A question about Deuteronomy?

Question

On a recent Y! Answers question about the Holocaust in relation to God and religion, and answerer said a so-called "justification" of the Holocaust (from a religious perspective) was that the Book of Deuteronomy says, "Just as it pleased me to bless you, so will it please me to hate you and to vent my wrath upon you."

I'm having trouble finding this verse in Deuteronomy at all.

Is this truly in there?

Answer 1

Deuteronomy 28:63
I think this is it. The whole passage though is about the consequences of either choosing to obey or disobey God. I don't think this fits for the Holocaust. A more likely answer may be Deuteronomy 18:18&19.

Answer 2

It's probably in Deuteronomy in some form or another because those who did not believe in Moses were punished via plagues, death or the earth swallowing them alive.

Deuteronomy 28:63 prophesizes that the Jews will be scattered all over the world and worship foreign gods if they disobey God when they enter the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 18:18-19 is mistakenly used by Muslims to prove that Muhammad was the Prophet which was brought up from Israel - that Prophet was likely John the Baptist who was the Forerunner to Jesus Christ.

The Holocaust has no religious justification stemming from that passage. Without getting too off topic, the Holocaust was a political operation designed to satisfy the Jews' need for a homeland after wandering for 1947+ years.

{EDIT} After 70 AD, the Jews were scattered all over the world when the Romans destroyed the second temple. The Jews have been scattered 3 times between 722 BC and 70 AD - a period of 792 years. Many of the first Christians were Jews as well HOWEVER they received a different mandate to preach the Gospel to the world whereas all the Jews had to do was obey God and they did not. Because the Jews refused to obey, the focus of the message changed to teaching the world the Good News. From 70 AD to 632 AD - that seemed to work pretty well until Islam reared its head and challenged Christianity.

Answer 3

KC, all the major and minor prophets, no exceptions, pronounce God's wrath in a hundred ways against the unrighteousness of Israel. And all the prophets proclaim Israel's restoration to God's favor above all the nations if they repent of their idolatries.

Some Christians will say the Jews suffered because they rejected Christ, but many Jews did not. Consider that the church in Jerusalem, made up of Christians that were and considered themselves Jews (as Christians almost all did until Jerusalem was burned and Christians were expelled from Rome) were the head church until Jerusalem fell in 70CE.

Even so, if some say the Jews rejection of Jesus was the cause of the holocaust, God could have punished them for that 2000 years ago through the Romans. But nowhere in the prophets does God say to the Jews, "Worship the messiah, who will be God incarnate, or suffer genocide 1940 years after a Jewish carpenter named Yeshua is executed by people from Berlin you've yet to hear of." And there is no indication whatever that European Jews were practicing idolatry, firewalking, child sacrifice, ritual prostitution, necromancy or any of the other vile practices for which Yahweh ordained they would be conquered and carried away. The Jews were innocent victims of vile and murderous men. Period.

Answer 4

28:63