Human sacrifice in Numbers 31 (?)

[Ann77]

I ran across a skeptic's comment regarding Numbers 31:40. I can't find much commentary on this passage. Is this human sacrifice as some people (mostly atheists) seem to think or are these virgin women made to be servants for the priests?

25 The LORD said to Moses, 26 "Take the count of the plunder that was taken, both of man and of beast, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the congregation, 27 and divide the plunder into two parts between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation. 28 And levy for the LORD a tribute from the men of war who went out to battle, one out of five hundred, of the people and of the oxen and of the donkeys and of the flocks. 29 Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as a contribution to the LORD. 30 And from the people of Israel’s half you shall take one drawn out of every fifty, of the people, of the oxen, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, of all the cattle, and give them to the Levites who keep guard over the tabernacle of the LORD." 31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.

32 Now the plunder remaining of the spoil that the army took was 675,000 sheep, 3372,000 cattle, 3461,000 donkeys, 35 and 32,000 persons in all, women who had not known man by lying with him. 36 And the half, the portion of those who had gone out in the army, numbered 337,500 sheep, 37and the LORD’s tribute of sheep was 675. 38 The cattle were 36,000, of which the LORD’s tribute was 72. 39 The donkeys were 30,500, of which the LORD’s tribute was 61. 40 The persons were 16,000, of which the LORD’s tribute was 32 persons. 41 And Moses gave the tribute, which was the contribution for the LORD, to Eleazar the priest, as the LORD commanded Moses.

 

[Lasagneee]

no , Moses gave tribute (animals and men/women slaves) to Elazar the priest what belongs to Lord.
Same way when God says to give him tithes so his house can be full but in reality stuff went from other tribes to Levites , it was considered tithing to God even tho Levites lived off it (priesthood) .

 

[Ann77]

no , Moses gave tribute (animals and men/women slaves) to Elazar the priest what belongs to Lord.
Same way when God says to give him tithes so his house can be full but in reality stuff went from other tribes to Levites , it was considered tithing to God even tho Levites lived off it (priesthood) .

That's what I was thinking but I wasn't sure because there's practically no commentaries on this.

 

[Tolworth John]

this human sacrifice as some people (mostly atheists) seem to think or are these virgin women made to be servants for the priests

Always ask why do you belief that? And
What evidence do you have for that belief?

Yes atheist believe this is talking about human sacrifice, but they have no evidence beyond the giving of this tribute/loot to the Levites.
Evidence against there argument are the references to Levites having slaves, concubines etc and the condemnation of human sacrifice by God in the Bible.

 

[tampasteve]

TO expound on what Tolworth said above.

We don't read the Bible in a vacuum, verses are to be read in context of the entire volume of scripture, lest we take one verse out of context and apply it incorrectly.

There are a few places, including the noted verses above, where it could mean human sacrifice, however, when taken together with the rest of scripture we see most passages condemn human sacrifice and point to this meaning a portion of the spoils of war, including slaves.

Take that with the other chapters in Leviticus that are specific on what the animals/grain/libation were to be used in a particular sacrifice, we don't find humans in those descriptions.

 

[Ann77]

I originally made the mistake of going into a reddit post regarding this when I was looking up commentaries.

Am I wrong for being disgusted by the redditors saying this was regarding human sacrifices? I don't want to think something blasphemous.

One comment said God didn't like the other human sacrifices because it was to false gods. But that still doesn't sound right. All humans are sinful so I don't know what good a human sacrifice would be to God and there are no orders for this by God in Leviticus.

 

[tampasteve]

I originally made the mistake of going into a reddit post regarding this when I was looking up commentaries.

Am I wrong for being disgusted by the redditors saying this was regarding human sacrifices? I don't want to think something blasphemous.

One comment said God didn't like the other human sacrifices because it was to false gods. But that still doesn't sound right. All humans are sinful so I don't know what good a human sacrifice would be to God and there are no orders for this by God in Leviticus.

Reddit is fine, but the commentators are even more faceless than we are here. There can be good information there, but we need to test it against other information. I find some of the better commentary on the "Old Testament" (the Jewish Scriptures) to come from Orthodox Jewish sources like Chabad. Combining those with solid Christian sources and a better picture comes forth.

It isn't blasphemous to have questions, it is what we do with the answers and how we internalize them that matters.