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Once again, you are that young Midianite virgin girl kept alive.
You consider your state as you are among your conquerors.
Perhaps you have already be taken into some household. And you hear of the laws of the people among whom you now live.
Leviticus 19:33-35 perhaps you hear in their public teaching -
"When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God."
You consider. " I have had a terrible tragedy. But this God seems to have judged my society because of its sins and saved me into a more godly one. Maybe I will not be groomed to be a cult prostitute in the temple of my nation's god. Maybe me or my children will not be sacrificed to Molech or the bull headed burning idol. Maybe my lot with these Israelite people will be far better in the long run from my Midianite background."
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Did you just say all the ox and sheep and donkeys had perhaps been dedicated to demons or had sex with humans, hence their annihilation?
I think I misheard you.
At this point I cannot claim to know that. I could be wrong.
I wonder about the killing of lifestock.
By examining what God told the Israelites they were NOT to do as the nations in the land were doing, sex with animals was one of the things.
I think God knows what He is doing. Perhaps they had diseases. I wants learned that syphilis entered into the human body but originated in animals. In other words, sex with animals introduced syphilis into the human race.
I received that information many years ago.
There is also the matter of deep, deep occultic rituals which dedicate people and objects to Satan. This is not everyday type of activity. This is the activity of nations deeply steeped in the darkest occultic practices.
In certain lands things like Voodoo are no joke. And witchcraft is no laughing matter in some places in the world. I imagine the Canaanite societies to be steeped very deeply into the things God warned the Israelites NOT to ever practice.
When they did, they TOO were driven out of the land. God showed no favorites.
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How quickly does Sonship believe that the 'spared virgins' should forgive their conquerors not only for raping them but also for murdering their fathers, brothers, mothers, and 'impure' sisters?
You're clinging to your accusation of the mass rape of the Midianite girls.
But you have no proof in the text of their being raped.
The Bible is explicit on a number of occasions on the forcing of women to have endure sexual attacks. It doesn't seem shy at all in spelling out those details. Even in the case of a central national hero King David.
So why can't we READ what you claim to know happened?
Show me the exact words which prove they were raped.
"And Moses said to them, Have you kept all the women alive?" (v.15)
Where are you told they were raped there?
"It was these who caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to act unfaithfully against Jehovah in the matter of Peor, so that the plague came upon the assembly of Jehovah" (v.16)
Are you told that they were raped there? We are reminded of a plague which killed 24,000 people because of illicit sex and idolatry.
Does it make sense that God was angry and plagued the offenders for totally loose sex in that instance but condoned totally loose sex in the sparing of the virgin Midianite girls?
You are imagining that orgies were the cause of a punishing plague in the offending incident yet latter God and Moses smiled upon the same thing for the captive Midianite virgins. I don't believe that.
Do you see the proof of rape in the next sentence?
"Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with him." (v.17)
I see people being killed, which is bad enough. Where is your "Now rape the women" ?
"But the little ones among the women, who have not known a male by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." (v.18)
The man speaking, Moses, is the very same one who told them how to treat captive females from nations conquered in war. One month of mourning, with hair shaved and nails cut, and clothing of captivity put off and mourning clothing put on - ONE MONTH. Not before could a soldier choose to marry one.
I'm sorry. That is not rape.
Its not ideal for the young among the women.
Then again maybe it was better then being sacrificed to a Canaanite god burning to death or groomed to sell their bodies in cult prostitution.
How do you know the Midianite girls didn't think of it as the lesser of two evils?
No raping is spoken of in verse 18 either.
"And yo, encamp outside the camp seven days, everyone who has killed any person and everyone who has touched any slain; purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and you rcaptives." (v.19)
So you are imagining Moses to mean rape women in greedy orgies like the one that just caused twenty-four Israelite men to be plagued to death. And this is the means of "purifying" themselves until they can come back into the Israelite camp?
Raping and purifying themselves Duchess64 ??
"And you shall purify for yourselves every garment and every article of skin and everything made of goats' hair and every article of wood." (v.20)
No rape indicated there either.
By the way, the spilling of semen or body waste accidentally in the night was a cause for an Israelite man to purify himself before entering into the camp.
"If there is among you a man who becomes unclean because of an accident in the night, he shall go outside the camp; he shall not enter into the midst of the camp,
But when evening approaches, he shall bath in water; and when the sun goes down, he shall enter into the midst of the camp.
And you shall have an assigned place out side the camp, and there you shall go out." (Deut. 23:9-12)
The evidence is against your wild raping orgy theory of the spared Midianite virgins.
@Duchess64
You did not note the explicit words that indicate raping happened to the Midianite virgins. I offered evidence that it probably did NOT.
Let's be clear about it.
1.) Do I know that no rape happened ?
No.
2.) Do I know that rape was not allowed by their LAW given by God through Moses?
Yes.
Duchess64 has confirmation bias. She has the text of the Old Testament as I do.
Duchess64 wants to ignore the text's evidence and read into it the worst she can imagine.
My bolding here -
Apparently, Sonship cannot accept that rape can take place unless the rapists (or their apologists) explicitly admit that rape has taken place.
The keyword here is "accept" which implies she KNOWS her opinion has to be the truth. It doesn't have to be. And the evidence of the story doesn't support or insist she's right.
For what purpose did the Hebrew men refrain from killing the Midianite virgins? Was it to invite them to a friendly game of chess? (sarcasm)
I have referred to articles of scholars. They were kept for themselves. That does not have to mean mass rapings. They were kept for the theocratic nation who now possessed that land. You should have read the article which indicated the youth of the girls and that some describe them as too young for even heavy work in a Hebrew household just yet.
Duschess64 says "kept for themselves" can only mean rape.
Does Sonship fantasize that any of the conquered Midianite virgins would have *willingly* given herself in sexual intercourse to men who were among those who had recently murdered her father, brother, mother, or 'impure' sister?
I gave what I thought were realistic scenarios under which these young girls may have considered what their future would be in Israel. I don't think they were over fantasized at all.
Duchess64 discounts the law by which the nation was governed.
I am not naive to believe that without exception EVERYBODY obeyed.
We know they often broke God's law.
They broke it when they had religious orgies with the MIdianite women who schemed to corrupt the whole nation. They broke the law and suffered for it to the tune of 24,000 dying in a plague sent by God for the "fornication".
Duchess64 wants me to believe so soon they forgot and repeated the sins as soon as they excuted the non-virgin women who Moses indicated were actually combatants of deception in seducing in mass the Israelite me to commit fornication.
"Forget about that boys. Though we just lost 24,000 people in a divine punishment, nevermind. Whoopi, here we go again !! "
And seven days outside the camp of the nation to purify themselves in rapings?
That the young girls married right away? I don't know that.
That the young girls were forced to marry? I don't know that at least yet.
That some of them wished the whole thing didn't happen?
Probably.
That some of them after surmising their circumstances thought " I can deal with this given the nature of this nation and their God."
I think so.
Look what happened to Rahab from the city cursed by God forever, Jericho.
Look what happened to Ruth the Moabitess.