Showing posts with label Judges 3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Judges 3. Show all posts

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Modesty in toileting was exampled among Jews and Persians long before Muslims came along

Rembrandt etching of woman urinating
 
 
When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he covereth his feet in his summer chamber.

-- Judges 3:24 

And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.

-- 1 Samuel 24:3

One seldom sees a Persian stop to pass water or step aside in response to a call of nature; so scrupulously do they avoid these and other unseemly actions.

-- Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman Antiquities 23.6.79

There remains even unto this day evidence of their moderate fare and of their working off by exercise what they eat: for even to the present time it is a breach of decorum for a Persian to spit or to blow his nose or to appear afflicted with flatulence; it is a breach of decorum also to be seen going apart either to make water or for anything else of that kind. And this would not be possible for them, if they did not lead an abstemious life and throw off the moisture by hard work, so that it passes off in some other way.

-- Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 1.2.16

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Ehud's Pointed Message From G-d Makes King Eglon Of Moab Shit His Pants And Die

Ehud walked over to Eglon, who was sitting alone in a cool upstairs room. And Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you!" As King Eglon rose from his seat, Ehud reached with his left hand, pulled out the dagger strapped to his right thigh, and plunged it into the king's belly. The dagger went so deep that the handle disappeared beneath the king's fat. So Ehud did not pull out the dagger, and the king's bowels emptied. Then Ehud closed and locked the doors of the room and escaped down the latrine. After Ehud was gone, the king's servants returned and found the doors to the upstairs room locked. They thought he might be using the latrine in the room, so they waited. But when the king didn't come out after a long delay, they became concerned and got a key. And when they opened the doors, they found their master dead on the floor. While the servants were waiting, Ehud escaped, passing the stone idols on his way to Seirah.

-- Judges 3:20ff.