A Disturbing Bible Verse About Rape

They attacked Midian just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men. All five of the Midianite kings – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – died in the battle. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder. They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived. After they had gathered the plunder and captives, both people and animals, they brought them all to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the whole community of Israel, which was camped on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho.

Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was furious with all the military commanders who had returned from the battle. "Why have you let all the women live?" he demanded. "These are the very ones who followed Balaam's advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor. They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD's people. Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.

Numbers 31:7-18 NLT


Pretty vile stuff there.......... I wonder if everyone who says they are a christian reads everything in the bible!!

 

I doubt very much that you'd ever hear these particular verses spoken at a Sunday service anywhere. I think it's safe to say most Christians have no idea what's in the bible. Check out the following social experiment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jErLx1L1CWs

 

It's an ancient account/description of what happens in war. If you take notice of history and war this practice of raping the women and killing unarmed civilians (incl kids) has been going on until this day. I think it is telling (and intriguing, and as all historic accounts important and insightful) that it 1) is a thing from pretty much all time and 2) they took the effort of immortalizing this story by writing it down (they don't sound ashamed ).

What's the most disturbing part to you? That they did it in the name of God? Or that it's in the bible (which some christians regard as literally Gods word)?

 

The most disturbing part is that Moses commanded it instead of condemning the practice. And Moses is held in high regard?

 

No one reads the Bible anymore

 

I find it disturbing that Moses felt the need to kill all the women who were raped.

It's like, you got raped, so you are already having a bad day. Then Moses decides to kill you, and it's like a double whammy.
Why must they be raped, and then be punished for being raped again? Isn't the being raped the punishment enough? Why punish them for being raped, it's like a double whammy. The definition of rape is that they didn't choose it to happen, therefore it was not their fault. Why the double whammy? Doesn't seem mathematical to me. The equation doesn't seem balanced. It would make more sense for him to kill all the ones who were not raped, and spare the ones who were raped, since they already paid their dues by being raped, and that way his enemies would all be punished equally.

 

Rape is a fate worse than death.

 

I'm a Christian and I do read the Bible, but I'm not one of those who say the Bible is the inerrant word of God. I think it is the words of sometimes errant humans seeking God. I take an historical/metaphorical approach to the Old Testament, as a means of understanding the Jewish culture that produced Jesus. I think it would be mentally and morally damaging to try to defend these passages, but from an historical perspective they give us insights into the sometimes barbaric mentality of the ancient people who gave us our scripture. First of all, these atrocities probably didn't happen. To the best of our knowledge, Moses may not have existed and Exodus may not have happened. Most archaeologists are convinced that the Hebrew invasion of Canaan, and the genocidal massacres that were said to accompany them, didn't happen, so I suspect the same is likely to have been true of the story about the Midianites. These stories were told for a purpose. Why would anybody make up stories about atrocities perpetrated by themselves? I don't know, but I have a theory.

The Torah (first five books of the Bible) was written by various authors or schools of scribes during various periods of Jewish history, the final version being put together during and/or after the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century B.C.E. Two major challenges the writers faced were: (1) establishing and preserving monotheism (i.e., the worship of Yahweh) over rival pagan gods; and (2) preserving the identity and traditions of the Jews while they were exiles in a foreign land. Central to the Torah is the idea of covenant between Yahweh and His chosen people, in which God offers His protection to the Jews in return for their devotion. A recurring theme is that Jews have strayed from the covenant, and when they do Yahweh punishes them. During the 9th century, the "Yahweh only" movement faced a major challenge from competing foreign religions, captured in the Bible story of Jezebel, the Phonecian princess who married King Ahab and brought Baal and Astarte worship into the nortern kingdom. Pagan worship is repeatedly associated with the influence of foreign women, and Jewish men are warned to stay away from them lest they be led astray into idolatry. Look at what the Philistine woman, Delilah, did to Sampson! Solomon opened the way to idolatry by bringing in his foreign wives and accommodating their religions! After the Jews returned from Babylonian exile, Ezra the priest commanded them to divorce any foreign wives! Drastic measures, to be sure, but designed to preserve Jewish identity.

I see the story about the Midianite women as following the same theme. Moses was actually married to a Midianite woman, whom he met when he was temporarily in hiding from Pharaoh(in fact, some scholars think that the Kennite tribe of the Midianites were worshiping Yahweh before the Jews). But the Midianites subsequently allied themselves with the Moabites against the Israelites. After defeating the Midianites, Moses was angry when he found out that his troops had spared the women. Why? Because it was the women who were particularly culpable for conspiring to seduce the Israelite men and win them over to their pagan gods. That it would be appropriate to kill the women seems horrific, but it brings home the idea of how seriously Moses took the matter and how dangerous these women were.

 

...

 

The story of Moses and the Midianites is a good example of religious extremism. It's simple religious intolerance.

 

I find it disturbing that people get disturbed about shit that occurred a few thousand years ago whenever the same shit occurs today in parts of the world.

further, anyone who condemns modern Christians/Christianity for occurrences recorded in the Old Testament are merely exhibiting their ignorance of the topic/religion.

 

Not to make light of a serious issue, but it sounds like an episode of Game of Thrones.

This verse sounds like it's referring more to war than rape. In war, it's a thing to rape the women, make the children into soldiers, and kill pretty much everyone else. Though, I won't lie there are some verses in the Bible that say weird things about rape. For the most part, though... Christians either don't read the Bible to know about this kind of stuff, or ignore it because like I said it's weird to say those things about rape. I did once meet this guy. We were seeing each other, kind of. And he was Christian. He told me that I belong to the devil, that no man can and wants to marry me, and I will go to hell due to being raped. He liked me, though. So, it was pretty conflicting for him. Also, we kind of grew up together, so it was hard for him. But, that was what he believed. So, I know some people out there... somewhere believe this stuff.

 

I need my safe space..

 

Rape doesn't work like that.
You get raped over, and over and over and over again.

It's fun!

 

God has power over life and death, he can easily raise anyone back from the dead. They are safe in his memory. His will had to be done and as it appears, very uncomfortable actions had to be taken. Including the killing of certain individuals who stood in the way. His ways are not are ways or are they?

 

I don't understand the shock. This is what middle eastern culture has thrived on for years.

The tales in the Bible aren't about western civilizations... what do people really expect?

 

So much evil explained in just two sentences.

 

Am I missing something? Where does it say anything about rape, or killing women who were raped? Moses is ordering the killing of non-virgins.

 

Telling soldiers to "keep /them/ (women) for yourselves" doesn't really come off as like, keep them and teach them all the wonders of the world so they can live happily ever after"

 

It's all love, no rape. Rape is just a silly ignorant human concept. You just don't have the capacity to understand all of God's hot sticky love for all of us. God loves you hard, weather you want it to or not, you're going to get it. Oh, and his hugs are great. So crushing, you can't even breath. It doesn't hurt, pain is all in your head. Don't fight Gods big hard LOVE for you. Oh, the things he's got planned for you, for all of us... Mmmmm mm mmmm. Our LOVING God, the king of all devils.