The Harlot by The Side of The Road: Forbidden Tales of The Bible by Jonathan Kirsch Page B
Authors: Jonathan Kirsch
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patriarch Jacob is distressed and remorseful over the revenge that his hotheaded sons have taken against the people of Shechem, but Moses and God himself specifically sanction the punishment inflicted on the Midianites.
The tale of the Israelite prince and his Midianite lover is set in the wilderness during the wanderings of the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt. Moses, who is forever caught between a cranky God and the whiny Israelites, confronts yet another incident of backsliding on the part of the Chosen People, who are now “commit[ing] harlotry with the daughters of Moab” and sacrificing at the shrines of their gods (Num. 25:1–9). At the urging of the Almighty, Moses pronounces a death sentence on the Israelites who have strayed into strange shrines or strange beds—some twenty-four thousand Israelites will perish from the plague that God sends down on his Chosen People (Num. 25:9)—and a punitive campaign against the foreigners who have lured them there.
At precisely that moment, one impudent fellow wanders into the camp of the Israelites with his Midianite lady friend in tow. (We are told, by the way, that he is a prince of the tribe of Simeon and thus a direct descendant of Dinah’s brother and avenger.) While the rest of the Israelites watch in horror, the prince and the Midianite woman who “beguiled” him brazenly retire to the tent where Moses and the Almighty conduct their tête-à-têtes. A man named Phinehas emerges from the crowd and follows the amorous couple into the tent, where he manages to spear both of them with one thrust of his weapon (Num. 25:7–9, 14)- Exactly what the man and woman were
doing
when they were both impaled through the belly with a single spear is left to ourimagination, but there is one form of physical encounter between man and woman that nicely explains it. *
The murder of the prince and his lover is enough to halt the plague that is ravaging the camp of the Israelites as a divine punishment for their “harlotry,” but the carnage is not over yet. Not content with the extermination of a single temptress, and apparently overlooking the fact that his own wife and in-laws are Midianites, Moses sends Phinehas and his comrades-in-arms on a mission to kill as many of them as possible-All of the Midianite men are slain, and all of the women and children are taken captive—but the decision to spare the women and “their little ones” turns out to be an act of dubious mercy. Moses is surprised and annoyed at his captains for bringing back so many prisoners of war along with the customary plunder and booty, and he coldly utters a command that we are shocked to hear on the lips of the man who brought down the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai.
“Have ye saved all the women alive?” Moses complains, plainly irritated at the sight of so many potential seducers of Israelite men, so many Midianite mouths to feed. “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones,” he continues, “and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.” Only the virgin girls are allowed to survive, Moses decrees, and they are consigned to his men of war for their own pleasure (Num. 31:15–18).
The slaughter of the Midianites comes as an appalling surprise to most casual Bible readers precisely because the clergy of both Judaism and Christianity have preferred to focus on the kinder and gentler passages of the Holy Scriptures. But the plain fact is that the Bible accommodates both love and hate, mercy and vengeance, life and death, and often in the very same passages. For example, the Book of Leviticus is where we find many of the stern and narrow commandments that are often cited nowadays by fundamentalists of various faiths, including, for example, the biblical decrees against gay sexuality (Lev. 18:22), tattooing (Lev. 19:28), and sorcery (Lev. 19:31, 20:6, 27). The priestlyauthor of Leviticus broadly condemns
all
of the rites and rituals regarded as sacred by the native
The tale of the Israelite prince and his Midianite lover is set in the wilderness during the wanderings of the Israelites after the Exodus from Egypt. Moses, who is forever caught between a cranky God and the whiny Israelites, confronts yet another incident of backsliding on the part of the Chosen People, who are now “commit[ing] harlotry with the daughters of Moab” and sacrificing at the shrines of their gods (Num. 25:1–9). At the urging of the Almighty, Moses pronounces a death sentence on the Israelites who have strayed into strange shrines or strange beds—some twenty-four thousand Israelites will perish from the plague that God sends down on his Chosen People (Num. 25:9)—and a punitive campaign against the foreigners who have lured them there.
At precisely that moment, one impudent fellow wanders into the camp of the Israelites with his Midianite lady friend in tow. (We are told, by the way, that he is a prince of the tribe of Simeon and thus a direct descendant of Dinah’s brother and avenger.) While the rest of the Israelites watch in horror, the prince and the Midianite woman who “beguiled” him brazenly retire to the tent where Moses and the Almighty conduct their tête-à-têtes. A man named Phinehas emerges from the crowd and follows the amorous couple into the tent, where he manages to spear both of them with one thrust of his weapon (Num. 25:7–9, 14)- Exactly what the man and woman were
doing
when they were both impaled through the belly with a single spear is left to ourimagination, but there is one form of physical encounter between man and woman that nicely explains it. *
The murder of the prince and his lover is enough to halt the plague that is ravaging the camp of the Israelites as a divine punishment for their “harlotry,” but the carnage is not over yet. Not content with the extermination of a single temptress, and apparently overlooking the fact that his own wife and in-laws are Midianites, Moses sends Phinehas and his comrades-in-arms on a mission to kill as many of them as possible-All of the Midianite men are slain, and all of the women and children are taken captive—but the decision to spare the women and “their little ones” turns out to be an act of dubious mercy. Moses is surprised and annoyed at his captains for bringing back so many prisoners of war along with the customary plunder and booty, and he coldly utters a command that we are shocked to hear on the lips of the man who brought down the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai.
“Have ye saved all the women alive?” Moses complains, plainly irritated at the sight of so many potential seducers of Israelite men, so many Midianite mouths to feed. “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones,” he continues, “and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.” Only the virgin girls are allowed to survive, Moses decrees, and they are consigned to his men of war for their own pleasure (Num. 31:15–18).
The slaughter of the Midianites comes as an appalling surprise to most casual Bible readers precisely because the clergy of both Judaism and Christianity have preferred to focus on the kinder and gentler passages of the Holy Scriptures. But the plain fact is that the Bible accommodates both love and hate, mercy and vengeance, life and death, and often in the very same passages. For example, the Book of Leviticus is where we find many of the stern and narrow commandments that are often cited nowadays by fundamentalists of various faiths, including, for example, the biblical decrees against gay sexuality (Lev. 18:22), tattooing (Lev. 19:28), and sorcery (Lev. 19:31, 20:6, 27). The priestlyauthor of Leviticus broadly condemns
all
of the rites and rituals regarded as sacred by the native
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