wandering is a sin

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What does James 5:20 mean?

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77 Bible Verses about Wandering

James 4:17 esv / 5 helpful votes helpful not helpful.

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

James 2:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.

Acts 4:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

John 6:44 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

John 3:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

John 3:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 16:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Daniel 11:1-45 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him. “And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these. “Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority. ...

Genesis 1:1-31 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ...

Revelation 22:18-19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

1 John 4:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

1 John 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

1 John 2:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

James 5:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 5:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Hebrews 11:1-40 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. ...

Hebrews 1:1-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? ...

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Colossians 2:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Ephesians 4:1-32 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ...

1 Corinthians 15:3-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ...

1 Corinthians 14:1-40 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up. ...

1 Corinthians 10:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

Romans 14:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 9:1-33 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. ...

Romans 8:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.

Romans 6:1-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ...

Romans 5:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Romans 1:18-32 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ...

Acts 10:34 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,

Acts 10:1-48 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. ...

Acts 9:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

Acts 7:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Acts 1:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

Acts 1:18-19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

Acts 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

John 1:1-51 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ...

Mark 7:21-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Matthew 27:3-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself.

Matthew 24:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Matthew 24:1-51 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. ...

Matthew 19:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 13:39 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

Matthew 13:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,

Matthew 7:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

Matthew 5:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 1:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Malachi 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

Zechariah 11:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord , to the potter.

Zechariah 8:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord .”

Daniel 7:1-28 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. Daniel declared, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ ...

Ezekiel 18:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Isaiah 7:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 6:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah 6:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Isaiah 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord : though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Song of Solomon 2:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.”

Proverbs 19:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape.

Proverbs 12:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.

Proverbs 6:16-19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Proverbs 4:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Ezra 7:1-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub, son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth, son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki, son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the chief priest—

2 Samuel 24:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”

2 Samuel 21:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants.

Joshua 24:32 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.

Numbers 25:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

Leviticus 19:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord .

Exodus 13:1-22 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.” Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month. ...

Exodus 12:1-51 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, ...

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License . All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles , a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.

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The Cycle is a nightmarish alternate reality styled after the world of early 1900s animation and the primary setting of every game within the Bendy series. Described as a realm that acts as a "story", the Cycle operates as a series of forever repeating events that was originally created by Joey Drew using the Ink Machine .

• 2 Appearance
• 3 Bendy and the Ink Machine
• 4 Boris and the Dark Survival
• 5 Bendy and the Dark Revival
• 6 Bendy: The Cage
• 7.1 Bendy and the Ink Machine

History [ ]

During the waning years of Joey Drew Studios , Joey began to blame everyone around him for the mistakes that had led to his company's downfall, including the failure of the Ink Machine to literally bring his characters to life. Still resentful over the resignation of his friend and business partner Henry Stein in the early years of the company, Joey began to hallucinate Henry being by his side as he attempted in anyway possible to keep Bendy and himself relevant following the studio's closure.

Joey would regain ownership of the Ink Machine after the closure of Gent , and with the help of Evan he would create a set of experimental glasses that would mentally transport those who wore them into the cartoons using the ink. Working at Kismet Production Studios Joey would create a show where, after an introduction in a recreation of his office, old Bendy cartoons would replay after being remade with the ink. He gave out a few of these experimental glasses to test families, including the recently hired Rose Sorenson . After the first show in January of 1953, Joey wandered and discovered a door that led him to an inky recreation of his old office.

Remarking that wandering is a terrible sin, Joey quickly left the inky world (as he called it) and began to experiment with it. First, he found a way to safely interact with the world from a distance. Upon finding one, Joey would use the Ink Machine to add more rooms to the inky world and would blame his hallucinations of Henry on the inaccuracies in its layout. The first rooms added were the foyer , the recording studio , the projection booths , and Heavenly Toys . As these rooms were added, the souls within the Ink Machine began to exist within the inky world as well. Among the first creatures to exist in the inky world were the Lost Ones , the Projectionist , and the Ink Demon . Either through his own deteriorating mental health or the influence of the Ink Machine, Joey's hallucinations began to become more vivid and he would demand the assistance of those not currently work for him, like Grant Cohen and Abby Lambert .

Eventually, the test families would wander as well and find themselves trapped within the inky world. As a scientist, Joey would watch over them. After his death to the Ink Demon in the real world, Archie Carter would be reborn in the inky world as a Lost One and safely guide the test families to Heavenly Toys, where Joey would communicate to them using an audio log . Eventually Rose would enter the world to save her brother Ollie, and Joey would reveal the origins of the place and his goal to fully recreate the studio within it. He initially remarks that he isn't sure what purpose it will serve, but upon learning from Archie that those within the inky world are forced to die and be reborn in a perpetual loop he begins to form an idea. All but one of the test participants manage to escape using cartoon logic and their imaginations.

Eventually, Joey loses everything again and in his anger he repurposes the inky world to be a never-ending cycle in order to torment a version of Henry as revenge for his perceived abandonment. Though his later meetings in life with Allison Pendle would cause Joey to have a change of heart and grant this version of Henry help in the form of an angel , the Cycle would continue for decades after its creation, persisting even after Joey's own death. Shortly after his passing, Nathan Arch purchased the rights to the Bendy franchise and moved many of Joey's possessions including the Ink Machine to an exhibit at the newly formed Archgate Films .

There the machine was discovered by Wilson , who found a way to enter the Cycle and began efforts to seize control of its world for his own gain. By imprisoning certain individuals that he deemed "Cyclebreakers" - Henry among them - Wilson brought the repeating loops to a standstill, allowing him to continue making changes even as the studio began to decay. His plans eventually led to him tricking Audrey into activating the Ink Machine and dragging her with him into the Ink and the Cycle.

Appearance [ ]

The Cycle appears as a massive complex of rooms, corridors, and areas from multiple facilities and companies related to the life of Joey Drew: Joey Drew Studios , Gent , Heavenly Toys , Bendy Land , and others. An entire generation in the real world later, other locations had been added, including a mansion and a train station, though the "City built on Broken Dreams" between said two locations consists of a replica of the GENT building and a movie theater playing "bad movies" from Bendy's silver screen career (including one titled "Temptation"), which also tie to Joey Drew's life and career. All of the environments within appear to be sketched, giving the entire realm a cartoon-like appearance. To that end, the world's color is entirely sepia , shaded with lighter or darker tints of yellow, tan, orange, and brown.

Within the Cycle are corrupted monsters born from the ink that stains the world, including versions of Joey Drew Studios characters like Boris , Alice Angel and Bendy . The creatures are also trapped in never-ending loops of their own, always returning to the ink to be reborn if they are destroyed, something that many appear aware of.

The Cycle exists in parallel with the outside world but is not subjected to the march of time like normal reality. While "time" in the Cycle can be measured in days to real-world people depend on how many times they go in the realm, those trapped within it don’t have definitions of time or at least not truly aware of how much time passes in their world.

Bendy and the Ink Machine [ ]

The first game in the series has players exploring the Cycle as the ink-incarnated version of Henry for one such loop of events, acting under the impression he is the real Henry who has been called to the old studio by Joey himself. After surviving the terrors of the Cycle and successfully vanquishing Beast Bendy using the End reel , Henry finds himself stepping back to the very beginning of the game with seemingly no memory of the previous loop, setting the Cycle off again.

By using the Seeing Tool to find Secret Messages on a second playthrough, it is revealed that this Henry has already repeated these events at least 102 times before the events of the game. He also appears to be at least subconsciously aware of this as the messages detail things like the fate of Boris , warnings to not turn on the Machine, and that Henry is powerless to stop events playing out.

Boris and the Dark Survival [ ]

The Cycle's appearance within Dark Survival is much less fixed, being randomly generated in its layout and details whenever Boris exits his safehouse to find new materials. However, the game's endless nature reinforces the same about the Cycle itself, being a place that Boris can only ever survive within rather than completely escape.

Bendy and the Dark Revival [ ]

Wilson asserts that it has been 211 days since he "destroyed" the Ink Demon with the help of the Keepers . The death of the Ink Demon proves to be a lie, however Wilson had discovered another method to subdue and control them using leftover Gent technology. Audrey is pulled into the Cycle as part of Wilson's plans to seize ultimate control so he could begin manifesting his own creations, eventually hoping to bring those creations into the real world to assert his own power and control. While exploring, Audrey is told by an ink-created incarnation of Joey Drew himself that Wilson is trying to stop the Cycle entirely and change it to be of his own design, imprisoning people who would try to see events through to their completion and reset everything as intended.

The appearance of Twisted Alice who is very much alive, Sammy Lawrence who is still loyal to Ink Bendy, Buddy Boris who hasn't been mutated into Brute Boris , the Projectionist's decapitated but still living head, and the decaying head of Bertrum imply that Wilson interfered and managed to halt the Cycle and the circumstances so drastically that it is almost no longer the same story as it was before.

Though the inhabitants of the world and The Ink Demon himself try to stop her, Audrey with the help of friends she met along the way manages to successfully use the End reel to reset the Cycle and repair the damage Wilson had done. After seemingly returning to the real world, Audrey remarks that while she knows she may not be able to end the Cycle, she can make things easier for everyone inside now that it is within her control. She also proves that Wilson's ultimate plan could have succeeded as she turns to reveal Bendy standing by her side. Implying that the other residents could eventually be freed as well.

Although the fate of Wilson and the Keepers remains a mystery after the reset, the end credits show a brief scene of the Ink Machine loaded into the back of a Gent truck which quickly drives off, implying it was stolen from Archgate in order to continue the experiments on the ink world of the cycle.

Bendy: The Cage [ ]

Although it's unknown what The Cycle will contain this time, Bendy: The Cage will still be taking place in the sepia-toned world, since the game has been confirmed to be a prequel to the finale of Bendy and the Dark Revival .

Gallery [ ]

• 1 Ink Demon
• 2 Bendy: Secrets of the Machine

As a follower of Jesus, you will wander. But it’s not so much a question of whether you will wander but when. In A.J. Swoboda’s book “The Dusty Ones: Why Wandering Deepens Your Faith” he explores some of God’s most important truths that are revealed to those whose feet are dusty from the road. It deals with those of us who are looking to enter the Promised Land who are also still trying to find a sense of contentment in an uncertain present. Cultivating the art of wandering is great not only for Christian faith and practice; it is a holy discipline that can revolutionize a person’s experience of God.

There is a common misconception that those who wander are lost but that isn't always the case. If you’re restless, doubtful or even questioning your faith, you can learn through this journey that not all who wander are lost and there’s a hope and peace for those who travel the winding path seeking to experience God. Wandering is part of the path of discipleship, and in that journey there's grace and truth. There are many lost narratives, not only throughout the Bible, but in life. Some of these stories are about being physically lost. Other lost narratives are about being emotionally and spiritually lost. This type of lost narrative can show up when you’re on the brink of, or experiencing major life changes. During these periods, we can find ourselves stumbling, fearful and unsure of God’s presence. At these moments we question our faith, and wonder why we aren’t seeking God, but turning away. In these moments, we may wander, but God is still with us. The Bible tells us “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” God isn’t talking about seeking the perfect. He is saving those who are lost so that they can return home. When we are empty and lost God is present seeking to save us. We know that we can overcome the world because Jesus overcame it. God can help us through this lost period.

We also know from Scripture that we have nothing to fear, even in our period of wandering: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand.” Before we were even born, God placed in us a piece of himself as a reminder that we are not alone. When we wander, we long for God, though we may not even realize it. We are told in the book of Psalms that the soul languishes for God’s salvation, waiting for His word. (Psalm 119:81). Our soul thirsts for God, for he living God. (Psalm 42:2). We thirst for God. Though we may not be seeking God, wandering towards God is like being metal in the presence of a magnet. We are drawn to God, even when we don’t know we’re giving ourselves.

Throughout the book, Swoboda talks about the mysterious, but multifaceted ways humans grow in their relationship with God. Sometimes we find God in the desert. Other times we find God in the silence. We may even find God through the ministry of others. These are times where we may not have been distinctly looking for God, but God still finds us. These are the moments where we really see the Holy Spirit working. The Bible tells us “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit is alive and active, and through these experiences truth is revealed. We also discover that wandering is a requirement of those who are called to follow. Abraham left his homeland to journey wherever God called him. Even Jesus was a wanderer, who called 12 men to live a nomadic life of wandering, healing and preaching the Gospel.

Sometimes what we perceive as fruitless wandering may in fact be God guiding you to follow Him. Wandering can bring us out of darkness, into the light of life. Wandering may occur as a result of you being lost, but it may not mean you are truly lost. These experiences of wandering can deepen your faith and revolutionize your experience of God.

5 Teachings From Jesus Everyone Gets Wrong

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SBL e-journal

Shani Tzoref

Biblical Theodicy & Why God Made Israel Wander in the Wilderness

TheTorah.com

APA e-journal

Categories:

Moses strikes water from the stone.  Krzysztof Lubieniecki  (1659–1729)

The great theological challenge of the problem of suffering in ethical monotheism has been described as a “trilemma,” namely reconciling the reality of human suffering with the beliefs that,  

• God is all-Good (omnibenevolent).
• God is all-Powerful (omnipotent).
• God is all-Knowing (omniscient). [1]

The term “Theodicy” (from Greek  theos , God, and  dike , Justice) was coined to describe the philosophical enterprise of justifying or defending God and, more broadly, for attempts to grapple with the theological and existential problem of human suffering. The Bible contains many texts that grapple directly or indirectly with theodicy.

Retributive Theodicy

The second word of  Parashat Ekev,  after which it is named, denotes “consequence.”  The  parashah  opens with a strong claim for “retributive justice,” the idea that God rewards good behavior and punishes wrong-doing. Indeed, this conception underpins the structure of the  parashah  as a whole.

ז:יב  וְהָיָ֣ה׀  עֵ֣קֶב  תִּשְׁמְע֗וּן אֵ֤ת הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים֙ הָאֵ֔לֶּה וּשְׁמַרְתֶּ֥ם וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם וְשָׁמַר֩ יְ-הֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ לְךָ֗ אֶֽת הַבְּרִית֙ וְאֶת הַחֶ֔סֶד אֲשֶׁ֥ר נִשְׁבַּ֖ע לַאֲבֹתֶֽיךָ:

7:12  And  as a consequence   (עקב)  of your obeying these rules and observing them carefully, Yhwh your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers…

ח:יט  וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־שָׁכֹ֤חַ תִּשְׁכַּח֙ אֶת־יְ-הֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ וְהָֽלַכְתָּ֗ אַחֲרֵי֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים וַעֲבַדְתָּ֖ם וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִ֣יתָ לָהֶ֑ם הַעִדֹ֤תִי בָכֶם֙ הַיּ֔וֹם כִּ֥י אָבֹ֖ד תֹּאבֵדֽוּן:  ח:כ כַּגּוֹיִ֗ם אֲשֶׁ֤ר יְ-הֹוָה֙ מַאֲבִ֣יד מִפְּנֵיכֶ֔ם כֵּ֖ן תֹּאבֵד֑וּן עֵ֚קֶב  לֹ֣א תִשְׁמְע֔וּן בְּק֖וֹל יְ-הֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם:

8 :19  If you do forget Yhwh your God and follow other gods to serve them or bow down to them, I warn you this day that you shall certainly perish;  8:20  like the nations that Yhwh will cause to perish before you, so shall you perish— as a consequence   (עקב)  of your not heeding Yhwh your God. (NJPS with adjustments)

The retributive theory of theodicy is also the basic explanation offered both in the book of Deuteronomy and the book of Leviticus for Israel’s eventual exile from the land (Deut 28-29, 32; Lev 26).  Thus, one of the Hebrew Bible’s main approaches to theodicy presumes some sort of consequential system of divine justice. [2]

This approach is applicable for both individuals (especially in the Psalms and Wisdom Literature), and nations. It is fundamental to the covenantal framework of the Exodus and Wilderness narratives in Torah and the historical narratives of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.  Similarly, the primary message of the prophets is that Israel’s well-being as a nation is dependent upon its conduct.

Examination Theodicy: Divine Testing (נסה)

Elsewhere, the Bible follows a belief that may be characterized as examination theodicy, the idea that God wishes to see what the sufferer will do in order to reward the sufferer if he/she/they “pass” the test. The most famous examples of examination theodicy are in the stories of the binding of Isaac and the book of Job.

Binding of Isaac

The beginning and end of the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22 use “testing” language:

כב:א  וַיְהִ֗י אַחַר֙ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֔לֶּה וְהָ֣אֱלֹהִ֔ים נִסָּ֖ה אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֑ם…

22:1  Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test.

כב:יב  וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אַל תִּשְׁלַ֤ח יָֽדְךָ֙ אֶל הַנַּ֔עַר וְאַל תַּ֥עַשׂ ל֖וֹ מְא֑וּמָה כִּ֣י עַתָּ֣ה יָדַ֗עְתִּי כִּֽי יְרֵ֤א אֱלֹהִים֙ אַ֔תָּה וְלֹ֥א חָשַׂ֛כְתָּ אֶת בִּנְךָ֥ אֶת יְחִידְךָ֖ מִמֶּֽנִּי… כב:יז  כִּֽי בָרֵ֣ךְ אֲבָרֶכְךָ֗ וְהַרְבָּ֨ה אַרְבֶּ֤ה אֶֽת זַרְעֲךָ֙ כְּכוֹכְבֵ֣י הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְכַח֕וֹל אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־שְׂפַ֣ת הַיָּ֑ם וְיִרַ֣שׁ זַרְעֲךָ֔ אֵ֖ת שַׁ֥עַר אֹיְבָֽיו:   כב:יח וְהִתְבָּרֲכ֣וּ בְזַרְעֲךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל גּוֹיֵ֣י הָאָ֑רֶץ  עֵ֕קֶב  אֲשֶׁ֥ר שָׁמַ֖עְתָּ בְּקֹלִֽי:

22:12  And he said, “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.”…  22:17  I will bestow My blessing upon you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sands on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes.  22:18  All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants,  as a consequence  ( עקב ) of your having obeyed My command.”

Here the relationship between the language of consequence and the suffering is inverted. Because Abraham submitted to suffering, he will be rewarded as a consequence. This is the only explicit case of Abraham undergoing a trial in the Torah, but it serves as the basis for the well-known tradition about the ten trials of Abraham, found already in the Second Temple book of Jubilees (17:15-18; 19:8).

A similar understanding is implied in the narrative framework of the book of Job. [3]  Although the term נסה itself is not used in Job chs. 1-2 and 42, the cause of Job´s tragic suffering is ascribed to instigation by “the  satan ”, [4]  who hoped to demonstrate that Job would fail to maintain righteousness in the face of trying circumstances. [5]  God appears to allow the satan  to inflict terrible suffering on Job to “prove” to the  satan that Job would not sin even under these harrowing circumstances. In the end, God rewards Job for his fidelity and grants him wealth, more children, and long life.

God’s Lack of Omniscience

Implicit in the stories of Job and the binding of Isaac is the belief that God is  not  omniscient, and does not know the outcome of the test in advance. [6]  Jacob Licht has argued the case that these episodes should be taken at face value—they presume that divine knowledge is less than complete, and that God must engage in experimentation to acquire further data about human beings’ character and behavior. [7]  The responses of human beings to divinely inflicted trials and ordeals provide God with such evidence, and God can then punish or reward them based on their behavior.

Which Theodicy Best Explains the Wilderness Wandering?

These two theories of theodicy are not mutually exclusive. (God can both punish sinners and test believers.) But how might these abstract theories be used to help explain Israel’s history as recorded in the biblical text? The punishment of the generation of the wilderness provides an excellent test case.

Retributive Theodicy (Numbers)

Numbers offers the retributive theodicy as the explanation for the Israelites’ forty years of wandering in the wilderness:

יד:לג  וּ֠בְנֵיכֶם יִהְי֨וּ רֹעִ֤ים בַּמִּדְבָּר֙ אַרְבָּעִ֣ים שָׁנָ֔ה וְנָשְׂא֣וּ אֶת זְנוּתֵיכֶ֑ם עַד תֹּ֥ם פִּגְרֵיכֶ֖ם בַּמִּדְבָּֽר: יד:לד  בְּמִסְפַּ֨ר הַיָּמִ֜ים אֲשֶׁר תַּרְתֶּ֣ם אֶת הָאָרֶץ֘ אַרְבָּעִ֣ים יוֹם֒ י֣וֹם לַשָּׁנָ֞ה י֣וֹם לַשָּׁנָ֗ה תִּשְׂאוּ֙ אֶת עֲוֹנֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם אַרְבָּעִ֖ים שָׁנָ֑ה וִֽידַעְתֶּ֖ם אֶת תְּנוּאָתִֽי:

14:33  Your children roam the wilderness for forty years, suffering for your faithlessness, until the last of your carcasses is down in the wilderness. 14:34  You shall bear your punishment for forty years, corresponding to the number of days — forty days — that you scouted the land: a year for each day. Thus you shall know what it means to thwart Me.

In this model, the wandering is a direct punishment for the sin of the scouts, and the Israelites’ complicity in that sin by refusing to go up the land.

Examination Theodicy ( Parashat Ekev )

Alternatively,  Parashat Ekev  seems to offer an examination theodicy explanation for the wilderness wandering:

ח:ב וְזָכַרְתָּ֣ אֶת כָּל הַדֶּ֗רֶךְ אֲשֶׁ֨ר הוֹלִֽיכֲךָ֜ יְ-הֹוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ זֶ֛ה אַרְבָּעִ֥ים שָׁנָ֖ה בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר  לְמַ֨עַן עַנֹּֽתְךָ֜ לְנַסֹּֽתְךָ֗ לָדַ֜עַת אֶת אֲשֶׁ֧ר בִּֽלְבָבְךָ֛ הֲתִשְׁמֹ֥ר מצותו מִצְוֹתָ֖יו אִם לֹֽא :

8:2  Remember the long way that Yhwh your God has made you travel in the wilderness these past forty years,  that He might test you by hardships to learn what was in your hearts: whether you would keep His commandments or not .

ח:יד  וְרָ֖ם לְבָבֶ֑ךָ וְשָֽׁכַחְתָּ֙ אֶת יְ-הֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ הַמּוֹצִיאֲךָ֛ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֥ית עֲבָדִֽים: ח:טו  הַמּוֹלִ֨יכֲךָ֜ בַּמִּדְבָּ֣ר הַגָּדֹ֣ל וְהַנּוֹרָ֗א נָחָ֤שׁ׀ שָׂרָף֙ וְעַקְרָ֔ב וְצִמָּא֖וֹן אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֵֽין מָ֑יִם הַמּוֹצִ֤יא לְךָ֙ מַ֔יִם מִצּ֖וּר הַֽחַלָּמִֽישׁ:  ח:טז הַמַּֽאֲכִ֨לְךָ֥ מָן֙ בַּמִּדְבָּ֔ר אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹא יָדְע֖וּן אֲבֹתֶ֑יךָ לְמַ֣עַן עַנֹּֽתְךָ֗ וּלְמַ֙עַן֙ נַסֹּתֶ֔ךָ לְהֵיטִֽבְךָ֖ בְּאַחֲרִיתֶֽךָ :

8:14  Beware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget Yhwh your God— who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage;  8:15  who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its  seraph  serpents and scorpions, a parched land with no water in it, who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock;  8:16  who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers had never known,  in order to test you by hardships only to bene fi t you in the end .

Educative Theodicy: Testing as Purification

But is that what Deuteronomy really means? This understanding of theodicy as divine testing (examination) works well with Deut 8:2, which ends with “whether you would keep His commandments or not.” Whereas Deut  8:16 , which concludes with “to benefit you in the end,” suggests that the wilderness wandering and afflication had a purpose beyond just to test the people’s loyalty. 

The key to understanding verse  16 may  be found in the ambiguity of the word נ-ס-ה, which does not only mean “to test.” Like its synonymous biblical Hebrew root ב-ח-נ, it also originated as a term denoting the refining of metals. For example, both roots appear as a parallel to the root צ-ר-פ (smelting) in Psalms (26:2), another word for smelting:

בְּחָנֵ֣נִי יְהוָ֣ה  וְנַסֵּ֑נִי (צרופה) [צָרְפָ֖ה] כִלְיוֹתַ֣י וְלִבִּֽי׃

Probe me, Yhwh, and  try me , test my heart and min

Similar semantic overlap between purification and examining underlies the English “test,” derived from the Latin “testum,” an earthern vessel used in metallurgical processes. [8]  An extension of the metaphor supposes that “ordeals” can be edifying, and “trials and tribulations” (the latter word comes from the Latin for “pressure”) can contribute to growth.

Thus, in Deut 8:16, the statement about God afflicting and “נ-ס-ה-ing” of Israel for the nation’s benefit may indicate a process of improvement through overcoming difficult experiences. The pairing with “affliction” in לְמַ֣עַן עַנֹּֽתְךָ֗ וּלְמַ֙עַן֙ נַסֹּתֶ֔ךָ points to a sense of, “no pain, no gain.” [9]  This verse indicates that the purpose of the wilderness wanderings was to strengthen the nation and prepare the children of Israel for settlement in the Promised Land. [10]  It may thus be unconnected to the issue of divine omniscience.

Vicarious Educative Theodicy

Educative theodicy is sometimes extended pedagogically. If sufferers are toughened by their difficult experiences, others can learn similar lessons vicariously through narratives about the suffering, and about retributive justice. The wilderness wandering functions this way, as a paradigm for later instances of Israelite sin and punishment, and a cautionary tale. [11]  So, for example in Psalm 95 (8-10):

אַל תַּקְשׁ֣וּ לְ֭בַבְכֶם כִּמְרִיבָ֑ה כְּי֥וֹם מַ֝סָּ֗ה בַּמִּדְבָּֽר: אֲשֶׁ֣ר נִ֭סּוּנִי אֲבוֹתֵיכֶ֑ם בְּ֝חָנ֗וּנִי גַּם רָא֥וּ פָעֳלִֽי: אַרְבָּ֮עִ֤ים שָׁנָ֨ה אָ֮ק֤וּט בְּד֗וֹר…

Do not be stubborn as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah, in the wilderness, when your fathers put Me to the test, tried Me, though they had seen My deeds.  Forty years I was provoked by that generation (Ps 95: 8-10).

Thus, even if the wandering is understood as retributive justice, it also functions as a kind of education for the future.  

נסה as Retribution, Examination, and Education

Jacob Licht, in  Testing in the Hebrew Scriptures and in Post-Biblical Judaism , suggested that biblical texts sometimes invoke the idea of divine testing as a sort of last resort to resolve greater theological difficulties. He shows that the book of Judges offers multiple explanations for why God left nations in the Land, requiring the Israelites to engage in conquest warfare:

Judges 2 (Retributive plus Examination)

Retributive.

ב:כ  וַיִּֽחַר אַ֥ף יְ-הֹוָ֖ה בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַיֹּ֗אמֶר  יַעַן֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר עָבְר֜וּ הַגּ֣וֹי הַזֶּ֗ה אֶת בְּרִיתִי֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר צִוִּ֣יתִי אֶת אֲבוֹתָ֔ם וְלֹ֥א שָׁמְע֖וּ לְקוֹלִֽי:  ב:כא  גַּם אֲנִי֙ לֹ֣א אוֹסִ֔יף לְהוֹרִ֥ישׁ אִ֖ישׁ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם מִן הַגּוֹיִ֛ם אֲשֶׁר עָזַ֥ב יְהוֹשֻׁ֖עַ וַיָּמֹֽת:

2:20  Then Yhwh became incensed against Israel, and He said,  “Since that nation has transgressed the covenant  that I enjoined upon their fathers and has not obeyed Me,  2:21  I for My part will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.”  

Examination

ב:כב  לְמַ֛עַן נַסּ֥וֹת בָּ֖ם אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל הֲשֹׁמְרִ֣ים הֵם֩ אֶת דֶּ֨רֶךְ יְקֹוָ֜ק לָלֶ֣כֶת בָּ֗ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר שָׁמְר֥וּ אֲבוֹתָ֖ם אִם לֹֽא:  ב:כג  וַיַּנַּ֤ח יְ-הֹוָה֙ אֶת הַגּוֹיִ֣ם הָאֵ֔לֶּה לְבִלְתִּ֥י הוֹרִישָׁ֖ם מַהֵ֑ר וְלֹ֥א נְתָנָ֖ם בְּיַד יְהוֹשֻֽׁעַ:

2:22   For it was in order to test Israel by them  — [ to see] whether or not they would faithfully walk in the ways of Yhwh , as their fathers had done —  2:23  that Yhwh had left those nations, instead of driving them out at once, and had not delivered them into the hands of Joshua.

Judges 3 (Educative plus Examination)

ג:א  וְאֵ֤לֶּה הַגּוֹיִם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר הִנִּ֣יחַ יְקֹוָ֔ק לְנַסּ֥וֹת בָּ֖ם אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל אֵ֚ת כָּל אֲשֶׁ֣ר לֹֽא יָדְע֔וּ אֵ֖ת כָּל מִלְחֲמ֥וֹת כְּנָֽעַן:  ג:ב   רַ֗ק לְמַ֙עַן֙ דַּ֚עַת דֹּר֣וֹת בְּנֵֽי יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לְלַמְּדָ֖ם מִלְחָמָ֑ה…

3:1  These are the nations that Yhwh left so that He might test by them all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars of Canaan,  3:2  so that succeeding generations of Israelites might be made to experience war …  

ג:ד   וַֽיִּהְי֕וּ לְנַסּ֥וֹת בָּ֖ם אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לָדַ֗עַת הֲיִשְׁמְעוּ֙ אֶת מִצְוֹ֣ת יְ-הֹוָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר צִוָּ֥ה אֶת אֲבוֹתָ֖ם בְּיַד מֹשֶֽׁה:

3:4   These served as a means of testing Israel, to learn whether they would obey the commandments which Yhwh  had enjoined upon their fathers through Moses.

The two passages in Judges each initially explain the nations that remained as a form of retribution or education, but supplement this explanation with a second, namely, examination (testing) theodicy. Licht suggests that the multiplicity of explanations hints at their inadequacy. Moreover, he argues, the “testing” motif is introduced, even though it is theologically unsatisfying, because it is a way of deflecting the greater theological question of why God subjected Israel to the hardship of the conquest.

A Place for Mercy in Theodicy

In the continuation of the passage in Judges 3, we learn that the nation actually fails the test and receives punishment (retributive theodicy), but the story doesn’t end there:

ג:ז וַיַּעֲשׂ֨וּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵ֤ל אֶת הָרַע֙ בְּעֵינֵ֣י יְ-הֹוָ֔ה וַֽיִּשְׁכְּח֖וּ אֶת־יְ-הֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיהֶ֑ם וַיַּעַבְד֥וּ אֶת־הַבְּעָלִ֖ים וְאֶת־ הָאֲשֵׁרֽוֹת:

3:7  The Israelites did what was offensive to Yhwh; they ignored Yhwh their God and worshiped the Baalim and the Asheroth.

ג:ח  וַיִּֽחַר־אַ֤ף יְ-הֹוָה֙ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַֽיִּמְכְּרֵ֗ם בְּיַד֙ כּוּשַׁ֣ן רִשְׁעָתַ֔יִם מֶ֖לֶךְ אֲרַ֣ם נַהֲרָ֑יִם וַיַּעַבְד֧וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל אֶת־כּוּשַׁ֥ן רִשְׁעָתַ֖יִם שְׁמֹנֶ֥ה שָׁנִֽים:

3:8  Yhwh became incensed at Israel and surrendered them to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim; and the Israelites were subject to Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.

ג:ט  וַיִּזְעֲק֤וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ אֶל־יְ-הֹוָ֔ה וַיָּ֨קֶם יְ-הֹוָ֥ה מוֹשִׁ֛יעַ לִבְנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל וַיּֽוֹשִׁיעֵ֑ם…

3:9  The Israelites cried out to Yhwh, and Yhwh raised a champion for the Israelites to deliver them…

Here we see a hint of an additional feature of biblical theodicy, in which divine justice is complemented by mercy. 

The strong voice of retributive theodicy in this  parashah  is consistent with the great rebuke in Deut 28, though that latter chapter concentrates on punishments, while ours concentrates on rewards. But the carrot of Deuteronomy 7-8 and the stick of  Deuteronomy 28 complement each other. Significantly, they both emphasize that the land is not a permanent gift, but, as noted in the first gloss of Rashi to the Torah, is given at God’s pleasure, and residing in the land is a privilege, not an absolute right. Dwelling securely in the land is a privilege that Moses exhorts the people to earn, and that can be regained even after stumbling.

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August 4, 2015

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[1] This is the formulation of R.M. Green, “Theodicy,” in M. Eliade (ed.),  The Encyclopedia of Religion , 430-41. It is useful, but should not be taken too literally. The stance of the Hebrew Bible may be debated for each of these elements. For example, most Bible scholars today would say that many biblical texts presume the existence of other gods, distinguishing between henotheism, monolatry, and monotheism. Moreover, some texts seem to indicate an understanding that God’s knowledge and power are subject to limitations. And, significantly, the philosophical difficulty is not confined to the question of human suffering, but applies also to human sin: how can there be any badness in a world governed by an all-powerful benevolent Deity?

[2] A. Laato and J.C. de Moor provide a thorough survey of the problem and biblical perspectives in their  Theodicy in the World of the Hebrew Bible  (Leiden: Brill, 2003). In their “Introduction,” pp. vii-liv, they survey categories suggested in earlier scholarship. I tend to think of the various types of approaches not as solutions, but as “strategies” or “coping mechanisms.”

[3] In many biblical Wisdom texts, the authors do not question the justice of suffering, but rather its absence: they are troubled by the flourishing of the wicked, especially in contrast to the suffering of the righteous.

[4] In Job, he is always called “the  satan ,” with a definite article (“the”), meaning “the adversary.”  Since definite articles may not appear before personal names, this may not be translated as “Satan.”

[5] Compare the role of Mastema in the account of the Binding of Isaac in Jubilees 17:16 and parallel midrashic traditions concerning “accusing angels” in b.  San . 89b and  Gen. Rab.  55:4 (ed. Theodor-Albeck, 587).  For a discussion of additional Second Temple and rabbinic sources, see James L. Kugel,  The Bible as it Was  (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), 171-172;  Traditions of the Bible  (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998), 301-302; Moshe J. Bernstein, “Angels at the Akedah: A Study in the Development of a Midrashic Motif,” in  Reading and Re-Reading Scripture at Qumran  (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 323-351.

[6] A strand of the exodus story may also be working with this model of God’s lack of omniscience. See David Frankel’s TABS essay,  “When Pharaoh’s Stubbornness Caught God by Surprise.”

[7] J. Licht,  Testing in the Hebrew Scriptures and in Post-Biblical Judaism  (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1973. Hebrew). Licht contrasts early Jewish interpretation of divine testing with early Christian sources, which understand  נסה  as denoting temptation. See also M. Carasik, “The Limits of Omniscience Author(s)”  Journal of Biblical Literature  119.2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 221-232. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3268484

[8] The etymological origins in metallurgy are also relevant for the meaning of testing in the sense of a process to determine the nature of a substance, since one use of the testum was to smelt a portion of metal in order to evaluate its purity.

[9] The JPS collapses the two Hebrew verbs in the purpose clauses, עַנֹּֽתְךָ֗, נַסֹּתֶ֔ךָ, into a single verb “to test”.

[10] There is some tension among biblical assessments of the manna. On one hand, it represents divine providence, nurturing Israel and sustaining the nation in the wilderness. On the other hand, it is depicted as a strangely foreign substance (Deut 8:3). Deut 8:16 is ambiguous. The purpose clause “in order to afflict and to test” may refer to the giving of the manna, the final participial clause in the series, or it may refer to the entire series begun in verse 15 with the Exodus.

[11] See Deut 6:16, 9:22, 33:8.

Dr. Shani Tzoref is currently a Visiting Professor at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg.  Her previous positions include Chair of Hebrew Bible and Exegesis at the University of Potsdam and coordinator of the Biblical Studies program at the University of Sydney. Tzoref holds an M.A. in Jewish History from Yeshiva University and a Ph.D. in Ancient Jewish Literature from New York University, and is pursuing an additional M.A. in Digital Humanities from the CUNY Graduate center. She is the author of The Pesher Nahum Scroll from Qumran: An Exegetical Study of 4Q169 .

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‘Uncropped’ Review: An Enticing Portrait of James Hamilton Makes You Wonder: Is He the Greatest New York Photographer Ever?

D.W. Young's documentary gets you hooked on the work of the legendary Village Voice and Harper's Bazaar photographer, whose images are a miracle of spontaneous classicism.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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Hamilton’s black-and-white images — in the documentary, we see hundreds of them — have a burnished tactility, and a psychology so effortless that every one of them tells a story. The photographs are gallery beautiful, but they’re also a form of New Journalism. He, too, showed us freaks, and made his shots of the famous into encounters , and captured what his life partner, the writer Kathy Dobie, calls “the choreography of street life.”

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Yet Hamilton, born in 1946, is that rare thing, a lifelong bohemian. In the documentary, we see him wandering, today, through Washington Square Park, always with his camera. He’s tall, with a shock of white hair, and a voice of surprising velvet gentleness. He talks about how much he misses the analog days, when you had to go into the darkroom to discover what you had shot. In the summer of ’66, Hamilton and two buddies moved into a small apartment on University Place (the rent was $109), and it’s one he still occupies — a shadowy, cozy-in-a-beatnik-rat-trap-way flat with a darkroom he built into the kitchen that was barely big enough to house a kitchen. As a magazine photographer, he did his own processing and printing there, insisting the images go in as he’d framed them, uncropped, which is basically what happened. He was so good at what he did that his editors let him write his own ticket.

In 1969, Hamilton spent several months hitchhiking across the country, shooting hundreds of rolls of film (the shots from that trip have a Larry Clark rawhide vibrance), and he wound up crashing the Texas Pop Festival, forging a press badge so that he could stand in front of the stage and shoot pictures of B.B. King, Janis Joplin, and Johnny Winter. This led to his first gig, a two-year stint (1969-71) as the staff photographer at Crawdaddy, which was then a newspaper. He had a blast. The rock stars all stayed at the Albert Hotel, across the street from the newspaper’s office, or at the Chelsea. Hamilton took a million photographs in hotel rooms, and he practically lived backstage at the Fillmore.

His music-world photos are blazingly alive. And one of the things that “Uncropped” takes us back to is the world before publicists, when a photographer like James Hamilton could show you the life backstage, or hang out for hours in a hotel room with Duane Allman, capturing his dissolute hedonism, or with Alfred Hitchcock, who produced a grin for him unlike that seen in any other Hitchcock photograph. He also, not so incidentally, caught the punk revolution.

Hamilton, as we see, was something of a purist, without being obnoxious about it. In his heyday, he was very good-looking, like a tousle-haired Tim Robbins with a private smirk, and it was said that everyone at the Voice had a crush on him. Combine that with talent, and that’s the kind of aura you can’t buy. Yet Hamilton, by keeping himself at a remove, was too hip to be a player . He traveled light, with a small camera and a single-camera-top flash, and he lived, every day, for his photographs, and didn’t cozy up to power. (You have to do some of that to become famous.)

He thrived at the Voice during the era Clay Felker owned it. He also bonded with director George A. Romero and became the on-set photographer for Romero’s “Knightriders” (and then “Creepshow,” where he got to be pals with Hal Holbrook; the two would sneak off to fly ultralight gliders over Pittsburgh). Then he went back to the Voice, where in 1989 he and Joe Conason snuck into a morgue in Beijing and took pictures of the corpses of protesters who’d been killed by the Chinese government after Tiananmen Square. This was hair-raising, life-risking stuff.

The hits kept coming. For New York magazine, he shot Robert Altman and Rudolph Guiliani (who reminded him of Boo Radley) and David Dinkins (it was said that his portrait of Dinkins was so sympathetic that it may have won Dinkins the mayoral election). He shot the “preppie killer” Robert Chambers, his camera lens staring into Chambers’ psycho soul, and he was sent to cover the Ethiopian war by the London Sunday Times Magazine. He spent months over there, driving in petrol trucks through roads dotted with landmines, and at one point was chased by Migs firing rockets.

The James Hamilton we meet in “Uncropped” is a fearless man of charming modesty: an artist-journalist who takes his work far more seriously than he does himself. He and Kathy Dobie have a lovely home in the Hamptons, and he brought his active career to a close after he was hit by a car in Brooklyn Heights, causing a leg injury that required four surgeries. But he owns all his own photographs (there are mountains of contact sheets), and he has put a fraction of them out in books. “Uncropped” is the documentary tribute he deserves, though there’s a reason I came out of the film thinking he deserves even more. “Uncropped” gets you so hooked on James Hamilton’s photographs it makes you want to share them with the world.

Reviewed online, April 21, 2024. Running time: 111 MIN.

• Production: A Greenwich Entertainment release of a Fine Print Pictures production. Producers: Judith Mizrachy, D.W. Young. Executive producers: Wes Anderson, Chris Fralic, Irma Fralic, Dan Wechsler.
• Crew: Director: D.W. Young. Camera: Marika Hacking, Francesco Saviano. Editor: D.W. Young. Music: David Ullmann.
• With: James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Kathy Dobie, Mark Jacobson, Joe Conason, Richard Goldstein, Thurston Moore, Thulani Davis, Eva Prinz, David Lee, Susan Vermazen, Michael Daly, Wes Anderson, Alexandra Jacobs.

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‘the devil’s bath’ review: a disturbing psychodrama about a woman driven to extremes in 18th-century rural austria.

Genre auteurs Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s third feature explores in unflinching detail a dark footnote in early modern European history.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Berlin fest advisory board takes swipe at outgoing directors over award ceremony "antisemitism", kino lorber takes french sci-fi satire 'l'empire' for north america, the devil's bath.

Produced by Ulrich Seidl , the film was acquired ahead of its Berlin competition premiere by Shudder for North America and other key territories and is slated for a summer release.

The devil’s bath — no, it’s not that tub Barry Keoghan slurped from right after Jacob Elordi stepped out in Saltburn — was 18th-century vernacular for melancholia. Franz and Fiala build their film around historical research on the period, when chronic depression drove hundreds of people across Europe — predominantly women — to escape the hell of their daily lives by committing murder. That allowed them to repent and seek absolution in confession before they were executed, rather than face eternal damnation for the unpardonable sin of suicide. The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as suicide by proxy.

Victims for the most part were children, prompted by the profoundly messed-up Catholic reasoning that their souls were still pure, so their killers were almost doing them a favor by sending them to heaven before they could sin.

The lingering after-effects of that infanticide remain in plain sight as a gruesome warning when the deeply religious young protagonist, Agnes (Anja Plaschg), marries and moves to an austere stone cottage in the area.

Clearly someone with a strong connection to nature, Agnes takes pleasure twisting twigs and leaves and berries into a wedding garland. But already at the exuberant village celebration, there are indications that her new husband, Wolf (David Scheid), might prefer the company of his drinking buddies. His disinterest in sex on their wedding night and thereafter makes her feel alone in her new home, her prayers to be blessed with a child going unanswered.

Agnes’ unhappiness isn’t helped by the constant presence of Wolf’s overbearing mother (Maria Hofstatter), who criticizes almost everything her daughter-in-law does from the outset. That goes for her efforts to pitch in with the fishing haul, her organization of the kitchen or her habit of wandering off into the woods for hours instead of being at home to look after the goats and chickens and cook her husband’s dinner.

When the sour crone spots a vase of foliage Agnes has gathered, she tells her: “Throw this rubbish out.” She has no use for anything that’s not strictly utilitarian, making Agnes seem ethereal and out of place as she arranges her collection of dead insects or turns her face toward a patch of sunlight as a butterfly alights on her skin.

Franz and Fiala never overplay the hardships of Agnes’ situation in her new home. They make Wolf a decent enough man, not without compassion, though perhaps unsuited for marriage, while Agnes is too much of a dreamer to pass muster with his hard-bitten mother. The old woman blames her daughter-in-law for her failure to conceive a child.

But Agnes’ mental state steadily deteriorates as she realizes she’s destined to remain childless and virtually alone. She’s badly shaken by a tragedy in the village, and an attempt to run away and return to her family ends with Wolf dragging her back, screaming and hysterical. She takes to her bed and begins ingesting small doses of rat poison, physically weakening her and sending her mind on hallucinatory detours.

The movie can be slow going; the buildup to Agnes’ final spiral feels protracted given that we know from the start some version of what’s coming, making the story drag a little around the midpoint. But the filmmakers harness the pathos of ordinary women imprisoned in soul-crushing lives as a timeless sorrow, and Plaschg is harrowingly effective at showing how Agnes keeps retreating deeper inside herself, pushing her to violence. Even with a preordained outcome, the dire means of her release from suffering are both shocking and heart-wrenching.

The barbaric behavior of onlookers at an execution is quite literally blood-curdling, but Franz and Fiala refuse to play even the most graphic elements as horror. They stick to a rigorous naturalistic style, weaving a remarkably vivid tapestry of 18th-century life in a rural peasant community — villagers picking up stones from the field, or lining up for a small blackened loaf of bread after their day’s work. The fishing scenes in a large mudbound pond are especially fascinating; the labor involved makes your back ache just watching.

Unlike his orderly compositions for Goodnight Mommy , cinematographer Martin Gschlacht here adopts a less formal style that veers almost toward documentary. He brings somber earth tones to the low-light environments and the wintry locations, capturing the harshness of the land but also an occasional image of painterly beauty. The contributions of production designers Andreas Donhauser and Renate Martin and costumer Tanja Hausner are essential to the enveloping effect of this bleak but riveting drama about a little-known piece of history.

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