Numbers 31: But all the women children keep alive for yourselves

Critics of the Bible sometimes try to attack the Bible by claiming it condones things that are morally objectionable.  I’ve always thought it was a strange tactic because atheism lacks the foundation to make any moral claim at all.  To say something is wrong means it ought not to be that way.  Christians believe God created the universe the way it ought to be and any time we disobey God’s will, it’s wrong.  However, without any god, who is to say how things ought to be?  Certainly, the universe doesn’t care what happens.  Apart from any transcendent Law Giver, the atheist can only say what he thinks people ought to do.  Without God, what is right or wrong changes on the subjective whim of opinion.  For an atheist to claim anything is wrong makes about as much sense as me saying people who like orange Starbursts are evil!  After all, my opinion would be just as valid as anyone else’s.

Alex O’Connor (also known as the Cosmic Skeptic) is one such atheist who claims the Bible condones things that are objectively wrong.  In a debate he had with Christian biologist, Jonathan McLatchie, (found on YouTube here) O’Connor made the following argument:

What about Numbers 31?...  I’ll just quote it.  Moses instructs the following to… they’re attacking the Midianites - essentially committing a genocide against the Medianites - and Moses instructs his combatants.  “Now kill all the boys and kill every woman who has slept with a man but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man” [Numbers 31:17-18 NIV]. Now, I’m not entirely sure what a bunch of aggressive males would want with a bunch of virgin girls.  I’ll leave that up to the imagination of the audience.  But to me this seems not just slavery in terms of, like, a voluntary service contract.  This seems like a grotesque form of sexual slavery being advocated here.  Even in the course of war, I don’t think that’s acceptable.

McLatchie struggled to try to answer and after some hemming and hawing, finally admitted, “I confess I do struggle with this text so I don’t… uh… I don’t know the answer to that question.”  

I’m sure it’s sometimes difficult, in the pressure of a debate and being faced with a question you’d never really considered, to articulate a response.  I don’t fault McLatchie for not being able to answer.  However, the Bible says we should always be ready to give an answer (1 Peter 3:15); that’s not just answers to the easy questions but to the difficult ones as well.  So, with the benefit of having time to think, time to review the passages, and time to write and edit a response, I’m going to attempt to answer O’Connor here.  

I admit that, according to modern societal norms, events like the ones described in Numbers are very foreign to our Western ideals.  I don’t want to pretend like I understand completely what was in the minds of the people who lived during those times.  I can say that God is good, He is just, and He is perfect in every way.  He has given us the Bible for our benefit so I can only trust that a correct understanding of the passages can be found within the pages of Scripture itself.  That is what I’m going to try to do here.  I pray that God will guide my thoughts.  Amen.

First we need to consider the history of Israel’s interactions with the Midianites.  In Numbers 25, we see that, when the fledgling nation of Israel was dwelling in the land of Shittim, the people of Israel were being seduced by the women of Moab.  They were sacrificing to other gods, eating the meat offered to these false gods, and bowing down to their idols.  The Lord became angry with the children of Israel and sent a plague among the people.  

Moses commanded the judges to kill all of the Israelites who worshipped Baalpeor.  The people began to repent and verse 6 describes how people were weeping before the door of the Tabernacle.  But even in their repentance, one of the children of Israel unashamedly brought a Midianite woman, the daughter of a Midian chief, past the front of the Temple in the view of Moses and all the people.  At that point, Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron the priest, followed the man and woman to his tent where he ran them both through with a spear.  Because of Phinehas’ actions, God’s wrath was turned away from the people and He relented from the plague He had sent on them.

The Bible says the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).  I’ve written about this before (here).  All have sinned and so all die (Romans 5:12).  Some die old and some die young.  Some die violently and some die peacefully.  God alone is the Author of life and it is His right to decide when we must die.  Because of their idolatry, 24,000 Israelites had died from the plague.  But God’s wrath was not against Israel alone.  He also would judge the nation of Midia:

Numbers 25:16-18, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Vex the Midianites, and smite them: For they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague for Peor's sake.

Having now read the back story, let us look to Numbers 31 and the verses in question.  After the battle, when Midia had been defeated, the Jewish army returned with their spoils of war - including the women and children that had been captured.  Moses was angry and went out to confront the captains of the host:

Numbers 31:15-18, And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? 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. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

So we can see that God’s judgment on Midia wasn’t arbitrary.  The Midianites received the just recompense for their role in leading the people of Israel away from God into the worship of idols.  The men and boys who warred against Israel were killed.  The women who seduced the men of Israel were killed.  However, the young women - those who had not been with any man - were spared!  It was an act of mercy God had shown to the innocent girls who had not participated in the wicked acts of the older women.

O’Connor’s implication that God was allowing these young women to be kept as some type of “səx sl@ves” is unfounded.  I’ve talked before (here) about the use of the term “slavery” in the Bible and how being a slave in those times was essentially a type of job in most instances.  When the Bible talks about “slaves,” it is primarily talking about 2 groups of people: prisoners of war and the chronically poor. It is the first group that we are discussing here.  

War was a grim reality at the time of the Old Testament and conquered kingdoms meant defeated populations that needed to be dealt with. If you defeat an enemy, you can't simply pack up and go home or else you'll be fighting the same enemy again sometime later. Therefore, the Law gave instructions in dealing with enemy prisoners.  These were allowances God made for a fallen world and did not necessarily represent God’s perfect will - similar to how Jesus described the Laws surrounding divorce in Matthew 19:8.

Slavery in the Bible is nothing like the slavery we think of in the Antebellum South.  In the Bible, God commanded His people to treat their slaves/servants fairly and justly.  No where in the Bible are female servants allowed to be “səx sl@ves.”  Exodus 7 talks about how women maidservants must be treated as a wife if married to the master or treated like a daughter if married to the master’s son.

In spite of O’Connor’s innuendo, the young Midianite girls were not going to be abused.  They were going to be taken care of, treated fairly, and would probably go on to live productive lives.  I suspect that many of them would even come to love the Jewish families they served, to marry Jewish men, to learn about the God of Abraham, and to become believers themselves. What O'Connor attempts to portray as "unacceptable" and immoral, is actually a picture of God's wrath, judgment, and mercy.