The Tannaïtic Midrash Sifre to Numbers in §157 comments on the above quoted commandment of MOSES to kill the Midianite women as well as the male children...."
"....According to the Tannaïte Rabbis, MOSES therefore had ordered the Israelites to kill all women older than three years and a day, because they were [virgins and] "suitable for having sexual relations." [138]...."
Under God's direction, Moses' army defeats the Midianites. They kill all the adult males, but take the women and children captive as sex slaves. When Moses learns that they left some alive, he angrily says: "Have you saved all the women alive? Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the female children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." So they went back and did as Moses instructed, killing everyone except for the virgins. In this way they got 32,000 virgins . ----(Numbers 31:1-54)
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2007-09-09
14:18:01
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