Contempt

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

  "Well, hear how he goes on: 'It is thus slowly passing, with a slowness inconceivable in our measures of time, to new creative conditions, amid which the physical world, as we at present know it, will be represented by a ripple barely to be distinguished from nonentity.'" She listened with a glisten of amusement. All sorts of improper things suggested themselves. But she only said: "What silly hocus-pocus! As if his little conceited consciousness could know what was happening as slowly as all that! It only means _he_'s a physical failure on the earth, so he wants to make the whole universe a physical failure. Priggish little impertinence!" "Oh, but listen! Don't interrupt the great man's solemn words! 'The present type of order in the world has risen from an unimaginable past, and will find its grave in an unimaginable future. There remains the inexhaustive realm of abstract forms, and creativity with its shifting character ever determined afresh by its own creatures, and God, upon whose wisdom all forms of order depend.' There, that's how he winds up!" Connie sat listening contemptuously. "He's spiritually blown out," she said. "What a lot of stuff! Unimaginables, and types of order in graves, and realms of abstract forms, and creativity with a shifty character, and God mixed up with forms of order! Why it's idiotic!" "I must say, it is a little vaguely conglomerate, a mixture of gases, so to speak," said Clifford. "Still, I think there is something in the idea that the universe is physically wasting and spiritually ascending." "Do you? Then let it ascend, so long as it leaves me safely and solidly physically here below." "Do you like your physique?" he asked. "I love it!" And through her mind went the words: It's the nicest, nicest woman's arse as is! "But that is really rather extraordinary, because there's no denying it's an encumbrance. But then I suppose a woman doesn't take a supreme pleasure in the life of the mind." "Supreme pleasure?" she said, looking up at him. "Is that sort of idiocy the supreme pleasure of the life of the mind? No thank you! Give me the body. I believe the life of the body is a greater reality than the life of the mind: when the body is really wakened to life. But so many people, like your famous wind-machine, have only got minds tacked on to their physical corpses." He looked at her in wonder. "The life of the body," he said, "is just the life of the animals." "And that's better than the life of professional corpses. But it's not true! The human body is only just coming to real life. With the Greeks it gave a lovely flicker, then Plato and Aristotle killed it, and Jesus finished it off. But now the body is coming really to life, it is really rising from the tomb. And it will be a lovely, lovely life in the lovely universe, the life of the human body."

• From Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

  "I deny that Bolshevism is logical, it rejects the major part of the premisses," said Hammond. "My dear man, it allows the material premiss; so does the pure mind ... exclusively." "At least Bolshevism has got down to rock bottom," said Charlie. "Rock bottom! The bottom that has no bottom! The Bolshevists will have the finest army in the world in a very short time, with the finest mechanical equipment." "But this thing can't go on ... this hate business. There must be a reaction...." said Hammond. "Well, we've been waiting for years ... we wait longer. Hate's a growing thing like anything else. It's the inevitable outcome of forcing ideas on to life, forcing one's deepest instincts; our deepest feelings we force according to certain ideas. We drive ourselves with a formula, like a machine. The logical mind pretends to rule the roost, and the roost turns into pure hate. We're all Bolshevists, only we are hypocrites. The Russians are Bolshevists without hypocrisy." "But there are many other ways," said Hammond, "than the Soviet way. The Bolshevists aren't really intelligent." "Of course not. But sometimes it's intelligent to be half-witted: if you want to make your end. Personally, I consider Bolshevism half-witted; but so do I consider our social life in the west half-witted. So I even consider our far-famed mental life half-witted. We're all as cold as cretins, we're all as passionless as idiots. We're all of us Bolshevists, only we give it another name. We think we're gods ... men like gods! It's just the same as Bolshevism. One has to be human, and have a heart and a penis if one is going to escape being either a god or a Bolshevist ... for they are the same thing: they're both too good to be true." Out of the disapproving silence came Berry's anxious question: "You do believe in love then, Tommy, don't you?" "You lovely lad!" said Tommy. "No, my cherub, nine times out of ten, no! Love's another of those half-witted performances today. Fellows with swaying waists fucking little jazz girls with small boy buttocks, like two collar studs! Do you mean that sort of love? Or the joint-property, make-a-success-of-it, my-husband-my-wife sort of love? No, my fine fellow, I don't believe in it at all!" "But you do believe in something?" "Me? Oh, intellectually I believe in having a good heart, a chirpy penis, a lively intelligence, and the courage to say 'shit!' in front of a lady." "Well, you've got them all," said Berry.

• From The Decameron (1353)

  Fra Cipolla had a servant, whom some called Guccio[313] Balena,[314] others Guccio Imbratta[315] and yet others Guccia Porco[316] and who was such a scurvy knave that Lipo Topo[317] never wrought his like, inasmuch as his master used oftentimes to jest of him with his cronies and say, 'My servant hath in him nine defaults, such that, were one of them in Solomon or Aristotle or Seneca, it would suffice to mar all their worth, all their wit and all their sanctity. Consider, then, what a man he must be, who hath all nine of them and in whom there is neither worth nor wit nor sanctity.' Being questioned whiles what were these nine defaults and having put them into doggerel rhyme, he would answer, 'I will tell you. He's a liar, a sloven, a slugabed; disobedient, neglectful, ill bred; o'erweening, foul-spoken, a dunderhead; beside which he hath divers other peccadilloes, whereof it booteth not to speak. But what is most laughable of all his fashions is that, wherever he goeth, he is still for taking a wife and hiring a house; for, having a big black greasy beard, him-seemeth he is so exceeding handsome and agreeable that he conceiteth himself all the women who see him fall in love with him, and if you let him alone, he would run after them all till he lost his girdle.[318] Sooth to say, he is of great assistance to me, for that none can ever seek to speak with me so secretly but he must needs hear his share; and if it chance that I be questioned of aught, he is so fearful lest I should not know how to answer, that he straightway answereth for me both Ay and No, as he judgeth sortable.' [Footnote 313: Diminutive of contempt of Arrigo, contracted from Arriguccio, _i.e._ mean little Arrigo.] [Footnote 314: _i.e._ Whale.] [Footnote 315: _i.e._ Dirt.] [Footnote 316: _i.e._ Hog.] [Footnote 317: A painter of Boccaccio's time, of whom little or nothing seems to be known.] [Footnote 318: _Perpendo lo coreggia._ The exact meaning of this passage is not clear. The commentators make sundry random shots at it, but, as usual, only succeed in making confusion worse confounded. It may perhaps be rendered, "till his wind failed him."]

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  19 “But you [king of Babylon] have been cast out of your tomb (denied burial) Like a rejected branch, Clothed with the slain who are pierced by the sword, Who go down to the stones of the pit [into which carcasses are thrown], Like a dead body trampled [underfoot]. 20 “You will not be united with them in burial, Because you have destroyed your land, You have slain your people. May the descendants of evildoers never be named! 21 “Prepare a slaughtering place for his sons Because of the wickedness [the sin, the injustice, the wrongdoing] of their fathers. They must not rise and take possession of the earth, And fill the face of the world with cities.” 22 “I will rise up against them,” says the LORD of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, and son and grandson,” declares the LORD . 23 “I will also make Babylon a possession of the hedgehog and of c swamps of water, and I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts. Judgment on Assyria 24 The LORD of hosts has sworn [an oath], saying, “Just as I have intended, so it has certainly happened, and just as I have planned, so it will stand— 25 to break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains I will trample him underfoot. Then the Assyrian’s d yoke will be removed from them (the people of Judah) and his burden removed from their shoulder. 26 “This is the plan [of God] decided for the whole earth [regarded as conquered and put under tribute by Assyria]; and this is the hand [of God] that is stretched out over all the nations. 27 “For the LORD of hosts has decided and planned, and who can annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” Judgment on Philistia 28 In the year that King Ahaz [of Judah] died this [mournful, inspired] oracle (e a burden to be carried) came: 29 “Do not rejoice, O Philistia, any of you, Because the rod [of Judah] that struck you is broken; For out of the serpent’s root will come a viper [King Hezekiah of Judah], And its offspring will be a flying serpent. [2 Kin 18:1 , 3 , 8 ] 30 “The firstborn of the helpless [of Judah] will feed [on My meadows], And the needy will lie down in safety; But I will kill your root with famine, And your survivors will be put to death. 31 “Howl, O gate; cry, O city! Melt away, O Philistia, all of you; For smoke comes out of the north, And there is no straggler in his ranks and no one stands detached [in Hezekiah’s battalions]. 32 “Then what answer will one give the messengers of the [Philistine] nation?

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  12 “For everyone who does these things is utterly repulsive to the LORD ; and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God is driving them out before you. 13 “You shall be blameless (complete, perfect) before the LORD your God. 14 “For these nations which you shall dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners and fortune-tellers, but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so. 15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a e prophet like me [Moses] from among you, from your countrymen (brothers, brethren). You shall listen to him. [Matt 21:11 ; John 1:21 ] 16 “This is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb (Mount Sinai) on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear the voice of the LORD my God again, nor see this great fire anymore, so that I will not die.’ 17 “The LORD said to me, ‘They have spoken well. 18 ‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 ‘It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him [and there will be consequences]. 20 ‘But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet shall die.’ 21 “If you say in your heart, ‘How will we know and recognize the word which the LORD has not spoken?’ 22 “When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. Deuteronomy 19 Cities of Refuge 1 “W HEN THE LORD your God cuts off (destroys) the nations whose land He is giving you, and you dispossess them and live in their cities and in their houses, 2 you shall designate three cities for yourself in the central area of the land, which the LORD your God is giving you to possess. 3 “You shall prepare and maintain for yourself the roads [to these cities], and divide the territory of your land into three parts, so that anyone who kills another unintentionally may escape there [for asylum].

• From Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

  "The woman has blown off an amazing quantity of poison-gas. She has aired in detail all those incidents of her conjugal life which are usually buried down in the deepest grave of matrimonial silence, between married couples. Having chosen to exhume them, after ten years of burial, she has a weird array. I hear these details from Linley and the doctor: the latter being amused. Of course there is really nothing in it. Humanity has always had a strange avidity for unusual sexual postures, and if a man likes to use his wife, as Benvenuto Cellini says, 'in the Italian way,' well that is a matter of taste. But I had hardly expected our gamekeeper to be up to so many tricks. No doubt Bertha Coutts herself first put him up to them. In any case, it is a matter of their own personal squalour, and nothing to do with anybody else. "However, everybody listens: as I do myself. A dozen years ago, common decency would have hushed the thing. But common decency no longer exists, and the colliers' wives are all up in arms and unabashed in voice. One would think every child in Tevershall, for the last fifty years, had been an immaculate conception, and every one of our nonconformist females was a shining Joan of Arc. That our estimable gamekeeper should have about him a touch of Rabelais seems to make him more monstrous and shocking than a murderer like Crippen. Yet these people in Tevershall are a loose lot, if one is to believe all accounts. "The trouble is, however, the execrable Bertha Coutts has not confined herself to her own experiences and sufferings. She has discovered, at the top of her voice, that her husband has been 'keeping' women down at the cottage, and has made a few random shots at naming the women. This has brought a few decent names trailing through the mud, and the thing has gone quite considerably too far. An injunction has been taken out against the woman. "I have had to interview Mellors about the business, as it was impossible to keep the woman away from the wood. He goes about as usual, with his Miller-of-the-Dee air, I care for nobody, no not I, if nobody cares for me! Nevertheless, I shrewdly suspect he feels like a dog with a tin can tied to its tail: though he makes a very good show of pretending the tin can isn't there. But I hear that in the village the women call away their children if he is passing, as if he were the Marquis de Sade in person. He goes on with a certain impudence, but I am afraid the tin can is firmly tied to his tail, and that inwardly he repeats, like Don Rodrigo in the Spanish ballad: 'Ah, now it bites me where I most have sinned!'

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  [Ex 14:21 ] 10 So He saved them from the hand of the one that hated them, And redeemed them from the hand of the [Egyptian] enemy. [Ex 14:30 ] 11 And the waters covered their adversaries; Not one of them was left. [Ex 14:27 , 28 ; 15:5 ] 12 Then Israel believed in [the validity of] His words; They sang His praise. 13 But they quickly forgot His works; They did not [patiently] wait for His counsel and purpose [to be revealed regarding them], 14 But lusted intensely in the wilderness And tempted God [with their insistent desires] in the desert. [Num 11:4 ] 15 So He gave them their request, But sent a wasting disease among them. [Ps 78:29–31 ] 16 They envied Moses in the camp, And Aaron [the high priest], the holy one of the LORD , [Num 16:1–32 ] 17 Therefore the earth opened and swallowed Dathan, And engulfed the company of Abiram. [Num 16:31 , 32 ] 18 And a fire broke out in their company; The flame consumed the wicked. [Num 16:35 , 46 ] 19 They made a calf in Horeb (Sinai) And worshiped a cast image. [Ex 32:4 ] 20 Thus they exchanged [the true God who was] their glory For the image of an ox that eats grass. 21 They forgot God their Savior, Who had done such great things in Egypt, 22 Wonders in the land of Ham, Awesome things at the Red Sea. 23 Therefore He said He would destroy them, [And He would have done so] had not Moses, His chosen one, stepped into the gap before Him, To turn away His wrath from destroying them. [Ex 32:10 , 11 , 32 ] 24 Then they despised the pleasant land [of Canaan]; They did not believe in His word nor rely on it, 25 But they sulked and complained in their tents; They did not listen to the voice of the LORD . 26 Therefore He lifted up His hand [swearing] to them, That He would cause them to fall in the wilderness, 27 And that He would cast out their descendants among the nations And scatter them in the lands [of the earth]. 28 They joined themselves also to [the idol] Baal of Peor, And ate sacrifices offered to the dead. 29 Thus they provoked Him to anger with their practices, And a plague broke out among them. 30 Then Phinehas [the priest] stood up and b interceded, And so the plague was halted. [Num 25:7 , 8 ] 31 And that was credited to him for righteousness, To all generations forever. 32 They provoked Him to anger at the waters of c Meribah, So that it went hard with Moses on their account; [Num 20:3–13 ] 33 Because they were rebellious against His Spirit, Moses spoke recklessly with his lips.

• From Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

  Mrs. Bolton was both thrilled and ashamed, she both loved and hated it. Yet she never rebuffed nor rebuked him. And they drew into a closer physical intimacy, an intimacy of perversity, when he was a child stricken with an apparent candour and an apparent wonderment, that looked almost like a religious exaltation: the perverse and literal rendering of: "except ye become again as a little child." While she was the Magna Mater, full of power and potency, having the great blond child-man under her will and her stroke entirely. The curious thing was that when this child-man, which Clifford was now and which he had been becoming for years, emerged into the world, it was much sharper and keener than the real man he used to be. This perverted child-man was now a _real_ businessman; when it was a question of affairs, he was an absolute he-man, sharp as a needle, and impervious as a bit of steel. When he was out among men, seeking his own ends, and "making good" his colliery workings, he had an almost uncanny shrewdness, hardness, and a straight sharp punch. It was as if his very passivity and prostitution to the Magna Mater gave him insight into material business affairs, and lent him a certain remarkable inhuman force. The wallowing in private emotion, the utter abasement of his manly self, seemed to lend him a second nature, cold, almost visionary, business-clever. In business he was quite inhuman. And in this Mrs. Bolton triumphed. "How he's getting on!" she would say to herself in pride. "And that's my doing! My word, he'd never have got on like this with Lady Chatterley. She was not the one to put a man forward. She wanted too much for herself." At the same time, in some corner of her weird female soul, how she despised him and hated him! He was to her the fallen beast, the squirming monster. And while she aided and abetted him all she could, away in the remotest corner of her ancient healthy womanhood she despised him with a savage contempt that knew no bounds. The merest tramp was better than he. His behaviour with regard to Connie was curious. He insisted on seeing her again. He insisted, moreover, on her coming to Wragby. On this point he was finally and absolutely fixed. Connie had promised to come back to Wragby, faithfully. "But is it any use?" said Mrs. Bolton. "Can't you let her go, and be rid of her?" "No! She said she was coming back, and she's got to come." Mrs. Bolton opposed him no more. She knew what she was dealing with. "I needn't tell you what effect your letter has had on me," he wrote to Connie to London. "Perhaps you can imagine it if you try, though no doubt you won't trouble to use your imagination on my behalf.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  4 Our soul is greatly filled With the scoffing of those who are at ease, And with the contempt of the proud [who disregard God’s law]. Psalm 124 Praise for Rescue from Enemies. A Song of a Ascents. Of David. 1 “I F IT had not been the LORD who was on our side,” Let Israel now say, 2 “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side When men rose up against us, 3 Then they would have [quickly] swallowed us alive, When their wrath was kindled against us; 4 Then the waters would have engulfed us, The torrent would have swept over our soul; 5 Then the b raging waters would have swept over our soul.” 6 Blessed be the LORD , Who has not given us as prey to be torn by their teeth. 7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; The trap is broken and we have escaped. 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD , Who made heaven and earth. Psalm 125 The LORD Surrounds His People. A Song of a Ascents. 1 T HOSE WHO trust in and rely on the LORD [with confident expectation] Are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but remains forever. 2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the LORD surrounds His people From this time forth and forever. 3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest on the land of the righteous, So that the righteous will not reach out their hands to do wrong. 4 Do good, O LORD , to those who are good And to those who are upright in their hearts. 5 But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways [in unresponsiveness to God], The LORD will lead them away with those who do evil. Peace be upon Israel. Psalm 126 Thanksgiving for Return from Captivity. A Song of a Ascents. 1 W HEN THE LORD brought back the captives to Zion (Jerusalem), We were like those who dream [it seemed so unreal]. [Ps 53:6 ; Acts 12:9 ] 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter And our tongue with joyful shouting; Then they said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” 3 The LORD has done great things for us; We are glad! 4 Restore our b captivity, O LORD , As the stream-beds in the South (the Negev) [are restored by torrents of rain]. 5 They who sow in tears shall reap with joyful singing. 6 He who goes back and forth weeping, carrying his bag of seed [for planting], Will indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Psalm 127 Prosperity Comes from the LORD . A Song of a Ascents. Of Solomon. 1 U NLESS THE LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain.

• From Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

  "Sir Clifford!" he said. "Won't he ... won't he be...?" She paused a moment to consider. "Perhaps!" she said. And she looked up at him. "I don't want Clifford to know ... not even to suspect. It would hurt him so much. But I don't think it's wrong, do you?" "Wrong! Good God, no! You're only too infinitely good to me ... I can hardly bear it." He turned aside, and she saw that in another moment he would be sobbing. "But we needn't let Clifford know, need we?" she pleaded. "It _would_ hurt him so. And if he never knows, never suspects, it hurts nobody." "Me!" he said, almost fiercely; "he'll know nothing from me! You see if he does. Me give myself away! Ha! Ha!" He laughed hollowly, cynically at such an idea. She watched him in wonder. He said to her: "May I kiss your hand and go? I'll run into Sheffield I think, and lunch there if I may, and be back to tea. May I do anything for you? May I be sure you don't hate me?--and that you won't?"--he ended with a desperate note of cynicism. "No, I don't hate you," she said. "I think you're nice." "Ah!" he said to her fiercely, "I'd rather you said that to me than said you love me! It means such a lot more.... Till afternoon then. I've plenty to think about till then." He kissed her hands humbly and was gone. "I don't think I can stand that young man," said Clifford at lunch. "Why?" asked Connie. "He's such a bounder underneath his veneer ... just waiting to bounce us." "I think people have been so unkind to him," said Connie. "Do you wonder? And do you think he employs his shining hours doing deeds of kindness?" "I think he has a certain sort of generosity." "Towards whom?" "I don't quite know." "Naturally you don't. I'm afraid you mistake unscrupulousness for generosity." Connie paused. Did she? It was just possible. Yet the unscrupulousness of Michaelis had a certain fascination for her. He went whole lengths where Clifford only crept a few timid paces. In his way he had conquered the world, which was what Clifford wanted to do. Ways and means...? Were those of Michaelis more despicable than those of Clifford? Was the way the poor outsider had shoved and bounced himself forward in person, and by the back doors, any worse than Clifford's way of advertising himself into prominence? The bitch-goddess, Success, was trailed by thousands of gasping dogs with lolling tongues. The one that got her first was the real dog among dogs, if you go by success! So Michaelis could keep his tail up.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  6 For behold, they will go away because of devastation and destruction; Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them. Weeds will take over their treasures of silver; Thorns will grow in their tents. 7 The days of punishment have come; The days of retribution are at hand; Let Israel know this! The prophet is [considered] a fool; The man [of God] who is inspired is [treated as if] demented, Because of the abundance of your wickedness and guilt, And because your deep antagonism [toward God and the prophets] is so great. [Luke 21:22 ] 8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a [true] prophet [to warn the nation]; But the snare of a bird catcher was laid in all his paths. And there is only deep hostility in the house of his God (the land of Israel). 9 They have deeply corrupted (perverted) themselves As in the days of Gibeah. The LORD will remember their wickedness and guilt; He will punish their sins. [Judg 20 ] 10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness [an unexpected and refreshing delight]; I saw your fathers (ancestors) as the first ripe fruit on the fig tree in its first season, But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to shamefulness [the worship of Baal], And [because of their spiritual and physical adultery] they became as detestable and loathsome as the thing they loved. 11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird; No birth, no pregnancy, and [because of their impurity] no conception. 12 Even though they bring up their children, Yet I will bereave them until not one is left. Indeed, woe (judgment is coming) to them when I look away and withdraw [My blessing] from them! 13 Ephraim, as I have seen, Is planted in a pleasant [and prosperous] meadow like Tyre; But Ephraim will bring out his children to the executioner [for slaughter]. 14 Give them [the punishment they deserve], O LORD ! What will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 15 All their wickedness [says the LORD ] is focused in Gilgal; Indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their [idolatrous] practices I will drive them out of My house (the land of Israel)! I will love them no longer; All their princes are rebels. [Hos 4:15 ; 12:11 ] 16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, They will bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will slay the precious children of their womb. 17 My God will reject them and cast them away Because they did not listen to Him; And they will be wanderers (fugitives) among the nations. Hosea 10 Retribution for Israel’s Sin 1 I SRAEL IS a luxuriant and prolific vine; He produces fruit for himself. The more his fruit, The more altars he made [to Baal]; The richer his land, The better he made the [idolatrous] pillars.

• From Understanding the Old Testament (2019)

  leCtUre 14 | BiBli Cal short stories: rUth and esther 93 The Book of Esther The book of Esther is set in the Persian Empire, and portrays it fairly accurately, albeit comically. The background is that Persian rule was always considered by the Jews to be positive. Persia was good. Persians did not commit atrocities; they restored the exiles and the temple. There were no Jewish rebellions against the Persians. The Persian king, Ahasuerus, is made out to be a joke. Ahasuerus is obsessed with honor and with appearing generous, with the result that anyone’s will can become law. An example of this occurs in Esther 1:16–21, where the officer Memuchan turns a marital spat into a national crisis and then tells the king how to deal with it. Queen Vashti refuses to appear when summoned. Memuchan says this is a disaster for the entire nation, and then he tells the king exactly what edict to pass. Similarly, the king’s officer, Haman, manufactures a dilemma and proposes the solution: a genocide of the Jews. The king immediately signs it into law and then sits down to dinner as if nothing is unusual. Later, Ahasuerus says he cannot rescind the law he made for Haman, although he had forgotten that it was he who initiated the genocide in the first place. However, he immediately grants his new Jewish queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai royal authority: “Do whatever you want to defend t he Je w s.” Queen vashti

• From Understanding the Old Testament (2019)

  Understanding the o ld testament 76 David’s child by Bathsheba dies. But that’s only the beginning. The terrible collision of David’s avarice, lust, royal privilege, and murder leads to more sexual violence and family assassination that mark the rest of David’s reign. David never truly changes his ways. Solomon Solomon succeeds David, and Solomon’s reign is comparatively peaceful. He’s also famous for constructing what is now known as Solomon’s Temple, the first temple to Israel’s God in Jerusalem. Today, no archaeological remains survive. (Visible in Jerusalem today are remnants of the Second Temple, constructed in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah in the 5th century BCE and thoroughly renovated by Herod the Great in the 1st century CE.) From the Bible’s description of Solomon’s Temple, it was a three-part structure consisting of outer courts, a sanctuary, and a holy of holies within. Its floor plan is identical to any temple from ancient Syria or Phoenicia. However, in the back, where the statue of the god would otherwise be, Solomon’s Temple had the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was a large, gold-plated wooden chest. Inside were the two stone tablets Moses received from God. l e Ct Ure 12 | t he Boo Ks of s am Uel 77 This signifies that the central focus of Israel’s worship is a text, not an image. In other words, whereas Greeks or Phoenicians would pray oriented toward a statue of Zeus or Athena or Astarte, Israel focused its attention on a document, the agreement attesting to their relationship with God. Questions to Consider Y Is David a great hero or a traitor? Which tradition is more important for the Old Testament, and why? Y Does the Old Testament think monarchy is good or bad? Suggested Reading Halpern, David’s Secret Demons. Houston, Justice. 78 QUIZ 2 1. Decalogue means: a. 10 fingers b. 10 plagues c. 10 words d. 10 commandments 2. “You shall not hew steps leading up to my altar” because: a. Stone is sacred to God. b. The priestly vestments were too tight fitting. c. There was no underwear in antiquity. d. The animal offerings would escape 3. Which of the following is kosher? a. crawdads b. squirrel c. crickets d. shark meat 4. Deuteronomistic theology is basically: a. Do good, receive good. b. If you make sacrifices, your injustice won’t matter. c. Life is vanity of vanities. 79 QUiz 2 5. When Jephthah promised to sacrifice the first thing to come out of his house upon his homecoming, he probably expected: a. his daughter b. his wife c. a sheep d. the neighbor 6. Which of the following does King David not do? a. commit adultery b. join the enemy c. worship Baal d. have his officer murdered Answers: 1.(c); 2.(c); 3.(c); 4.(a); 5.(a); 6.(c)

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  17 Will they continue to empty their net And [mercilessly] go on destroying nations without sparing? Habakkuk 2 God Answers the Prophet 1 I WILL stand at my guard post And station myself on the tower; And I will keep watch to see what He will say to me, And what answer I will give [as His spokesman] when I am reproved. 2 Then the LORD answered me and said, “Write the vision And engrave it plainly on [clay] tablets So that the one who reads it will run. 3 “For the vision is yet for the appointed [future] time It hurries toward the goal [of fulfillment]; it will not fail. Even though it delays, wait [patiently] for it, Because it will certainly come; it will not delay. [Heb 10:37 , 38 ] 4 “Look at the proud one, His soul is not right within him, But the righteous will live by his faith [in the true God]. [Rom 1:17 ; Gal 3:11 ] 5 “Moreover, wine is treacherous and betrays the arrogant man, So that he does not stay at home. His appetite is large like Sheol, And he is like death, never satisfied. He gathers to himself all nations And collects to himself all peoples [as if he owned them]. 6 “Will all these [victims of his greed] not take up a taunting song against him, And in mocking derision against him Say, ‘a Woe (judgment is coming) to him who increases that which is not his— How long [will he possess it]? And [woe to him who] makes himself wealthy with loans.’ 7 “Will your creditors not rise up suddenly, And those who collect from you awaken? Then you will become plunder for them. 8 “Because you [king of Babylon] have looted many nations, All peoples who are left will loot you— Because of human bloodshed and for the violence done to the land, To the city and all its inhabitants. 9 “Woe (judgment is coming) to him who obtains wicked gain for his house [and thinks by so doing] To set his nest on high, That he may be rescued from the hand of evil. 10 “You have devised a shameful thing for your house By cutting off and putting an end to many peoples; So you are sinning against your own life and forfeiting it. 11 “For the stone will cry out from the wall [to accuse you—built in sin!] And the rafter will answer it out of the woodwork. 12 “Woe (judgment is coming) to him who builds a city with bloodshed And establishes a town by violence! 13 “Is it not indeed from the LORD of hosts That peoples labor [only] for the fire [that will destroy their work], And nations grow weary for nothing [that is, things which have no lasting value]? 14 “But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD , As the waters cover the sea.

• From Amplified Holy Bible (2015)

  15 The lazy person buries his hand in the dish [losing opportunity after opportunity]; It wearies him to bring it back to his mouth. [Prov 19:24 ] 16 The lazy person is wiser in his own eyes Than seven [sensible] men who can give a discreet answer. 17 Like one who grabs a dog by the ears [and is likely to be bitten] Is he who, passing by, stops to meddle with a dispute that is none of his business. 18 Like a madman who throws Firebrands, arrows, and death, 19 So is the man who deceives his neighbor (acquaintance, friend) And then says, “Was I not joking?” [Eph 5:4 ] 20 For lack of wood the fire goes out, And where there is no whisperer [who gossips], contention quiets down. 21 Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, So is a contentious man to kindle strife. [Prov 15:18 ; 29:22 ] 22 The words of a whisperer (gossip) are like dainty morsels [to be greedily eaten]; They go down into the innermost chambers of the body [to be remembered and mused upon]. [Prov 18:8 ] 23 Like a [common] clay vessel covered with the silver dross [making it appear silver when it has no real value] Are burning lips [murmuring manipulative words] and a wicked heart. 24 He who hates, disguises it with his lips, But he stores up deceit in his heart. 25 When he speaks graciously and kindly [to conceal his malice], do not trust him, For seven abominations are in his heart. 26 Though his hatred covers itself with guile and deceit, His malevolence will be revealed openly before the assembly. 27 Whoever digs a pit [for another man’s feet] will fall into it, And he who rolls a stone [up a hill to do mischief], it will come back on him. [Ps 7:15 , 16 ; 9:15 ; 10:2 ; 57:6 ; Prov 28:10 ; Eccl 10:8 ] 28 A lying tongue hates those it wounds and crushes, And a flattering mouth works ruin. Proverbs 27 Warnings and Instructions 1 D O NOT boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring. [Luke 12:19 , 20 ; James 4:13 ] 2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips. 3 Stone is heavy and the sand weighty, But a fool’s [unreasonable] wrath is heavier and more burdensome than both of them. 4 Wrath is cruel and anger is an overwhelming flood, But who is able to endure and stand before [the sin of] jealousy? 5 Better is an open reprimand [of loving correction] Than love that is hidden. [Prov 28:23 ; Gal 2:14 ] 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend [who corrects out of love and concern], But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful [because they serve his hidden agenda]. 7 He who is satisfied loathes honey, But to the hungry soul any bitter thing is sweet.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Whatever their differences, however, all these three fundamental heresies amount at last to a more or less distinct denial of the central truth of the gospel—the incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of the world. They make Christ either a mere man, or a mere superhuman phantom; they allow, at all events, no real and abiding union of the divine and human in the person of the Redeemer. This is just what John gives as the mark of antichrist, which existed even in his day in various forms.864 It plainly undermines the foundation of the church. For if Christ be not God-man, neither is he mediator between God and men; Christianity sinks back into heathenism or Judaism. All turns at last on the answer to that fundamental question: "What think ye of Christ?" The true solution of this question is the radical refutation of every error. Notes. "It has often been remarked that truths and error keep pace with each other. Error is the shadow cast by truth, truth the bright side brought out by error. Such is the relation between the heresies and the apostolical teaching of the first century. The Gospels indeed, as in other respects, so in this, rise almost entirely above the circumstances of the time, but the Epistles are, humanly speaking, the result of the very conflict between the good and the evil elements which existed together in the bosom of the early Christian society. As they exhibit the principles afterward to be unfolded into all truth and goodness, so the heresies which they attack exhibit the principles which were afterward to grow up into all the various forms of error, falsehood and wickedness. The energy, the freshness, nay, even the preternatural power which belonged to the one belonged also to the other. Neither the truths in the writings of the Apostles, nor the errors in the opinions of their opponents, can be said to exhibit the dogmatical form of any subsequent age. It is a higher and more universal good which is aimed at in the former; it is a deeper and more universal principle of evil which is attacked in the latter. Christ Himself, and no subordinate truths or speculations concerning Him, is reflected in the one; Antichrist, and not any of the particular outward manifestations of error which have since appeared, was justly regarded by the Apostles as foreshadowed in the other." — Dean Stanley (Apostolic Age, p. 182).

• From The Well of Loneliness (1928)

  were as white and soft as a woman’s — she would feel a queer little sense of outrage creeping over her when she looked at his hands. For those hands of his went so ill with him somehow; he was tall, broad-shouldered, and of an extreme thinness. His clean-shaven face was slightly sardonic and almost disconcertingly clever; an inquisitive face too — one felt that it pried into everyone’s secrets without shame or mercy. It may have been genuine liking on his part or mere curiosity that had made him persist in thrusting his friendship on Stephen. But whatever it had been it had taken the form of ringing her up almost daily at one time; of worrying her to lunch or dine with him, of inviting himself to her flat in Chelsea, or what was still worse, of dropping in on her whenever the spirit moved him. His work never seemed to worry him at all, and Stephen often wondered when his fine plays got written, for Brockett very seldom if ever discussed them and apparently very seldom wrote them; yet they always appeared at the critical moment when their author had run short of money. Once, for the sake of peace, she had dined with him in a species of glorified cellar. He had just then discovered the queer little place down in Seven Dials, and was very proud of it; indeed, he was making it rather the fashion among certain literary people. He had taken a great deal of trouble that evening to make Stephen feel that she belonged to these people by right of her talent, and had introduced her as ‘ Stephen Gordon, the author of The Furrow. But all the while he had secretly watched her with his sharp and inquisitive grey eyes. She had felt very much at ease with Brockett as they sat at their little dimly lit table, perhaps because her instinct divined that this man would never require of her more than she could give — that the most he would ask for at any time would be friendship. Then one day he had casually disappeared, and she heard that he had gone to Paris for some months, as was often his cus- tom when the climate of London had begun to get on his nerves. He had drifted away like thistledown, without so much as a word of warning. He had not said good-bye nor had he written, so that Stephen felt that she had never known him, so completely did THE WELL OF LONELINESS 259 he go out of her life during his sojourn in Paris. Later on she was to learn, when she knew him better, that these discon. certing lapses of interest, amounting as they did to a breach of good manners, were highly characteristic of the man, and must of necessity be accepted by all who accepted Jonathan Brockett.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  But in the meantime his teacher, Dr. Baur, the coryphaeus of the Tübingen school, was preparing his heavy ammunition, and led the second, the boldest, the most vigorous and effective assault upon the Johannean fort (since 1844).1087 He was followed in the main question, though with considerable modifications in detail, by a number of able and acute critics in Germany and other countries. He represented the fourth Gospel as a purely ideal work which grew out of the Gnostic, Montanistic, and paschal controversies after the middle of the second century, and adjusted the various elements of the Catholic faith with consummate skill and art. It was not intended to be a history, but a system of theology in the garb of history. This "tendency" hypothesis was virtually a death-blow to the mythical theory of Strauss, which excludes conscious design. The third great assault inspired by Baur, yet with independent learning and judgment, was made by Dr. Keim (in his Geschichte Jesu von Nazara, 1867). He went beyond Baur in one point: he denied the whole tradition of John’s sojourn in Ephesus as a mistake of Irenaeus; he thus removed even the foundation for the defence of the Apocalypse as a Johannean production, and neutralized the force of the Tübingen assault derived from that book. On the other hand, he approached the traditional view by tracing the composition back from 170 (Baur) to the reign of Trajan, i.e., to within a few years after the death of the apostle. In his denial of the Ephesus tradition he met with little favor,1088 but strong opposition from the Tübingen critics, who see the fatal bearing of this denial upon the genuineness of the Apocalypse.1089 The effect of Keim’s movement therefore tended rather to divide and demoralize the besieging force. Nevertheless the effect of these persistent attacks was so great that three eminent scholars, Hase of Jena (1876), Reuss of Strassburg, and Sabatier of Paris (1879), deserted from the camp of the defenders to the army of the besiegers. Renan, too, who had in the thirteenth edition of his Vie de Jesus (1867) defended the fourth Gospel at least in part, has now (since 1879, in his L’Église chrétienne) given it up entirely.1090 The Defence of the Fourth Gospel. The incisive criticism of Baur and his school compelled a thorough reinvestigation of the whole problem, and in this way has been of very great service to the cause of truth. We owe to it the ablest defences of the Johannean authorship of the fourth Gospel and the precious history which it represents. Prominent among these defenders against the latest attacks were Bleek, Lange, Ebrard, Thiersch, Schneider, Tischendorf, Riggenbach, Ewald, Steitz, Aberle, Meyer, Luthardt, Wieseler, Beyschlag, Weiss, among the Germans; Godet, Pressensé, Astié, among the French; Niermeyer, Van Oosterzee, Hofstede de Groot, among the Dutch; Alford, Milligan, Lightfoot, Westcott, Sanday, Plummer, among the English; Fisher, and Abbot among the Americans.1091

• From Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation (2014)

  Lorde's explication of the nexus of eroticism and the pornographic illuminates the textual/sexual dynamics governing John and Marie's sexual exchanges, as well as his language, in which resonates a rhetoric situated within a pornographic lexicon that denies feeling for the sake of sensation, titillation, and sexual fantasy. John's actions, contextualized as such, renders his exchange pornographic, as sensation (without feeling): the ripping of clothes degrades the body in the same fashion that his words-"act like a whore"-diminish and reduce Marie not to a particular humanity or essence but to an empty sexual (and even objectified and pathologized) state. Marie, in turn, is the recipient, quiet and willing to "take it how he gives it," enabling his sensation and sexual domination in his attempts to recover his threatened masculinity. John, through sexuality, virility, and sexual domination, attempts to display masculine strength, or a semblance of it, that is vexed and problematic at best.

• From Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation (2014)

  Renay's (re)formation of family (Renay/Terry/Denise), read in dialogue with her former family (Jerome/Renay/Denise), calls attention to the contradictions undergirding nationalist constructions of the black family. For, if within black nationalist discourse, the foundation and survival of "the black nation" is contingent upon the formation of "strong black families with strong (and responsible) black patriarchs," Jerome-who engages nationalism only so far as its tenets regarding female circumscriptions and male-dominance are concerned-utterly fails to perform his designated role within his family unit. He neglects his responsibilities as a husband and father-not supporting his family financially and functioning as more of a violator than a "protector" of his wife-and, therefore, does not meet the "requisites" for manhood within the nationalist project. Jerome's negligent behavior, I would argue, threatens the survival of his family and accounts for its eventual demise. Whereas Renay's behavior, her deliberate engagement in an interracial samegender loving union, is perceived almost automatically as the "real" threat to their family, it is Jerome, ironically, who is responsible for its destruction. What Shockley does, then, is twofold: first, she exposes the contradictory nature of nationalists who, like Jerome, embrace ideologies regarding womanhood, manhood, family, and the nation that rarely, if ever, translate-at least in any progressive way-into praxis. Second, she reveals the potentially precarious and destructive, rather than generative, nature of black nationalist constructions of gender roles and family particularly and of nationalism generally. Shockley, to this end, lambastes nationalist tendencies to relegate women to unprogressive gender politics that commodify or render them objects to be acquired, possessed, and/or disposed at men's will, while women are expected to exercise no agency. This she does most conspicuously via Jerome's reaction to his discovery that Renay has abandoned him, as the narratorial voice delineates: His male vanity had once again risen to the surface. He just knew she was coming back. She had to come back. It would have been all right if he had left her, but he could not believe that she had left him. That she would not be with him anymore and, above all, that she could go the way of the world without him, was inconceivable to him. She was a commodity to him, something he had bought with a wedding license and, like all possessions, was a part of his many belongings. To him, losing her was a loss of property. (42, original emphasis)