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NASB | Numbers 31:17 "Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Numbers 31:17 "Now therefore, kill every male among the children, and kill every woman who is not a virgin. |
Bible Question:
Respectfully, I don't see how v15 addresses the question of distinction. Perhaps my question can be reformulated....was what happened full and correct obedience to God? If yes, what is God trying to do by having the boys (who by definition are not of the age of responsibility) killed, while having the virgin females spared and given to the officers? What purpose is served by eliminating the boys that would not have also been served by eliminating the virgin females? And conversely, what purpose is served by sparing the virgin females that would not have also been served by sparing the boys? Peace, Parable |
Bible Answer: Dear Parable, Yes, Moses action -- corrective action, actually -- was properly done in obedience to God, under His auspices, and by His explicit direction. "Why" questions are notoriously difficult. They are particularly so when we are seeking to understand God's motivation. Frequently God simply does not answer. I suspect there are three possible reasons for this: (1) it is none of our business (Deuteronomy 29:29); (2) we lack the intelligence to understand the answer; (3) we aren't really interested in an answer, instead we are just complaining. (If you are a parent, you will recognize all three of these instances in the lives of your children when they asked you "Why?") In this instance, since we are not told "why" you may simply need to dig further into the ancient culture and historical behavior of the Israelites. Beyond that, you may need to look elsewhere. However, a satisfactory answer may not be forthcoming. God isn't obligated to answer all of our questions. Here are a number commentators writing specifically on this passage. God bless you in your study. In Him, Doc "The sword of war should spare women and children; but the sword of justice should know no distinction, but that of guilty or not guilty. This war was the execution of a righteous sentence upon a guilty nation, in which the women were the worst criminals. The female children were spared, who, being brought up among the Israelites, would not tempt them to idolatry. The whole history shows the hatefulness of sin, and the guilt of tempting others; it teaches us to avoid all occasions of evil, and to give no quarter to inward lusts. The women and children were not kept for sinful purposes, but for slaves, a custom every where practised in former times, as to captives. In the course of providence, when famine and plagues visit a nation for sin, children suffer in the common calamity. In this case parents are punished in their children; and for children dying before actual sin, full provision is made as to their eternal happiness, by the mercy of God in Christ." --Matthew Henry John Gill comments on the women killed "who might be such, at least many of them, who had lain with Israelitish men; and as the adulterers had been put to death, so now the adulteresses; or they were ordered to, be slain, even all of them, lest they should entice the children of Israel to uncleanness, and so to idolatry again: now these were known to be such, either by conjecture at their age, or rather, through the examination of matrons, unless it can be thought, as it is by some, that it was by divine revelation." "The displeasure of the great leader, though it appears the ebullition of a fierce and sanguinary temper, arose in reality from a pious and enlightened regard to the best interests of Israel. No order had been given for the slaughter of the women, and in ancient war they were commonly reserved for slaves. By their antecedent conduct, however, the Midianitish women had forfeited all claims to mild or merciful treatment; and the sacred character, the avowed object of the war (Numbers 31:2-3), made their slaughter necessary without any special order. But why 'kill every male among the little ones'? It was designed to be a war of extermination, such as God Himself had ordered against the people of Canaan, whom the Midianites equalled in the enormity of their wickedness." --Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown "For this action I account simply on the principle that God, who is the author and supporter of life, has a right to dispose of it when and how he thinks proper; and the Judge of all the earth can do nothing but what is right. Of the women killed on this occasion it may be safely said, their lives were forfeited by their personal transgressions; and yet even in this case there can be little doubt that God showed mercy to their souls. The little ones were safely lodged; they were taken to heaven and saved from the evil to come." --Adam Clarke "It is not strange, nor unjust, that God, the supreme Lord of all mens lives, who as he gives them, so may take them away when he pleaseth, did equal them in the punishment. Every woman - Partly for punishment, because the guilt was general, and though some of them only did prostitute themselves to the Israelites, yet the rest made themselves accessary by their consent or approbation; and partly, for prevention of the like mischief from such an adulterous generation." --John Wesley |