Question about Numbers 31???

[ILY]

Shalom all,
Someone on another site I am affiliated brought up a question on this.Primarily What's are your views here on verse 18?

7 And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.
8 And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.
9 And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.
10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.
11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. 12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.
14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Thanks for your time on this

YbiY<><
ILY

 

[The Thadman]

Shalom all,
Someone on another site I am affiliated brought up a question on this.Primarily What's are your views here on verse 18?

7 And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.
8 And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.
9 And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.
10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.
11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. 12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.
14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Thanks for your time on this

YbiY<><
ILY

I'm going to have to look this verse up, but the men were allowed to take the POWs as wives. The woman from these POWs who a Hebrew man chose as his wife was given (at the very least) a month so mourn the loss of her father, then adopted into her new family.

The big misunderstanding is that many people see this passage as God ordaining rape. That is FAR from the case

Shlomo,
-Steve-o

 

[Sephania]

Wouldn't that mean that the ones that could be kept were girls and young virgins? Being that they weren't defiled by the Midianite men?

Midian was the child of Abraham's third wife, Keturah so the midianites would be relatives of Jacob ( Israel). Now Moses when he escaped Egypt married a midianite woman, whose father was Jethro (or Reuel)? So I would think that Jethro and the rest of his daughters would be part of that seige, no?

This brings up a lot of questions about Moses, wife, her father and what kind of priest he was, why he was giving Moses advice...............etc.

 

[ILY]

Shalom all,
It was late last night when I posted that.I haven't had time to question the person on what the subject was that brought up that verse etc...but since it was on the exmuslim site, I imagine it had to with with a discussion about Muhammad etc...saying it was ok to commit adultery with captured slave girls or something similar.I'll ask the sister that brought this to my attention, and find out.
I'll be looking forward to your answers as always.

Shalo and shalom to you all
ILY

 

[mylene]

The Old Testament needs careful analysis. There seems to be

little to be gained in trying to apply or rationalise some of the "social" actions involving wars etc.. between OT Israel and non Israelites , in our current settings.