Quentin Tarantino is a movie director/writer/producer. His movies are often very violent. They’re also really good. The stories are unique. The characters and their interactions are deep. The shots are interesting. The movies feel quite “biblical.”
In fact, one of his most popular movies, Pulp Fiction, has a Bible verse in it:
“And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.”
Ezekiel 25:17
A couple years ago a priest challenged me, and everyone else listening to his homily, to read through the Bible cover-to-cover. I accepted the challenge, and have been reading about a chapter a day ever since.
As I read, various verses and parts stood out to me. One of my favorite parts is when Jacob is at the well. There is a big stone covering the well. It’s so big that it takes several shepherds to move it. But then comes Rachel. Jacob, for the first time, lays eyes on her. Immediately, he goes up and rolls the stone away by himself. Then he goes over to Rachel, kisses her, and yelps.
What a boss.
As I continued reading through the books, I found myself amused by some of the detailed descriptions of gore and other brutal scenes. They reminded me of scenes in Quentin Tarantino movies like Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction. I started collecting them.
I’m up to the book of Psalms now, so there may be more to come, and I may have missed some along the way, but here is what I have for now.
Death of Jezebel
Jehu came to Jezreel, and when Jezebel heard of it, she shadowed her eyes, adorned her hair, and looked down from her window. 31 As Jehu came through the gate, she cried out, “Is all well, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” Jehu looked up to the window and shouted, “Who is on my side? Who?” At this, two or three eunuchs looked down toward him. “Throw her down,” he ordered. They threw her down, and some of her blood spurted against the wall and against the horses. Jehu trod over her body and, after eating and drinking, he said: “Attend to that accursed woman and bury her; for she was the daughter of a king.” But when they went to bury her, they found nothing of her but the skull, the feet, and the hands. They returned to Jehu, and when they told him, he said, “This is the word the Lord spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: In the confines of Jezreel the dogs shall devour the flesh of Jezebel. The corpse of Jezebel shall be like dung in the field in the confines of Jezreel, so that no one can say: This was Jezebel.”
As for the rest of the acts of Shallum, with the conspiracy he carried out, these are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. At that time, Menahem attacked Tappuah, all its inhabitants, and its whole district as far as Tirzah, because they did not let him in. He attacked them; he even ripped open all their pregnant women.
She went to the bedpost near the head of Holofernes, and taking his sword from it, she drew close to the bed, grasped the hair of his head, and said, “Strengthen me this day, Lord, God of Israel!” Then with all her might she struck his neck twice and cut off his head. She rolled his body off the bed and took the canopy from its posts. Soon afterward, she came out and handed over the head of Holofernes to her maid, who put it into her food bag. Then the two went out together for prayer as they were accustomed to do.
Eleazar, one of the foremost scribes, a man advanced in age and of noble appearance, was being forced to open his mouth to eat pork. But preferring a glorious death to a life of defilement, he went forward of his own accord to the instrument of torture, spitting out the meat as they should do who have the courage to reject food unlawful to taste even for love of life.
Those in charge of that unlawful sacrifice took the man aside, because of their long acquaintance with him, and privately urged him to bring his own provisions that he could legitimately eat, and only to pretend to eat the sacrificial meat prescribed by the king. Thus he would escape death, and be treated kindly because of his old friendship with them. But he made up his mind in a noble manner, worthy of his years, the dignity of his advanced age, the merited distinction of his gray hair, and of the admirable life he had lived from childhood. Above all loyal to the holy laws given by God, he swiftly declared, “Send me to Hades!”
But when the troops, on the point of capturing the tower, were forcing the outer gate and calling for fire to set the door ablaze, Razis, now caught on all sides, turned his sword against himself, preferring to die nobly rather than fall into the hands of vile men and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth. In the excitement of the struggle he failed to strike exactly. So while the troops rushed in through the doors, he gallantly ran up to the top of the wall and courageously threw himself down into the crowd. But as they quickly drew back and left an opening, he fell into the middle of the empty space. Still breathing, and inflamed with anger, he got up and ran through the crowd, with blood gushing from his frightful wounds. Then, standing on a steep rock, as he lost the last of his blood, he tore out his entrails and flung them with both hands into the crowd, calling upon the Lord of life and of spirit to give these back to him again. Such was the manner of his death.
Then Judas, that man who was ever in body and soul the chief defender of his fellow citizens, and had maintained from youth his affection for his compatriots, ordered Nicanor’s head and right arm up to the shoulder to be cut off and taken to Jerusalem. When he arrived there, he assembled his compatriots, stationed the priests before the altar, and sent for those in the citadel. He showed them the vile Nicanor’s head and the wretched blasphemer’s arm that had been boastfully stretched out against the holy dwelling of the Almighty. He cut out the tongue of the godless Nicanor, saying he would feed it piecemeal to the birds and would hang up the other wages of his folly opposite the temple. At this, everyone looked toward heaven and praised the Lord who manifests himself: “Blessed be the one who has preserved undefiled his own place!” Judas hung Nicanor’s head and arm on the wall of the citadel, a clear and evident sign to all of the Lord’s help.
Arise, Lord! Save me, my God!
For you strike the cheekbone of all my foes;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
His thunder announces him
and he incites the fury of the storm.
“The God who answers with fire is God.”
Do you indeed pronounce justice, O gods;
do you judge fairly you children of Adam?
No, you freely engage in crime;
your hands dispense violence to the earth.
The wicked have been corrupt since birth;
liars from the womb, they have gone astray.
Their venom is like the venom of a snake,
like that of a serpent stopping its ears,
So as not to hear the voice of the charmer
or the enchanter with cunning spells.
O God, smash the teeth in their mouths;
break the fangs of these lions, Lord!
Make them vanish like water flowing away;
trodden down, let them wither like grass.
Let them dissolve like a snail that oozes away,
like an untimely birth that never sees the sun.
Suddenly, like brambles or thistles,
have the whirlwind snatch them away.
Then the just shall rejoice to see the vengeance
and bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
Then people will say:
“Truly there is a reward for the just;
there is a God who is judge on earth!”