Genesis - The Patriarchs

Abraham (originally Abram), the common patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is said to have married his half-sister:

Sarai and Abraham shared a father but not a mother (Genesis 20:12); making Sarai the daughter of Terah and the half-sister of not only of Abraham but of Nahor and Haran as well. She would also have been the aunt of Lot, Iscah, and Milcah, and both an aunt and cousin to Bethuel by both blood and marriage.

Abraham's brother Nahor took their brother Haran's daughter, Milcah to wife.

(Such unions - at least in the case of Abraham and his sister - were later explicitly banned in Leviticus 18:6 - 18:18 -- 18:9 (sister); while in the case of Nahor - Leviticus never expressly forbids marrying one's niece.)

18:6 'None of you shall approach anyone who is of near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the LORD.

 7 - father or mother
 8 - father's wife aka step mother
 9 - sister - daughter of father OR daughter of mother
10 - grand daughter - son or daughter's daughter
11 - father's wife's daughter - aka stepsister
12 - father's sister - aka aunt
13 - mother's sister - aka aunt on mother's side...
14 - father's brother - aka uncle
15 - daughter in law - aka son's wife
16 - brother's wife - aka sister in law
17 - woman and her daughter, nor her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter
18 - take a woman as rival to her sister

Abraham sent Eliezer, his steward, into Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac, from his nephew Bethuel's family (Gen 25:20). Because, why wouldn't he?

Isaac married Rebekah, his cousin, once removed.

Rebekah delivered twins (Genesis 20:24). 25) And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau.

26) Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob.

Genesis 25:29 – 34 gives an account of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob. The passage describes how Esau, returning weary and famished from the fields, begged Jacob to give him some of the stew that Jacob had just made. 31) But Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright as of this day."

What is up with the early patriarchs passing their wives off as their sisters? (Abram did it too, earlier in Genesis 12:12 - 13 and 20:2 - 13 -- though in Abram's case, Sarai actually WAS his sister.) Genesis 26 describes the strange encounter between Isaac and Abimelech.

Jacob, with help from his mother, goes on to usurp the blessing rightfully belonging to his brother Esau as the firstborn son by deceiving his old and blind father (Genesis 27). Isaac asked Esau to go out to the field and hunt game for him, 4) "And make a savory food, but Rebekah, 5) listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son 6) spoke to Jacob... 9) Go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. 10) "Then you shall take it to your father, that he may eat it, and that he may bless you before his death." That is, Rebekah designed a plan whereby Jacob (her favorite), should take Esau's place for the blessing of his father. Her favored son was doubtful and pointed out a flaw in her plan:

11) And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. 12) Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem a deceiver to him; and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing." 13) But his mother said to him, "Let your curse be on me, my son, only obey my voice, and go, get them for me." 15) Then Rebekah took the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son. 16) And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck...

So, with his mother's help, Jacob stole his father's blessing, and fearing retribution from Easu, Rebekah tells him 43) "Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran.

Later (Genesis 28) Isaac reinforces his blessing upon Jacob and charges him, 2) "Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Behuel your mother's father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. Because again, why wouldn't he?

Jacob, like his father Isaac, married his close cousin (though in Isaac's case Rebekah was his first cousin, once removed) Rachel, but NOT BEFORE his Uncle Laban tricked him into marrying his cousin Leah first (Genesis 29:16 - 30).

Jacob goes on to sire twelve sons on four women, his two wives, Leah and Rachel, along with their servants Biliah and Zilipah, but he loved Joseph more than all his other children, because he was the son of his old age (Genesis 37:3).

Jealous of their father's love for Joseph, rather than kill him outright, his brothers sold him into slavery to a passing caravan of Midianites (Genesis 38:18 - 36).

Generations later, after spending years living in Egypt (and wondering the desert), the Israelites returned to the land of Canaan to conquer the inhabitants already living there in a series of genocides and ethnic cleansings;

Including the killing of calf-worshipping transgressors of their own camp:

Exodus 32:26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. 27) And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD GOD of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from the gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and slay every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. 28) And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

genocide among the Midianites:

Numbers 31:1) AND the LORD Spake unto Moses, saying, 2) Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy peoples. 3) And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avange the LORD of Midian.

15) And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the woman alive? 16) Behold, these caused the children on Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit tresspass againt the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the the congration of the LORD. 17) Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with them. 18) But all the woman children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Canaanites in general:

Deuteronomy 12:3 Ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

Deuteronomy 13:16 And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shall burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof, every whit, for the LORD they God; and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.

Deuteronomy 15:6 For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and though shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

Deuteronomy 20:16 But the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: 17) But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hit'tites, and the Äm'ôr-ites, the Ca'naan-ites, and the Per'iz-zites, the Hï'vites, and the Jeb'u-sites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:

The City of Jericho:

Joshua 6:21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.

The Cities of Amalek:

1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and smite Am'a-lek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

and Samaria:

Hosea 13:16 Sa-ma'ri-a shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

 

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