This is part 2 of a series. Please read part 1 first if you haven't already
“Thou shall not commit adultery”
When God instituted the Ten Commandments, have you ever given thought on why he said “Do not commit adultery” as the 6th commandment, and “Do not covet your neighbor's wife” in the 10th? Why would he repeat himself if they both mean the same thing? It could be assumed that the former is referring to the act and the latter refers to the thought preceding the act, but if this was true, then why did Yahushua say that looking at a woman with lust is adultery rather than covetousness?
Adultery (or adulteration) means to be mixed with a substitution of one substance for another. In the case of marriage, adultery is to substitute your spouse for another. While the Bible does describe adultery as desecrating one's marriage, 'adultery' doesn't necessarily have this particular meaning in every instance in scripture, especially when used by the Prophets. Adultery has a much broader meaning, and we will see how it also refers to idolatry and eating flesh.
The Bible describes God's relationship with Israel as a marriage—Israel being the bride and God being the husband. Most of the Old Testament records the Israelites breaking their covenant with God by worshiping other gods/idols, and by destroying their racial purity by mixing their bloodlines with the Canaanites and other foreign nations and adopting their ways; forsaking their covenant with Yahweh. This would be considered an adulteration, or an act of adultery.
[Joshua 23:11-13] “And you shall diligently guard yourselves, to love יהוה your Elohim. But if you do turn back at all, and cling to the remnant of these nations, these that remain among you, and intermarry with them, and go in to them and they to you, know for certain that יהוה your Elohim shall no longer drive these nations out from before you. And they shall be snares and traps to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which יהוה your Elohim has given you.”
[Joshua 23:15-16] “And it shall be, that as every good word has come upon you which יהוה your Elohim promised you, so יהוה does bring upon you every evil word, until He has destroyed you from this good land which יהוה your Elohim has given you, when you transgress the covenant of יהוה your Elohim, which He commanded you, and shall go and serve other mighty ones, and bow down to them. And the displeasure of יהוה shall burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you.”
[Judges 3:4-7] And they were to try Yisra’ĕl by them, to know whether they would obey the commands of יהוה, which He had commanded their fathers by the hand of Mosheh. Thus the children of Yisra’ĕl dwelt in the midst of the Kenaʽanites, the Ḥittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Ḥiwwites, and the Yebusites, and took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and they served their mighty ones. Thus the children of Yisra’ĕl did evil in the eyes of יהוה, and forgot יהוה their Elohim, and served the Baʽals and the Ashĕrahs.
It is not the mere idea of worshiping another deity that makes God jealous, it is what the act of worshiping the deity entails. According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, sacrifices were meals and meals were sacrifices, and this was certainly always the case.
As at every meal the Deity was supposed to be present and to claim His own, every meal became a sacrifice, and the killing of the animal a sacrificial act (see I Sam. xiv.); and so strong did this feeling remain, even after the lapse of centuries, that when the Second Temple was destroyed, the rigorists abstained from eating meat on the plea that as the sacrifices had been discontinued, all meat was rendered unfit for food (Tos. Soṭah, end; B. B. 60b).
The donative character of the Hebrew sacrifices appears also from the material used, which is always something to eat or drink, the common dietary articles of the Israelites. The phrase “food of God” (Lev. xxi. 6, 8, 17, 21; xxii. 25; Ezek. xliv. 7) proves the use for which such offerings were intended; and Ps. l. 13 also reveals this intention.
Every time sacrifices were made to these foreign deities (idols); it was always meat. To eat meat is to commit idolatry, which is synonymous with adultery and whoring/fornication (which will be demonstrated shortly), and the implication applies when Scripture speaks of idolatry in both testaments (especially in 1 Corinthians 8), except that nowadays, people's idols are their stomachs and egos rather than statues of wood and stone.
[Proverbs 30:20] This is the way of an adulterous woman: she shall eat and wipe her mouth, and say, “I have not done wickedness.”
As mentioned in Part 1, the Israelites had transformed the Law of sacrifice from a penalty for sin into a system of ritual sacrifice because their cravings for flesh got worse, especially after Joshua passed away. After his death, they continued to commit evil before God from that time until the Babylonian captivity. They wanted to eat meat without the Law’s restrictions. This is why they turned against Yahweh and worshiped the Canaanite gods—not only just to eat any animal they wanted as often as they wanted, but also their own children because Canaanite worship demanded child sacrifice.
[2 Kings 17:16-17] And they left all the commands of יהוה their Elohim, and made for themselves a moulded image, two calves, and made an Ashĕrah and bowed themselves to all the host of the heavens, and served Ba‛al, and caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, and practised divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of יהוה, to provoke Him.
[Psalm 106:37-38] And they slaughtered their sons and their daughters to demons, and they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they offered to the idols of Kena‛an; and the land was defiled with blood.
[Jeremiah 7:31] And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
[Jeremiah 19:4-5] “Because they have forsaken Me and have profaned this place, and have burned incense in it to other mighty ones whom neither they, their fathers, nor the sovereigns of Yehudah have known, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocents, and have built the high places of Ba‛al, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Ba‛al, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My heart.
Israel became so defiled in idolatry and bloodshed. Israel proved herself to be an unfaithful wife throughout the Judges and Kings period and had refused to listen to the admonitions of numerous prophets in order to repent and obey God and His Law. Those generations of Israelites walked in the ways of their ancestors in Numbers 11, and no permanent repentance was ever made. This is why God divorced Israel and swept her into exile.
[Jeremiah 3:6-9] And יהוה said to me in the days of Yoshiyahu the sovereign, “Have you seen what backsliding Yisra’ĕl has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there committed whoring. And after she had done all these, I said ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Yehudah saw it. And I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Yisra’ĕl had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Yehudah did not fear, but went and committed whoring too. And it came to be, through her frivolous whoring, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones [altars] and wood [idols/kindling].”
[Jeremiah 13:24-27] “So I shall scatter them like stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is your lot, your measured portion from Me,” declares יהוה, “because you have forgotten Me, and trust in falsehood. I shall even draw your skirts over your face, and your shame shall be seen, your adulteries and your neighings, the wickedness of your whoring! I have seen your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Yerushalayim [Jerusalem]! How long before you would be made clean?”
[Jeremiah 16:10-12] “And it shall be, when you declare to this people all these words, and they shall say to you, ‘Why has יהוה pronounced all this great evil against us? And what is our crookedness, and what is our sin that we have committed against יהוה our Elohim?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ declares יהוה, ‘and have walked after other mighty ones and served them and bowed themselves to them, and have forsaken Me, and did not guard My Torah. And you have done more evil than your fathers, for look, each one walks according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me.’”
[Jeremiah 18:15-16] “But My people have forgotten Me, they have burned incense to what is false, and they have stumbled from their ways, from the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths and not on a highway, to make their land become a ruin, a hissing forever—everyone who passes by it is appalled and shakes his head.”
[Jeremiah 23:10-11] For the land is filled with adulterers; for the land mourns because of a curse. The pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right. “For both prophet and priest have become defiled. Even in My house I have found their evil,” declares יהוה.
With the passages above from Jeremiah alone, the context of adultery/whoring is made clear, but Jeremiah wasn’t the only prophet to judge Israel for this sin. This is a theme that is repeated throughout most of the writings of the prophets.
[Ezekiel 16:38] “And I shall judge you with judgments of adulteresses and shedders of blood. And I shall bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.”
[Ezekiel 23:28-30] “For thus said the Master יהוה, ‘See, I am giving you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom your being turned in disgust. And they shall deal with you in hatred, and they shall take away all you have worked for, and they shall leave you naked and bare. And the nakedness [sins] of your whorings shall be uncovered, and the wickedness of your whorings. I do this to you because of your whoring after the gentiles, because you have been defiled by their idols.’”
[Ezekiel 23:36-37] And יהוה said to me, “Son of man, judge Oholah [‘her tent,’ i.e. the temple at Mt. Gerizim, or Israel] and Oholibah [‘my tent is in her,’ i.e. the Temple of Solomon, or Judah]! And declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. And they have committed adultery with their idols, and even offered their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour.”
[Ezekiel 23:45] “But let righteous men judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and the judgment of women [sinners] who shed blood, for they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.”
[Isaiah 1:10-15, 21] Hear the word of יהוה, you rulers of Sedom; give ear to the Torah of our Elohim, you people of Amorah! “Of what use to Me are your many slaughterings?” declares יהוה. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courtyards? Stop bringing futile offerings, incense, it is an abomination to Me. New Moons, Sabbaths, the calling of meetings—I am unable to bear unrighteousness and assembly. My being hates your New Moons and your appointed times, they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. And when you spread out your hands, I hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I do not hear. Your hands have become filled with blood. How the steadfast city has become a whore! I have filled it with right-ruling; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.
[Isaiah 57:3-7] “But come here, you sons of the sorceress, you offspring of the adulterer and the whore! Against whom are you sporting? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of falsehood, being inflamed with mighty ones under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they, they, are your lot! Also to them you have poured a drink offering, you have offered a grain offering. Am I comforted in these? On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. There, too, you went up to make an offering.”
[Hosea 4:2-3] “Swearing, and lying, and murdering, and stealing, and committing adultery have increased. And bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, and everyone living there languishes, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens. And the fish of the sea are taken away.”
[Hosea 4:7-13] “As they were increased, so they sinned against Me. My esteem they have changed into shame. They eat the sin of My people, and lift up their desire to their crookedness. And it shall be: like people, like priest. And I shall punish them for their ways, and reward them for their deeds. And they shall eat but not be satisfied, they shall whore but not increase, for they have stopped obeying יהוה. Whoring, and wine, and new wine enslave the heart. My people ask from their Wood, and their Staff declares to them. For a spirit of whorings has led them astray, and they went whoring from under their Elohim. They slaughter on the mountaintops, and burn incense on the hills, under oak and poplars and terebinth, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters commit whoring, and your brides commit adultery.”
[Hosea 6:5-11] “Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth. And my right-rulings break forth as the light. For I delight in kindness and not slaughtering, and in the knowledge of Elohim more than burnt offerings. But like Adam they transgressed the covenant. There they acted treacherously against Me. Gilʽad is a city of workers of wickedness—tracked up with blood. And as bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the way to Shekem, for they have done wickedness. I have seen a horrible matter in the house of Yisra’ĕl: the whoring of Ephrayim is there, Yisra’ĕl is defiled. Also, a harvest is appointed for you, O Yehudah, when I turn back the captivity of My people.”
[Nahum 3:1-5] Woe to the city of blood! All of it is a lie, filled with plunder, the prey is not lacking. The sound of a whip and the sound of rattling wheels, of galloping horses, of jolting chariots, mounted horsemen with bright sword and glittering spear, and many wounded, and a mass of dead bodies, and no end of corpses, they stumble over the corpses—because of the many whorings of the well-favoured whore, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her whorings, and clans by her sorceries. “See, I am against you,” declares יהוה of hosts, “and shall lift up your skirts over your face, and shall show nations your nakedness [sin], and reigns your shame.”
[Haggai 2:11-14] Thus said יהוה of hosts, “Now, ask the priests concerning the Torah, saying, ‘If one bears set-apart meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, or wine or oil, or any food, is it set-apart?’” And the priests answered and said, “No.” And Ḥaggai said, “If someone defiled by a dead body touches any of these, is it defiled?” And the priests answered and said, “It is defiled.” And Ḥaggai answered and said, “So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,” declares יהוה, “and so is every work of their hands. And whatever they bring near there is defiled.”
Here, we see the Prophets testifying that God hates sacrifices (which necessarily means all slaughter):
[Jeremiah 6:20] “What need have I of frankincense from Sheba, and sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your slaughterings have not been sweet to Me.”
[Hosea 6:6] For I delight in kindness and not slaughtering, and in the knowledge of Elohim more than burnt offerings.
[Hosea 12:11] Is Gilʽad wicked? Certainly, they have been false! In Gilgal they have offered bulls. Also their altars are as heaps on a ploughed field.
[Amos 4:4-6] “Come to Bĕyth Ěl and transgress, to Gilgal, increase transgression. And bring your slaughterings every morning, your tithes every three days. And burn an offering of thanksgiving with leaven, proclaim voluntary offerings, loudly. For you have loved this, you children of Yisra’ĕl!” declares the Master יהוה. “And I also gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places. But you did not turn back to Me,” declares יהוה.
[Amos 5:21-24] “I have hated, I have despised your festivals, and I am not pleased with your assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I do not accept them, nor do I look on your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I do not hear the sound of your stringed instruments. And let right-ruling roll on like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
[Malachi 1:6-8] “A son esteems his father, and a servant his master. And if I am the Father, where is My esteem? And if I am a Master, where is My fear? said יהוה of hosts to you priests who despise My Name. But you asked, ‘In what way have we despised Your Name?’ You are presenting defiled food on My altar. But you asked, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ Because you say, ‘The table of יהוה is despicable.’ And when you present the blind as a slaughtering, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Bring it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favourably?” said יהוה of hosts.
[Isaiah 61:8] “For I, יהוה, love right-ruling; I hate robbery for burnt offering. And I shall give their reward in truth, and make an everlasting covenant with them.”
As we have seen from 2 Kings 17, Isaiah 57 and Nahum 3, “sorcery” is mentioned, which is used synonymously with adultery by the latter two references. Revelation is more specific in its use of the word, calling it drug sorcery. (Rev. 21:8, 22:15), or pharmakeia which literally means “sorcery” in Greek (G5333). In the context of the Bible, pharmacology is witchcraft and refers to the creation, distribution and intake of allopathic and illicit drugs. Meat and dairy products are in no doubt drugs considering they contain toxic chemicals that have addicting effects on the body and brain, like meat causing aggression, or cheese containing morphine, etc.
A drug is defined as a substance that causes addiction or habituation. Many people by their own admissions have said “I could never go vegan”, and what they’re really saying is “I can’t give up meat because I’m addicted to it”. It also causes habitual behavior to attain the meat by buying it at the store, or killing the animal, without any regard for its life. Even those who are aware of the suffering of animals in slaughterhouses, and instead, hunt for their own meat or buy “grass-fed” meat, thinking it is “more humane” even have an altered mind and conscience. Therefore, meat is a drug.
[Proverbs 12:10] The righteous regards the life of his beast, but the compassion of the wrong is cruelty.
[Proverbs 6:26] For because of a whore one is brought to a crust of bread, and an adulteress hunts a precious life.
[1 Corinthians 6:9-10] Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the reign of Elohim? Do not be deceived. Neither those who whore, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor greedy of gain, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers shall inherit the reign of Elohim.
All the prophets in the Old Testament were Nazarites. Nazarites were forbidden to approach dead bodies, and this meant touch a carcass to put into their mouths.
[Numbers 6:6] All the days of his separation to יהוה he does not go near a dead body.
[2 Kings 4:38-41] And Elisha returned to Gilgal. And the scarcity of food was in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him. And he said to his servant, “Put on the large pot, and cook stew for the sons of the prophets.” And one went out to the field to gather plants, and found a wild vine, and gathered wild cucumbers from it, filling the skirt of his garment, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were. They then served it to the men to eat. And it came to be, as they were eating the stew, that they cried out and said, “O man of Elohim, there is death in the pot!” And they were unable to eat it. And he said, “Then bring some flour.” And he put it into the pot, and said, “Serve it to the people to eat.” And there was no evil matter in the pot.
The prophet Daniel is described as being a vegetarian:
[Daniel 1:11-16] And Dani’ĕl said to the overseer whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Dani’ĕl, Ḥananyah, Misha’ĕl, and Azaryah, “Please try your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearances be examined before you, and the appearances of the young men who eat the portion of the sovereign’s food. And do with your servants as you see fit.” And he listened to them in this matter, and tried them ten days. And at the end of ten days their appearances looked better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the sovereign’s food. And it came to be that the overseer took away their portion of food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.
The fact that Daniel was not harmed by the lions when he was thrown into their den (ch. 6) proves he didn’t eat any meat. Animals can sense the scent of meat in your body which triggers the fight-or-flight instinct because they will think you’re a predator. In the case of a vegan, like Daniel, his body lacked the scent and the lions had no reason to feel threatened and become aggressive.
Obviously the prophets were vegetarians, otherwise, they would have been hypocrites for admonishing Israel and liars for testifying that God hates slaughter.