Kill to Purify?....

Submitted by Sal (United States), Jan 8, 2009 at 18:41

I'm not a Bible scholar, but from my "small knowledge"-God wanted to "purify" that land the Israelites claimed from the Midianties.

"Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every women who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." -Numbers 31:17

Related Sites:
Verses 13-24: We have here the triumphant return of the army of Israel from the war with Midian, and here,-from biblebrowser.com
"II. They were severely reproved for saving the women alive. It is very probable that Moses had commanded them to kill the women, at least this was implied in the general order to avenge Israel of the Midianites; the execution having reference to that crime, their drawing them in to the worship of Peor, it was easy to conclude that the women, who were the principal criminals, must not be spared. What! says Moses, have you saved the women alive? v. 15. He was moved with a holy indignation at the sight of them. These were those that caused the children of Israel to commit this trespass; and therefore, 1. It is just that they should die. The law in case of whoredom was, The adulterer and adulteress should surely be put to death. God had put to death the adulterers of Israel by the plague, and now it was fit that the adulteresses of Midian, especially since they had been the tempters, should be put to death by the sword. 2. "It is dangerous to let them live; they will be still tempting the Israelites to uncleanness, and so your captives will be your conquerors and a second time your destroyers." Severe orders are therefore given that all the grown women should be slain in cold blood, and only the female children spared.
III. They were obliged to purify themselves, according to the ceremony of the law...
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Blue Letter Bible Commentaries
"Num 31:1-6
...Their land was not designed to be given to Israel, nor would Israel have meddled with them if they had not made themselves obnoxious to their resentment by sending their bad women among them to draw them to whoredom and idolatry...
God will have us to reckon those our worst enemies that draw us to sin, and to avoid them; and since every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lusts, and these are the Midianites which ensnare us with their wiles, on them we should avenge ourselves, not only make no league with them, but make war upon them by living a life of mortification. God had taken vengeance on his own people for yielding to the Midianites’ temptations; now the Midianites, that gave the temptation, must be reckoned with, for the deceived and the deceiver are his (Job 12:16), both accountable to his tribunal; and, though judgment begin at the house of God, it shall not end there, 1 Pt. 4:17. ...
Num 31:7-12
...The Midianites’ wiles were Balaam’s projects, it was therefore just that he should perish with them, Hos. 4:5....
Num 31:13-24

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