Bible Synapse
If Israel killed every male of Midian, how was Midian strong enough to oppress Israel in Gideon’s day?
Hard question · The law of Moses · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Israel wars against the Midianites as the Lord commanded, slays “all the males”, and kills the five kings of Midian and Balaam.
And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.
Because the Midianite women had led Israel into sin at Peor, Moses orders the boys to be killed, and every woman who has lain with a man.
Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
Generations later the Midianites, with the Amalekites and the people of the east, overrun Israel for seven years.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord: and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds. And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them; And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass. For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it. And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.
The objection
Numbers 31 says that the Israelites “slew all the males” of Midian, and that Moses then had the male children killed as well. Yet in Judges 6 the Midianites are so numerous and strong that they oppress Israel for seven years and come “as grasshoppers for multitude”. How could a people whose every male had been killed be so powerful later?
The answer
Numbers 31 describes one campaign against the Midianites who lived beside Moab and had joined in seducing Israel at Peor (Numbers 22:4; 25:1-18). Their five chiefs were vassals of Sihon, “dwelling in the country” that Israel had just taken (Joshua 13:21). “All the males” means the men of the Midianite groups Israel fought, not every Midianite on earth; Keil and Delitzsch take it of the adult males, since the boys were dealt with afterwards (31:17). Midian was a large nomadic people, descended from Abraham through Keturah (Genesis 25:1-4) and spread across the deserts east and south of Canaan; Jethro’s Midianite family in the south, for example, was not part of this war (Exodus 2:15-16; 18:1). Even in the communities attacked, the girls were spared (Numbers 31:18), and some men may have escaped.
Judges 6 comes a long time afterwards. On the figures given in Judges, the years of oppression and rest from Othniel to Deborah alone add up to about two centuries (Judges 3:8-11, 14, 30; 4:3; 5:31). That is ample time for a nomadic people to recover, especially when other Midianite clans took part. Nor did Midian come alone: “the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east” (6:3), a coalition of desert tribes. Gill reached the same conclusion: some escaped and returned, and in some two hundred years they could, with others joining them, repeople their land.
Still open
The killing of the Midianite boys and women in Numbers 31 is among the hardest passages in the Old Testament. The war is presented as the Lord’s vengeance for Peor (31:1-3); the order to kill the boys and the women is given by Moses (31:14-17), and the text does not criticise it. Christians differ on how to understand such killings beside the teaching of Jesus. This entry asks only whether Numbers 31 and Judges 6 can both be true.
From the classic commentators
though the destruction of this people by Israel was very general, yet as some of them might make their escape, and afterwards return to their own land, and this being about two hundred years ago, might, with others joining them, repeople their country by this time, and become strong and powerfulJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Judges 6 (1746–1763), at Bible Hub
Sources
- Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Numbers 31, at Bible Hub
- John Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Judges 6, at Bible Hub
- Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Judges 6, at Bible Hub