sellyourhouseandbuygold

I'm reading The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett, and I have a question. It is clearly established at the beginning of the novel that the only person who can communicate with Twoflower is Rincewind, and the only language they share is the obscure Trob language. However, later on in the book, Twoflower can be seen communicating easily with various other characters, like Hrun, Tethis, and I think the dragon rider people. It seems like his complete inability to communicate with the average Disc residents was just forgotten after he left Ankh-Morpork.

I haven't actually finished the book yet. Is this explained later, am I overlooking something, or is this a plot hole?

I think it's spelled right, but it may be wrong.

My question refers to 2 Kings 3. I won't paste the entire chapter here, so if you want the full text, here is a link: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+King...

All the quotes are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Many other translations are available on the linked page.

To paraphrase, the kingdom of Moab (a tributary to Israel) rebels, and King Jehoram of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah gather their forces to go put down the rebellion.

As they're marching through Edom, they run out of water and stuff, so they call upon the prophet Elisha. There's a whole thing, and eventually,

16 He said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Make this valley full of trenches.’ 17 For thus says the LORD, ‘You shall not see wind nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, both you and your cattle and your beasts. 18 This is but a slight thing in the sight of the LORD; He will also give the Moabites into your hand. 19 Then you shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and fell every good tree and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.’”16 He said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Make this valley full of trenches.’ 17 For thus says the LORD, ‘You shall not see wind nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, both you and your cattle and your beasts. 18 This is but a slight thing in the sight of the LORD; He will also give the Moabites into your hand. 19 Then you shall strike every fortified city and every choice city, and fell every good tree and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.’”

So, God told the kings of Israel and Judah that they will defeat Moab. The Moabites see the water and think it is blood. Assuming the Israelites massacred one another in the night, they sally forth and attack, only to be routed by the Israelites. But then...well, just read the text itself:

26 When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him 700 men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not. 27 Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land.

End of the chapter. No further explanation. How do you interpret this? It seems obvious that the king of Moab appealed to his god, and his god drove off the Israelites and theirs. Of course, this would not sound unusual to most scholars, who agree that the Hebrews did not believe theirs was the only god in existence, just the only one they worshiped. It doesn't make sense in terms of modern Christian monotheism, though. Is there some explanation for how this happened, if you are a Christian who believes in the Bible?

In the interest of transparency, I am not a Christian. However, please don't think I'm posting this just to start an argument or "attack" anyone's beliefs. I honestly have just always been fascinated by this passage, which seems to present one of the biggest difficulties in the Bible, yet I don't think I have ever seen it addressed by Christians. I'm curious about how you interpret it and whether you even ever noticed it before.

I, personally, would never condemn a human being to an eternity of suffering for any offense. Even a lifetime of evil is only a lifetime, and does not warrant an eternity of punishment. If it were up to me, all humans would be forgiven and spend eternity in heaven after death. So if I, a mere mortal human, am capable of such basic compassion and love for other humans, why isn't God? How can God be considered loving when there are mere human beings capable of love and forgiveness where God is not?