“So you cut up his food too?”
Yahweh can’t cut it by himself! You need to commit plenty of genocide to fill that old fella up!
The soldiers have just killed all the Midianite men and male children and have brought all the females to camp. They are just outside of the camp and they have thousands of women mixed with the livestock. All of this "prey" and "plunder" and "booty"--all these "spoils" are quiescent. They are helpless prisoners. They are tied up awaiting their fate--either repeated rape or horrendous death....or both. They have just watched their fathers and brothers brutally butchered and have been marched across the desert sands to the death camp to await their fate. They are terrified. They are completely helpless. Many of them are pregnant but their children will never be born.
Now what happens? Moses has been talking to Yahweh again. He gets furious. He screams at his commanders and orders them to kill all the women and their fetuses--and execute all the young girls--except for the virgins. Keep the virgins for your own use. Not as slaves or wives. He could have said that. Those words are used over and over in these tribal stories. Mosey had a speech impediment but he did know how to say "slaves" and "wives". Not as slaves or wives. Keep them alive for your own USE.
He orders his soldiers (the same whom have just annihilated every last male of the Midianites without the loss of a single one of their own 12,000 men!) to test all the young girls for their virginity (and issue a certificate of virginity to the bleeders) and then to separate the virgins from the non-virgins. Once the virgins have been culled from the group, all the other girls are to be run through with their swords.
Try to picture this, greg or ee. Use your bloody imagination. Apparently, it is one of the talents you can be justifiably accused of having.
After this massacre, some of the virgins are culled from the herd and (together with a whole bunch of other livestock--donkeys, cattle, and sheep) are given to the Priest (son of the great Priest, Aaron) to be "offered" as a "Tribute" to Yahweh as a "Heave Offering". This is the same group of savages who will one day boast of a leader who kills and burns as "Tribute" to Yahweh...142 THOUSAND animals in ONE SINGLE WEEK!!
These soldiers have just butchered thousands of helpless girls outside of the camp, and you are pretending to be shocked at the text which clearly states some of the virgins were given alongside of the other "prey" and "spoils" to Yahweh as a Heave Offering TRIBUTE?? WHAT?? You think these superstitious nits were SQUEAMISH???
10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.
11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.
12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.
14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
16 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.
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
19 And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.
20 And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats' hair, and all things made of wood.
21 And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord commanded Moses;
22 Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
23 Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.
24 And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp.
25 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
26 Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the chief fathers of the congregation:
27 And divide the prey into two parts; between them that took the war upon them, who went out to battle, and between all the congregation:
28 And levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep:
29 Take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for an heave offering of the Lord.
30 And of the children of Israel's half, thou shalt take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all manner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.
31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses.
32 And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, was six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand sheep,
33 And threescore and twelve thousand beeves,
34 And threescore and one thousand asses,
35 And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of women that had not known man by lying with him.
36 And the half, which was the portion of them that went out to war, was in number three hundred thousand and seven and thirty thousand and five hundred sheep:
37 And the Lord'S tribute of the sheep was six hundred and threescore and fifteen.
38 And the beeves were thirty and six thousand; of which the Lord'S tribute was threescore and twelve.
39 And the asses were thirty thousand and five hundred; of which the Lord'S tribute was threescore and one.
40 And the persons were sixteen thousand; of which the Lord'S tribute was thirty and two persons.
41 And Moses gave the tribute, which was the Lord'S heave offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses.
42 And of the children of Israel's half, which Moses divided from the men that warred,
43 (Now the half that pertained unto the congregation was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep,
44 And thirty and six thousand beeves,
45 And thirty thousand asses and five hundred,
46 And sixteen thousand persons;)
47 Even of the children of Israel's half, Moses took one portion of fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them unto the Levites, which kept the charge of the tabernacle of the Lord; as the Lord commanded Moses.
48 And the officers which were over thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, came near unto Moses:
49 And they said unto Moses, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which are under our charge, and there lacketh not one man of us.
50 We have therefore brought an oblation for the Lord, what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the Lord.
51 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even all wrought jewels.
52 And all the gold of the offering that they offered up to the Lord, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.
53 (For the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.)
54 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tabernacle of the congregation, for a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord. |
