So I was reading da Bible, and I happened to come across this interesting passage.

[Valigarmander]

Originally Posted by Judges 1:19

And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

lol wut

[Vgfian]

Old English translation problems.


The following quote is from this link.
Is God omnipotent (all-powerful)?

Originally Posted by

Is God omnipotent (all-powerful)?
Question: Jeremiah 32:27 and Matthew 19:26 say that God is omnipotent (all-powerful). But Judges 1:19 says that the Lord was unable to help the men of Judah drive out the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots. But, in Joshua 10:12, God makes the sun stand still in the sky so that Joshua can get all his killing done before dark. One would have to ask themselves, "if God can make the sun stand still for Joshua to attain a military victory, why did he not do something as simple as destroy a few iron chariots?

Response: The "contradiction," here, is based on two faulty assumptions:

1. That if God was with Judah, then Judah was supposed to win the battle.

2. That the "he" in Judges 1:19, in some of the older English translations, such as the KJV, refers to God rather than to Judah, which was a region in the southern part of the land of Israel.

The newer English translations of the Bible, such as the NIV, make it clearer, for modern English speakers, that the pronoun in Judges 1:19 refers to the people of Judah, rather than to God:

The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots. - Judges 1:19 NIV.

As for the battle itself, there is no promise in the Bible that the Jews would win every battle. For any number of reasons, the Lord allowed the people of Judah only a limited success at that time and they were unable to conquer the people of the plain. A few possible reasons for this could include:

1). Exodus 23:29 indicates that the Lord would not allow the Israelites to conquer the land of Israel too quickly, because the Jews did not yet have a large enough population to occupy and maintain the whole land.

2). Another possible reason could be that the men of Judah allowed their fear to overcome their faith in the Lord. In fact, in Joshua 17:14-18, we see that Joshua is trying to convince his people that they can overcome troops that have iron chariots. In other words, Joshua 17:14-18 is showing us that indeed there was some fear and doubt among the Israelites as to whether they could defeat iron chariots. (Otherwise, Joshua would not have needed to try to convince them that they could).

3). We see in Deuteronomy 20:1 that the Israelites were not supposed to fear their opposing armies, but to have faith in the Lord instead: "When thou goest forth to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, [and] a people more than thou, thou shalt not be afraid of them; for Jehovah thy God is with thee, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

Another point to remember is that there is a difference between losing a battle and winning a war. For example, the Lord was with Joseph. But Joseph was sold into slavery. But the Lord later used this "defeat" to save Joseph's brothers. The Lord was certainly with Jesus. But Jesus was crucified. And that might have seemed like a defeat, initially, but instead it was the greatest victory of all time. According to Judges 1:19, the Lord was with the men of Judah. But that doesn't mean that they would immediately defeat the men of the plain with the iron chariots.

And one more point to remember: If there is an all-powerful God, then he also would have the power to decide when and how and where to use that power. There is no contradiction there. And there is no contradiction in Judges 1:19.

Does this help at all?

Here's another possibly helpful link.

Apologetics Press - Were the Iron Chariots Too Powerful?

[CaptHayfever]

Translation: Some idiot who can't read misinterpreted the pronoun & proclaimed his mistake as the absolute truth.

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Bomby]

Note to self: I can defeat the Lord in basketball with a chariot of iron.

[PK FIRE!]

Meh the court's too small to get any real use out of it, besides chariots still have to follow the rules for traveling.

- You stupid dog.

[Metal Man]

Actually, the word omnipotens is Greek and was not the original word, therefore in the original Hebrew something else was meant. It's a translation issue.

In the original Hebrew it probably meant something with strength, yes, but not all-powerful--that was mostly a Greek concept.

A lot of the weirdness like that arises when one tries to reconcile the stereotypical "pop culture" idea of God with the actual one spoken of in the Bible.

[Valigarmander]

Shoot, I guess I won't become an ironsmith now.

[Vgfian]

Originally Posted by Metal Man

In the original Hebrew it probably meant something with strength, yes, but not all-powerful--that was mostly a Greek concept.

The red part tells me something about your statement.

[Deku Trii]

Judges is a fun book.

Originally Posted by Judges 3:5-25

Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes. And he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man. And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he commanded, “Silence.” And all his attendants went out from his presence. And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he arose from his seat. And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the dung came out. Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them.

When he had gone, the servants came, and when they saw that the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, “Surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber.” And they waited till they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them, and there lay their lord dead on the floor.

[Metal Man]

Originally Posted by Vgfian

The red part tells me something about your statement.

Tell me, o wise one, what Shaddai means, then.

[X-3]

Maybe Iron is an unholy metal or something.

[Loot]

IRON MAN VERSUS GOD

TAKING ALL BETS

[Saria Dragon of the Rain Wilds]

It's overwhelmingly common in the folk-law of fae and other magical creatures that they are unable to cast their spells when iron is involved.

The answer is simple: God is actually a faerie.

[Robotazy]

IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE NOW.

[Valigarmander]

Does God visit this forum?

[Kargath]

Originally Posted by Saria Dragon of the Rain Wilds

It's overwhelmingly common in the folk-law of fae and other magical creatures that they are unable to cast their spells when iron is involved.

The answer is simple: God is actually a faerie.

Next attempt at photographing Missy - pinhole camera made out of sheet iron.