The
following quote is taken from evilbible.com:
"More Murder Rape
and Pillage - 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" (Deuteronomy 20:10-14, NLT).
What kind of God approves of murder,
rape, and slavery?"
In examining this passage, it helps
to read the entire chapter of Deuteronomy 20:
We must take several things into
account when examining a passage such as this one. First, the situation described in verses
10-15 are describing a specific response to a specific situation; in this
instance, what the Israelites had to do in case of war against a distant city,
when they came to settle in the land of Canaan that God promised them. Verses 1-9 imply that this is a situation in
which war had already broken out between the distant city and the Israelites,
and an Israelite army had been formed in response.
There is something significant to consider
here: upon approaching a distant city during a time of war, the Israelite army
must first make an offer of peace (verse 10).
They could not simply attack and destroy cities and people wherever and
whenever they wished. There were clear
boundaries set.
We now come to the issue of forced
labor of the city that accepted the peace offering made by the Israelites. Why would such an arrangement be made? One interesting example is found a bit later
in Scripture, in Joshua chapter 9. In
this story, the Gibeonites, a nation who lived close to where the Israelites
would be settling, approached the Israelites first and offered themselves in
order to make a lasting peace treaty.
For the Gibeonites, this was advantageous to them because they would
have an agreement that forever protected them from war with a powerful nation
such as Israel, and they could also have the benefit of Israel's protection in
case of attack by other nations (Joshua 10:1-15). This alliance was taken so seriously that it
was upheld by the two nations for hundreds of years (2 Samuel 21:1-14). The Gibeonites felt that forced labor was a
fair price to pay for their lives to be spared and protected.
If the city did not agree to peace
but demanded war, there were terrible consequences. In this instance, every man in the conquered
city would be killed, to prevent further uprisings and bloodshed between the
two nations. However, the women and
children would be spared. Again, as in
Numbers 31, the text here makes no mention of rape or sexual intercourse. In the Ancient Near East, slavery as a result
of being taken as a prisoner of war was commonplace [1][2][3]. The most likely scenario is that the
conquered women and children became slaves to the Israelites, and the
Israelites would take over their land and property. Had the conquered city made a peace treaty
and accepted the terms of forced labor, they would have been able to keep their
land and property.
Even though slavery was permitted,
there were clear laws prohibiting the gross mistreatment or murder of
slaves. Here are some laws regarding
slavery in the Law (Torah), the first five books of the Bible:
Slaves
could not be forced to work on the Sabbath; they had a day of rest just as free
people did (Exodus 20:10, 23:12; Deuteronomy 5:14).
Slaves
could celebrate at the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles with
their masters (Deuteronomy 16:9-15).
Anyone
who beat a slave to death would be punished (Exodus 21:20).
A
slave must be immediately set free if their master hit and permanently injured
them (Exodus 21:26-27).
The
Israelites had to protect foreign slaves who had escaped from their masters;
they could not turn them in. The former
slaves could then live as free people among them (Deuteronomy 23:15-16).
In short, this passage must be
considered in a historical and cultural context. God set down regulations for times of war to
prevent unnecessary bloodshed, and provided sustenance and protection for those
who were taken captive.
References
[1]
Code of Hammurabi (written circa 1772 BCE), translated into English by
L.W. King (1915) #27-29, 32, 133-135
[2] A History of the Ancient World (Fourth Edition), Chester
G. Starr, 1991. Pg. 43.
[3] Life In The Ancient Near East, Daniel C. Snell, 1997. Pgs. 35-36.
[3] Life In The Ancient Near East, Daniel C. Snell, 1997. Pgs. 35-36.
