In the Biblical story of Lot and his daughters, they end up out in the wilderness alone. The daughters want to have kids, but the only man around is daddy. So they get their father drunk and lay with him. The offspring are two boys, Ammon and Moab, who are the progenitors of the Ammonites and Moabites, who are neighbors of the Hebrews (their lands are to the east of the Jordan River and Dead Sea). They were frequently at odds with the Hebrews/Israelites. So the story is basically Biblical trash talking: Yo momma had sex with her daddy.
Arer there any other instances of trash talking in the Bible?
**45**Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. **46**And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Also from 2 Kings: Elisha gets revenge on some trash-talkers in the most badass way possible.
And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?
There are all kinds of taunts, such as the Assyrian commander telling the inhabitants of Jerusalem that they would soon have to eat their own feces and urine once the siege went on for long enough.
1 Kings 18. Elijah, alone, challenges the many priests of Baal to a God battle. They prepare an offering, and see if Baal will accept it; he will do the same. On his turn, he has the offering watered down with barrels full of water, and God still accepts the offering, roasting it with a bolt of lightning.
On Baal’s turn, nothing happens, even though they coat the sacrifice with oil.
Elijah (in the NIV) calls out:
At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
Some paraphrastic versions put in “going to the bathroom” for being deep in thought.
My Old Testament professor, who was also my Biblical Hebrew professor, said that ‘going to the bathroom’ was the actual meaning of the Hebrew, and that ‘deep in thought’ was the cleaned-up paraphrase.
Yeah, I was going to post that one, too. I just love the mental image of Ba’al on the crapper with a newspaper, and saying “Me damn it, what do those pesky mortals want from me now!?”.
P-man mentioned that it was from “The Living Bible,” which appears to be a version of the Bible which uses paraphrasing of the original texts, rather than literal translation, and focuses on use of modern language, to make it more accessible for modern readers, especially younger readers.
I’m sure they had some version of a toilet, meaning some sort of structure that made it easier for a person to put themself in position above the hole in the ground. What precise form that took, I don’t know: A seat with a hole in it, or a crossbar, or grab bars to help you squat, or something.
In the book of Numbers, the pagan prophet Balaam is riding out to do some bad stuff. The Deity sends an angel to block his path. When his donkey refuses to cross the angel, he starts whipping it. The donkey speaks, saying “Why are you beating me? I have always obeyed you, and let you ride me.” Some commentators think that the word “ride” was intended to have a sexual double entendre.
Balaam is one of the earliest people for whom there is evidence of his existence outside the Bible. The story may be the world’s oldest political hatchet job.
