edit: yea i know i spelt "murderer" wrong
A quote from the Christian Bible (also in the Hebrew Bible):
quote:
"[The Israelites] warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. [...] And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. [...] And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? [...] 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."
(Numbers 31:7-18, KJV)
In the following story, you see through the eyes of Moses. You are Moses.
It is a joyous day for you. The war against the Midianites is finished, the Lord God has blessed you, and you have been victorious. You have taken all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and taken the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods, as the Lord commanded you.
Two of your soldiers come towards you, between them there is a young Midianite woman. They grasp her shoulders and clothes tightly to prevent her from escaping. In her arms, she protectively holds her small baby. Seeing this, you tell your soldiers to hold her, and you stride towards her. As you reach for her baby, she struggles to free herself, but your soldiers hold her well.
The baby cries as you grapple with him, trying to pull him away from his mother. Suddenly, you give the mother a heavy slap across the face. In the moment when she is stunned, you pull her baby away from her. Her voice thick with emotion, she says, "Please don't take my baby! PLEASE! Please I beg you!"
Without answering her, you carry the crying baby away, but order your soldiers to bring the mother. After a short walk, you reach a rocky patch of ground that is littered with jagged beige stones of medium size. Using both hands, you raise the baby, still crying, above your head.
The mother screams frantically, "NOOOO!!! PLEASE DON'T KILL MY BABY! I beg you! I will do anything for you, anything! PLEASE!!"
You ignore her pleas. With all of your strength, you hurl the baby towards the stones. The mother covers her face with her hands, unable to look at the imminent death of her baby. There is a loud cracking sound as the baby's skull hits a rock and breaks, along with other fragile bones. However the baby does not die instantaneously. His arms and legs slowly twitch as his blood starts to seep out of his broken body and stain the rocks and the ground with bright redness. After some time, his body ceases twitching, and he is dead.
The mothers legs have collapsed, and she has fallen to the ground. Tears are streaming down her face making dirty streaks, and her body is shuddering with uncontrollable sobs.
You look at what you have done, and you feel happy. You smile at your soldiers. You feel honored to be serving the almighty God. You turn to face your people, and you say unto them, "Have ye saved all the women alive? 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."
You gaze with approval as a group of your men kick the legs out from underneath a Midianite girl of about 14 or 15 years of age, causing her to fall to the hard ground. She screams in terror and kicks frantically, but your men hold her arms and legs, stretching her out on the ground. One of your men pulls up her dress and examines her hymen, poking and prodding with dirty fingers splattered with dried blood from earlier activities, in an attempt to determine whether she is a virgin and thus whether she will be killed or kept alive for the pleasure of the men.
Satisfied that she is a virgin, your men then proceed to throw dice to determine who will have sex with her first. You nod, and praise and thank the Lord for all that He has given you today.
What do you people think about God and murder? And also is it Killing Humans that is the sin or Murder.
[This message has been edited by Tr1p (edited 07-03-2005).]
Digital_Savior
2005-07-03, 00:58
War with Midian. (Verse 1-6.)
Balaam slain. (Verse 7-12.)
Those slain who caused sin. (Verse 13-38.)
Purification of the Israelites. (Verse 39-24.)
Division of the spoil. (Verse 25-47.)
Offerings. (Verse 48-54.)
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Since this story involves the Jews, I will give you an explanation from a Jewish perspective:
God said to Moses, "Now that I have commanded you regarding the laws of vows and oaths and that it is possible to have them nullified, let it not enter your heart that the oath that I took that you would not enter the land will be retracted. Let it be clear that this oath remains in force and I do not rescind it.
However, before you are to be gathered to your people, I will wait for the vengeance that you will exact upon the Midianites. For it was on account of the Midianites after they drew you into idolatry and immorality, that 24,000 Israelites perished. Causing another to sin is worse than having murdered him. For when one man kills another, he kills only his body; a corrupter, however, destroys his soul.
This explains why God enjoined him to take revenge only upon the Midianites, although the Moabites had intended to annihilate the Israelites as well. Indeed, not only did He not instruct him to avenge himself upon the Moabites, but He even prohibited the waging of war upon them as it is written, "Do not attack Moab, do not provoke them to fight." (Deuteronomy 2:9) Moab wanted to destroy the Israelites only because they feared them. They did not maliciously want to draw them into sin.
The Midianites were guilty on two counts: they provoked the Israelites into sin, and they caused the death of 24,000 of the children of Israel. Therefore, it was incumbent upon Moses to exact vengeance twice. Accordingly, the scripture here repeats the word "nekamah" (revenge): nekom nakamt b'nei yisrael, corresponding to that double revenge.
God is more strongly exacting in caring for the cause of the righteous man than He is for His own cause and honor. For as we have already written, the hand of Jeroboam son of Nebat, dried up when he attacked the prophet even though nothing happened to him for worshiping idols, which proves that the Almighty is more scrupulous on behalf of the righteous than for His own honor.
Similarly, the death of the 24,000 Israelites was more difficult for Him to bear [than the idol worship of which they were guilty]. He therefore told Moses, "I want the revenge to be revenge for the Israelites; for that pains Me more than the transgression committed against Me."
Moses in his humility, however, said it the other way around (Numbers 31:3), "So that God's revenge can be taken against the Midianites---we must go into battle on behalf of the Almighty's honor."
Another interpretation of this difference between what God said and what Moses said to the Israelites, is the following.
He said to God, "Master of the universe! If we were heathens, worshipers of idols, a people who denied the existence of God, the nations would not have this hatred for us. Their hatred is so fierce that they want to eliminate us from the face of the earth and all because we are called "Israel," and we fulfill the edicts of the Torah and the commandments that You commanded us. Their hatred is directed therefore against You and not against us, and the revenge must therefore be on Your behalf."
Accordingly, Moses said, "So that God's revenge can be taken against the Midianites."
When God said to Moses, "Take revenge for the Israelites against the Midianites. Then you shall (die] and be gathered to your people," Moses attempted to avert the divine decree regarding his impending death. But He was not propitiated.
Moses said, "Do I then deserve to die after attaining what no other son of man had attained? Surely it is fitting that I remain alive and make Your ways known to humanity. "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of God."(Psalms 118:17)
Whereupon God answered, "If staying alive were of benefit to man, I would not have permitted the magnificent Patriarchs to experience the taste of death. I would surely have enabled such great personalities to go on living forever. Therefore you must realize how important death is to the righteous for precious in the sight of God is the death of His saintly ones." (Psalms 116:15)
Moses was still not reconciled, however, until God said to him, "If it is your wish to live a thousand years, the Israelites will not see vengeance enacted upon their enemy or revenge against the Midianites. For your death and this vengeance are related."
Moses answered, "Since after those thousand years I will still die, when I die makes no difference. I die in the end and "sweet is the sleep of the laborer, be it little or much." (Ecclesiastes 5:11) So it is preferable that I die now and the Israelites avenge themselves upon their enemies."
When Moses thus accepted the decree with love, the Almighty grieved over his death. This matter may be understood as follows. A king had a troublesome son who angered him constantly; but the mother greatly loved her son. So whenever the king took hold of his sword and waved it over the son's head as if to kill him, the mother would rush up prepared to give her life for him. And when the father saw her ready to sacrifice herself, he would be filled with compassion and forgive his son.
After a time the queen died, and the king wept bitterly for her, day and night. Finally the people around him said, "In the entire world is there no other woman more beautiful and better than she was?"
He answered, "Do you think that I weep over her? It is for my son that I weep. So long as his mother was alive she protected him from my anger. Now that she is dead, who will protect him? It is as if my son too has died and been buried."
Similarly was the death of Moses distressing to the Almighty. He said, "So long as Moses was alive, whenever My sons aroused My anger so that I wanted to destroy them, he would pray for mercy for them, and I would forgive their sins."
Thus it is written, "God said, 'I will grant forgiveness as you requested'" (Numbers 14:20) and as it is also written, "Therefore He said that he would destroy them had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the breech, to turn back His wrath, lest He should destroy them." (Psalms 106:23) "Now that he must die, who will pray for them?"
Other sages, however, declare that on this occasion God also spoke harsh words to Moses.
"When the Israelites made the Golden Calf and you were confronted by eleven rebellious tribes with only the tribe of Levi---who took no part in worshiping it---standing by you, you took your life in your hands and came out against those eleven tribes, plus the mixed multitude, fearlessly exacting retribution upon the worshipers of the Calf. Now, however, in the matter of the Midianite woman with only the tribe of Simeon opposing you, on account of their leader Zimri son of Salua, and with eleven tribes unequivocally on your side, you have been fearful and silent. You did not venture forth to punish them. Therefore, you must rectify this failure by taking revenge against the Midianites for that episode of the Midianite woman. After you have set right this flaw, you will be gathered to your people and arrive in the World to Come entirely pure."
Numbers 31:3: Moses spoke to the people, saying, "Detach men for armed service against Midian so that God's revenge can be taken against the Midianites.
Moses now explained to the Israelites that this command to make war upon Midian was a great mitzvah because the Midianites had lured them into sin and they were thus fighting for the glory of God. Consequently he wanted all the Israelites to share in this mitzvah, both those who would be involved in the fighting and those who would stay behind; and he exhorted them to seek out men fit for engaging in war. In response, 1,000 men volunteered from every tribe.
Numbers 31;4,5: One thousand from each of Israel's tribes shall be sent into armed service. From the thousands of Israel, 1,000 volunteered from each tribe, [a total of] 12,000 special troops.
They presented these volunteers to Moses. "Just as you wanted to confer upon us the privilege of participating in this mitzvah of waging the war, on our part we want you to have the privilege of sending forth these warriors."
Numbers 31:6: Moses sent forth the 1,000 men from each tribe as an army along with Pinchas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge of the sacred articles and the signal trumpets.
It was Moses' intention to demonstrate to the Israelites the terrible power of sin and the kind of retribution it brings in its wake. He said to them, "You yourself have seen how without using the sword or any other weapon, Zimri killed 24,000 of the Israelites. To atone for this sin, you will vanquish the Midianites, who comprise a great multitude, with but 12,000 men.
There would be nothing startling in this if like in other wars, men would fall on both sides. But there will be casualties only on one side; none of you will fall. So extraordinary a miracle will take place because you venture forth to sanctify God's name."
Unlike other soldiers whose weapons are carried externally on their bodies, the armor of these warriors was in their innermost hearts, and their weapons were mitzvot and good deeds.
Such a war was that of Naphtali and of Deborah the prophetess, when they battled their enemies not with physical weapons but by being cloaked in mitzvot and good deeds, For as it is written, "Was there a shield or spear among 40,000 in Israel?" (Judges 5:8) And the same was true of the battle waged by King David against Goliath the Philistine.
The scripture says here, "Detach from among you (literally, "from within you"---me'itchem) men for armed service." That is, the men whom he chose to go forth into battle should be armed with internal arms; they should fear God and be filled with mitzvot and good deeds. Then it will not be them waging war, but rather the Almighty Himself.
This too is indicated in the words "hechaltzu me'itchem anashim latzava," which can be rendered as "Count a special force." This force from on high will precede them and wage the battle on their behalf: they themselves will remain over that force.
This shows how well the Israelites loved their leaders. Throughout his life the Israelites gave Moses no peace, as it is written, "Before long they will stone me!" (Exodus 17:4) but now, when they heard that his death was linked to the war against Midian, they refused to go forth, and it was necessary to conscript them against their will. Thus the scripture writes, "vayimasru may-alfay yisrael," literally, "One thousand were given over." That is, against their will they were given over to him, having refused to go on their own so that Moses should not die.
The virtue of Moses is also highlighted here. After God commanded him to launch this war, he did not become disheartened but immediately commanded the Israelites to go forth into battle. Although his death was connected to this battle and he knew that at its conclusion he was meant to die, his only concern was to fulfill the command of God.
Joshua, on the other hand, did not act in this fashion. When he was to wage war against the thirty-one kings, he said to himself, "If I conquer them all at once, I will die immediately after, just as Moses died after concluding the war against Midian. Therefore I will subdue them little by little." And that is what he did, drawing out the conquest of the land for a long time. Thus the scripture says, "Joshua made war a long time with those kings" (Joshua 11:18), protracting the conquest of each of their territories.
Whereupon God said to him, "You have acted thus, so I will shorten your days also, that you may live 120 years, the same as Moses. This proves the scriptural verse, "Many are the thoughts in the heart of a man, but the counsel of God will stand." (Proverbs 19:21)
A question that may properly be asked here is why Moses did not personally participate in the war against Midian. It was such a great mitzvah, and did not God tell him personally to "Take revenge for the Israelites against the Midianites?"
The answer is that since Moses reached maturity in Midian, he did not want to be the one to strike at them. It was a question of "Cast not stones into water from which you have drunk."
Accordingly, Moses said to himself, "It is certain that God did not intend that I should be involved in the actual fighting, but rather that I should see it carried out. Therefore I will dispatch Pinchas. He has already begun to fulfill this commandment by killing the Midianite woman, and when a man begins to carry out a mitzvah, he is divinely aided from Heaven to fulfill it completely."
A different interpretation says that in telling Moses to "take revenge for the Israelites," God did not intend that he should participate in the fighting, but rather that he should first subdue the Sar, or angelic protector, of the nation against which God wanted to be avenged. Only then could this nation be vanquished. For as the prophet declares "It shall come to pass on that day that God will punish the host of heaven on high and the kings of the earth upon the earth." (Isaiah 24:21)
Accordingly God said to Moses, "Take revenge (nakom nakamt) for the Israelites." The doubling of the verb is significant in that "n'kom" pertains specifically to Moses: he was specifically bidden to take revenge against the sar on high. God told him that first he should pray for the downfall of the sar of the Midianites on high for that only he, not the Israelites, could accomplish. After the fall of the sar, they would then proceed to take revenge against the Midianites themselves.
This war was connected with much anguish for our teacher Moses. The Almighty bestowed upon him eminence and greatness, and He gave him mastery over celestial beings on high as it is written "You ascended on high, you took captives." (Psalms 68:19) And when he had risen to the supernal realms, the angels accorded him great honor, vacating a place for him amidst the fiery region. He was given deference by the Egyptians who, whenever they saw him, rose before him. He dominated the sea, first splitting the waters and then turning them back to their original state. He had come to have power over the treasures of nature, the clouds and hail; and had brought down upon the Egyptians the ten plagues. After all this, when the episode with the Midianite woman took place, he began to weep, helpless and desperate for vengeance against the Midianites.
Distraught, he could find no peace until God said to him, "Take revenge for the Israelites against the Midianites. Then you shall [die] and be gathered to your people.
"You were overcome by despair for not having avenged yourself against the Midianites. So by your life I swear that you will not depart from this world until you have taken revenge for the Israelites against the Midianites. You will exact the vengeance you so deeply desired, and then you will be gathered to your people."
Thus it is written, "The righteous one shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he shall wash his feet with the blood of the wicked." (Psalms 58:11)
The time had come to march to Midian where he would find the wicked Balaam and at the same time exact vengeance upon inhabitants there. It was the wicked Balaam who had urged them with pernicious counsel to draw the Israelites into immorality, when he had told Balak that only by enticing the Israelites into conduct that was hateful to their God would he be able to overcome them.
At this time Balaam had gone to Midian to collect his reward for having offered the advice that caused the death of 24,000 Israelites. Instead, the scripture goes on to relate how they collected from him, measure for measure, when he paid with his life.
The narrative relates that Moses assembled the 1,000 men from each tribe and dispatched them into battle against Midian. He sent along Pinchas son of Eleazar the priest, who wore the High Priest's template, "Tzitz" upon which were inscribed the words, "Holy to Adonai." He placed him in charge of the Holy Ark and gave him the signal trumpets.
There is an opinion that be actually dispatched 2,000 men from every tribe, 1,000 going into battle and 1,000 being placed in charge of the implements of war. Accordingly, the scripture repeats, "1,000 from each tribe...1,000 men from each tribe."
Another view is that he sent 3,000 men from every tribe, 2,000 to do the fighting and guard the implements of war, and 1,000 to offer prayers. Thus the verse adds, "them along with Pinchas," which might otherwise seem superfluous since we have already been told that Moses has sent them. However, he sent out 2,000 men for waging the war and guarding the implements of battle, and then another 1,000 who would pray, these being the ones who were sent "along with Pinchas" just as the Ark and the Tzitz accompanied them for the same purpose of offering prayers. It explains why the verse repeats, "1,000 from each tribe...1,000 from each tribe..." instead of saying that 3,000 were dispatched from each tribe; indicated is that 1,000 were designated for the battle itself, 1,000 for guarding the implements, and 1,000 for prayer.
Also explained then is the intent of "from the thousands in Israel;" that is, of the 3,000 taken from each tribe, 1,000 were dispatched into battle which made a total of 12,000.
Numbers 31:7,8: They mounted a surprise attack against Midian as God had commanded Moses and killed all the males. Along with the other victims, they also killed the five kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Tzur, Chur, and Reva, the five Midianite kings. They also killed Balaam son of Beor by the sword.
As they were marching out to the field of battle, Moses told Pinchas that if he should see Balaam attempting to escape by resorting to acts of sorcery, he should thrust the sacred Tzitz before him and he would be able to subdue and kill him.
Thus it was that when during the fighting the Israelites were about to kill Balaam and the five Midianite kings, Balaam called them all together and they rose into the air. Whereupon Pinchas exhibited the sacred Tzitz and they fell to the ground and were killed.
Another version of what happened is that when Pinchas saw Balaam flying through the air, he pronounced the Explicit Name and took off into the air after him. When He brought him down to earth and was about to kill him, Balaam began to plead for his life.
"If you let me live," he cried, "I promise never again to harm your people."
Pinchas answered, "Are you not Laban the Aramean whose intention it was to uproot our patriarch Jacob from the world, and who caused him to go down to Egypt? And after the Israelites came out of Egypt, did you not arrange for Amalek to attack them? How mightily you have striven to do them harm! And when you saw that you could not accomplish your evil end and the Almighty told you not to curse this nation, you provided Balak with the evil counsel that caused the death of 24,000 Israelites. It is not possible to let you live."
Saying this, he drew the sword and killed him.
Another view is that when Pinchas saw his remorse, he was overcome by doubt whether to kill him. He turned to Moses, who set up a special tribunal to pass judgment upon him, and Balaam was convicted of having caused the death of 24,000 Israelites and hence deserved every kind of death. He was then executed.
Thus the verse says, "On account of the other victims, they also killed the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam." That is, when Balaam and the five kings fell from the air on the other corpses, they were killed.
Other commentators maintain that Pinchas was not capable of killing Balaam by any natural means, and he had to tell Tzilia of the tribe of Dan to kill him. He refrained from making use of the Explicit Name to kill him so as not to associate to Balaam any aspect of kedushah (sanctity) which would have fulfilled his wish to "die the death of the upright." Instead, Tzilia grasped the sword on each of the two sides that had engraved on it the likeness of a snake and killed him.
It is fitting that Balaam, who during his lifetime used snakes in the practice of sorcery, was killed by a snake-charmed sword that was treated magically.
Thus the scripture says, "They also killed Balaam son of Beor by the sword." [There is no sword mentioned in connection with the death of the five Midianite kings, only in the case of Balaam,] alluding to the fact that his death came about as a result of a magical sword upon which was inscribed the likeness of a snake.
There is another reason why "by the sword" is mentioned. Since Balaam in attempting to curse the Israelites, usurped their special talent which lay in speech, they, on the other hand, partook of the talent of the nations whose entire power lay in the sword, as it is written, "but you shall live by your sword" (Genesis 27:39), and they killed him with a sword.
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Basically, each instance of God being vengeful has it's purpose. There is a reason for every occurance, and you have to study them individually to gain wisdom regarding God's intentions and will.
You must also remember that God's anger is RIGHTEOUS, which means that it is justified and ultimately "good".
I cannot say that I condone murder...especially within the context given, but we are in a different time, where morally this is no longer acceptable, so...my perception, and that of modern Christians, is irrelevant to God's purpose.
We have to believe that what He wants is best, since He is considered to be omnibenevolent, omnipresent, and omnipotent.
As Christians, we trust His righteous anger, just as we trust His grace and mercy.