re: #79 ausador

My favorite part of Exodus is 9:12

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said to Moses.

How dickish is that? Really fucked up puppet master shit. The Egyptians weren’t being punished for having crap leadership or for refusing to free the Jews. They had no agency in the decision, no free will. The whole thing was God deliberately creating the conditions that would justify His wrath, setting the Egyptians up only so that He could knock them down.

I’ve heard defenders say that the slavery of the Jews was reason enough. But if the slavery was the reason, why even issue the demand for freedom? Why game the response? Why prolong the captivity of the chosen people for even one day? It’s all pretext. Exodus depicts an incredibly manipulative, sociopathic deity.