If one looks closely at the layout of many passages in the Bible it quickly becomes evident how strongly the male mindset of the time period it was written in is mapped onto its pages. The one passage I want to focus on in this article comes from the book of Zechariah. We read in this prophecy that when the day of the Lord comes he will gather the nations against Jerusalem and in so doing will allow the women of the city to be raped, half the city to be taken captive and the rest of the people to be cut off from the city. The prophecy then goes on to say after God causes this invasion to take place, he then goes to fight against the very nations he used to punish his people with in the first place.

Zech 14:1-2 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

The first observation I would like to take note of is the raping of the women of the city, this act of violence is specifically targeted against women and is something that happens quite frequently in the “wars of men”. So, why is it that we see Yahweh acting in ways that exactly match the things men do? If Yahweh is so concerned with punishing his people for their transgressions, why is it that he allows the women to be singled out for extra punishment based on their gender? It seems pretty obvious that this passage was written from a totally male mindset, recounting what actually goes on when men go to battle of their own accord, but one would not expect the creator of the universe to act in the same way.

The second observation is concerning the notion of the Lord gathering all the nations and using them to as a tool to battle against Jerusalem, only to turn around when the battle is finished and go forth to fight against the very nations he used to begin with…seems more like something devised in the minds of men then coming from the divine source of all creation. Just one more reason to take a second look at a book that is espoused by many to be the word of “God”, but looks more and more man made all the time.