While evilbible.com condemns what they perceived as the Bible’s approval of rape we must recall that they are merely presenting their opinions, personal preferences, assertion, upon unfounded assertion, upon unfounded assertion, and building a tel of arguments from outrage, arguments from personal incredulity, arguments for embarrassment, etc.
Now, to the relevant portions of the next text in the evilbible.com arsenal, Numbers 31:7-18,
They attacked Midian just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men_Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder_they brought them all to Moses_[who said] the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.
The erudite elucidation of evilbible.com’s author states only, “Clearly Moses and God approves of rape of virgins.”
Yet, again I ask, “Where was the rape?” And again I answer, “In the very, very troubled mind of the evilbible.com’s author.”
This time “Clearly Moses and God approves of rape of virgins” and in part 2 it was “Obviously these women were repeatedly raped.” And yet, not one single rape has been mentioned nor even hinted; at least not if you know the contents of the Bible and do not let your own twisted fantasies interfere by clouding your reason.
The next text is Deuteronomy 20:10-14,
As you approach a town to attack it, first offer its people terms for peace. If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. When the LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town. But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.
The commentary on this text reads, “What kind of God approves of murder, rape, and slavery?” The kind that you cannot absolutely condemn based upon your chosen atheistic worldview.
Let us consider “murder, rape, and slavery”:
Murder: this is war and peace is rejected.
Rape: only present in the troubled mind of evilbible.com’s author.
Slavery: at this point the translation quoted by evilbible.com (New Living Translation) appears to make employ an unnecessary inference into the translation of the Hebrew word `abad as it is translated “forced labor” yet, it means “to work, serve” (Strong’s # H5647).The inference may be that since they accepted a peace settlement and were now indentured to the Israelites they were now “forced labor.”
This strikes me as a hyperbolic inference since, and only since, when we read the Bible for context, that is; in order to actually ascertain what it states and not solely to make an anti-Judeo-Christian point, we consider that pseudo-skeptics have a great misunderstanding about “slavery” in the Bible.
For example, the concept in the text is one that envisions the offer and acceptance of peace and the peacefully conquered coming under tribute as servants-this is tantamount to paying taxes to the new governing body. Moreover, the sort of slavery which most have in mind, the sort practiced by the African Muslims who sold slaves to the USA and others, carried with it the sentence of capital punishment, “He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 21:16).
It is interesting that evilbible.com’s author quoted Deuteronomy 20:10-14; where they to have read even one chapter beyond until Deuteronomy 21:10-14 they would have seen that rape is only envisaged their very troubled minds and not in the text of the Bible. As evidenced in part 2 and along with Numbers 31:19-20 the Bible states:
whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. Purify every garment, everything made of leather, everything woven of goat’s hair, and everything made of wood (Numbers 31:19-20).
This ensures the health of soldier and war captives.The regulations pertaining to the women are as follows; the men were to:Provide them with housing.Allow them one month to mourn.Then they may get married.And if they later divorce, they were to go free and not be mistreated (see Deuteronomy 21:10-14).No rape at all anywhere. Rather, cleansing after a war, the provision of a home, time to mourn, marriage and, if need be, freedom and protection from mistreatment.
Yet, as we shall see, evilbible.com’s author has, in fact, read Deuteronomy 20:10-14 and still does not get it. But we shall come to that in subsequent portions of this parsed essay.