The slaughter of the Midianites is frequently mischaracterized to state that God endorses or condones genocide. Further, the statement is often made that God also commanded, endorsed or condoned the rape of young girls after the slaughter.
These claims are, of course, made out of a lack of familiarity with what the bible actually says.
First, the dishonestly of presenting this as Genocide. The midianites were not completely slaughtered, and they were not slaughtered because they were midianites. The claim of Genocide is in fact a misrepresentation: We know this in several ways. The following mini-articles are the minimum of what you would need to know in order to better understand this story:
1. The social contract of Israel 2. Who the Midianites were as a people 3. What the Midianites tried to do 4. Why the Midianites were killed in the manner they were
1 “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant,
3 and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden,
4 and it is told you and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is true and certain that such an abomination has been done in Israel,
5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones.
6 On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.
7 The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall purge[a] the evil[b] from your midst.Deuteronomy 17:1-7
Thus we see the requirements; Idolatry was punishable by capital punishment, but,
This was the social contract of the land of Israel; without question everyone living in the land of Israel at that time had agreed to this law; they were certainly free to live at any time; see Exodus 24:7 ““All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.””, also Deuteronomy 27:
Summary: So it is pretty clear that all the Israelite people were on the same page here. From the standpoint of the Israelites, anyone of them could have left for other neighboring lands; everyone who chose to stay knew what they were getting themselves into.
The Midianites who were killed were limited to the midianites close by to Israrel who were working with the Moabites to attack and destroy Israel. The Midianites as a whole were Ishmaelites, and we know they existed as a culture and as a nation into the time of the Judges, hundreds of years later.
28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels[c] of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. […]
36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.Genesis 37:28,36
1 Then the men of Ephraim said to him, “What is this that you have done to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they accused him fiercely. […]
24 And Gideon said to them, “Let me make a request of you: every one of you give me the earrings from his spoil.” (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) […]
28 So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.Judges 8:1,24,28 (ESV)
This is merely to establish the location of Midian and the Midianite people as Ishmaelites, and to separate the culture and nation of Midian as a whole away from those who were working with the Moabites. In fact there were many good Midianites; recall that Jethro was a priest of Midian, and Zipporah, Moses' wife, was a Midianite – Moses had previously taken refuge in Midian.
Midian had a special relationship with Israel.
From these it may be determined that the people of Midian were very aware of the nature of the nation of Israel and it's history.
If someone quotes Numbers 31:17-18 and asks why God commanded genocide, it can be asked why they didn't also quote the beginning of this story in Numbers 31:1-2; “31 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites.”
Right away we're clued into the fact that what happened to Midian was not genocide; it was vengeance, punishment. What precisely did the Midianites do to warrant this attack?
Given the backstory of Israel-Moabite-Midianite relations, the Midianites were very aware that God was with Israel, yet in Numbers 25 we see they chose to side with Moab in an intentional attempt to destroy Israel!
Numbers 25 discusses the original issue of Moab sabotaging the laws of Israel, and Midian allying with them in their attempt. Then after Numbers 30 which discusses marriage contract laws, God commanded the Israelites to avenge the actions of Midian on Israel. These events need to be understood in their historical context to understand the nature of Midian's attack on Israel and why their destruction was called for.
They were allies with Moab against Israel:
Their geographical situation is indicated as having been to the east of Palestine; Abraham sends the sons of his concubines, including Midian, eastward (Gen. xxv. 6). But from the statement that Moses led the flocks of Jethro, the priest of Midian, to Mount Horeb (Ex. iii. 1), it would appear that the Midianites dwelt in the Sinaitic Peninsula. Later, in the period of the Kings, Midian seems to have occupied a tract of land between Edom and Paran, on the way to Egypt (I Kings xi. 18). Midian is likewise described as in the vicinity of Moab: the Midianites were beaten by the Edomite king Hadad “in the field of Moab” (Gen. xxxvi. 35), and in the account of Balaam it is said that the elders of both Moab and Midian called upon him to curse Israel (Num. xxii. 4, 7). Further evidences of the geographical position of the Midianites appear in a survey of their history.http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10804-midian-and-midianites
3 For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. 4 They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey.Judges 3:3-4 (ESV)
Midian was a nation which hated Israel and wanted to destroy them; as the Moabites did, as the Amalekites did. This will later play out from the punishment given to kill all of the young boys and pregnant women (see below).
The Moabites and Midianites would have learned a great deal about Moses and Israel via his travels in Midian and his relationship with Zipporah and Jethro (ex. Exodus 18). They would have known that military action against Israel would fail. Being aware that they could not destroy Israel through military means, Moab and Midian's launched a deceptive demographic war in an attempt to destroy Israel from the inside:
1 While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.
2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor.Numbers 25:1-3 ESV
Recall again the law of Israel was to kill any idolater. This was then done – in Israel – to someone who was in full knowledge and acceptance of the law – and who in fact committed the crime in public before a nation who was in the process of grieving over this very crime! The audacity of the midianite woman, in full kowledge of what would happen to her, defies explanation:
5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”
6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting.
7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand
8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped.Numbers 25:5-8
(Aside: Eleazar was Moses' 2nd son, making Pinehas his grandson)
This was the law that Israel had agreed to; yet the audacity of the Midianites in their attempt to corrupt Israel was succeeding; this was a huge problem.
There are two important reasons for the marriage laws and why their understanding is vital to this conflict.
When the Israelites were marrying the Midianite women, the women were making false marriage vows in order to corrupt the Israelites. They were marrying into Israel in an intentional attempt to destroy observance of the law of the land. Actually even if this speculation was untrue, the idea of them being sent into Israel as whores is even worse, and perhaps even more brazen as it would have been even less socially acceptable for them to be there than as wives; yet, the idea of them entering into a social relationship which was extended into a religious relationship as well is what this passage in 25 and 30 represents.
The Midianites were not the victims of genocide, rape or forced
Not all of the Midianites were killed; only those who had taken part in the attack on Israel. In particular, Jethro and Zipporah were not killed, and neither was anyone in Jethro's household (Exo 18:6).
We see that killing the warriors and Kings of Midian would be the minimum necessary in a war. But why the young boys?
During the timeframe in question, tribal warfare was rampant. It was highly likely that the male Midianite children would grow up and seek revenge for their fathers and grandfathers against Israel. Avenging the death of one’s father is a commonly accepted necessity in every culture and even in popular fiction—it’s what motivates Hamlet in Shakespeare’s classic play and what energizes Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride.
Further, the utterly disgusting depravity in which these Midianite boys had been raised is well documented. Regular behaviors among the Midianites included child sacrifice, cult prostitution, and bestiality. The divine prohibition of these acts was codified, and the acts were known to the Israelites (Leviticus 18:21, 23–24). Male inhabitants carrying on the lineage of this culture would have been a perennial problem for Israel.https://www.gotquestions.org/Numbers-31-17-Midianites.html
In fact we do see the nation of Midian continuously seeking out Israel to destroy it later on; those Midianites who were not nearby at the time returned to attack Israel later, ex. Judges 3:3-4 (above). So the idea that the boys had to be destroyed as well was because they had already been indoctrinated into the antisemitic Midianite war culture.
Killing the women was important because they were the ones who had been whoring in Israel – they were actually the committers of the sin. Further, the young boys because they would have attempted to avenge Israel later (which the remnant of Midian did in fact do, see Judges 3 above).
What then of the maidens (virgins)? Were they raped? In a word, no.
They would have been married into the nation of Israel and as a result they would have been given a marriage contract and guaranteed a comfortable life. At this point, leaving them to the ravages of the ancient world would have almost assured them that they would be raped, forced into prostitutio or thievery, or worse. Taking them into israelite society and giving them full social benefits under marriage contracts would have been the most humane thing to do.
In essence, everyone who wasn't in on the plunder of Israel was given social assistance for life. Keep in mind that under Israelite marriage laws you are not allowed to force your wife to have sex with you if she doesn't want to.
Conclusion: The narrative that they were raped, or the backtrack that they were given forced marriages is based on a lack of information.
Notice the frustration that Moses showed when he began to talk to the Israelites, after they (once again) complained about his leadership. God told Moses to address the rock, but he and Aaron addressed the people instead. His first words? “Listen, you rebels!” He lashed out at the people.
But God didn’t give Moses the right to judge Israel in this way. In fact, God had told Moses that He was going to show mercy and grace to the people by providing water from the rock. God had his heart set on showing mercy to the people, but Moses had his heart set on the people’s sin.
Remember how many times God was ready to destroy the people and Moses stepped in as the mediator, asking for mercy? Moses never defended the people; he defended God’s name. He never said, “You know, Lord, the people aren’t as bad as you’re making them out to be. Cut them some slack!” Every time Moses went to God on behalf of the people, he said, “O Lord, because of Your great name, save them! Have mercy on them. Show them grace so that you will get glory! Not because they deserve it—they don’t—but because you deserve glory for salvation!”
But not this time. In this scene, God was ready to demonstrate his glory and holiness in how he showed mercy, and Moses was the one who balked at God’s decision. Moses seemed to resent God’s mercy in that moment. When he said, “Listen, you rebels!” in this case, he sounded more like Satan than the Savior. He was more like the accuser than the Mediator.https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/bother-god-barred-moses-promised-land/
So the lesson here is that God in fact wanted to show Mercy and not unjust punishment; the nature of God then is to show mercy. There is more to the story of Moses not entering the promised land (see commentary for Num 20:12 NSV, Deu 3:23 NSV, etc) but the point of this instance of punishment is in fact to teach the lesson on mercy vs. punishment! Not to demonstrate that God unjustly punished Moses!