Numbers 31. The pinnacle of christian hipocracy

Salam!
Today we will be discussing a rather interesting topic, the topic of numbers 31 18 and the culpability of the biblical God.
Introduction:
Within Christian and muslim discourse, one common polemic often comes up from hypocritical Christians who have clearly not studied up on their scriptures. The Christian will claim that the prophet, peace be upon him, is a pedafile for marrying Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her. However, not only is this allegation completely false from a scientific and historical angle, it also points to the extreme hipocracy of Christians when they point to this commonly regurgitated polemic.
In this article, we will prove that Christians have absolutely no leg to stand on when they criticize the prophet for this, especially considering the unanswerable command given. With that said, let’s get into it!
Note that I will be writing other articles specifically addressing arguments with regards to the marage of the prophet to Aisha, so follow for those!
Background:
In order to entirely and properly analyze the command given, we must first establish the context given within the passage. Let’s go through it.
The text is in numbers 31. 1-18
1 The Lord said to Moses,
2 “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”
3 So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites so that they may carry out the Lord’s vengeance on them.
4 Send into battle a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel.”
5 So twelve thousand men armed for battle, a thousand from each tribe, were supplied from the clans of Israel.
6 Moses sent them into battle, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, who took with him articles from the sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling.
7 They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man.
8 Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.
9 The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder.
10 They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps.
11 They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals,
12 and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.
13 Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp.
14 Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.
15 “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them.
16 “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people.
17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,
18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
Analyzing the hebrew word taph, children:
The Hebrew word taph, actually makes an appearance in verse 17 of the chapter, which reads, Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man. However, it also appears in the very next verse. Let us take a look at the word and what it means.
According to New American Standard Old Testament lexicon, the word taph means:
children, little children, little ones.
Strongs Hebrew lexicon defines it as:
(perhaps referring to the tripping gait of children); a family (mostly used collectively in the singular):–(little) children (ones), families.
An English and Hebrew Lexicon, by Professor Selig Newman, defines the word as:
“CHILD , an INFANT … טַף… an offspring.
We can also look throughout the old testament and see how the word, taph, is used.
The word is used 42 times within the old testament, so let’s go through some of the times it is used from the first 5 books of Moses.
Genesis 34:29, They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taph, taking as plunder everything in the houses.
Exitus 12:37, The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children, taph.
Numbers 14:3, "Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones, taph, will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?"
Numbers 14:31, ‘Your children, taph, however, whom you said would become a prey -I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected.
Numbers 16:27, So they got back from around the dwellings of Korah, Dathan and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the doorway of their tents, along with their wives and their sons and their little ones, taph.
Dute. 1:39, ‘Moreover, your little ones, taph, who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it.
We can see that the word used clearly and contextually means children, or little ones.
Now let us analyze what the second part of the command means.
The Hebrew word lachem, for yourselves:
We have come to a conclusion that the female children are the ones being taken here. However, it is important to analyze the word, lachem, for yourselves, in order to properly identify what this means:
A complete Hebrew and English critical and pronouncing dictionary – Professor William L. Roy: gives the following definitions for the word lachem.
1 He ate, devoured; 2 partook of, participated; 3 accepted, received; 4 sustained, preserved; 5 CONSUMED, DEVOURED, swallowed up.
Hebrew English Lexicon defines the word as:
EAT, feast upon, DEVOUR with consummed of fever.
A Manual Hebrew And English Lexicon defines the word as:
to EAT, CONSUME; to war.
Now let us look at some examples of the word being used in the old testament and see what they mean.
Genesis 3:19, By the sweat of your brow you will eat, lachem, your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.
Proverbs 4:17, They eat, lachem, the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Proverbs 23:6, Do not eat, lachem, the food of a stingy man; don’t be greedy for his delicacies.
Dute. 32:24, they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured, lachem, by plague and poisonous pestilence; I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.
Culpability of the biblical God:
It is entirely clear, from a Hebrew and old testament analysis, that the people being taken are children, and there is no other action that makes sense apart from that of a sexual action being done to them. However, Christians are quick to point out that it was Moses who issued the command, and not God, and therefore the biblical God is not culpable for this command. We will seak to establish several reasons why the biblical God is still to blaim here.
Silence:
Within the bible, we see that people are punished for a variety of reasons. For instance, in genesis 38, verses 8-10, a man is struck down by God for spilling his semen on the ground during intercourse with his wife. We will not be arguing that this action is unjust, however with this in mind, we must ask ourselves. If spilling your semen warrents such a punishment, how come the biblical God didn’t punish Moses for this horrific act? Why didn’t God issue not one statement of condemnation to Moses after this act? In fact, read on to see why he did the exact opposite.
The plunder:
As we return to numbers 31, we find something rather interesting that God says.
Let’s examine numbers 31, 25-31.
25 The Lord said to Moses,
26 “You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the community are to count all the people and animals that were captured.
27 Divide the spoils equally between the soldiers who took part in the battle and the rest of the community.
28 From the soldiers who fought in the battle, set apart as tribute for the Lord one out of every five hundred, whether people, cattle, donkeys or sheep.
29 Take this tribute from their half share and give it to Eleazar the priest as the Lord’s part.
30 From the Israelites’ half, select one out of every fifty, whether people, cattle, donkeys, sheep or other animals. Give them to the Levites, who are responsible for the care of the Lord’s tabernacle.”
31 So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses.
As you can see, the biblical God is giving instructions for what to do with what has been captured. Not only did he not reproach Moses for the command, he even instructed the Israelites on what to do with what has been taken as a result of it, including the vergin girls, showing that the biblical God did not view what Moses did as sinful.
Early historians and scholars interpretations:
We will now go through some scholars, professors, and historians interpreting the command to have a sexual undertone.
The ‘Voice’ Translation of the Bible which was produced by a two dozen or more scholars and pastors, gives the following rendering of numbers 31:18.
As for the virgins, you can take them, as you DESIRE.”
Shaye J. D. Cohen who is the Littauer Professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations of Harvard University, says the following about numbers 31:18.
“Moses enjoins upon the returning warriors to kill their Midianite female captives who have lain with a man, but ‘spare for yourselves every young woman who has not had carnal relations with a man’; WE MAY BE SURE THAT ‘FOR YOURSELVES MEANS THAT THE WARRIORS MAY ‘USE’ THEIR VIRGIN CAPTIVES SEXUALLY.
Answering objections:
In this section of the article, we will be going through 3 objections raised by Christians in an attempt to answer this unanswerable, horrific and embarrassing passage within the old testament.
Objection: The children weren’t taken for sexual reasons, rather they were taken as slaves.
Answer: This objection is the most common one, so its only right to cover it first.
There are 2 issues with the argument that the children were taken as slaves. The first is that it does not match with the hebrew word lachem, which as previously established, means to eat, consume, or devour. The second issue is that this does not solve the problem posed. The argument here is that children were taken and used for sexual intercourse. The children being taken as slave girls, even if true, does not solve this problem, as there are laws that allow sex with slaves.
Lev. 19:20 states:
“‘If a man sleeps with a female slave who is promised to another man but who has not been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. Yet they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed.
Exitus 21:7-8 says:
7 “If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do.
8 If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her.
Objection: The fact that God instructed the people about what to do with the plunder does not prove that he endorsed the command given by Moses. God often works with the sins of the people, despite not condoning, or endorsing, the sin itself. yet, God still works with them. For instance, God worked with the sins of Israel in 1 Samuel 8 when they asked for a king. This does not mean he endorsed it, but he worked with it and used it for the greater good.
Answer: The issue with this argument is that in every case where the Israelites, prophets, particular kings, or any example in which God worked with their sins, it is clearly stated that the action committed is in fact sinful.
For instance, in 1 samuel 8, both God and Samuel warn the people that their request for a king is a bad idea. There is no such explicit statement by God, or anyone else, calling the orders of Moses in numbers 31 sinful.
Objection: God was silent about what happened in numbers 31 because Moses was already dumed to die. Numbers 20:12 reads, But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.” This is also repeated in dute. 32:48-52. God has already told Moses that he will die, so there is no reason for God to punish him even more.
Answer: Several issues with this one. The first is that it is not unreasonable for God to punish him even more, or at the very least condemn him for this. If a prisoner who has been sentenced to life in prison, and commits another crime worthy of the death penalty, he should be punished even more and be sentenced to death. The argument that he should not be punished since he has already been sentenced to die in jail is purely illogical.
The second issue is that Moses was not the only guilty party in this situation. The soldiers were also guilty, yet they also received no punishment. The high priest, who gave the soldiers instructions to purify themselves after their mass killing and sexual pleasure, received no punishment. Why didn’t God punish them also?
The third and final issue with this argument is that if Moses died in this state, as a sinner and mass murderer, then it is guaranteed that Moses would be in hell. However, the bible completely contradicts this in the following passage from the new testament.
Let’s take a look at Luke 9, verses 28-31.
28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.
29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus.
31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
These verses make it impossible that Moses would be in hell, as he spoke with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration.
Conclusion:
Now that we’ve analyzed every part of the command, we can conclude that Moses, and the biblical God, are to blaim for the mass murder of thousands of children, and the taking of vergin girls for sexual pleasure. This would indefinitely prove that Moses, and the biblical God commanded, endorsed, and encouraged pedafilia on a wide-spread scale. If Christians would like to call our prophet a pedafile, they should be using that exact same language for Moses, and of course, their God.