N31-9: Why Did Moses Order The Death Of All The Young Male Boys After Israel Conquered Midian?

“But Moshe was angry with the army officers, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds coming in from the battlefield. Moshe asked them, “You let the women live?  Why, these are the ones who — because of Bil‘am’s advice — caused the people of Israel to rebel, breaking faith with Adonai in the P‘or incident, so that the plague broke out among Adonai’s community!  “Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has ever slept with a man.  But the young girls who have never slept with a man, keep alive for yourselves.”-Numbers 31:14-18

We are currently in the midst of studying the Israelite raid and swift subsequent slaughter of the Midianites.

Where we’re at now is that the Israelites have just returned back to the camp of Israel with the spoils from their battle.

Currently Israel is camped just a bit east of the Jordan river not too far from Jericho (another major city Israel will soon be taking over).

Upon the Israelites return, instead of a warm welcome however, they come back to find an enraged Moses. 

Why?

Moses was angry because of the captured Midianite women the Israelite soldiers had brought back with them.

These were the same women that had tempted the Israelite men and led them into idolatry resulting in HASHEM slaying 24,000 Israelites.

And let’s not overlook this other little thing that Moses said:

“Why, these are the ones who — because of Balaam’s advice — caused the people of Israel to rebel, breaking faith with Adonai in the P‘or incident, so that the plague broke out among Adonai’s community!”=Numbers 31:16

Moses confirms that indeed it was Balaam who was behind the devious plan to have these pagan women infiltrate the camp of Israel.

Balaam may not have cursed Israel but he caused a heck of enough damage by having the Midianite women infiltrate Israel.

Now what was the reasoning behind sparing the virgin women but executing the non-virgins?

Simple.

It was decreed that only those women who had sexually tempted the Israelites into idolatry (remember sex worship was a key component of ancient idolatrous practices) should be put to death.

A virgin, since she hadn’t had sex with anyone, was deemed innocent of persuading the Hebrew men to worship Chemosh.

Following Moses instructions concerning what to do with the females, we run into another harsh instruction that is a lot harder to swallow.

Moses orders that the young male boys be put to death.

Okay, I know you’re probably squirming now but again this is another one of those things that was typical of ancient tribal cultures.

Let me explain.

In those days, it was considered a male child’s sworn duty to avenge the death of his father, whether that father was the boy’s real flesh-and-blood father or a father figure who had adopted and raised the boy.

Think about it.

The Israelites had just literally slaughtered every one of these boys’ fathers.

Therefore, to let them live was kind of like keeping a pack of pet baby lions and tigers in your home.

They would eventually have to be dealt with when they grew old enough to be able to cause serious danger.

Moses decided to do the smart thing.

Kill them now before they grew to become bitter adults whose only mission in life would be to avenge their fathers.

Another reason is that it is the father’s name who the children inherited and the husband held sole rights to all of his wife’s property.

In killing off these male gentile children now, Moses was ensuring that there wouldn’t be any rebellious male Midianites who might pollute Israel through intermarriage or take away any land that according to Torah was not rightfully their’s.