Chastity , also known as purity , is a virtue related to temperance . Someone who is chaste refrains from sexual activity that is considered immoral or from any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when making a vow of chastity , chastity means celibacy .
125-728: Numbers 31 is the 31st chapter of the Book of Numbers , the fourth book of the Pentateuch ( Torah ), the central part of the Hebrew Bible ( Old Testament ), a sacred text in Judaism and Christianity . Scholars such as Israel Knohl and Dennis T. Olson name this chapter the War against the Midianites . Set in the southern Transjordanian regions of Moab and Midian , it narrates
250-477: A 'tribute' or 'levy' that is 'offered' or 'contributed' to Yahweh: Some scholars have concluded that these 32 human virgins were to be sacrificed to Yahweh as a burnt offering along with the animals. For example, in 1854, Carl Falck-Lebahn compared the incident with the near-sacrifice of Iphigenia in Greek mythology , claiming: "According to Levit. xxvii, 29, sacrifices of human victims were clearly established among
375-636: A coercion Allah is certainly All-Forgiving, Most Merciful ˹to them˺. Chastity is mandatory in Islam. Sex outside legitimacy is prohibited, for both men and women, whether married or unmarried. The injunctions and forbiddings in Islam apply equally to men and women. The legal punishment for adultery is equal for men and women. The prophet's prescription to the youth was: "O young people! Whoever among you can marry, should marry, because it helps him lower his gaze and guard his modesty (i.e. his private parts from committing illegal sexual intercourse etc.), and whoever
500-604: A daughter of an 'honorable family' to disgrace and destroy Israel. Hamilton (2005) concluded that Yahweh commanded holy war against Midian "in retaliation for the latter's seduction of Israel into acts of harlotry and idolatry". Olson (2012) stated: "The inclusion of the women of Midian in enticing the Israelites into the worship of an alien god became the reason that justified the later assault against Midian in Numbers 31." He also pointed to Psalm 106 :28–31, which claims that
625-669: A great reward. Because the sex desire is usually attained before a man is financially capable of marriage, the love to God and mindfulness of Him should be sufficient motive for chastity: And let those who do not have the means to marry keep themselves chaste until Allah enriches them out of His bounty. And if any of those ˹bondspeople˺ in your possession desires a deed of emancipation, make it possible for them, if you find goodness in them. And give them some of Allah’s wealth which He has granted you. Do not force your ˹slave˺ girls into prostitution for your own worldly gains while they wish to remain chaste. And if someone coerces them, then after such
750-509: A holy cause, and are required to cleanse themselves afterwards to restore their ritual purity. The Israelite campaign against Midian was blessed by Yahweh, and could therefore be considered a holy war . Simultaneously, however, the Israelite soldiers are said to be defiled by the killing, and in need of a seven-day purification of their bodies, clothes and metal possessions, and to require "atonement for ourselves before Yahweh" (verse 50). Thus,
875-517: A later editor to create a connection between Moab and Midian. Martin Noth argued that the author of chapter 31 was probably aware of the combined non-P/P(H) text (with the Moabite–Midianite connection) in chapter 25, and probably knew the entire composite Pentateuch, therefore Numbers 31 was written in whole or in part by an author writing later than regular P. Israel Knohl (1995) argued Numbers 31
1000-423: A man and a woman. In addition to reserving sexual intimacy for marriage, we obey the law of chastity by controlling our thoughts, words, and actions. Jesus Christ taught, "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" ( Matthew 5:27–28 )." Teachings of
1125-480: A man are clean slates in terms of their identity, unmarked by the enemy, and, after a period of purification, can be absorbed into the people Israel." Hamilton in 2005 called Numbers 31 a "gruesome chapter, where only young virgin girls may be spared ..., and not even young boys are exempted". He argued that the two major concerns of Number 31 are the idea that war is a defiling activity, but Israelite soldiers need to be ritually pure, so they may only fight wars for
1250-417: A man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." Next, Moses and Eleazar instructed the soldiers to ritually cleanse and purify themselves, the captives and all objects they had over a period of seven days. Objects mentioned are the clothes, all objects of leather, goat hair and wood, and all metal objects, specifying that all fireproof objects had to be cleansed by both fire and water,
1375-520: A marked departure from these regulations according to Olson. He concluded: "Many aspects of this holy war text may be troublesome to a contemporary reader. But understood within the symbolic world of the ancient writers of Numbers, the story of the war against the Midianites is a kind of dress rehearsal that builds confidence and hope in anticipation of the actual conquest of Canaan that lay ahead." Ken Brown in 2015 stated: "This command to kill all but
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#17327661845421500-626: A new line, while "closed" sections never start at the beginning of a new line. Another division of the biblical books found in the Masoretic Text is the division into sedarim . This division is not thematic, but is almost entirely based upon the quantity of text. For the Torah , this division reflects the triennial cycle of reading that was practiced by the Jews of the Land of Israel. During
1625-571: A new plague as a punishment for Zimri fraternising with Kozbi, or violating the sanctity of the Tabernacle . After the Israelite victory over the Midianites six chapters later, Moses is said to have made the following connection: "[The Midianite women] were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to Yahweh in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck Yahweh's people." This contradicts verses 25:1–3, which states
1750-484: A page or so in length. Since the mid-16th century, editors have further subdivided each chapter into verses – each consisting of a few short lines or of one or more sentences. In the King James Version (KJV) Esther 8:9 is the longest verse and John 11:35 is the shortest. Sometimes a sentence spans more than one verse, as in the case of Ephesians 2:8 – 9 , and sometimes there is more than one sentence in
1875-654: A reference to Aristotle 's Nicomachean Ethics : "Chastity takes its name from the fact that reason 'chastises' concupiscence, which, like a child, needs curbing, as the Philosopher states". For many Jews , Christians , and Muslims , people should restrict their acts of a sexual nature to the context of marriage . For unmarried people, chastity is equivalent to sexual abstinence . Sexual acts outside of or apart from marriage, such as adultery , fornication , masturbation , and prostitution , are considered immoral due to lust . In many Christian traditions, chastity
2000-531: A sign for all peoples. screening herself off from them. Then We sent to her Our angel, ˹Gabriel,˺ appearing before her as a man, perfectly formed. She appealed, “I truly seek refuge in the Most Compassionate from you! ˹So leave me alone˺ if you are God-fearing.” He responded, “I am only a messenger from your Lord, ˹sent˺ to bless you with a pure son.” She wondered, “How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me, nor am I unchaste?” Extramarital sex
2125-544: A single verse, as in the case of Genesis 1:2 . The Jewish divisions of the Hebrew text differ at various points from those used by Christians . For instance, Jewish tradition regards the ascriptions to many Psalms as independent verses or as parts of the subsequent verses, whereas established Christian practice treats each Psalm ascription as independent and unnumbered, resulting in 116 more verses in Jewish versions than in
2250-530: A woman or a foreigner, nor are she and Zimri accused of sexual transgression; they are both simply people from categories forbidden to encroach on the Tabernacle. Only the fact that she is a Midianite princess is used as a pretext for the war against the Midianites. Based on his exegesis of Joshua 24:9, Ellicott (1905) argued that Balaam's curse against Israel and the war in Numbers 31 were two separate acts of hostility initiated by Balak. However, he admits that
2375-478: Is a source of scholarly confusion. It is not clear from chapter 25 alone whether Kozbi – as a Midianite – had anything to do with the Moabites, nor whether she had sex with Zimri, nor whether he had started worshipping other gods because of her, as other Israelite men had with Moabite women according to verse 25:1. Nor is it clear whether she spread an existing plague to the Israelites, or that Yahweh cursed them with
2500-546: Is expected, with extramarital sex and adultery being prohibited. The teachings of Buddhism include the Noble Eightfold Path , comprising a division called right action . Under the Five Precepts ethical code, upāsaka and upāsikā lay followers should abstain from sexual misconduct, while bhikkhu and bhikkhuni monastics should practice strict chastity. The Five Precepts of
2625-536: Is forbidden. The Quran says: Do not go near adultery. It is truly a shameful deed and an evil way. ˹They are˺ those who do not invoke any other god besides Allah, nor take a ˹human˺ life—made sacred by Allah—except with ˹legal˺ right, nor commit fornication. And whoever does ˹any of˺ this will face the penalty. Their punishment will be multiplied on the Day of Judgment, and they will remain in it forever, in disgrace. As for those who repent, believe, and do good deeds, they are
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#17327661845422750-445: Is not able to marry, should fast, as fasting diminishes his sexual power." Chastity is an attitude and a way of life. In Islam it is both a personal and a social value. A Muslim society should not condone relations entailing or conducive to sexual license. Social patterns and practices calculated to inflame sexual desire are frowned upon by Islam, such incitements to immorality including permissive ideologies, titillating works of art, and
2875-660: Is often given credit for first dividing the Latin Vulgate into chapters in the real sense, but it is the arrangement of his contemporary and fellow cardinal Stephen Langton who in 1205 created the chapter divisions which are used today. They were then inserted into Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 16th century. Robert Estienne (Robert Stephanus) was the first to number the verses within each chapter, his verse numbers entering printed editions in 1551 (New Testament) and 1553 (Hebrew Bible). The division of
3000-458: Is placed opposite the deadly sin of lust, and is classified as one of seven virtues . The moderation of sexual desires is also required to be virtuous. Reason, will, and desire can harmoniously work together to do what is good. As an emblem of inward chastity, some Christians choose to wear a cord, girdle or a cincture of one of the several Confraternities of the Cord or a purity ring . The cord
3125-456: Is strictly forbidden. However, it is encouraged to marry and live as a family unit to provide and nurture children for the perpetual benefit of creation (as opposed to sannyasa or living as a monk, which was, and remains, a common spiritual practice in India). A Sikh is encouraged not to live as a recluse, beggar, monk, nun, celibate, or in any similar vein. The Jain ethical code contains
3250-448: Is synonymous with purity . The Catholic Church teaches that chastity involves, in the words of cardinal bishop Alfonso López Trujillo , "the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being", which according to one's marital status requires either having no sexual relationship, or only having sexual relations with one's spouse. In Western Christian morality, chastity
3375-462: Is unable to confirm either way. The narrative of Numbers 31 specifically is one out of many in the Hebrew Bible seeking to establish the Israelites as the chosen people of the god Yahweh, who blessed them with victory in battle, health and prosperity, as long as they were faithful to his commands. This second generation of Israelites suffered not a single casualty throughout Numbers 26–36, while
3500-407: Is worn as a symbol of chastity in honour of a chaste saint whom the bearer asks for intercession. The purity ring is worn before holy matrimony by those who marry or for the rest of their lives by those who stay single. In marriage, the spouses commit to a lifelong relationship that excludes sexual intimacy with other persons. A third form of chastity, often called "vidual chastity", is expected by
3625-515: The Aleppo codex ), an "open" section may also be represented by a blank line, and a "closed" section by a new line that is slightly indented (the preceding line may also not be full). These latter conventions are no longer used in Torah scrolls and printed Hebrew Bibles. In this system, the one rule differentiating "open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must always start at the beginning of
3750-667: The Binding of Isaac and the extermination of the Amalekites were immoral divine commandments in the Old Testament, and recalled the previous debate: "The Bishop of Llandaff , in an argument with Thomas Paine , once said, 'Well, when it says keep the women,' as Paine had pointed out, he said, 'I'm sure God didn't mean just to keep them for immoral purposes.' But what does the Bishop of Llandaff know about that? It says, 'Kill all
3875-601: The Dead Sea Scrolls used parashot divisions, although they differ slightly from the Masoretic divisions. The Hebrew Bible was also divided into some larger sections. In Israel, the Torah (its first five books) were divided into 154 sections so that they could be read through aloud in weekly worship over the course of three years. In Babylonia, it was divided into 53 or 54 sections ( Parashat ha-Shavua ) so it could be read through in one year. The New Testament
Numbers 31 - Misplaced Pages Continue
4000-460: The East Roman (Byzantine) era, the church also introduced a concept roughly similar to chapter divisions, called kephalaia (singular kephalaion , literally meaning heading ). This system, which was in place no later than the 5th century, is not identical to the present chapters. Unlike the modern chapters, which tend to be of roughly similar length, the distance from one kephalaion mark to
4125-455: The Hebrew alphabet . Peh (פ) indicated an "open" paragraph that began on a new line, while Samekh (ס) indicated a "closed" paragraph that began on the same line after a small space. These two letters begin the Hebrew words open ( p atuach ) and closed ( s atum ), and are, themselves, open in shape (פ) and closed (ס). The earliest known copies of the Book of Isaiah from
4250-590: The Latin adjective castus ("cut off", "separated", "pure"). The words entered the English language around the middle of the 13th century. Chaste meant "virtuous", "pure from unlawful sexual intercourse" or (from the early 14th century on) as a noun, a virgin, while chastity meant "(sexual) purity". Thomas Aquinas links castus (chastity) to the Latin verb castigo ("chastise, reprimand, correct"), with
4375-539: The Levitical priesthood , soldiers and Yahweh . Much scholarly and religious controversy exists surrounding the authorship, meaning and ethics of this chapter of Numbers. It is closely connected to Numbers 25. The majority of modern biblical scholars believe that the Torah (the books of Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers, and Deuteronomy , written in Classical Hebrew ) reached its present form in
4500-505: The Mesha Stele as evidence that the neighbouring Moabites performed human sacrifices with prisoners of war to their god Chemosh after successfully attacking an Israelite city in the 9th century BCE. Before the 7th-century BCE reformers of king Josiah of the southern Kingdom of Judah tried to end the practice of human/child sacrifice, it appears to have been commonplace in Israelite military culture. Other scholars have concluded that
4625-480: The Nineteenth Dynasty's occupation and rule over Canaan under pharaoh Ramesses II (r. 1279–1213 BCE), they say there is no indication that this included all so-called "Proto-Israelites", most of whom would have experienced Egyptian rule inside Canaan itself in the late 13th century BCE. Na'aman argued that the existing narrative in the collective Hebrew memory of Egyptian rule "was remodeled according to
4750-612: The Synod of Elvira proscribed clergy from marrying. This was unevenly enforced until the Second Lateran Council in 1139 when it found its way into canon law . Unmarried deacons promise celibacy to their local bishop when ordained. Eastern Catholic priests are permitted to marry, provided they do so before ordination and outside monastic life. Vows of chastity can be taken either as part of an organised religious life (such as Roman Catholic Beguines and Beghards in
4875-457: The colon (:) of English and Latin orthography. With the advent of the printing press and the translation of the Hebrew Bible into English, versifications were made that correspond predominantly with the existing Hebrew sentence breaks, with a few isolated exceptions. Most attribute these to Rabbi Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus 's work for the first Hebrew Bible concordance around 1440. The first person to divide New Testament chapters into verses
5000-445: The post-Exilic period (i.e., after c. 520 BCE), based on pre-existing written and oral traditions, as well as contemporary geographical and political realities. Numbers is a Priestly redaction (i.e., editing) of a non-Priestly original. Scholars generally recognise that mentions of the Midianites in chapters Numbers 22–24 are secondary Priestly (P) additions. They also generally agree that Numbers 25:1–5 contains an earlier version of
5125-458: The "camp on the plains of Moab , by the Jordan across from Jericho ", where Moses and Eleazar received them. Moses was angry that the soldiers had left all women alive, saying: "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to Yahweh in the Peor incident, so a plague struck Yahweh's people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with
Numbers 31 - Misplaced Pages Continue
5250-614: The 2006 documentary The Root of All Evil? Part 2: The Virus of Faith , Richard Dawkins condemned Moses' acts in Numbers 31, asking: "How is this story of Moses morally distinguishable from Hitler 's rape of Poland , or Saddam Hussein 's massacre of the Kurds and the Marsh Arabs ?" He contrasted this behaviour with Moses' own Commandment of ' Thou shalt not kill '. Seth Andrews wrote in Deconverted (2012) that Numbers 31
5375-557: The Bible have eliminated numbering of chapters and verses. Biblica published such a version of the NIV in 2007 and 2011. In 2014, Crossway published the ESV Reader's Bible and Bibliotheca published a modified ASV. Projects such as Icthus also exist which strip chapter and verse numbers from existing translations. The number of words can vary depending upon aspects such as whether
5500-400: The Bible in the early 13th century. It is the system of Archbishop Langton on which the modern chapter divisions are based. While chapter divisions have become nearly universal, editions of the Bible have sometimes been published without them. Such editions, which typically use thematic or literary criteria to divide the biblical books instead, include John Locke's Paraphrase and Notes on
5625-483: The Bible into chapters and verses has received criticism from some traditionalists and modern scholars. Critics state that the text is often divided in an incoherent way, or at inappropriate rhetorical points, and that it encourages citing passages out of context. Nevertheless, the chapter and verse numbers have become indispensable as technical references for both Bible study and theological discussion among everyone from scholars to laypeople. Several modern publications of
5750-530: The Bible is what you call it—a book of lies, wickedness, and blasphemy" ... The women-children were not reserved for the purposes of debauchery, but of slavery;—a custom abhorrent from our manners, but every where practiced in former times, and still practiced in countries where the benignity of the Christian religion has not softened the ferocity of human nature. Debating Baptist minister Al Sharpton in 2007, atheist writer Christopher Hitchens argued that
5875-430: The Christian texts. Some chapter divisions also occur in different places, e.g. Hebrew Bibles have 1 Chronicles 5:27–41 where Christian translations have 1 Chronicles 6:1–15 . Early manuscripts of the biblical texts did not contain the chapter and verse divisions in the numbered form familiar to modern readers. In antiquity Hebrew texts were divided into paragraphs ( parashot ) that were identified by two letters of
6000-593: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints also include that sexual expression within marriage is an important dimension of spousal bonding apart from, but not necessarily avoiding, its procreative result. The most famous personal example of chastity in the Quran is the Virgin Mary (Mariam) : And ˹remember˺ the one who guarded her chastity, so We breathed into her through Our angel, ˹Gabriel,˺ making her and her son
6125-742: The Epistles of St. Paul (1707), Alexander Campbell's The Sacred Writings (1826), Daniel Berkeley Updike's fourteen-volume The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha, Richard Moulton's The Modern Reader's Bible (1907), Ernest Sutherland Bates's The Bible Designed to Be Read as Living Literature (1936), The Books of the Bible (2007) from the International Bible Society ( Biblica ), Adam Lewis Greene's five-volume Bibliotheca (2014), and
6250-420: The Hebrew Bible does not sufficiently indicate whether this was the case. Balak's motives for waging war against Israel range from pure hatred to self-defense. Susan Niditch explained in 1995 that the 'priestly ideology of war in Numbers 31' regarded all enemies as unclean, and therefore 'deserving of God's vengeance', except those still in possession of feminine virginity: "Female children who have not lain with
6375-636: The Hebrew alphabet in Psalm 119, the superscriptions listed in some of the Psalms, and the subscripts traditionally found at the end of the Pauline epistles, are included. Except where stated, the following apply to the King James Version of the Bible in its modern 66-book Protestant form including the New Testament and the protocanonical Old Testament, not the deuterocanonical books . (Prophecy) Unchastity The words chaste and chastity stem from
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#17327661845426500-477: The Hebrew noun מָ֫עַל ma-‘al used in verse 31:16 for 'encroachment', which has the connotation of 'close proximity' and 'violation of priestly authority'. According to Shectman, the resulting combination of לִמְסָר־ מַ֥עַל lim-sār-ma-‘al means "to instigate sacrilege/trespass". In several other places in the Book of Numbers (e.g. 18:5–7), the stated punishment for encroachment on certain parts of
6625-419: The Israelite soldiers in Numbers 31:19 is also used to argue that the Israelites recognized war as being "destructive". In The Age of Reason (1795), Thomas Paine wrote about the chapter: "Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world would have disgraced the name of man, it is impossible to find a greater than Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher the boys, to massacre
6750-677: The Israelites and told them to "treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them". The next four chapters say nothing about the Incident at Peor, except that the plague had passed (Numbers 26:1). Yahweh instructed Moses and his priest Eleazar to take a census amongst the Israelites (Numbers 26), settled an inheritance dispute and the future succession of Moses by Joshua (Numbers 27), instructed the Israelites how to conduct certain sacrifices and festivals (Numbers 28–29), and regulated vows between men and women, and fathers and daughters (Numbers 30). In verses 1 and 2, Yahweh reminded Moses to take revenge on
6875-467: The Israelites panicked when Moses entered the Tabernacle, fearing they were all going to die. She concluded that Numbers 25:6–18 served three purposes: illustrating the encroachment law, legitimising Phinehas' ascendancy to the high priesthood, and justifying the War against the Midianites in Numbers 31. Unlike the non-P text in 25:1–5, there is no indication that there is anything particularly wrong with Kozbi as
7000-425: The Israelites through Moses to execute vengeance and divide the spoils, the Israelite soldiers obey, then do more than Yahweh commanded (extension); the purification is the only action that happens only once and functions as a bridge between the two series. Both Olson and Brown noted that Moses is portrayed as remarkably passive in chapter 25 and, as he was failing to solve the problem, Phinehas had to intervene and take
7125-403: The Israelites waging war against the Midianites, commanded by Phinehas and Moses . They killed the men, including their five kings and Balaam , burnt their settlements and took captive the women, children and livestock. Moses commanded the Israelites to kill the boys and women who had sex with men and spare the virgin girls for themselves. The spoils of war were then divided between Eleazar ,
7250-610: The Israelitish women', thus warranting their execution in Numbers 31:13-18. Sarah Shectman argued in 2009 that Zimri and Kozbi were not guilty of sexual transgressions at all; sex with a foreigner is never even considered a capital offence by the Holiness code (H). Rather, they had come too close to the holy Tabernacle , also called the 'Tent of the Congregation'. She based this on the Hebrew verb מָסַר masar and
7375-558: The Jews." After recounting the story of Jephthah's daughter in Judges 11 , he reasoned: "the Jews (according to Numbers, chap 31) took 61,000 asses, 72,000 oxen, 675,000 sheep, and 32,000 virgins (whose fathers, mothers, brothers &c., were butchered). There were 16,000 girls for the soldiers, 16,000 for the priests; and on the soldiers' share there was levied a tribute of 32 virgins for the Lord. What became of them? The Jews had no nuns. What
7500-590: The Levites, who were responsible for the care of Yahweh's tabernacle . Some of the Midianite golden jewellery plundered during the war (combined weight: about 418 pounds/190 kilograms) was also offered as a gift to Yahweh "to make atonement for ourselves before Yahweh". The scholarly consensus is that this war did not take place, certainly not as narrated. Within the wider context of the Exodus , there probably never
7625-650: The Midianite priest Jethro / Reuel / Hobab acted positively towards Yahweh in Exodus chapter 12, and his daughter Zipporah became Moses' wife (Exodus 2:21). Scholars find it difficult to explain how Moses commanded the Israelites to exterminate and enslave the entire Midianite people while having a Midianite wife and father-in-law. Numbers 31 and similar biblical episodes are sometimes referred to in religious morality debates between apologists and critics of religion . Rabbi and scholar Shaye J. D. Cohen (1999) argued that "the implications of Numbers 31:17–18 are unambiguous ... we may be sure that for yourselves means that
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#17327661845427750-499: The Midianite women (or rather, a single Midianite woman, who had already been slain) did, has puzzled scholars. Knohl (1995) argued that the original non-P text (preserved in 25:1–5) had Moabite women as the main characters, but the DH editor (seeking to legitimise Phinehas and his descendants' claims to the priesthood) replaced them with Midianite women in a sloppy manner so that the resulting new text (25:6–18 and all of chapter 31) confused
7875-495: The Midianite women to seduce the Israelite men to sexual immorality and idolatry in the same manner as he had previously done with the Moabite women. The execution of Midianite women who had had sex with (Israelite) men was therefore a just punishment for 'compromising the men of Israel', while turning prisoners into sex slaves was supposedly 'inconsistent with the many other laws against sexual immorality'. Berea concluded that making
8000-617: The Midianites as instructed in Numbers 25:16–18, as his last act before his death. Accordingly, Moses instructed a thousand men of each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel – 12,000 in total, under Phinehas' leadership – to attack Midian. The Israelite soldiers are narrated to have killed all Midianite men, including the five kings, as well as the sorcerer Balaam. According to verse 49, the Israelites themselves suffered zero casualties. All Midianite towns and camps were burnt; all Midianite women, children and livestock were deported as captives to
8125-408: The Moabites. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown added that Yahweh wanted to spare the Moabites because they were the descendants of Lot (Deuteronomy 2:9). Victor P. Hamilton concluded in 2005 that Yahweh commanded holy war against Midian "in retaliation for the latter's seduction of Israel into acts of harlotry and idolatry". Johann Peter Lange believed that young Midianite boys were also guilty of 'corrupting
8250-586: The Priestly Torah (PT) text, such as the wrath of God, which is mentioned several times by HS but never by PT. Some scholars think that the added text was written at a time when the priestly line of Phinehas' descendants was being challenged. The Book of Numbers traces the origins of the Israelite–Midianite conflict in Chapters 22 through 25. The Israelites, travelling from Egypt and encamping on
8375-518: The Rabbis interpret Balaam as responsible for the behavior during the Heresy of Peor , which they consider to have been unchastity , and consequently the death of 24,000 victims of the plague which God sent as punishment. When Balaam saw that he could not curse the children of Israel, the Rabbis assert that he advised Balak, as a last resort, to tempt the Hebrew nation to immoral acts and, through these, to
8500-451: The Tabernacle by non-Israelites or non-Levite Israelites is death. Shectman also noted that Numbers 8:19 claimed that a "plague will strike the Israelites when they go near the sanctuary", and in Numbers 16:42–50 (or Numbers 17:7–15 in some Bible editions), this actually happened and 14,700 Israelites died of a plague before Aaron stopped it by making an incense offering to Yahweh. In an incident soon after (Numbers 17:10–13 or Numbers 17:25–28),
8625-481: The allotment of the spoils", while "the actual battle is summarized in two verses". The Israelite soldiers' actions closely followed the holy war regulations set out in Deuteronomy 20:14: "You may, however, take as your booty the women, the children, livestock, and everything else in the town, all its spoil", but in this case, Moses was angry because he also wanted the male children and non-virgin women to be killed,
8750-416: The apostasy and plague recounted in Numbers 25, and commentators have generally accepted that explanation and concluded that the text portrays the utter destruction of Midian as the fulfillment of YHWH's call for 'vengeance'." Some commentators concluded that motive for the War against the Midianites was that Zimri and Kozbi had illicit sex, with Keil and Delitzsch (1870) writing: "[Zimri brought Kozbi] into
8875-527: The author(s) wished to convey a theological message about who Yahweh, Moses, Eleazar and Phinehas were, and how powerful the Israelites would be if Yahweh was on their side. Olson (2012) noted that the name Kozbi comes from the three Hebrew consonants kzb , meaning "to lie, deceive"; the idea that Kozbi deceived the Israelites is emphasised in verse 25:18: "[The Midianites] deceived (or: 'harassed, assaulted, vexed'; נִכְּל֥וּ nikkəlū ) you with their tricks ( בְּנִכְלֵיהֶ֛ם bəniḵlêhem ) in
9000-454: The bodies of Christians to be God's temple. Many Lutheran monks and Lutheran nuns practice celibacy, though in some Lutheran religious orders it is not compulsory. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chastity is very important: Physical intimacy between husband and wife is a beautiful and sacred part of God's plan for His children. It is an expression of love within marriage and allows husband and wife to participate in
9125-416: The camp of the Israelites, before the eyes of Moses and all the congregation, to commit adultery with her in his tent". Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) as well as Keil and Delitzsch (1870) suggested that the Midianites had instigated the Moabite women to seduce the Israelite men (verses 1 and 2), and so only the Midianites were to atone for the 'wickedness' which 'violated the divinity and honour' of Yahweh, not
9250-427: The congregation; but the young maidens, not being polluted by the flagitious habits of their mothers, nor likely to create disturbance by rebellion, were kept alive. You [Paine] give a different turn to the matter; you say—"that thirty-two thousand women-children were consigned to debauchery by the order of Moses."—Prove this, and I will allow that Moses was the horrid monster you make him—prove this, and I will allow that
9375-402: The creation of life. God has commanded that this sacred power be expressed only between a man and a woman who are legally married. The law of chastity applies to both men and women. It includes strict abstinence from sexual relations before marriage and complete fidelity and loyalty to one's spouse after marriage. The law of chastity requires that sexual relations be reserved for marriage between
9500-523: The eastern bank of the Jordan River across from Jericho , were on the brink of war with the Moabites (not Midianites). The Moabite king Balak hired the sorcerer Balaam to curse the Israelite soldiers from the peak of Mount Peor , but the Israelite god Yahweh forced him to instead bless the Israelites encamped at Shittim , which he did ( Numbers 22–24 ). Due to his behavior with the Midianites,
9625-502: The failure to inculcate sound moral principles in the young. At the heart of such a view of human sexuality lies the conviction that the notion of personal freedom should never be misconstrued as the freedom to flout God's laws by overstepping the bounds which, in his infinite wisdom, he has set upon the relations of the sexes. Chastity is highly prized in the Baháʼí Faith . Similar to other Abrahamic religions, Baháʼí teachings call for
9750-533: The first generation suffered much death in the wilderness (chapters 13–14, 25). The claims that 12,000 Israelite soldiers exterminated or captured the entire Midianite population and destroyed all their towns without suffering a single casualty are held to be historically impossible, and should be understood as symbolic. Moreover, even other biblical books set in later times still refer to the Midianites as an independent people, such as Judges chapters 6–8, where Gideon fights them. Some Biblical non-literalists hold that
9875-538: The human beings, to be redeemed (Leviticus 27:2–13). Chapters and verses of the Bible Chapter and verse divisions did not appear in the original texts of Jewish or Christian bibles; such divisions form part of the paratext of the Bible . Since the early 13th century, most copies and editions of the Bible have presented all but the shortest of the scriptural books with divisions into chapters , generally
10000-399: The initiative to slay Kozbi and Zimri, was granted the eternal priesthood and later allowed to lead the Israelites against Midian. Brown added that chapter 27 further undermined the political position of an increasingly disobedient Moses in favour of the priesthood, with Yahweh revealing Moses' time is up and he will soon die. This supports the view that the added text was written at a time when
10125-401: The judges of Israel ( Numbers 25:4–9 ). In verse 6, the narrative suddenly shifts when the Israelite man Zimri brings the Midianite woman Kozbi (daughter of Midianite king Zur ) to the Israelite camp, after which the Israelites are said to have been hit by a plague that left 24,000 dead. Phinehas killed Zimri and Kozbi, ending the plague. Yahweh claimed that Kozbi brought this plague upon
10250-415: The latter is the shorter text. In the manuscripts, the kephalaia with their numbers, their standard titles ( titloi ) and their page numbers would be listed at the beginning of each biblical book; in the book's main body, they would be marked only with arrow-shaped or asterisk-like symbols in the margin, not in the text itself. The titles usually referred to the first event or the first theological point of
10375-420: The maintenance of the priests, in the same manner as the tithes (Numbers 18:26–28, and Leviticus 27:30–33), so that they might put the cattle into their own flocks (Numbers 35:3), and slay oxen or sheep as they required them, whilst they sold the asses, and made slaves of the gifts; and not in the character of a vow, in which case the clean animals would have had to be sacrificed, and the unclean animals, as well as
10500-437: The matter of Peor and in the matter of Kozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of that incident." This suggests she was not a historical character, but invented as a metaphor for danger to the Israelites. Brown (2015) described how the structure of Numbers 31 showed a pattern of 'command, obedience, extension, purification, command, obedience, extension.' Yahweh commands
10625-501: The men, kill all the children, and keep the virgins.' I think I know what they had in mind. I don't think it's moral teaching." In 2010, Hitchens mocked the Ten Commandments for banning adultery but not rape : "Then again, what about rape? It seems to be very strongly recommended, along with genocide, slavery, and infanticide, in Numbers 31:1–18, and surely constitutes a rather extreme version of sex outside marriage." In
10750-444: The mothers, and debauch the daughters." Richard Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff , sought to refute Paine's arguments: I see nothing in this proceeding, but good policy, combined with mercy. The young men might have become dangerous avengers of, what they would esteem, their country's wrongs; the mothers might have again allured the Israelites to the love of licentious pleasure and the practice of idolatry, and brought another plague upon
10875-560: The next varied greatly in length both within a book and from one book to the next. For example, the Sermon on the Mount , comprising three chapters in the modern system, has but one kephalaion mark, while the single modern chapter 8 of the Gospel of Matthew has several, one per miracle. Moreover, there were far fewer kephalaia in the Gospel of John than in the Gospel of Mark , even though
11000-489: The ones whose evil deeds Allah will change into good deeds. For Allah is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful. In a list of commendable deeds the Quran says: Surely ˹for˺ Muslim men and women, believing men and women, devout men and women, truthful men and women, patient men and women, humble men and women, charitable men and women, fasting men and women, men and women who guard their chastity, and men and women who remember Allah often—for ˹all of˺ them Allah has prepared forgiveness and
11125-400: The other hand affirms the connection between the Midianites and Moabites but argues that the Moabites were spared due to being descendants of Lot . Alternatively, he argues that the Midianites sinned more egregiously than the Moabites in the Peor incident, thus warranting their extermination. Likewise, Coke describes the Midianites as 'cruel and odious' offenders who were willing to prostitute
11250-554: The past) or on an individual basis: as a voluntary act of devotion, or as part of an ascetic lifestyle (often devoted to contemplation ), or both. Some Protestant religious communities, such as the Bruderhof , take vows of chastity as part of the church membership process. Chastity is a central and pivotal concept in Roman Catholic praxis . Roman Catholic teaching regards chastity as essential in maintaining and cultivating
11375-400: The plague broke out due to Yahweh being angry at the Israelites for "eating sacrifices offered to lifeless gods" at Peor. Finally, Olson argued that Moses' apparent failure to punish the idolaters (25:4–5) is what motivated Phinehas to take matters into his own hands by killing Zimri and Kozbi. Brown (2015) stated: "In Num 31:16, Moses justifies his command by appealing to the Midianites' role in
11500-465: The plains east of Moab. He also observes that the Ammonites joined the Moabites in corrupting Israel, according to Deuteronomy 23:3-4. Barnes likewise suggests that the Peor incident was only perpetrated by the Midianites. Thus, the appearance of the Moabites in Numbers 25:1 is most likely due to the Moabites initiating the incident or being close courtiers of Balak, according to Benson . Poole on
11625-444: The priestly line of Phinehas' descendants was being challenged, as it bolsters their legitimacy as the priestly successors of Moses. Scholars disagree about the exact motive Yahweh is claimed to have had in ordering Moses to wage the War against the Midianites. Evidently, something that the Israelite man Zimri and especially the Midianite princess Kozbi did was at the root of the conflict, though what offence they allegedly committed
11750-450: The rape of one woman, only to authorize the rapes of six hundred more. They regret the results of one slaughter, so they commit another to repair it." Keith Allan in 2019 remarked: "God's work or not, this is military behaviour that would be tabooed today and might lead to a war crimes trial." According to the Book of Exodus, the Midianites had sheltered Moses during his 40-year voluntary exile after killing an Egyptian (Exodus 2:11–21),
11875-507: The realities of the late eighth and seventh centuries in Canaan, integrating the experience with the Assyrian oppression and deportations ." The modern scholarly consensus is that the biblical person of Moses is largely a mythical figure while also holding that "a Moses-like figure may have existed somewhere in the southern Transjordan in the mid-late 13th century B.C." and that archaeology
12000-456: The rest only by water. The plunder from the Midianite campaign was "675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys and 32,000 women who had never slept with a man." Yahweh instructed Moses and Eleazar to divide these spoils according to a 1:1 ratio between the Israelite soldiers on the one hand, and the Israelite civilians on the other. Yahweh demanded a 0.2% share of the soldiers' half of the spoils for himself; this tribute would be given to him via
12125-462: The restriction of sexual activity to that between a wife and husband in Baháʼí marriage , and discourage members from using pornography or engaging in sexually explicit recreational activities. The concept of chastity is extended to include avoidance of alcohol and mind-altering drugs, profanity, and gaudy or immodest attire. Hinduism 's view on premarital sex is rooted in its concept of ashrama or
12250-470: The section only, and some kephalaia are manifestly incomplete if one stops reading at the point where the next kephalaion begins (for example, the combined accounts of the miracles of the Daughter of Jairus and of the healing of the woman with a haemorrhage gets two marked kephalaia , one titled of the daughter of the synagogue ruler at the beginning when the ruler approaches Jesus and one titled of
12375-466: The six-volume ESV Reader's Bible (2016) from Crossway Books . Since at least 916 the Tanakh has contained an extensive system of multiple levels of section, paragraph, and phrasal divisions that were indicated in Masoretic vocalization and cantillation markings . One of the most frequent of these was a special type of punctuation, the sof passuq , symbol for a period or sentence break, resembling
12500-537: The society for a period after the woman's husband dies. For example, Anglican Bishop Jeremy Taylor defined five rules in Holy Living (1650), including abstaining from marrying "so long as she is with child by her former husband" and "within the year of mourning". In the Roman Catholic Church, members of the consecrated life vow or promise celibacy as one of the evangelical counsels . In 306,
12625-455: The stages of life. The first of these stages, known as brahmacharya , roughly translates as chastity. Celibacy and chastity are considered the appropriate behavior for both male and female students during this stage, which precedes the stage of the married householder ( grihastha ). Sanyasis and Hindu monks or sadhus are also celibate as part of their ascetic discipline. In Sikhism , premarital or extramarital sex
12750-430: The story involving the women of Moab, for which the Israelite chiefs are punished by the judges. This earlier version was later augmented by the account in Numbers 25:6–18 with the Midianite women and Phinehas' priesthood as their new focus, perhaps using elements from Psalm 106 :28–31 to work with. These additions, as well as the mention of a Midianite in chapter 25 in a story about the Moabites, may have been an attempt by
12875-503: The surviving virgin women and girls "as servants and integrating them into Israel may have been the best among lousy alternatives". It is not clear what happened to Yahweh's 0.1% share of the spoils of war, including 808 animals (verses 36–39) and 32 human virgin women/girls (verse 40), who are entrusted to the Levites , who are responsible for maintaining Yahweh's tabernacle (verses 30 and 47). Two Hebrew terms are used to indicate they are
13000-487: The time of her writing, "increasingly scholars suggest that Israelites engaged in state-sponsored rituals of child sacrifice". Although "[s]uch ritual activity is condemned by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other biblical writers (e.g., Lev 18:21, Deut 12:31, 18:10; Jer 7:30–31, 19:5; Ezek 20:31), and the seventh-century reformer king Josiah sought to put an end to it, [the] notion of a god who desires human sacrifice may well have been an important thread in Israelite belief." She cited
13125-404: The two tribes. Olson (2012) agreed, writing: "Some of these disjunctions within the narrative may have resulted from the combining of earlier and later traditions into one story." Ellicott (1897), however, proposed that Balaam entered into Midianite service after being dismissed by the Moabite king Balak. Nonetheless, he elaborates that the Midianites in Numbers 31 were wealthy tribes that lived in
13250-606: The unity of body with spirit and thus the integrity of the human being. It is also fundamental to the practise of the Catholic life because it involves an apprenticeship in self-mastery . By attaining mastery over one's passions, reason, will, and desire can harmoniously work together to do what is good. The theology of the body of the Lutheran Churches emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit , who sanctified
13375-402: The use of military violence, even if divinely mandated, is cast as a negative act that, in order to be erased, requires ritual cleansing of the body and possessions, as well as sacrifice in the form of 0.2% share of the soldiers' spoils as a tribute to Yahweh. Dennis T. Olson wrote in 2012 that "the bulk of the chapter deals with the purification of soldiers and booty from the impurity of war and
13500-428: The verses, or passukim ( MH spelling; now pronounced pesukim by all speakers). According to Talmudic tradition, the division of the text into verses is of ancient origin. In Masoretic versions of the Bible, the end of a verse, or sof passuk , is indicated by a small mark in its final word called a silluq (which means "stop"). Less formally, verse endings are usually also indicated by two vertical dots following
13625-478: The virgin girls is without precedent in the Pentateuch. However, [Judges 21] precisely parallels Moses's command. ... Like Num 25, the story recounted in Judges 19–21 centers on the danger of apostasy, but its tale of civil war and escalating violence also emphasizes the tragedy that can result from the indiscriminate application of [vengeance]. The whole account is highly ironic: the Israelites set out to avenge
13750-417: The virgin girls who are allowed to live, are made into sex slaves for disgusting, homicidal post hoc mercenaries that do all of their bidding from a man who says that a god that (no one can see) tells them to do. This is one of the most sickening things in the so-called 'Holy' Bible." Christian apologist John Berea speculated in 2017 that Balaam was 'dismissed without pay by king Balak of Moab', and then set up
13875-530: The virgins and animals were kept alive and used by the Levites as their share of the spoils. Some even posited that human sacrifice (especially child sacrifice) was foreign to the Israelites, thus making the possibility of sacrificing the Midianite virgins unfeasible. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch argued in 1870 that the 32 were enslaved: Of the one half the priests received 675 head of small cattle, 72 oxen, 61 asses, and 32 maidens for Jehovah; and these Moses handed over to Eleazar, in all probability for
14000-408: The vow of brahmacarya (meaning "pure conduct"), which prescribes the expectations for Jains concerning sexual activity. Brahmacarya is one of the five major and minor vows of Jainism, prescribing slightly different expectations for ascetics and laypeople, respectively. Complete celibacy is expected only of Jain ascetics (who are also referred to as monks and nuns). For laypeople, chastity
14125-417: The warriors may 'use' their virgin captives sexually", adding that Shimon bar Yochai understood the passage 'correctly'. On the other hand, he noted that other rabbinical commentaries such as B. and Y. Qiddushin and Yevamot claimed "that for yourselves meant 'as servants'. Later apologists, both Jewish and Christian, adopted the latter interpretation." The following command to purify the Midianite girls and
14250-439: The woman with the flow of blood where the woman enters the picture – well before the ruler's daughter is healed and the storyline of the previous kephalaion is thus properly concluded). Thus the kephalaia marks are rather more like a system of bookmarks or links into a continuous text, helping a reader to quickly find one of several well-known episodes, than like a true system of chapter divisions. Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro
14375-439: The women were Moabites, and verses 25:16–18, in which Yahweh himself claimed that the plague did not hit the Israelite camp until the Midianite princess Kozbi entered it (without reference to sex or foreign gods worship), leading Yahweh to instruct Moses to kill the Midianites, not the Moabites. The fact that the Moabites and Midianites are equated as having committed the same offences, and Moses blames Balaam (a Moabite) for whatever
14500-574: The word with a silluq . The Masoretic Text also contains sections, or portions, called parashot or parashiyot . The end of a parashah is usually indicated by a space within a line (a "closed" section) or a new line beginning (an "open" section). The division of the text reflected in the parashot is usually thematic. Unlike chapters, the parashot are not numbered, but some of them have special titles. In early manuscripts (most importantly in Tiberian Masoretic manuscripts, such as
14625-504: The worship of Baal-peor. The God of the Hebrews , adds Balaam, according to the Rabbis, hates lewdness, and idol worshipping; severe chastisement must follow Thus the Israelite men began to fraternise with Moabite women by having sex with them and worshipping their gods , including Baal ( Numbers 25:1–3 ). This angered Yahweh, and he instructed Moses to massacre all Israelite men who had done this; Moses passed on these instructions to
14750-685: Was an invasion of Canaan (the " Promised Land ") by all Israelites escaping from slavery in Egypt. Scholars such as Mark S. Smith assert that Israelite culture emerged from the wider Canaanite culture surrounding it, with whom it had strong linguistic , religious and other cultural links. There was no political unification of several Semitic Canaanite tribes into a single Israelite state until after 1100 BCE. Although some Egyptologists such as Redford (1997), Na'aman (2011) and Bietak (2015) have argued that some Canaanites (referred to by Bietak as "Proto-Israelites") may have been deported to Egypt during
14875-557: Was divided into topical sections known as kephalaia by the fourth century. Eusebius of Caesarea divided the gospels into parts that he listed in tables or canons . Neither of these systems corresponds with modern chapter divisions. (See fuller discussions below.) Chapter divisions, with titles, are also found in the 9th-century Tours manuscript Paris Bibliothèque Nationale MS Lat. 3, the so-called Bible of Rorigo. Cardinal archbishop Stephen Langton and Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro developed different schemas for systematic division of
15000-625: Was in fact part of the Holiness code (H), which was later added to the Priestly source. He pointed to similarities in content, such as the focus on purification in Numbers 5:1–4, chapter 19 and 31:19–24, as well as in linguistics in Numbers 10:9, 27:17, 31:6,19 and Exodus 40:15, all of which had been previously identified with the Holiness School (HS) by other scholars. Some linguistic and theological features also distinguish Numbers 31 from
15125-500: Was one of several parts of the Bible that made him seriously question the Christian God's ethics, claiming that his Christian friends and family did not have satisfactory answers, and ultimately did not really care to think about the moral implications of such texts. In 2012, M. A. Neeper called Numbers 31:17–18 'appalling': "Instead of trying to "save" the people of Midian, [Moses] orders many of their deaths. The "lucky" people,
15250-466: Was the Geneva Bible published shortly afterwards by Sir Rowland Hill in 1560. These verse divisions soon gained acceptance as a standard way to notate verses, and have since been used in nearly all English Bibles and the vast majority of those in other languages. The Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible notes several different kinds of subdivisions within the biblical books: Most important are
15375-600: Was the Italian Dominican biblical scholar Santes Pagnino (1470–1541), but his system was never widely adopted. His verse divisions in the New Testament were far longer than those known today. The Parisian printer Robert Estienne created another numbering in his 1551 edition of the Greek New Testament, which was also used in his 1553 publication of the Bible in French. Estienne's system of division
15500-426: Was the Lord's share in all the wars of the Hebrews, if it was not blood?" Carl Plfuger in 1995 cited Exodus 17, Numbers 31, Deuteronomy 13 and 20 as examples of human sacrifice demanded by Yahweh, adding that according to 1 Samuel 15, Saul "lost his kingship of Israel because he had withheld the human sacrifice that Yahweh, the god of Israel, expected as his due after a war." Susan Niditch remarked in 1995 that, at
15625-489: Was widely adopted, and it is this system which is found in almost all modern Bibles. Estienne produced a 1555 Vulgate that is the first Bible to include the verse numbers integrated into the text. Before this work, they were printed in the margins. The first English New Testament to use the verse divisions was a 1557 translation by William Whittingham (c. 1524–1579). The first Bible in English to use both chapters and verses
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