After the Midianites where defeated (Numbers 31:15)?

Seduction is not a crime but a sin. Numbers 31: 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. The young girls had not been contaminated by the Midianite gods or men.

The women that were killed enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the LORD. Duet. 6: 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

These women would have led the Israelites away from God and their descendants would become Baal worshipers.

Have you ever had or seen a garden overrun with weeds? They smother all other plant life with them. Now I will compare this scripture to one found in 1 Samuel 15:1-3. Questions are often asked concerning the following scripture found In 1 Samuel 15

1 Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.

2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.

3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camels .

In the eyes of God both the weeds and the Amalekites are invasive and will destroy the good plants which represent the children of Israel. As such they must be destroyed! This is the reason the Lord ordered the destruction of not only the male Amalakites, but also the women and children. Their presence within Jewish culture would eventually destroy the children of God. This pervasive force is like yeast.

First, let’s discuss the nature of leaven. It is another word for yeast, a naturally occurring plant. In ancient times, they didn’t know that. What they did know is that if you took flour and water, kneaded it well and left it in a cool place for a long time, the dough would rise. Once the yeast gets into the lump, it spreads throughout the lump without noticeably changing its color. Yeast is both invisible and yet visible, since it does change the shape and texture of the dough.

Gal. 5:9, A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And to the church at Corinth, 1 Cor. 5:6, Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Both scriptures refer to the fact there are those within the body of Christ who will cause great confusion within the church and eventually its destruction. The Amalekites would marry Jews and thus contaminate and lead them away from God,

even the children when they are grown. The Bible confirms this in other scriptures as well. Six other groups also caused problems for the Israelites: Mesopotamians, Canaanites, Midianites, Philistines, Ammonites and the Moabites.

Bro. James

Apostolic pastor

So that their genocide would be complete; the men had already been massacred. If boys were spared, they would eventually father children who would then be considered to be Midianites, and if non-virgin women were spared then they might still harbour Midianite seed. Only virgins would have been considered free of Midianite contamination. In biblical times it seems to have been believed that men planted their "seed" in women, who would then provide a fertile place for it to grow; they do not seem to have known that women had any other contribution.

The command to worship one God in one way only, to the exclusion of all others, seems originally to have been a reflection of uniting a people within their social structure and engendering enmity against other peoples who might compete for, or already possess, desired land and resources, and ‘justification’ for their genocide related in several places in the Bible such as Numbers 31:17-18 "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".

Because Midianites were responsible for enticing Israel into Baal worship, God commanded Israel to destroy them (25:16-18). But Israel took the women captives, rather than killing them, probably because of the tempting enticements of the Midianites' sinful life-style. When we discover sin in our lives we must deal with it completely. When the Israelites later entered the promise land, it was their indifferent attitude to sin that eventually ruined them. Moses dealt with the sin promptly and completely. When God points out sin, move quickly to remove it from your life.

Numbers 31 (Amplified Bible) 15And Moses said to them, Have you let all the women live? 16Behold, these caused the Israelites by the counsel of Balaam to trespass and act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and so a [smiting] plague came among the congregation of the Lord.

17Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who is not a virgin.

18But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.

+++"The Slaughter of the Midianites. (b. c. 1452.)

We have here the triumphant return of the army of Israel from the war with Midian, and here,

I. They were met with great respect, v. 13. Moses himself, notwithstanding his age and gravity, walked out of the camp to congratulate them on their victory, and to grace the solemnity of their triumphs. Public successes should be publicly acknowledged, to the glory of God, and the encouragement of those that have jeoparded their lives in their country's cause.

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, and to abide without the camp seven days, till their purification was accomplished. For, 1. They had imbrued their hands in blood, by which though they had not contracted any moral guilt, the war being just and lawful, yet they were brought under a ceremonial uncleanness, which rendered them unfit to come near the tabernacle till they were purified. Thus God would preserve in their minds a dread and detestation of murder. David must not build the temple because he had been a man of war, and had shed blood, 1 Chron. xxviii. 3. 2. They could not but have touched dead bodies, by which they were polluted, and that required they should be purified with the water of separation, v. 19, 20, 24.

IV. They must likewise purify the spoil they had taken, the captives (v. 19) and all the goods, v. 21-23. What would bear the fire must pass through the fire, and what would not must be washed with water. These things had been use by Midianites, and, having now come into the possession of Israelites, it was fit that they should be sanctified to the service of that holy nation and the honour of their holy God. To us now every thing is sanctified by the word and prayer, if we are sanctified by the Spirit, who is compared both to fire and water. To the pure all things are pure.

They were not non-combatant.

Verse 16 reminds us of the events of Numbers chapters 22 through 25, (much too long to quote here); an ongoing attempt by Midian and Moab to bring a curse upon Israel, from their own God. They'd found a prophet of the same God from Chaldea who repeatedly tried to curse Israel for them, but after failing, he advised them to seduce Israel into fornication and idolatry, to bring a curse upon them:

'1 Now Israel was dwelling in S hit´tim. Then the people started to have immoral relations with the daughters of Mo´ab. 2 And the women came calling the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people began to eat and to bow down to their gods. 3 So Israel attached itself to the Ba´al of Pe´or; and the anger of Jehovah began to blaze against Israel. 4 Hence Jehovah said to Moses: “Take all the head ones of the people and expose them to Jehovah toward the sun, that the burning anger of Jehovah may turn back from Israel.” 5 Then Moses said to the judges of Israel: “Each one of YOU kill his men who have an attachment with the Ba´al of Pe´or.”

6 But, look! a man of the sons of Israel came, and he was bringing near to his brothers a Mid´i·an·ite woman before Moses’ eyes and before the eyes of all the assembly of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phin´e·has the son of El·e·a´zar the son of Aaron the priest caught sight of it, he at once got up from the midst of the assembly and took a lance in his hand. 8 Then he went after the man of Israel into the vaulted tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her genital parts. At that the scourge was halted from upon the sons of Israel. 9 And those who died from the scourge amounted to twenty-four thousand.' - Numbers 25 (NWT)

This attack succeeded and incited God to curse Israel with a plague that killed 24,000 Israelites before the curse was lifted, and it was these women who committed that attack.

Virgins were not killed because they obviously did not participate in the attack, and truly were non-combatant.