10 commandments & punishments

[1over137]

Look at the following table on http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=16785.
I was stunned by part of the punishment 1 saying that in some cases you can keep the girls alive for yourselves.

[Jac3510]

That site is satire, Hana. I mean it is run by atheists to make fun of Christians. Just so you know . . .

[RickD]

Look at the following table on http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=16785.
I was stunned by part of the punishment 1 saying that in some cases you can keep the girls alive for yourselves.

Hana, please throw that website away. That whole site is a satire and mockery of Christianity. A baby Christian without proper discernment + that site, could equal big problems. Please delete that site from your memory.

[1over137]

Ok, but what about Numbers 31:15-18?

[Jac3510]

Just what it says. Israel had destroyed the Midianites because of their acts recorded in Num 22-25. Specifically, after the Midianites failed in their attempt to curse Israel, following Balaam's suggestion, they used their women to seduce the men of Israel into idolatry. Israel paid heavily for that, as did the Midianites ultimately.

As far as sparing the virgins went, that was just part of normal war. Actually, they normally spared women and children generally. In this case, only the women who were virgins were spared (the text doesn't comment on the children, focusing on the women) because, in this case, those who had slept with Israelite men and thus had drawn them into idolatry were equally as guilty as the men. So they died for their sins, just as the men did. It's very reasonable. Why kill virgins when they obviously couldn't have slept with an Israelite man in order to lead him into idolatry?

[1over137]

So, keeping for yourselves does not mean raping, yes?

[PaulSacramento]

So, keeping for yourselves does not mean raping, yes?

If they did rape them, they would have to keep them anyways.
Granted from our more enlightened view that seems a small consolation, but in those ANE times it was far better than what other did.
But the text doesn't lend itself to the notion that they were the "spoils of war" was we would think along the lines of the barbaric tribes that raped and pillaged.
It is important to note that Israel was only ever allowed to fight when God told them it was OK and when they were under danger of either the physical kind or the theological kind.
Whenever Israel did go beyond that, they got their butts whipped.
It is also important to understand the history between Israel and its enemies and also the history between God and those people too.

[PaulSacramento]

You also need to realize that much of the language used in the ANE in regards to the "utter destruction" of the enemy was just hyperbole and was typical of the writers of the time.
Mush like we know say that the "whole land was devastated" BUT now very well that not every sq inch was devastated, so it was then.

[Jac3510]

So, keeping for yourselves does not mean raping, yes?

Right, it does not. The women were not forced into marriage, except for economic forces. The sad, but very real and harsh, reality was that women in the ANE could not provide for themselves. Those who did not marry were often destitute. So they married to survive. The whole notion of marriage seems odd if not immoral to the Westerner who marries for love. But keep in mind that marriage for love is a relatively recent luxury. There's nothing inherently immoral about marrying someone so that they can provide for you.

All of this, of course, assumes that the sexual activity took place in marriage. But that's just one more reason the OT moral standard is so high (ESPECIALLY compared to its ANE context). The men of Israel were not to simply take the virgins, have sex with them, and then send them on their way. That was expressly forbidden in the Law. They had to marry them, and in doing so, they took on to themselves the full responsibilities of having a wife and children, and in doing so, conferred upon the women the full rights and honors of being a Israelite wife.

Sounds a lot better than killing them or leaving them in their destroyed town to starve to death to me . . .