1) Murder, rape, and pillage at Jabesh-gilead (Judges 21:10-24 NLT)



So they sent twelve thousand warriors to Jabesh-gilead with orders to kill everyone there, including women and children. "This is what you are to do," they said. "Completely destroy all the males and every woman who is not a virgin." Among the residents of Jabesh-gilead they found four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.





The Israelite assembly sent a peace delegation to the little remnant of Benjamin who were living at the rock of Rimmon. Then the men of Benjamin returned to their homes, and the four hundred women of Jabesh-gilead who were spared were given to them as wives. But there were not enough women for all of them. The people felt sorry for Benjamin because the LORD had left this gap in the tribes of Israel. So the Israelite leaders asked, "How can we find wives for the few who remain, since all the women of the tribe of Benjamin are dead? There must be heirs for the survivors so that an entire tribe of Israel will not be lost forever. But we cannot give them our own daughters in marriage because we have sworn with a solemn oath that anyone who does this will fall under God's curse.

"



Then they thought of the annual festival of the LORD held in Shiloh, between Lebonah and Bethel, along the east side of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem. They told the men of Benjamin who still needed wives, "Go and hide in the vineyards. When the women of Shiloh come out for their dances, rush out from the vineyards, and each of you can take one of them home to be your wife! And when their fathers and brothers come to us in protest, we will tell them, 'Please be understanding. Let them have your daughters, for we didn't find enough wives for them when we destroyed Jabesh-gilead. And you are not guilty of breaking the vow since you did not give your daughters in marriage to them.'" So the men of Benjamin did as they were told. They kidnapped the women who took part in the celebration and carried them off to the land of their own inheritance. Then they rebuilt their towns and lived in them. So the assembly of Israel departed by tribes and families, and they returned to their own homes.





Obviously these women were repeatedly raped. These sick bastards killed and raped an entire town and then wanted more virgins, so they hid beside the road to kidnap and rape some more.

How can anyone see this as anything but evil?



2) Murder, rape and pillage of the Midianites (Numbers 31:7-18 NLT)



They attacked Midian just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men. All five of the Midianite kings – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – died in the battle. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder. They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived. After they had gathered the plunder and captives, both people and animals, they brought them all to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the whole community of Israel, which was camped on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho.





Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was furious with all the military commanders who had returned from the battle. "Why have you let all the women live?" he demanded. "These are the very ones who followed Balaam's advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor. They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD's people. Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.





Clearly Moses and God approves of rape of virgins.





3) More Murder Rape and Pillage (Deuteronomy 20:10-14)



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.





What kind of God approves of murder, rape, and slavery?



4) Laws of Rape (Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT)



If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.





What kind of lunatic would make a rape victim marry her attacker? Answer: God.





5) Death to the Rape Victim (Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB)



If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife.





It is clear that God doesn't give a damn about the rape victim. He is only concerned about the violation of another mans "property".





6) David's Punishment - Polygamy, Rape, Baby Killing, and God's "Forgiveness" (2 Samuel 12:11-14 NAB)



Thus says the Lord: 'I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives [plural] while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.

'

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." Nathan answered David: "The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you must surely die." [The child dies seven days later.

]



This has got to be one of the sickest quotes of the Bible. God himself brings the completely innocent rape victims to the rapist.

What kind of pathetic loser would do something so evil? And then he kills a child! This is sick, really sick!



7) Rape of Female Captives (Deuteronomy 21:10-14 NAB)



"When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them into your hand, so that you take captives, if you see a comely woman among the captives and become so enamored of her that you wish to have her as wife, you may take her home to your house. But before she may live there, she must shave her head and pare her nails and lay aside her captive's garb. After she has mourned her father and mother for a full month, you may have relations with her, and you shall be her husband and she shall be your wife. However, if later on you lose your liking for her, you shall give her her freedom, if she wishes it; but you shall not sell her or enslave her, since she was married to you under compulsion.

"


Once again God approves of forcible rape.





8) Rape and the Spoils of War (Judges 5:30 NAB)



They must be dividing the spoils they took: there must be a damsel or two for each man, Spoils of dyed cloth as Sisera's spoil, an ornate shawl or two for me in the spoil.

(Judges 5:30 NAB)



9) Sex Slaves (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)



When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.

(Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)



10) God Assists Rape and Plunder (Zechariah 14:1-2 NAB)



Lo, a day shall come for the Lord when the spoils shall be divided in your midst. And I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle: the city shall be taken, houses plundered, women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city.

(Zechariah 14:1-2 NAB)

Our God is a loving and just God. It was a different time back then and what is considered awful now would be considered the status quo in those days. God does not condone sin, and he makes it clear that rape and murder are sins.
Just like we dont refer to the native americans as savages for the way they herded theyre women like livestock and praticed cannibalism...so we shouldnt judge those in history who practiced what we know today to be unacceptable.

But you condone what your god has done by continuing to worship him.

Setting the Record Straight About Native Peoples: American Indian Cannibals
Q: Were Native Americans cannibals?
A: Not for the most part, no, but there were some groups who were. The Aztecs were notorious for ritual cannibalism (warriors would eat a strip of flesh from enemies they had slain in combat). Some people dispute this, but the Aztecs' own written and oral histories seem to support it as the truth. The Karankawa tribe of southeast Texas was also said to practice ritual cannibalism on defeated enemies. There were a few Amazonian tribes who practiced funerary cannibalism (family and friends would eat part of a dead tribal member's body as a religious ceremony at the funeral). Finally, the Carib people of South America were said to kill and eat prisoners of war, though it's been pointed out that the Spaniards who made this claim were lining their own pockets by doing so (Queen Isabella had forbidden her subjects from selling Africans, or Indians, as slaves unless they were cannibals).

None of the other 1200 Native American cultures engaged in culturally sanctioned cannibalism at the time of European contact. That doesn't mean cannibalism never happened--there were certainly stories in the American Indian oral history about cannibalistic incidents (a hunting party trapped in a snowstorm who fell to eating each other, a war chief who taunted captives by striking them in the face with their leader's heart and then taking a bite out of it.) Such incidents also occurred in American and European history under similar starving-in-the-wilderness and war-atrocity circumstances (a company of Crusaders, for example, bragged of having grilled and eaten a Saracen; a Jamestown settler was executed for cannibalizing his wife during a famine). Cannibalism should not be considered part of American Indian culture on this account any more than it would be considered part of European or American culture--it was culturally unacceptable behavior. The Sioux considered cannibalism a sin, the Cree considered it a mental illness, the Algonquin and Ojibwe considered it a sign of possession by an evil spirit. In almost all cases, American Indian cannibals--just like European or American cannibals--were put to death as soon as they were discovered.

Q: But weren't they cannibals before that--in ancient times, before European contact?
A: Most of them definitely were not. It's been suggested that the pre-Iroquois Mohawk and the ancient Anasazi may have practiced group cannibalism. This is possible, though it has not been proven. The Mohawk were called "man-eaters" by their Algonquian enemies on account of this belief about their lurid past. Some Mohawks think it was probably true, others that you shouldn't give too much credence to slurs people's enemies cast at their ancestors. The claim about the ancient Anasazi came more recently, when anthropologists found a burial site with skeletons whose flesh had apparently been hacked off the bones after their death. Personally, I'm not too impressed by that evidence. Even if those bodies were cut up for cannibalistic purposes, we're talking about one anomalous site with only seven bodies in it. Of the hundreds of ancient Indian burial sites exhumed by archaeologists--including dozens of Anasazi ones--this was the only one with this strange appearance. For all we know it was the work of some Anasazi psychopath. We can't assume ancient Anasazi culture included cannibalism from this one unusual case any more than we could say American culture includes cannibalism because of Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer

http://www.native-languages.org/iaq13.htm



Regarding your statement about women. Many of the First People had matriarchal societies. Women owned the land, home and other properties. Heritage and clan lineage was from the mother. To the Europeans it may have seemed that the women were cattle but such was not the case.


http://www.native-languages.org/iaq13.htm

if you read the law codes of - Hammurabi - i think you'll find where Most of the jewish law concepts came from- quite enlightning, not a direact match but close enough- and concidering it was well before moses wrote his laws - quite remarkable - in fact i think they are better laws that moses'.

unacceptable? every people throughout history had there own moral codes they lived by.what you deem "unacceptable" by ancient standards or recent standards is unacceptable. the pygmies practiced cannabilism also even in the last century - they were moral people with their own set of laws they followed - their morals saw no wrong with the practice, and neither should they have - it was not until the "missionaries came and converted them to the god of the bible that they were convinced that there way was wrong. wrong by what standard??? - if i was to read a bible as a pygmy and see what is there and discussed here- i would ask myself very pointedly - why should i follow this god instead of what i was following all along - he kills his enemy's and steals all from them just like we did?? he orders death to his enemies, rape, stealing,robbery,and all else that he tells others not to do?? this is not someone or a bieng or god i can trust - if they had - they would still be doing just what they all along had done, morals are a social phenomena, not a gods gift. if you dont believe it watch small childred 2 or 3 playiing that have no real understanding of gods moral laws and watch there behavior between or amongst themselves without any parental or godly influence's.

OK. I'll deal with the Jabesh-Gillead thing first. That was the Lord telling the Israelites to clean out a town. There's repeated examples in the Old Testament of the Lord cleaning house: the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, Jabwesh-Gillead, etc. etc. etc.

Your basic OT history'll tell you that the Isralites had bad results when they mixed with the locals. Idol worship and all kinds of bad ju ju resulted so God wasn't real wild about his people mixing with furriners. Hence, Jabesh-Gillead.

The Benjaminites needed to perpetuate their tribe, they went to the powers that be and the powers that be sanctioned the taking of some young women. Rape's mostly defined by the powers that be and in that case, they declared that it wasn't. It perpetuated the Benjaminite tribe and they weren't going by today's standards. There's words to the effect in Acts that certain things were sanctioned by people before they had the law and they knew better and these days those things don't fly.
That's one reason the multiple marriage and concubinage of the OT didn't carry over into NT times, too.

The Midianite thing is another example of God giving commands that had to be followed. Moses was ticked when the commands were thwarted. I don't know why the keep the virgins thing was proclaimed. Probably because those women were more pure than the women living with men that had already introduced them to idol worship. The principle these days is driving evil out of our lives. We should eliminate anything that is not of God. It's the plucking out eyes and chopping off hands thing in the gospels. Dig?

The Deuteronomy 20 thing is again, a case of following the Lord. If you don't follow God, you get destroyed. If you're agreeable, you get took over and you get to live. Which path will you chose?

Deut 22 has to be looked at in the spirit of the times.

In God's eyes, a man and woman who sleep together or have relations are married. Thus the pay 50 shekels and carry on thing. These things happened.

You have to read the stoning thing carefully. He's saying if the woman doesn't cry out, she's a willing participant. This was looked down upon (to put it mildly) in those days and thus the stoning thing. But what'd Jesus do when he found a woman about to be stoned? And what'd Jesus tell the adulterous woman at the well (and not the woman ran and told everyone about the Lord's forgiveness afterwards).

It's a biblical thing. You wouldn't understand.

But I'm glad you're looking into things and asking questions. It's a start, at any rate.

6. In David's punishment, it's again a case of consequences for ones' actions. Granted, the consequences are pretty drastic, but that is what happened. It's a warning to us. I've faced similar consequences (death and disaster) and it ain't pretty. God's way is always best and when we don't walk that way, there are some drastic consequences at times. The Bible outlines this quite graphically. The question is, then, will we listen, or not?

7. God's not so much condoning forcible rape here as he is laying down some guidance for some situations that might happen. He doesn't condone abuse of women or anyone else, for that matter. Read what's said about marriage in the Gospels, how Moses said people could give a bill of divorcement but I say....

8/9: These weren't so much rules for sex slavery as rules for slavery, period. Slavery was more or less a common thing in those days and carried on into New Testament times (and into our own country's 1800s). Not that I agree with the concept. But, it went on, and God saw fit to regulate it.

And what's a little slavery between friends, after all? (just joking here, of course).

10. Zecchariah was talking about when God was fed up with Judah and Israel. There came a day when he allowed the Babylonians to wipe out Jerusalem and carry away captives. God won't fool with people endlessly. Eventually their rotten deeds catch up with them. You can drink for years before cirrhosis catches up with you. You can live with social diseases for years before the consequences catch up.

When people disregard God's laws and wisdom there are consequences, often drastic ones. My consequences caused me to turn toward God eventually. I guess they're designed to do that.

We're given ample warning about things in God's word and ample guidance in the word. Will you study it and learn about it? Seems you've made a start of surveying the Old Testament here.

The Lord's made provision for us and wants us to turn our hearts and our lives over to him. If you're ready you can ask him in and start life anew this very day. Are you game? Are ya? Go ahead. Make my day.

hmmm?? - that's an explanation, but not a reason. "WHY" would an "almighty, all knowing,all loving god" stoop to using any people to do his dirty work = killing,rape,and all other savagery?? he had already shown his power to wipe out man on his own all by himself - no help needed? This is puzzling - an almighty infinite being needing to "use" his creation to perform acts of violence which later his law is against and in the new testement forbids to even "think about doing such things? If your response is - because he couldn't be connected or attached to "sin" that wont fly because if what he keeps "seperate" from his self "as sin" is rape and killing and murder and such- then he is still guilty as charged - for he "foreknew" what "he" would put into "affect" as "laws" god has no excuses for acting both loving and hateful at the same time and then trying to convince people in the new testament that he really is just a loving god and yet still condemns those who donot follow him to hell/banishment or whatever.in doing so he is not perfectly just. whether you like it or not - your god sounds just like a Human man - and the bible sounds just like a human book written by men. not like an infinitely wise being. he "reak's" of humaness.

WOW..WTF is this thread all about...now I can understand why there are so many crazy people in the world.....gezzzzzz you all need to get a life and stop taking a book writen by men with nothing better to do then write stories so damn literal.

Why should God have to mess with Jabesh-Gillead? The Hebrews were on their way to mess with them anyway. He just issued the guidance and they all dealt with the consequences later.

That's how it works. God issues guidance, man acts, then there's follow-up. It's kind of like a cosmic tennis match. Serve & volley, you know?

And this from a person who evidentally has logged in here and breezed through the word's? did you think you'd left your - wine - here??

Yah. Put the wine down and check out the book. It was written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit, the agent of God sending his word and intent to men on earth. If someone writes you a letter don't you read it? Better start crackin'!

Suppose it was the bio of cleopatra or a diary for Indiana Jones. Same thing. A lot of history in the book as well as thoughts, poetry and prophecy.

Tell me of another book that has great stories like these in it? And I never saw Jabeh-Gillead in any comic books or Mad magazine, either. Or at the liquor store, for that matter.