I gave that passage some thought over the weekend. From an objective point of view and found it can be viewed as practical.
Shedding blood in violent conquest produces vengeful enemies among men. The kith and kin of a beloved slaughtered man were bound in ancient times to find resolution the only way they knew how; and that was to bring an equal or greater measure of harm as soon as they were able.
"Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately."
Had the fellows who murdered the family members of Ghengus Khan followed this recipe, they could have saved themselves a great deal of grief.
Even in modern times our judges won't finalize a divorce until at least 90 days of separation, partly to ensure no little surprises show up in mommies tummy. Mommies are known to engender those qualities in their sons, which they so loved in the father. This could also apply to getting even for the slaughtering episode.
"But keep alive for yourselves all the young girls who have not known a man intimately."
I don't automatically assume they would have been merely objects of rapacious insatiation for the fun of deflowering them. This was a period where populating the earth with your kind was generally the best way to ensure success materially and survival of your way of life. The young girls did not tend toward revenge, they would likely parish without the support of Moses's people and were assumed to be grateful for being spared. They were likely treated reasonably well, especially since they would be bearing the next generation of the tribe.
But the objection you have is how this all reflects on God, if at all. It reflects badly under certain assumptions. If you assume God is benevolently watching over all the children of Earth, having some slaughtered merely because they were building and inhabiting a society that others want is a mismatch.
Another assumption is the covenant assumption where God picks a group of people who have the right stuff and everyone else gets whacked so's to produce all the right people, living the right way on Earth. So, we got Noah's flood and the problem should have been fixed. Then we get the genocide and cleansing of the population by Moses's people and the problem should have been fixed. We've seen other examples through time and up to modern times including the Mormons finding the Promised land in Utah. And yet, how have these ventures worked out each time, not so good. Now we have Radical terrorists with a similar vision.
Another assumption is that, every attempt must be offered by God before the end of time, so that on a final judgement day when people raise their objections God can say, nope we gave you that and you trashed it. Like a lot of people will say, oy, uh, um ok here's the deal, if you will show me a divine miracle that I can see with my own eyes, I'll be a believer... God will say, hold on a sec, I sent Jesus to prove that isn't true and he did a marvelous job...next. I waxed way into the theatrics of this, somebody else can clean it up if they want. |
