Rabbi says federal agency 'failing Bible 101' by misusing verses to recruit agents

In a scorching opinion piece for Religious News Service (RNS), prominent rabbi and author Joshua Hammerman says that the use of Bible verses by the Deparment of Homeland Security to recruit agents to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is blasphemy, not to mention incorrect.

"The ICE recruitment ads are especially painful because they not only employ Bible verses to support morally questionable ends, but because in their original context the verses’ teachings are diametrically opposed to the current mission of ICE," Hammerman says in reference to the agency's use of the Book of Proverbs in their recruitment ads.

Hammerman, who has written extensively about the Holocaust, explains how "the first verse of the book’s 28th chapter is a perfect opening line for a military recruitment campaign: 'The wicked flee though no one gives chase/But the righteous are as confident as a lion.'"

The packaging of the verse, says the rabbi, is also appealing.

"It almost makes me want to sign up! The verse appeals to strength and ridicules weakness, using the symbol of the self-assured lion, that orange-maned monarch, and fits the MAGA zeitgeist," he says.

"The soundtrack for ICE’s social media video matches it with the opening monologue of the 2022 movie 'The Batman,' with actor Robert Pattinson declaring, 'They think I’m hiding in the shadow, but I am the shadow.'"

But, says Hammerman, there's a major caveat. "On closer examination, this verse has nothing to do with chasing down defenseless refugees or with immigration. In Proverbs’ view, immigrants are anything but wicked."

In fact, the rabbi says, the verse used by ICE seems to directly condemn the current administration in power.

"Verse 28 proclaims, 'A rich man is clever in his own eyes/But a perceptive poor man can see through him,'" he explains. "Arguably, the entire chapter could be read as a moral condemnation of the kleptocracy currently running things in Washington."

The contradictions in their use of the verse are endless, says Hammerman.

"The chapter’s final verse tells us who they aren’t: asylum-seekers fleeing ICE. 'When the wicked rise up, men go into hiding,' it concludes, 'but when they perish the righteous increase.' If it’s the immigrants who are doing the hiding, they can’t also be the 'wicked,' who are causing them to hide," he says.

Irony also wasn't lost on the rabbi, who observes, "Whoever the 'wicked' are, we know from this chapter that they are crooked, conniving, overconfident and rich. According to Proverbs, they are the ones who are headed for a fall."

Another verse the rabbi says was egregiously misused a line from Psalm 18 featured in a DHS recruitment video that says, “I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed.”

"As Rabbi Benjamin Segal writes in his 2022 commentary, 'The New Psalm,' the entire remainder of the psalm is about how the righteous, defenseless and meek shall inherit the earth," Hammerman explains.

"The psalm is addressed to the underprivileged community, which sees itself as both righteous and suffering,” Segal writes, but, says Hammerman, "Nothing could be further from the mission of ICE."

But it was DHS' recruitment video, which quoted the Prophet Isaiah as armed U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel board helicopters zoomed overhead, that offered the biggest offense, Hammerman says.

"Isaiah was called by God to speak on behalf of the persecuted and the weak — precisely the people being hunted down in the hallways of courthouses and the parking lots of Home Depots – and to call out those who are oppressing them," the rabbi writes.

"Sorry, DHS, you’ve failed Bible 101. You can’t cherry-pick verses, when the rest of the chapter puts your argument to shame . . . Next time, leave the Bible verses to the professionals," he adds.