Within the laws about the Tabernacle is a collection of laws that modern scholars call the “Holiness Collection” because of its persistent concern for holiness. While it includes further rules about the Tabernacle and the priests, it extends the concept of holiness to the people as a whole. It charges them to become holy like God and incorporates ethical and social laws into the regimen for achieving holiness, such as the requirement to love one’s fellow as oneself (Leviticus 19:18) and laws against incest (Leviticus 18 and 20), as well as a comprehensive calendar of holy days (Leviticus 23) and the sabbatical and jubilee years (Leviticus 25). It concludes with a long list of blessings for obeying God’s laws and curses for disobeying (Leviticus 26).
Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish. He said:
In my trouble I called to the Lord,
And He answered me;
From the belly of Sheol I cried out,
And You heard my voice.
You cast…
Jeremiah at the Fall of Jerusalem, commissioned by the crown prince of Prussia, and first exhibited to great acclaim at the Berlin Academy of Art in 1872, depicts the fall of Jerusalem to Babylonia in…
our lightless awful days are passing
splinters of memories prick our brains
daily our Creator beats us using both hands
we are his dry weeds husked to the core
for us fire is no fire for us it is…