Quote:
Originally Posted by moabite
In numbers 31:17-18, God told the army through moses to kill all the women and children who have had intimate relations with others, but, he said, "keep alive for yourselves all the young girls who have not had sexual intercourse" . now some people would interpret that as; God wasn't telling the army to keep them for sex, but that they were just slaves and to be raised up right without fornication. is that a right interpretion. Was God telling them that could do whatever they wanted with the young girls as someone would with their wife ?
please provide proof with your answer because my faith is on the borderline of abandonment.
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There's no "interpretation" to be done. The Bible says, keep alive for yourselves. There is no scriptural justification for insisting that they were "just slaves and to be raised up right without fornication".
Sex is only for procreation, so there is also no reason to assume that any of the men went in unto any of the captive girls until they were breeding age. Therefore, there was probably no pedophilia here.
Scripture doesn't go into detail as to the fate of these girls, but the most reasonable conclusion is that once they were old enough, the men bred with them, and their offspring were integrated into Hebrew society.
I hope this helps.
Pastor Billy-Reuben