't try to understand anything the first time through, just let it happen to you and really experience the words.

Altarwise by owl-light

I. Altarwise by owl-light in the half-way house The gentleman lay graveward with his furies; Abaddon in the hangnail cracked from Adam, And, from his fork, a dog among the fairies, The atlas-eater with a jaw for news, Bit out the mandrake with to-morrow’s scream. Then, penny-eyed, that gentleman of wounds, Old cock from nowheres and the heaven’s egg, With bones unbuttoned to the half-way winds, Hatched from the windy salvage on one leg, Scraped at my cradle in a walking word That night of time under the Christward shelter: I am the long world’s gentleman, he said, And share my bed with Capricorn and Cancer.

II. Death is all metaphors, shape in one history; The child that sucketh long is shooting up, The planet-ducted pelican of circles Weans on an artery the gender’s strip; Child of the short spark in a shapeless country Soon sets alight a long stick from the cradle; The horizontal cross-bones of Abaddon, You by the cavern over the black stairs, Rung bone and blade, the verticals of Adam, And, manned by midnight, Jacob to the stars. Hairs of your head, then said the hollow agent, Are but the roots of nettles and of feathers Over these groundworks thrusting through a pavement And hemlock-headed in the wood of weathers.

III. First there was the lamb on knocking knees And three dead seasons on a climbing grave That Adam’s wether in the flock of horns, Butt of the tree-tailed worm that mounted Eve, Horned down with skullfoot and the skull of toes On thunderous pavements in the garden time; Rip of the vaults, I took my marrow-ladle Out of the wrinkled undertaker’s van, And, Rip Van Winkle from a timeless cradle, Dipped me breast-deep in the descended bone; The black ram, shuffling of the year, old winter, Alone alive among his mutton fold, We rung our weathering changes on the ladder, Said the antipodes, and twice spring chimed,

IV. What is the metre of the dictionary? The size of genesis? the short spark’s gender? Shade without shape? the shape of Pharaoh’s echo? (My shape of age nagging the wounded whisper). Which sixth of wind blew out the burning gentry? (Questions are hunchbacks to the poker marrow). What of a bamboo man among your acres? Corset the boneyards for a crooked boy? Button your bodice on a hump of splinters, My camel’s eyes will needle through the shroud. Love’s reflection of the mushroom features, stills snapped by night in the bread-sided field, Once close-up smiling in the wall of pictures, Arc-lamped thrown back upon the cutting flood.

V. And from the windy West came two-gunned Gabriel, From Jesu’s sleeve trumped up the king of spots, The sheath-decked jacks, queen with a shuffled heart; Said the fake gentleman in suit of spades, Black-tongued and tipsy from salvation’s bottle. Rose my Byzantine Adam in the night. For loss of blood I fell on Ishmael’s plain, Under the milky mushroos slew my hunger, A climbing sea from Asia had me down And Jonah’s Moby snatched me by the hair, Cross-stroked salt Adam to the frozen angel Pin-legged on pole-hills with a black medusa By waste seas where the white bear quoted Virgil And sirens singing from our lady’s sea-straw.

VI. Cartoon of slashes on the tide-traced crater, He in a book of water tallow-eyed By lava’s light split through the oyster vowels And burned sea silence on a wick of words. Pluck, cock, my sea eye, said medusa’s scripture, Lop, love, my fork tongue, said the pin-hilled nettle; And love plucked out the stinging siren’s eye, Old cock from nowheres lopped the minstrel tongue Till tallow I blew from the wax’s tower The fats of midnight when the salt was singing; Adam, time’s joker, on a witch of cardboard Spelt out the seven seas, an evil index, The bagpipe-breasted ladies in the deadweed Blew out the blood gauze through the wound of manwax.

VII. Now stamp the Lord’s Prayer on a grain of rice, A Bible-leaved of all the written woods Strip to this tree: a rocking alphabet, Genesis in the root, the scarecrow word, And one light’s language in the book of trees. Doom on deniers at the wind-turned statement. Time’s tune my ladies with the teats of music, The scaled sea-sawers, fix in a naked sponge Who sucks the bell-voiced Adam out of magic, Time, milk, and magic, from the world beginning. Time is the tune my ladies lend their heartbreak, From bald pavilions and the house of bread Time tracks the sound of shape on man and cloud, On rose and icicle the ringing handprint.

VIII. This was the crucifixion on the mountain, Time’s nerve in vinegar, the gallow grave As tarred with blood as the bright thorns I wept; The world’s my wound, God’s Mary in her grief, Bent like three trees and bird-papped through her shift, With pins for teardrops is the long wound’s woman. This was the sky, Jack Christ, each minstrel angle Drove in the heaven-driven of the nails Till the three-coloured rainbow from my nipples From pole to pole leapt round the snail-waked world I by the tree of thieves, all glory’s sawbones, Unsex the skeleton this mountain minute, And by this blowclock witness of the sun Suffer the heaven’s children through my heartbeat.

IX. From the oracular archives and the parchment, Prophets and fibre kings in oil and letter, The lamped calligrapher, the queen in splints, Buckle to lint and cloth their natron footsteps, Draw on the glove of prints, dead Cairo’s henna Pour like a halo on the caps and serpents. This was the resurrection in the desert, Death from a bandage, rants the mask of scholars Gold on such features, and the linen spirit Weds my long gentleman to dusts and furies; With priest and pharaoh bed my gentle wound, World in the sand, on the triangle landscape, With stones of odyssey for ash and garland And rivers of the dead around my neck.

X. Let the tale’s sailor from a Christian voyage Atlaswise hold half-way off the dummy bay Time’s ship-racked gospel on the globe I balance: So shall winged harbours through the rockbirds’ eyes Spot the blown word, and on the seas I image December’s thorn screwed in a brow of holly. Let the first Peter from a rainbow’s quayrail Ask the tall fish swept from the bible east, What rhubarb man peeled in her foam-blue channel Has sown a flying garden round that sea-ghost? Green as beginning, let the garden diving Soar, with its two bark towers, to that Day When the worm builds with the gold straws of venom My nest of mercies in the rude, red tree.

-Dylan Thomas

[tenitchyfingers]

Also you literally cannot call me antisemitic. I advocate for the freedom, right to self-determination and well-being of Arabs and want a one state solution where Jews, Christians and Arabs live together in a democratic and secular state where all religions and atheists coexist and no group has more rights than the other. Which was the case before Israel was founded by the way.

So wanna know why you cannot call me antisemitic? Because Arabs are by definition Semitic people. Therefore I’m pro-Semitic, if you will. Which means I can’t be anti-Semitic.

Matter of fact, the only consistently antisemitic people in the world are Zionists. Because they hate Arabs, including Arab Jews. Who, again, are all Semitic people because they’re Arabs. Even according to Abrahamic tradition, Arabs are direct descendants of Abraham through his son Ishmael. So like, nobody can say Arabs aren’t Semites and strictly related to Jews. No matter how you cut it.

😊

[nerdygaymormon]

The Book of Genesis teaches wealth is destructive

In the Book of Genesis, the stories of the great patriarchs of the Israeli people shows that wealth resulted in families being split up. It happened again and again and again.

Let's start with Abraham. He doesn't have any children of his own, however his nephew lives with him and presumably Lot (the nephew) would be heir to Abraham. Each of them grow so wealthy that the land of Canaan couldn't support both of them. They separate and never see each other again (Genesis 13:6-9). Because of their wealth, Abraham loses his heir and someone he is close to.

—————————

Losing Lot creates a problem for Abraham, he needs a son to inherit his fortune. Sarah, his wife, has not been able to get pregnant, and her solution is for Abraham to have a child with Sarah's female slave named Hagar. A son is born and is named Ishmael. Sarah later becomes pregnant and has a son named Isaac. Sarah wants her son Isaac to inherit everything and so Hagar & Ishmael are abandoned in the wilderness knowing this will likely result in their death. Wealth causes this unjust action.

—————————

Isaac inherits his father's wealth. He has two sons named Esau and Jacob. They are fraternal twins, but because Esau was birthed first he is the beneficiary of the primogeniture system which rewards the first-born son with a larger inheritance. Jacob & his mom each connive to take Esau's birthright away and give it to Jacob. Esau is furious and vows to murder Jacob, causing Jacob to flee. The fight over an inheritance leads to the splitting up of this family.

—————————

Jacob flees to his uncle's home where he falls in love with his cousin Rachel and agrees to work for his uncle for 7 years in exchange for getting to marry her. I'm guessing since Jacob fled his home without much, this 7 years of labor is in lieu of a dowry, which was a sum of money offered to the father of his bride by the groom in order to receive the daughter as his bride. After 7 years, during which the uncle's flocks and fortunes increased under Jacob's skilled care, Jacob gets married but he is tricked, he didn't marry Rachel but Leah, who is Rachel's older sister Leah. Jacob is angry, but he and his uncle agree that Jacob can also marry Rachel now in exchange for another 7 years of labor. That was a shady way to keep Jacob working to the uncle's benefit.

—————————

Once the second 7-year agreement is completed, Jacob wants to take his family & possessions and head back to Canaan, but he comes to an agreement with the uncle to stay and work in exchange for payment, which is that Jacob could have all of the spotted, speckled, and brown goats and sheep of Laban's flock. Jacob employs tactics to increase the number of animals which would be born with these markings. After 6 years he leaves and his cousins claim he robbed his uncle of his wealth because he took most of the animals with him. The uncle gathers a team and pursues Jacob for 7 days. Jacob and his uncle meet and agree to setup a pillar, it would serve as a boundary, Jacob would go one way and the uncle the other way and they would never cross the pillar again as a way to ensure in the future neither would seek to harm the other. The uncle never again sees his daughters or grandchildren again.

—————————

Jacob is returning to Canaan with the great wealth he accumulated, but even 20 years after fleeing, Jacob is worried what his brother Esau may do to him. Fortunately, Jacob and Esau reconcile. Esau also has done well for himself. Unfortunately, just like Abraham and Lot, their combined wealth in the form of animals, possessions and servants is so great that the land can't support both of them. They have to split up. Their combined wealth causes them to be separated again. The descendants of Esau (the Edomites) become the enemies of the Israelites because they continue to tell their descendants the story of Esau being tricked out of his birthright. King Solomon enslaves the Edomites and forces them to build the temple. When Babylon attacks Israel, the Edomites celebrate rather than join with Israel to resist the Babylonian captivity. The prophet Obadiah writes about the violence done by Esau against Jacob, and how terrible the Edomites are for helping the Babylonians loot the city of Jerusalem and that they're cursed. This history of separation and hatred happened because of wealth.

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Jacob has many children. Joseph, the 11th son of Jacob, is favored above all his other sons. Jacob had loved Leah and wanted to marry her, but was tricked into marrying her sister Rebekkah. He had children from 3 women before finally the baby Joseph was born by Leah, the love of his life, and he therefore favored Joseph. The implication is that Joseph is going to get the birthright as the oldest son of the wife Jacob loves. Joseph reinforces this idea by sharing dreams of him being powerful over his brothers and they bow down to him.

Joseph's half-brothers decide to kill him because he is a threat to their power and inheritance. They change their mind and rather than kill him, they sold Joseph into bondage and he was taken to Egypt. Interestingly, they sold Joseph to some Ishmaelites, who they may have known given they're probably 1st or 2nd cousins as the also were descended from Abraham.

Remarkably, Joseph survives and becomes free, but rather than go home to his family, he pursues power and wealth in Egypt. Eventually his brothers come to Egypt in search of food but Joseph tests them to see if he can trust them. They pass the test and Joseph moves the family to Egypt. While the reunion is joyous, it can't undo the many years of separation

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Thus the book of Genesis gives us warning that being wealthy is destructive to the more important things like family relationships

[anniflamma]

Hi! 

I found more stuff of Jonathan from the 1985 king David movie! 

Jonathan is this movie was played by JACK KLAFF, he was most famously in the Star Wars: a new hope as Red four/ John ‘D’. Mark Hamil played Luke in Star Wars and I bring this up because in ‘JOSEPH, THE KING OF DREAMS’ , Mark is the voice actor of Judah. And Judah is David’s ancestor. 

The video links are from the movie:

David slaying Goliath, Jonathan is near the end and also in the background.

(Jonathan’s death is 3:38 to 4:30. David is also in it.)

(Pslam 23, Jonathan is at the beginning)

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Also one of Jonathan’s descendants has the name Obadiah, and a guy of the same name has a book! I do not know if they’re the same because there are 5 ishmael’s in the Bible, one being Jonathan’s descendant and said Obadiah’s brother. Azel had 6 children, Azel is one of Jonathan’s descendants.

And also there’s a Jonathan in judges 17-18  that scholar’s deduce is Moses’s grandson. I bring this up because he was hired by a guy named Micah. Some rabbi think this Micah was the son of Delilah which makes me assume his dad is Samson and that must’ve had some emotional scars on Delilah if that is so. I know the prince’s psalm had a both Prince Jonathan and a Micah so looks like that paring was actually in the Bible.

And there’s a Jonathan in David’s mighty men! He is Jonathan, of the sons of Jashen but Chronicles replaced him with Jonathan ben Shagee the Hararite. But chronicals also deleted Bathsheba’s father from the list and even changed his name, but Uriah stays, Uriah will always stay. 

Also I think it’s funny that Bathsheba is refereed to as ‘the widow of Uriah’ in the New Testament so David can never live it down. 

I also found this a while ago!

The Bible in living sound

(It kinda gives ‘This is Jesus!’ Or that regular Sunday school stuff but it is almost brutally honest, especially the episode they covered 2 Samuel 21/22.)

Jonathan is in 111to 112 , and 118. 136 is where Mephilobeth is and he outright states that ‘David loved father!’ , so it wasn’t even hidden from the child. 138 is 2 Samuel 11 and David’s manipulation is radiating off him. 

It’s also on Spotify and one of their many albums is Jonathan/King David, I know it was a pairing of certain audios but I think it’s funny knowing ship culture. 

I know I’m super late in answering this, but I just need to say thank you for sharing more David Bible stuff with me. All the tidbits and details are super interesting, and I could eat that up all day long.