The following four articles were part of the Canaanite "genocide" debate but are here separated out because the topic has changed from ethics to history i.e. to whether the events happened.
The Myth of the Canaanite Holocaust
The "Myth" of the Canaanite Holocaust
Archaeology and the Conquest of Canaan
Canaan's Apocalypse Happened
The Myth of the Canaanite Holocaust
Kirk Straughen
(Investigator 135, 2010 November)
This article is the final essay in a series of related critiques of Anonymous' defence of the claim that God kills or orders the killing of children.
The origin of the debate started with Atheism, Evil & God (No. 122, pg. 44), which outlined the ethical objections to 1 Samuel 15:2-3. Further moral principles for rejecting the idea were then outlined in Reply to Anonymous on Biblical Genocide (No. 132, pg. 17), and theological and philosophical arguments opposing the concept were delineated in When Human Wickedness is mistaken for God's Word (No. 133, Pg. 58).
In this closing essay I shall show that archaeological evidence does not support the idea that these massacres occurred, and that the Israelites were in fact an offshoot of Canaanite culture:
Contemporary archaeologists believe that the Israelites themselves were, for the most part, originally Canaanites (including Amorites, Apiru, Shashu, possibly Hyksos, and others) who federated into the nations of Judah and Israel from the eleventh century B.C.E. onward, rather than being an ethnically homogeneous group that migrated en masse from Egypt, as the Bible reports.
The story of the Kenites (Judges 1) joining Judah is an example of the Bible itself confirming the theory that non Israelite people federated with Israel in Canaan. Moreover, the Perizzites are usually named as a Canaanite tribe against whom Israel must fight (Gen. 3:8 and 15:19, etc.), but Numbers 26:20 identifies them as part of the lineage and tribe of Judah, through his son Perez. The latter reference may reflect the fact that Perizzites joined Judah in Canaan and were literally "adopted" into Judah's origin-story.
The biblical story of the conquest of Canaan may represent the memories of Apiru victories written down several centuries after the fact and filtered through the religious viewpoint of that later time. According to this and similar theories "Israelite" migration from the south indeed took place, but occurred in phases as various groups moved north into Canaan. Moreover, some of groups that later identified with the Israelites had lived in Canaan for centuries. Thus the distinction between Canaanites and Israelites was once very faint, if it existed at all. Possibly the earliest distinction was political: the Canaanites were ruled by the Egyptian-dominated city-states while the proto-Israelites were Canaanite groups who lived in the countryside outside of that political orbit — hence, Apiru. Eventually the Israelites came to see themselves as a people separate from the Canaanites, largely for religious reasons.
The Israelite religion itself went through an evolutionary process, beginning with the fusion of the Canaanite god El with the desert god Yahweh, and evolving into the assertion that Yahweh/El alone could be worshiped by the Israelites. The rejection of traditional Canaanite religion resulted in the development of a religious mythology in which the Israelites were never a part of Canaanite culture, and the Canaanite gods were enemies of Yahweh/El, rather than members of the assembly of the gods with El as their chief. www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Canaan#Critical_Views
Given that the archaeological evidence requires us to conclude that the Israelites ancestors were in fact Canaanites, it follows that there was no invasion of the Promised Land as described in the Bible, and therefore no wide scale massacre of its indigenous inhabitants by hoards of rampaging Hebrews:
The account of Joshua's conquest of Canaan is inconsistent with the archaeological evidence. Cities supposedly conquered by Joshua in the 14th century BCE were destroyed long before he came on the scene. Some, such as Ai and Arad, had been ruins for a 1000 years. The Book of Judges, which directly contradicts Joshua, and shows the Israelites settling the land over a prolonged period, is nearer historical reality; but even it cannot be taken at face value.
The conclusion is somewhat startling to Bible readers who know the Canaanites portrayed in the Bible as immoral idolaters: most of the Israelites were in fact formerly Canaanites. The story of Abraham's journey from Ur of the Chaldees, the Patriarchs, the Exodus, Sinai, and the conquest of Canaan, all these were apparently based on legends that the various elements brought with them from their countries of origin. The consolidation of the Israelites into a nation was not the result of wanderings in the desert and divine revelation, but came from the need to defend themselves against the Philistines, who settled in the Canaanite coastal plain more or less at the same time the Israelites were establishing themselves in the hills. www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFA/Archive/2000_2009/2003/9/King%20David%20and%20Jerusalem¬%20Myth%20and%20Reality
Unfortunately, many believers refuse to accept the findings of modem archaeology. Instead, they attempt to make the facts fit preconceived notions of what they already consider true. This is sometimes the case with so called Biblical archaeology, which can be more concerned with apologetics rather than historical facts:
Those who were unwilling - primarily for religious reasons - to abandon their familiar texts began to shoehorn the archaeological data into the text-based framework, often with confusing results. A good example is Joshua's supposed conquest of Canaan in the second millennium BCE: take any century in that millennium to be the time of the conquest and there will always be a Canaanite city whose sack is described in the Book of Judges that turns out not to have been occupied at that time. Choose a different century and other cities will be found to have been deserted. This shoehorning is a desperate attempt to force the evidence into a preconceived structure, the reverse of how real archaeology works and much more like the behaviour of Cinderella's ugly sisters when confronted with a glass slipper that was patently not theirs. www.badarcaheology.net/old/index.php
In the light of the archaeological evidence the Biblical accounts of the massacres are most probably a fiction. However, let us suppose that the Canaanites were as evil as the Bible alleges. Indeed, let us assume they were as evil as the Nazi regime, whose atrocities have been established beyond any reasonable doubt:
The exact number of people killed by the Nazi regime will never be known, but scholars, using a variety of methods of determining the death toll, have generally agreed upon common range of the number of victims. Recently declassified British and Soviet documents have indicated the total may be somewhat higher than previously believed. However, the following estimates are considered to be highly reliable.
The estimates:
5.1 - 6.0 million Jews, including 3.0-3.5 million Polish Jews
1.8 - 1.9 million Gentile Poles (includes all those killed in executions or those that died in prisons, labour, and concentration camps, as well as civilians killed in the 1939 invasion and the 1944 Warsaw Uprising)
The Nazi atrocities were terrible indeed, and Hitler certainly had to be stopped. But would any humane person demand that every German child be killed because of the crimes committed by adults?
From the evidence I have presented it can be clearly seen that Anonymous' position is untenable: His justifications for the atrocity of the mass murder of children has been refuted on ethical grounds, on theological and philosophical grounds and, finally, is not supported by archaeological evidence relating to the Canaanites.
Finally, I have done my best to conduct myself with civility when discussing this issue with an individual who attempts to justify child murder. However, I now feel I have reached the limits of my capacity to remain courteous. Anonymous will probably disagree with my conclusions, which is fair enough. But I will make no further reply on this subject due to the aforementioned reason.
The "Myth" of the Canaanite Holocaust
Kevin Rogers
(Investigator 136, 2011 January)
In several past issues Kirk Straughen has argued that the Canaanite invasion was immoral. However, in Investigator #135 Kirk is now arguing that the Canaanite invasion did not in fact occur. This is supposedly Kirk's last contribution on the Canaanite issue. However, he has introduced entirely new material that is of a different nature. This is actually a huge topic over which there is considerable disagreement. This is like an aircraft popping up over the horizon, firing a missile and then running away before it gets shot down.
I haven't had much time to do research, but I will make some brief comments. Kirk's article mainly consisted of several quotations that were copied off of the web. The first article argued that Israel was an offshoot of Canaanite culture, rather than coming out of Egypt.
The article states, "The story of the Kenites (Judges 1) joining Judah is an example of the Bible itself confirming the theory that non-Israelite people federated with Israel in Canaan."
The actual reference is, "The descendants of Moses' father-in-law, the Kenite, went up from the City of Palms with the men of Judah to live among the people of the Desert of Judah in the Negev near Arad." (Judge 1:16) The claim is partly true. The Bible stipulates principles whereby aliens could join in with the Israelite community. Other examples are Ruth, the Moabitess and Rahab the harlot. However, this does not in itself provide evidence that mainstream Jews were derived from Canaanite culture.
The next claim is, "Moreover, the Perizzites are usually named as a Canaanite tribe against whom Israel must fight (Gen. 3:8 and 15:19, etc.), but Numbers 26:20 identifies them as part of the lineage and tribe of Judah, through his son Perez." However, Numbers 26:20 actually says, "The descendants of Judah by their clans were: through Shelah, the Shelanite clan; through Perez, the Perezite clan; through Zerah, the Zerahite clan." The descendants of Perez were called "Perezites", not "Perizzites". The names are similar, but they are not the same. For example, I play racquetball with Jan and Jane. Their names are similar but they certainly are not the same woman. The Perizzites were a Canaanite race but the Perezites were a clan within the tribe of Judah. They were not the same group of people. This is not just an error; it is an obvious error. This illustrates a couple of things:
The quoted author is not reliable, and
Kirk did not check his sources.
After the time of King Saul (from David onwards), there is increasing confirmation of the general historicity of the Biblical record (i.e., the kings of Israel and Judah) from external sources. Prior to David there is very little. This is natural and what we should expect. However, it is this era, where external evidence is not available, that comes under historical attack from sceptical circles.
If we leave aside discussion of the miraculous elements, the remaining outline of the period from Moses to Saul seems quite credible. There is a general continuity with those elements that can be verified. There is also a tremendous amount of detail about some items, eg the tabernacle. Why record such enormous detail for something that never existed? The record is also not very complimentary of the nation and most of the main characters. This is not history written by victors.
As I said, this is a big topic and a contentious one, so readers should not draw conclusions without giving the subject a more thorough treatment.
Archaeology and the Conquest of Canaan
Kirk Straughen
(Investigator 137, 2011 March)
Although I have no desire to restart the debate on this subject I am taking into consideration Kevin Rogers' comments in No. 136, page 47 when he says that when considering this issue "readers should not draw conclusions without giving the subject a more thorough treatment."
With this in mind I have done some additional research using the web pages below which deal with the above topic, and present them here for those seeking additional information which hopefully will assist them in deciding the issue for themselves.
The History and Archaeology of the Book of Joshua and the Conquest/Settlement Period, Joel F. Drinkard, Jr.
When discussing with Anonymous the ethics of slaughtering children, I chose to debate on his home ground — which is the assumption that the Bible is literally true (an assumption that I don't share). Most of my criticisms of religion are aimed at the fundamentalist position, and this is why I adopted this particular line of argument.
I introduced archaeological evidence in my final reply as I thought it relevant to the discussion — primarily to reassure Christians of a non¬fundamentalist stance that the Blitzkrieg style invasion of Canaan as portrayed in the Bible wasn't supported by historical evidence, and that those commands attributed to God to kill children were most likely a fiction. In hindsight perhaps I should have made this clear in order to avoid confusion. I'll leave it for others to decide if my digression into archaeology was appropriate or not.
I acknowledge I made some mistakes in my article. Having said this, further reflection on the matter as well as research I have undertaken (reading the above webpages) has not refuted my conclusions, at least not from an ethical perspective.
As far as the archaeological evidence is concerned: it is clear that there is disagreement concerning the emergence of Israel as a nation. However, from the additional research I have undertaken it appears that most experts in this field have abandoned the naive idea that the Bible's portrayal of the Israelite occupation of Canaan is historically accurate.
CANAAN'S APOCALYPSE HAPPENED
Anonymous
(Investigator 136, 2011, January)
INTRODUCTION
Mr Straughen (#135) changed our discussion about the ethics of the Canaanite Apocalypse to claiming that Israelites were Canaanites, and that there was no Israeli Exodus from Egypt or invasion of Canaan. He quoted websites that echo archaeologists who hold such views.
Thomas L. Thompson of the "Copenhagen School" (which takes a "Minimalist" position that virtually the entire Bible is wrong) authored The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past (1999) and The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel (2000).
Israel Finkelstein, a Tel Aviv University professor, is of the "new Jewish archaeologists" who question the biblical stories. A report in 2000 quotes him: "The ancient Israelites evolved from the local late Bronze Age Canaanite civilization. There was no brutal military invasion. And if the united kingdom of David and Solomon ever existed, they were small tribal affairs. As for Solomon's Temple, there is no hard archaeological evidence for it."
Other experts, however, support the Bible. James K. Hoffmeier authored Israel in Egypt (1996) and Ancient Israel in Sinai (2005). He and like-minded scholar Kenneth Kitchen are Egyptologists with backgrounds in biblical studies and Syro-Palestinian archaeology. A summary of these scholars' arguments appeared in "Did the Exodus Never Happen?" by Kevin D. Miller (Christianity Today, September 7, 1998).
ARCHAEOLOGY
Ancient rulers sometimes had history destroyed:
The Cush (Sudan) conquest of Egypt was forgotten until recently although the Bible records the Cu****es as a "mighty people". (See #124)
Pharoah Thutmose III (1479-1447 BC) ordered the removal of every reference to the female pharaoh Hatshepsut who preceded him: "almost all the images of her as king were systematically chiseled off temples, monuments, and obelisks." (Brown 2009)
Of another pharaoh, Akhenaten, we read: "Under Akhenaten…the names and images of many gods…were destroyed." (Schultz & Seidel 1998)
Similarly with the "Hyksos": These were Asians who seized power in north Egypt, and produced the 15th dynasty which (using Encyclopaedia Britannica dates) ruled 1630-1521 BC. Egyptian history of that era is murky because after the Hyksos defeat "all traces of their occupation were erased".
According to the Bible Israel's ancestors moved into Egypt (Genesis 46) during a famine and stayed 215 years at which time Moses became Israel's leader and the "ten plagues" occurred. These events including the "new king" (Exodus 1:8) who ordered Israel's baby boys killed overlap with Hyksos rule. But details are obscure because Hyksos history was "erased" and because Egyptian chronology is still debated.
Historians use the Egyptian "king list" to correlate the reigns of various pharaohs with pottery styles and cultural changes identified in archaeological layers around the Mediterranean. By this dating method the ash layers from the Santorini volcano eruption (near Crete) were dated 1500 BC.
Science Illustrated (March/April 2008), however, reported that olive twigs discovered in a pumice layer in 2006 were carbon dated to 1627-1600 BC, and that ice-core-dating of a Greenland ice core showed an "acidity spike" (due to volcanic eruption) in 1643-1637 BC. It follows that Santorini erupted over 100 years before 1500 BC.
So, is Egypt's king list wrong, or is its match-up with archaeology wrong? Either way, much 2nd millennium BC Mediterranean history (including Palestine) is out by over a century. Furthermore, if pharaohs could make previous pharaohs non-existent, and delete Hyksos rule and the Cush Empire from history, then they could also delete Moses, the Exodus, and Israel's invasion of Canaan!
Josephus' description of an Egyptian military campaign in Cush, led by Moses when he was Prince of Egypt (Antiquities Book II Chapter X), therefore deserves more credence!
Archaeology and history can also go wrong when ancient towns were:
• Destroyed and rebuilt many times; • Abandoned and a town of same name built nearby; • Looted for stones re-used elsewhere; • Completely cleared away and another town founded on the same site.
RECENT
The Old Testament mentions bees in Canaan (Deuteronomy 1:44; Judges 14:8; Psalm 118:12); and "honey" about 60 times. But archaeologists never found any beehives in Canaan! This changed in 2005 when Amihai Mazar of Hebrew University (Jerusalem) excavated 30 hives in the form of clay cylinders at Tel Rehov and found remains of bees.
The bees were a subspecies from Turkey less aggressive than Syrian bees and producing up to eight times as much honey. (New Scientist, June 12, 2008, p. 16) This explains the phrase "land flowing with milk and honey" (which the Old Testament uses 20 times).
Palestinian propaganda denies ancient Jewish links to Palestine and the Temple Mount. In 2000 Sheikh Salah stated, "The constant excavations carried out by Israeli archeologists under the mosque…have found nothing that belongs to the Jewish people." Hamed Salem, a university lecturer in Ramallah, declared: "Even the term Judaism is not very old. There is no record of Judaism before Jesus." Archeologist Dr. Adel Yahya claimed: "Palestinians are the descendants of the ancient Canaanites themselves, who were present in the land before the Israelites arrived." Others claimed that Palestinians descend from the Philistines who settled the coast of Canaan in the 12th century BC.
The historical facts, however, are that Palestinians are unrelated to Philistines and descend from immigrants entering Palestine since Roman times. The ancient existence of Israelites in contrast is documented in countless archaeological finds from the Merneptah Stele (a 2-metre high black granite stone) of 1200 BC to the Arch of Titus erected in Rome to commemorate the destruction of the Temple, as well as ancient documents such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
We also have genetics. New Scientist reports: "Most Jews in different parts of the world…share genetic traces of an ancient Middle Eastern ancestry, two large genetic studies conclude." The exceptions were the Jews in Ethiopia and India.
A team led by Karl Skorecki of the Israel Institute of Technology analysed genetic markers from the genomes of 121 Jews from 14 locations and compared them with 1166 non-Jews from 69 locations. 90% of the Jews had DNA originating from populations living in Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian territories and Cyprus over 2000 years ago. (12 June, 2010, p. 10)
The Bible records that Abraham's descendants included nations other than Israel. There was intermarriage between Abraham's descendants and Canaanite women, and further mixing with countless invaders and immigrants over many centuries. The ancestry of Jesus included a Moabite woman named Ruth!
All this mixing, however, does not disprove Israel's existence as a people just as the mixing of a 150 nationalities in Australia does not disprove the existence of "Australians" or Australia.
In 2010 a "Stunning Discovery" was reported. A pottery shard with Hebrew writing eight centuries older than the Dead Sea Scrolls was found in 2008 at Khirbet Qeiyafa, 18 miles west of Jerusalem. The ink inscription (6-inches square) was carbon-dated to the 10th century BC, and translator Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa called it the earliest known Hebrew writing.
The inscription expresses social concerns for weaker members of society similar to Exodus 23:3, Isaiah 1:17 and Psalm 72:3. This suggests parts of the Bible are centuries older than critics postulated, and Israel existed in the 10th century BC.
Ever increasing evidence, therefore, confirms the Bible as reliable and its critics wrong.
INDUCTION
The "Minimalist" school treats every biblical point not proved by archaeology as dubious or false. That's the starting point, the working assumption.
It's similar to declaring a man guilty of every unsolved crime for which he can't supply proof of innocence. For the man so accused to prove his innocence by solving every unsolved crime is impossible. Potentially, however, he could use "inductive reasoning". He might investigate some accusations and prove his innocence whenever testable evidence is available, and establish a body of data that can be generalized. He would then argue:
I'm proved innocent in every crime investigated so far, forty crimes;
I lack the logistics to investigate a million other crimes;
Therefore I generalize the testable results, i.e. the 40 confirmations of innocence, and predict the trend of being proved innocent would continue if investigation continues and more evidence is found.
Given the starting assumption of guilty-of-every-unsolved-crime, the method of establishing a body of data and then generalizing is the best rebuttal possible.
And that's what I do with the Bible. I investigate it point by point as time permits, every testable statement, and generalize the finding. Generalizing or extrapolating from a trend is called "induction" or "inductive reasoning".
Induction is what everyone does when they plan for tomorrow — they remember that countless "tomorrows" have already occurred and therefore predict more will come. Induction is also why people jump to avoid an oncoming speeding car — they're generalizing from similar occurrences in the past and anticipate pain or death if they don't step aside.
Without induction all science becomes useless. It's no good knowing about the force of gravity, for example, unless we predict that gravity will operate today, tonight and indefinitely. Without this extrapolation or prediction we'll happily walk off high cliffs without fear.
Around 1970 I learned from the Bible that cobras hear the snake charmer's music, but convinced no one because everyone believed snakes are deaf. In the 1990s, however, I got the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on "Cobra" revised (#94). Nowadays, texts on the sensory systems of snakes concede that snakes hear with an "inner ear".
Again in the 1970s I convinced hardly anyone that the Bible's counsel against sexual promiscuity is medically sound. Nowadays with evidence of 200 million promiscuity-related deaths in the 20th century, the emergence of "superbugs" and AIDs, and recent links of promiscuity with cancer the Bible is vindicated.
Such examples of biblical accuracy (and many others) could not be confirmed until science uncovered the facts. If we acknowledge this trend then we already know that many current criticisms of the Bible will ultimately fail.
ETHICS
I argued previously that the some Canaanite nations had to perish to prevent Canaanite standards such as idol-worship, sexual abuse, and religious prostitution becoming the worldwide norm, and instead to let Abraham's descendants bring "blessing to all the nations of the earth". (Genesis 22:18) Straughen's comment "God...orders the killing of children" misrepresents this theology as surely as the occasional death from compulsory vaccination is misrepresented if we argue "Western Governments ordered the killing of children."
A few comments now about religious prostitution:
…religious prostitution was an outcome of the beliefs, common to almost every ancient race, that sexual intercourse with a god, or with anyone intimately associated or connected with a god, was beneficial to the human participator… (Scott 1996)
In many lands females commenced adulthood as temporary temple prostitutes — in Babylon, Greece, Rome, etc. Regarding India Scott writes:
The dancing-girls who, until recently, were openly attached to so many temples in India were prostitutes who had intercourse when required with the priests and other temple officials, and with visitors for payment. For generations it was the custom in many parts of India for every first-born female child to be dedicated to the tribal god, to whom she was supposed to be married, and made to serve as a temple prostitute… Under British rule efforts were made to stamp out temple prostitution… (p. 49)
Through the mediation of Christian ethics temple prostitution declined in the late Roman Empire, subsequently in Europe, and after that in India and around the world. In Britain child prostitution, the sale of children, and the trade in virgins (for deflowering) was common until the 1880s when made illegal. (Barber 1975)
Today "blessing to all nations" occurs through monotheism and biblical values and through what these led to i.e. science, technology, improvements to modern law, and thousands of charitable ministries. The future will even see an end to war (Isaiah 2), pain and death. (Revelation 21:4) All such good could not have occurred in an idol-worshipping world of religious prostitution, child abuse, and human sacrifice. The progress achieved came slowly because most people opposed it, and can yet be reversed if today's Bible-misrepresenting critics prevail.
REFERENCES:
Barber, L. 1975 The Penthouse Sex Index — Temple Prostitution, Child Prostitution. Brown, C. National Geographic, April 2009, 88-111. Schultz, R. & Seidel, M. 1998 Egypt The World of the Pharoahs, p. 154. Scott, G. R. 1996 The History of Prostitution.
I know that men are won over less by the written than by the spoken word, that every great movement on this earth owes its growth to great orators and not to great writers.- Adolph Hitler
Despite the handicaps of the written word, I'll have to do the best I can in writing. I am not here to start a great movement. I am here to put an end to its madness.
The man whom the Church credits with writing the first five books of the Bible is, of course, Moses. In particular, he is credited with writing the two accounts of Creation and the Fall of Man, the basis of sin.
Like Christianity and Islam, Judaism is proclaimed to be a revealed religion. That is, their proponents claim that God revealed the words of Scripture through, what I would call, supernatural mental telepathy.
That's an absurd clam; but it gets worse as we delve into the character of the man called Moses. Monotheistic religions are dependant upon the credibility of Moses, so it is his credibility or lack of it, which we will examine here.
Modern scholarly opinion has determined that Moses could not written the five books of Moses; they were written and compiled centuries after his alleged time, after the Jewish exile in 586 BCE (a topic for some other time). For argument's sake, we'll accept him as the godfather of contemporary religion.
Not only has the Church been lying about Moses authorship since its inception. If Judaism, Christianity and Islam are to qualify as a revealed religion in truth, then it has to be upon the word of Moses. And when we examine his character, we find that he has the morals of a psychopath.
Think about it. Three major religions, still fighting among each to this day, based on, what they believe are the writings of one man, who turns out to be a psychopathic murderer. By natural inclination, Moses would also have to be a pathological liar.
Moses and Hitler, if they had lived at the same time, would have been natural enemies. However, their natural antagonism is not because one was evil and the other was good. Nay! It would have been a contest of evil against evil.
To hear the Jews tell their version of the Holocaust, Hitler exterminated six million Jews as if that was the extent of his treachery. But according to the R. J. Rummel in "Death by Government, Hitler presided over the murder of fifteen million non-Jews.
Regardless of the massive democide by the Soviets or communist Chinese, the only government mass murder that the world remembers and our school books describe is the mass murder that the world remembers and our school books describe is the Nazi genocide of the Jews in which "six million" were slaughtered. But even this count ignores the vast number of other people the Nazis exterminated. Overall, by genocide, the killing of hostages, reprisal raids, forced labor, "euthanasia," starvation, exposure, medical experiments, terror bombing, and in the concentration and death camps, the Nazis murdered from about 15,000,000 to over 31,600,000 people, most likely closer to 21 million men, women, handicapped, aged, sick, prisoners of war, forced laborers, camp inmates, critics, homosexuals, Jews, Slavs, Serbs, Czechs, Italians, Poles, Frenchmen, Ukrainians, and so on. Among them were 1 million children under eighteen years of age.
In terms of raw numbers, Moses couldn't compare to Hitler, but he had the same mindset to order the murder of anybody he didn't like or whoever opposed him. If the Bible is to be believed, Moses led two and a half million Hebrews from Egypt. This number comes from Exodus 12:37 which counts 600, 000 men. To give an idea of how grossly exaggerated this number is, historians estimate it was the size of the Roman Empire army at the height of its power.
37And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children (Exodus 12:37)
By extrapolating to a common population distribution, an equal amount would have been women, 30% children, and 20% too old or incapacitated to walk long distances. Adding it up, it means that over two million Hebrews escaped from Egypt. The estimated population of Egypt at that time was about a million.
In the forty year trek through the desert, only two adult men survived the Exodus, Joshua and Caleb, and children under twenty years old. The unfortunate had to die by the wayside.
As the Bible tells it, it wasn't due to attrition, the Israelites were sentenced to fend for themselves in the desert as a divine act of punishment.
26And the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron, 27"How long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel, which they murmur against me. 28Say to them, As I live, says the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and of all your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, 30not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. 32But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.' 35I, the LORD, have spoken; surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die." (Num. 14:26-35)
While Jews still celebrate Moses for liberating them from slavery, they are not bothered by his wake of death and destruction. For it wasn't just the Hebrews who suffered under Moses; we can count the innocent Egyptian people and the outlying tribes who Moses came in contact with.
While war and terrorism in the land of milk and honey rages on today, we find at its roots, territorial claims between the Palestinians and the Jews and Christians. The Bible is clear that the Palestinians occupied what is now the nation of Israel, long before the Jews took it by war.
The Hebrews under Moses and throughout the Old Testament where as nationalistic, racist and bigoted as anything we have seen in modern history.
7Then the LORD said, "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (Ex. 3:7-8)
Before I start tearing up Moses, I want to be on record as sympathetic to the chronic persecution Jews have suffered over the centuries. Where I am annoyed is the habit, Jews have, of parlaying their victim image for political gain.
We hear too much about how the Nazi's killed six million Jews, and too little about the fifteen million other Europeans who were likewise systematically exterminated.
For over two thousand years now, Jews, Christians and Muslims have been fighting and killing each other to prove whose side God is on. Whatever happens in the Middle East, it is clear to me that a military solution never was and still is, impossible. War and strife has no chance of ending until religious zealotry withers from human consciousness.
MOSES' FIRST MURDER—EXODUS 2:11-15
Moses got his first taste of blood when he was living with Pharaoh. When he grew up, he once saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. Seeing no one nearby, he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. The next day, he came across two other Hebrews who knew what he did. When word of his misdeed got to Pharaoh, Moses had to flee to save his life.
11One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12He looked this way and that, and seeing no one he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (Ex. 2:11-12)
Near the end of Moses' career, he took rage at the Midianites for having sex with his men (see "Midianite Holocaust"). It's worth noting that the Midianites were hospitable to Moses after he fled Egypt. Moses even married a pagan Midianite woman, Zipporah, and had children by her.
15When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh, and stayed in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well. 16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. 17The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. 18When they came to their father Reuel, he said, "How is it that you have come so soon today?" 19They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and even drew water for us and watered the flock." 20He said to his daughters, "And where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread." 21And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daugher Zipporah. 22She bore a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land." (Ex. 2:15-22)
GOD PICKS A MURDERER—EXODUS 3
According to Moses, when he was in the land of Midian, he saw a burning bush that would not consume itself. It was God, who told him he would be the one to lead the Hebrews out of slavery and into the promised land. Despite the promise, we know that only two of the original Hebrews made it to the Promised Land.
Notice too that the land was not vacant. It was once barren, now occupied by other tribes who turned it into a land flowing with milk and honey.
7Then the LORD said, "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (Ex. 3:7-8)
PASSOVER—EXODUS 5:1-12:51
We first turn to the Passover and the ten plagues Moses inflicted on the Egyptians. Let's revue them in brief. 1. The Nile water turned to blood and all the fish died. 2. Frogs swarmed all over the land. 3. Gnats swarmed the land en masse. 4. Flies swarmed en masse, attacking human and animals alike. 5. Moses had all the livestock killed. 6. He inflicted festering boils on the Egyptians. 7. Thunder, hail and fire fell upon the earth, striking down every plant, animal and human not sheltered. 8. Locusts darkened the air and ate everything in sight. 9. The sun disappeared for three days. 10. And finally, on the tenth plague, Moses had God kill the firstborn of Pharaoh, and every Egyptian slave and livestock. (The livestock were previously killed in the fifth plague.)
4And Moses said, "Thus says the LORD: About midnight I will go forth in the midst of Egypt; 5and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh who sits upon his throne, even to the first-born of the maidservant who is behind the mill; and all the first-born of the cattle. (Ex. 5:4-5)
For this, Jews celebrate their Passover, the celebration of their freedom from bondage. What's wrong with this picture? By all accounts, the story is a myth. Still, modern Jews seem to be able to disassociate themselves from this despicable horror.
What is equally wrong is that Pharaoh, the slave master, was attacked through the people he subjugated. The Egyptian people did not enslave the Hebrews; it was Pharaoh and his army-the very ones who survived to chase after the Hebrews. What Jews are implicitly celebrating today, is the moral equivalent of a Holocaust their God imposed on innocent Egyptians.
From here on in, the freedom which Jews so proudly celebrate, turns into a nightmare, when the Hebrews find themselves at the mercy of a despot far more ruthless than Pharaoh.
THE GOLDEN CALF-—EXODUS 32
When Moses came down from the mountain with two tablets of the Ten Commandments (remember thou shalt not kill) and saw the Israelites dancing around a pagan idol of a golden calf, he was furious. Keep in mind, when the hapless Hebrews worshipped this pagan idol, it was before Moses showed them the Ten Commandments. In fact, he destroyed these sacred tablets in anger with no repercussions from God.
He had the calf melted and ground into powder and made the people drink a concoction mixed with the gold powder.
19And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it upon the water, and made the people of Israel drink it. (Ex. 32:19-20)
Next, he ordered his Levite priests, as the price of ordaining themselves to serve God, had to kill their brothers, friends and neighbors. Three thousand died that day.
27And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD GOD of Israel, 'Put every man his sword on his side, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.'" 28And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. (Ex. 32:27-28)
If that wasn't enough, Moses says God sent a plague upon the people to punish them again for their involvement with the calf. A calf, by the way which was made by Aaron at the behest of the people-Aaron wasn't touched. No count is given as to how many more died.
35And the LORD sent a plague upon the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made. (Ex. 32:36)
Hitler knew the value of ceremonies and rituals. Moses was equally fanatical about ritual practices. Aaron, the high priest and brother of Moses, had two sons, Nadab and Abihu, ordained into the priesthood.
One day they burned incense, perhaps for the smell, but not for ceremonial purpose. According to Moses, God come out of the ark and killed them by fire, but most likely, Moses had them burned alive.
1Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered unholy fire before the LORD, such as he had not commanded them. 2And fire came forth from the presence of the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. 3Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD has said, 'I will show myself holy among those who are near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.'" And Aaron held his peace. (Lev. 10:1-3)
Thereafter Moses appointed Aaron's two nephews, Eleazer and Ithamar to carry the charred carcasses to a place outside the camp. When he appointed them to replace Nadab and Abihu, he warned them to practice their ceremonial duties with the utmost care, lest they burn too. Priesthood was a dangerous profession under Moses.
6And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, "Do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not rend your clothes, lest you die, and lest wrath come upon all the congregation; but your brethren, the whole house of Israel, may bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled. 7And do not go out from the door of the tent of meeting, lest you die; for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you." And they did according to the word of Moses. (Lev. 10:6-7)
CHILD SACRIFICE
If we think Moses was above the pagan practice of child sacrifice. Not so! Child sacrifice took place under Moses' domination. To commemorate the killing of firstborn during the Passover, Moses ordered that firstborn Hebrews and livestock shall be sacrificed too. I don't think many Jews are aware of this dismal practice. In Exodus, all first born are sacrificed. The verses below speak for themselves.
1The LORD said to Moses, 2"Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine." (Ex. 32:1-2)
15For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and the first-born of cattle. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb; but all the first-born of my sons I redeem.' (Ex. 32:15)
By the time of Numbers, it appears that only first born Levites and livestock are sacrificed. Keep in mind that when you consecrate a living being to God, that's a euphemism for sacrifice. It doesn't mean ordain into the priesthood. Beasts were not ordained.
11And the LORD said to Moses, 12"Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel instead of every first-born that opens the womb among the people of Israel. The Levites shall be mine, 13for all the first-born are mine; on the day that I slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for my own all the first-born in Israel, both of man and of beast; they shall be mine: I am the LORD." (Num. 3:11-13)
THE QUAIL INCIDENT — NUMBERS 11
Complaining to the unsympathetic Moses always got the people killed. Once, they recalled how well they ate in Egypt and how tired they were of manna. So Moses promised more meat for a month than they could possibly consume.
A wind brought enough quail to pile three feet high for as far as they could walk in one day. So the people worked for two days gathering quail. But as soon as they started eating, God struck them down with plague.
32And the people rose all that day, and all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails; he who gathered least gathered ten homers; and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. (Num. 11:32-33)
REBELLION AT KADESH-—NUMBERS 13-14
In Numbers 13, when the Hebrews reached the southern tip of Canaan, Moses sent a small party of spies to assess the terrain and its inhabitants. What they found out was that the land of Milk and Honey Moses had promised was indeed bountiful, but it was also inhabited by giants and powerful kingdoms.
It was not until that point when the poor Hebrews learned that Moses' ambitions extended beyond freeing them from slavery. What he really had in mind was war and conquest. When the people expressed their fear and wanted to go back to Egypt, Moses would have none of that talk.
1Then all the congregation raised a loud cry; and the people wept that night. 2And all the people of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3Why does the LORD bring us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" 4And they said to one another, "Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt." (Num. 14:1-4)
On a number of occasions like this one, God wanted kill them all with pestilence and disinherit them.
12I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." (Num. 14:12)
But Moses was wiser. He pleaded to God that it would be bad for his, God's, reputation.
15Now if thou dost kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard thy fame will say, 16'Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to give to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.' (Num. 14:15-16)
The solution was to punish them by making them wander in the desert for forty years until they died off and a new generation would take their place.
28Say to them, 'As I live, says the LORD, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: 29your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and of all your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, 30not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. 31But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. 32But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. 33And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. 34According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.' 35I, the LORD, have spoken; surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die." (Num. 14:28-35)
Except for Joshua and Caleb who supported Moses. The spies who brought back the news that scared the people, were to die by plague.
36And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up an evil report against the land, 37the men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by plague before the LORD. 38But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of those men who went to spy out the land. (Num. 14:36-38)
Now it can be known. The Hebrews were not "lost" in the desert. They were kept there as a form of punishment for not wanting to wage war against the Canaanites. Moses would have to wait until a new generation was mature enough to fight for the land God promised them.
THE COMMANDMENT PENALTY-—NUMBERS 15
It's a common notion, today, to think of the Ten Commandments as a standard of virtue. What is not said of the Ten Commandments, is its insistence on absolute obedience and what the penalties were for disobedience. Actually, there was only one penalty under Mosaic rule: death. For those who disobeyed, they were cast off in the desert to die by themselves.
30But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31Because he has despised the word of the LORD, and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him." (Num. 15:30-31)
One a certain occasion, a man was found picking up sticks on the Sabbath. Moses had him stoned to death.
32While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. 33And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. 34They put him in custody, because it had not been made plain what should be done to him. 35And the LORD said to Moses, "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp." 36And all the congregation brought him outside the camp, and stoned him to death with stones, as the LORD commanded Moses. (Num. 15:35-36)
KORAH'S REBELLION — NUMBERS 16
Without fail, anyone who challenged Moses' authority faced certain death. A Levite named Korah, two Reubanites named Dathan and Abiram, and an assembly of 250 other prominent tribal leaders, confronted Moses about the question of leadership.
16"You have gone too far! For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them; why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" (Num. 16:3)
Moses told the people to meet in front of the tent of meeting the next day. There, Moses warned the congregation to stand away from these men and anything that belongs to them.
The people moved away. Then the earth opened up and swallowed the three along with everything and everybody related to them. In Moses' language, it means that he had them and their families buried alive.
30But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD." 31And as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split asunder; 32and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men that belonged to Korah and all their goods. 33So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. (Num. 16:30-33)
As for the other 250, we can surmise from the way it reads that Moses had them burned alive.
35And fire came forth from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering the incense. (Num. 16:36)
THE TRANSJORDON CONQUEST — NUMBERS 20-21
Rather then go through Canaan, the Hebrews circled east then north around Canaan. We should realize that in those days, a contingent of this size was very intimidating. It would be potentially suicidal for any king along their route to believe that their intentions were peaceful.
When they wanted to pass through Edom, the king there threatened to send his army if they trespassed. So they had to go around Edom. The Edomites were spared because they had stronger forces.
20But he said, "You shall not pass through." And Edom came out against them with many men, and with a strong force. 21Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his territory; so Israel turned away from him.(Num. 20:20-21)
The Hebrews were forbidden to set foot in Canaan, but apparently Hormah, in Canaan, was along Moses' path. At first the king of Arad was successful in warding off the marauders, but eventually the Hebrews won the day. The Amorites were also destroyed in their wake.
1When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who dwelt in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive. 2And Israel vowed a vow to the LORD, and said, "If thou wilt indeed give this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities." 3And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and gave over the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities; so the name of the place was called Hormah. When they came to the Amorite territory, the entire kingdom was destroyed. Traveling north, they came to Bashon. Again, no survivors were left. (Num. 21:1-3)
The Hebrews traveled north along the eastern boundary of Canaan in the land of the Amorites. Though they promised not to damage anything or take any water, who could believe them. When the Amorites went out to fight them off, the Hebrews prevailed. They killed, pillaged and burned the surrounding towns until there was nothing left.
21Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying, 22"Let me pass through your land; we will not turn aside into field or vineyard; we will not drink the water of a well; we will go by the King's Highway, until we have passed through your territory." 23But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his territory. He gathered all his men together, and went out against Israel to the wilderness, and came to Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 24And Israel slew him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as to the Ammonites; for Jazer was the boundary of the Ammonites. 25And Israel took all these cities, and Israel settled in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all its villages. 26For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon. (Num. 21:21-26)
31Thus Israel dwelt in the land of the Amorites. (Num. 21:31)
One more massacre was to take place before the Hebrews had enough land east of the Jordan from which to launch their invasion of Canaan. When King Og of Bashan saw them coming, he came out to defend himself, but he wasn't powerful enough. No one from Bashan survived.
33Then they turned and went up by the way to Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan came out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edre-i. 34But the LORD said to Moses, "Do not fear him; for I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon." 35So they slew him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was not one survivor left to him; and they possessed his land. (Num. 21:33-35)
THE WOMEN OF MOAB — NUMBERS 25
To the Moabites, prostitution was considered an act of worship towards their God, Baal of Peor. When the Hebrew men began having sex with the Moabite women, Moses dealt with them in his usual harsh way. He had the Moabite chiefs hanged and the sex crazed Hebrew men killed.
1While Israel dwelt in ****tim the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. 2These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods. 3So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel; 4and the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." 5And Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Every one of you slay his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor." (Num. 25:1-5)
In front of Moses and the congregation, a Hebrew man walked by with a Midianite woman to his family. Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, followed the two of them with spear in hand. When they entered the tent of meeting, Phinehas speared them through their bellies.
This murderous act had the effect of stopping a plague that was raging at the time. God gets credit for showing his pleasure by stopping the plague at the count of 24,000 deaths.
6And 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 at the door of the tent of meeting. 7When 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 8and went after the man of Israel into the inner room, and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her body. Thus the plague was stayed from the people of Israel. 9Nevertheless those that died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. (Num. 25:6-9)
From this incident, the whole Midianite tribe was doomed to die for offending Moses. We should wonder what a sick man this Moses was. For his own wife was a pagan Midianite; and it was the Midianites who sheltered Moses after he fled Egypt. Note: there is a gross biblical error here. It was the Moabite women his men were attract too, but somehow the Midianites got the blame for it.
16And the LORD said to Moses, 17"Harass the Midianites, and smite them; 18for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague on account of Peor." (Num. 25:16)
THE MIDIANITE MASSACRE-—NUMBERS 31
After the Passover, the Midianite massacre ranks as the second bloodiest of Moses' legacy. The Midianites did not make any aggressive gestures towards Moses and the Israelites. Moses was angry because their woman were too friendly. He blamed the temple prostitutes because his men were having sex with them. (See "The Women of Moab," above. Scripture confuses Moab with Midian) Whether it was Moab or Midian, it still comes out the same way.
1The LORD said to Moses, 2"Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites; afterward you shall be gathered to your people." 3And Moses said to the people, "Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian, to execute the LORD'S vengeance on Midian. 4You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war." 5So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war (Num. 31:1-5)
So he sent 12,000 soldiers, telling them to kill everybody, burn everything and take whatever booty is useful. Instead, his commanders brought back the women and children, besides their spoils.
6And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand. 7They warred against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and slew every male. 8They slew the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian; and they also slew Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. 9And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones; and they took as booty all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods. 10All their cities in the places where they dwelt, and all their encampments, they burned with fire, 11and took all the spoil and all the booty, both of man and of beast. 12Then they brought the captives and the booty and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the people of Israel, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.(Num. 31:6-12)
Instead of being pleased, Moses was angry at them for letting the women live.
14And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war. 15Moses said to them, "Have you let all the women live? 16Behold, these caused the people of Israel, by the counsel of Balaam, to act treacherously against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD. (Num. 31:14-16)
So he ordered his commanders to kill all the male children, and all the women who have slept with a man; they could keep The virgins for themselves. His men were to remain outside camp for seven days to purify themselves and their virgin captives.
17Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. 18But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. 19>Encamp outside the camp seven days; whoever of you has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. 20You shall purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goats' hair, and every article of wood." (Num. 31:17-20)
The Israelites collected a booty of, 808,000 livestock and 32,000 virgins.
32Now the booty remaining of the spoil that the men of war took was: six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, 33seventy-two thousand cattle, 34sixty-one thousand asses, 35and thirty-two thousand persons in all, women who had not known man by lying with him. (Num. 31:32-35)
Let us make a crude estimate that virgins constitute one fourth of the female population and ratio of males to females is 50-50. This would mean that the total population of Midianites was about 250,000. Numbers 31:49 reports no soldiers were reported missing. There must have been almost no resistance.
48Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, came near to Moses, 49and said to Moses, "Your servants have counted the men of war who are under our command, and there is not a man missing from us. (Num. 31:48-49)
MIRIAM'S LEPROSY--NUMBERS 12
We have seen Moses' villainy when the Israelite men had sex with foreign women. In total disregard for what he enforced, he gave in to his lust and married a Cu****e woman. Cu****es were not even Semitic; they were black Africans. When his sister, Mariam, and Aaron protested, God inflicted Mariam with leprosy. We can't blame Moses for Mariam's leprosy. But an issue can be made of Moses' rank hypocrisy.
1Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cu****e woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cu****e woman; 2and they said, "Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" And the Lord heard it. 3Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all men that were on the face of the earth. 4And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting." And the three of them came out. 5And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. 6And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream. 7Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house. 8With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in dark speech; and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" 9And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed; 10and when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. (Num. 12:1-10)
THE END OF MOSES — DEUTERONOMY 34
Moses was supposed to have been 120 years old when he came to his end. "His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." He had the strength to walk up to the top of Pisgah, opposite Jericho. His eyes were good enough to see for hundreds of miles; the land upon he would not enter.
There is no clue as to how he died. But we can be left with the impression that when a healthy man goes to a mountaintop to die, his demise was planned. No one knows where he was buried. And by a remarkable coincidence, no one knows where Hitler's body is either.
For those who wonder why Moses had to die before the Hebrews were to enter the Promised Land, here is the story as told in Num. 20:7-12.
One day when the Hebrews were in dire need of water, God told Moses to tell the named rock to bring forth water.
7and the LORD said to Moses, 8"Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water; so you shall bring water out of the rock for them; so you shall give drink to the congregation and their cattle." (Num. 20:7-8)
Instead, Moses struck the rock with his rod twice to make water flow out.
11And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. (Num. 20:11)
So God punished Moses for not believing in him. He was not to live long enough to enter the Promised Land. But he was allowed to see the land before he was stricken dead.
12And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. (Num. 20:12)
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem, unto the oak tree of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then (2000 BC) in the land (Genesis 12:6).
Thanks to the change of the Messiah's name from Joshua to Jesus, the Canaanites were able to make a comeback and reestablish their nation in 1948!!
When Abraham entered the Promised Land around 2000 BC, the Canaanites were already there. Abraham was descended from Shem–the oldest son of Noah–and the Messiah was supposed to come through his progeny. The area that the Canaanites occupied was the center of the earth and that was also promised to Shem as his inheritance.
Unfortunately, the usurping Canaanites were the dominant people and they were proverbial for their wickedness. Canaan was the son of Ham, the grandson of Noah, and his conception was the result of INCEST:
And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness (Genesis 9:20-23).
The Hebrew idiom "to look upon nakedness" or "uncover nakedness" means to make love to or have sex with a person. Thus Canaan was conceived in iniquity and born in sin!!
Ham–the 2nd son of Noah–was not happy with his position so a family power struggle ensued with the resultant incest of Ham or Canaan disgracing his family tree.
At first, Abraham was a stranger or sojourner in the land that the Canaanites occupied. JEHOVAH promised him that after 400 years his descendents would expel the Canaanites and inherit the land:
And he (JEHOVAH) said unto Abram, "know of a surety that thy seed (Isaac) shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years" (Genesis 15:13).
Satan the devil overheard that conversation and he had 400 years to prepare his Canaanites or "Chosen People" to oppose the plans of the Almighty. The main objective of Lucifer for the past 3500 years can be stated succintly: "his attempt to replant hispeople in the Promised Land."
The Canaanites were conquered by Joshua the son of Nun!!
After Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage, he chose Hosea the son of Nun as his successor. Joshua was one of 12 scouts that Moses sent to reconnoiter the Promised Land:
These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land (Moses gave Hoshea the son of Nun the name JEHOSHUA) (Numbers 13:16).
JEHOSHUA is transliterated into English as Joshua....The Canaanites were infamous for child sacrifice, incest, homosexuality, same-sex marriages, bestiality, and in addition they had an army of cannibalistic GIANTS guarding the Promised Land:
But the men who had gone up with him said, “we are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had scouted out, saying, “the land through which we have gone as scouts is a land that eats (Heb. akal) up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of gigantic stature. There we saw the Nephilim (giants), the sons of Anak, who came from the Nephilim; and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:31-33).
10 of the 12 scouts were paralyzed with fear at the sight of the Canaanite cannibals and they persuaded the people that it was better to go back to Egypt than face them in battle....For their unbelief and cowardice, all the children of Israel were forced to wander in the Wilderness of Sinai for 40 long years.
The Canaanite disdained the scouts that Moses sent out and they felt invincible with all their state of the art weaponry and their army of human flesh eating GIANTS.
The first great challenge for the successor of Moses was the wicked Canaanite city of Jericho. Jericho was under LOCKDOWN and nobody was allowed in or out.
Rahab tied the scarlet cord in her window.
Joshua was ready to spare any that made peace with the Elohim of Israel.
He sent 2 scouts into Jericho and they were hidden by a prostitute named Rahab.
Rahab and her family were spared by hanging a scarlet cord in the window.
Marching around Jericho.
Soon after the scouts escaped and returned to Joshua, the siege of Jericho began. 7 priests bearing 7 trumpets marched around the city once for 6 days. On the 7th day, they marched around the city 7 times and the people gave a GREAT SHOUT.
The battle cry or GREAT SHOUT that destroyed Jericho was the Hebrew word HALLELUJAH. Hallelujah is a composite word which means PRAISE JAH and is found many places throughout the Holy Bible:
HALLELUJAH (Praise JAH)(Psalm 150:1).
The ground opened up under the walls and the Israelites went straight up and took the city by storm. Nobody in the wicked city was spared....not even the animals....The scarlet cord that Rahab hung in her window symbolized the blood of the coming Messiah–Joshua of Nazareth.
The ground opened up under the walls when the priests shouted and blew the trumpets.
When the trumpets blew and the people shouted HALLELUJAH, the ground opened up and swallowed the walls just like the Twin Towers in New York City.
Every living thing died in the city, except for Rahab and her family.
The city was totally destroyed by fire.
After Rahab and her family were rescued from the doomed city it was set on fire and every living thing perished. Jericho is also a type of the doomed world at the end of time.
The next tremendous miracle performed by Joshua was commanding the sun and moon to stop moving:
Then Joshua spoke to JEHOVAH in the day when JEHOVAH delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel: “sun, stand still over Gibeon; and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the people had revenge upon their enemies (Joshua 10:12-13).
Joshua was indeed very scientific when he told the sun to stop moving . . . and not the earth to stop rotating!!
The last great battle that is recorded in the Book of Joshua is the Battle of the Waters of Merom:
And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor heard these things, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph, and to the kings who were from the north, in the mountains, in the plain south of Chinneroth, in the lowland, and in the heights of Dor on the west, to the Canaanites in the east and in the west, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite in the mountains, and the Hivite below Hermon in the land of Mizpah. So they went out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots. And when all these kings had met together, they came and camped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel (Joshua 11:1-5).
The Bible does not state how many soldiers fought against Israel except to state that they were "as the sands of the seashore in multitude." That battle prefigured the Battle of Armageddon or Gog and Magog when Joshua of Nazareth will return with his mighty angels from heaven.
The Canaanites occupied the Promised Land before Joshua drove them out.
Joshua waged a Seven Years' War against the Canaanites and then divided up their lands among the 12 Tribes.
Many of the Canaanites escaped and this was the beginning of the Canaanite diaspora which lasted until 1948!!
Canaan after the Conquest by Joshua the son of Nun.
Only one small tribe made peace with Israel, all the rest were killed . . . or escaped to fight another day:
Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. For it was JEHOVAH himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as JEHOVAH had commanded Moses (Joshua 11:19-20).
The surviving giants escaped to Britannia, Northern Europe, Assyria, Africa, China, India etc., etc. , and many reached the New World. Traditions of human flesh eating giants are universal....Coinciding with the expulsion of Satan's Canaanites, the world became very, very dark spiritually. In the North African city of Tangier, a plaque once stood as a memorial to the Canaanite diaspora:
Here, under the quiet stars, these old streets seem thronged with the phantoms of forgotten ages. My eyes are resting upon a spot where stood a monument which was seen and described by Roman historians less than two thousand years ago, whereon was inscribed:
WE ARE THE CANAANITES. WE ARE THEY THAT HAVE BEEN DRIVEN OUT OF THE LAND OF CANAAN BY THE JEWISH ROBBER, JOSHUA. (Twain, The Innocents Abroad, p. 50).
The Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, Tyre and Sidon, etc., etc., all owed their origin to the Canaanite diaspora. The most infamous Canaanite was named Jezebel, wife of King Ahab of Samaria. Jezebel almost succeeded in exterminating all the prophets of JEHOVAH but in the end she was devoured by dogs (I Kings 21:23).
The Jewish Messiah called the Canaanites "dogs"
In Bible times, dogs were not the cute domesticated pets that are found today in many peoples' homes. During the ministry of the Messiah, a Canaanite woman begged him to heal her demon possessed daughter . . . but he refused:
Then Joshua went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaancame out of the same region, and cried out to him, saying, "have mercy on me, O Adonai, you son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil." But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "send her away; for she cries out after us." But he answered and said, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Then she came and worshipped him, saying, "Adonai, help me." But he answered and said,"It is not good to take the children's bread, and throw it to the dogs." And she said, "True, Adonai: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." Then Joshua answered and said unto her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour (Matthew 15: 21-28).
This Canaanite woman's persistence finally paid off when Joshua healed her daughter.
The Old Covenant Joshua was commanded to totally exterminate the Canaanites. By contrast, the New Covenant Joshua came to save all that would believe in him . . . even the wicked Canaanites....His mission was to save . . . not to destroy. The Messiah told his disciples:
"For the Son of man is not come to destroy mens' lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:56).
Even his disciples could not understand that the Messiah came on a mission of mercy . . . and not one of extermination!!
The "Bulldog" and the "Wolf" reestabished the Canaanite nation in 1948!!
The 2 architects of the revived Canaanite nation were Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler. Winston's code name in the British Secret Service was "Winnie the Pooh" and Hitler's code name was "Rabbit."
"Bulldog" Winston in a defiant pose.
Winston Churchill earned the nickname "Bulldog" for his defiance of Hitler and his Nazis.
In reality, from 1933 to 1945, the Nazis were financed by the British Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S., through the BIS (Bank for International Settlements) in Basel, Switzerland!!
To his "friends" Adolf was affectionally called "Wolf."
His soldiers expected to be paid right up to the last battle!!
Adolf Hitler (1889–1962).
The rearming of Hitler's Third Reich was financed by gold confiscated from U.S. citizens by President Roosevelt in 1933. Roosevelt was just as much a dictator as Churchill and Hitler.
Together, "Winnie" and "Wolf" started World War II, which was supposed to conquer Russia by the fall of 1941. It was another disastrous decision like Kitchener's and Churchill's starting World War I.
After the war, the Holocaust Hoax was created with 6 million cremated "Jews." These cremated and resurrected "Jews" were urged to move to Palestine and recreate the Canaanite nation which was destroyed by Joshua in 1500 BC.
Hitler was not directly involved in this because he had retired to Argentina. However, from behind the scenes his influence was paramount. Even today, his daughter, Angela Merkel Hitler, is a staunch supporter of the Canaanite state.
It is almost beyond belief that the wicked Canaanite diaspora has survived for almost 3500 years. Nations like India and China are older, but they were never dispersed over the face of the earth. Under their master Satan, the great ambition of the Canaanites was always to reclaim the Promised Land.
Canaanite David Ben-Gurion proclaiming the rebirth of "Israel."
On May 14, 1948, the ancient Canaanite nation was reborn under the name "Israel."
Satan never changes, and he never accepted the expulsion of his Canaanites by Joshua the son of Nun!!
It took him 3500 years to reestablish his Canaanites in Emmanuel's Land!!
Map of the modern Canaanite nation.
It is indeed fitting that the Canaanites chose as their new flag the HEXAGRAM. The 6 pointed star or hexagram comes from Egypt....It is agood luck charm and is also used in sorcery. This is where the expression putting a HEX or curse on somebody comes from.
The hexagram is an ancient Egyptian symbol.
The hexagram or double pyramid is frequently used in witchcraft to put curses on people.
This Egyptian symbol was chosen by the Canaanites for thier national flag!!
Canaanites "praying" at the former temple of Jupiter.
It is indeed appropriate that the hexagram should be their national symbol because Noah put a curse on Canaan because of his incest:
So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said: “cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren” (Genesis (9:24-25).
It is incredible how Satan was able to preserve his Canaanites as a separate nationality for such a long time but Scripture calls him "that old Serpent, the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world" (Revelation 12:9).
The Canaanites created and financed the Papacy!!
From the time of Emperor Constantine, the Canaanites have financed Babylon the Great or the Papacy. All the great cathedrals and monasteries throughout Europe were financed by the Canaanites.
Because of the antiquity of Israel, real Jews were protected by pagan Rome and did not have to worship Caesar as divine. Under the Justinian Code, the fake "Jews" or Canaanites were given the same status in the Roman Canon Law as previously they enjoyed under pagan Rome:
Those new Christian laws, the work of Constantine and his successors, gave Christianity unqualified preeminence as the established religion of the Empire. The titles of the Theodosian Code, 8 and 9 of Book 16, that legislate on the Jews, the Novellaeof Theodosius himself, and the Code of Justinian, 1, 9, are characterized by a theme and countertheme: Christianity is recognized by the law as the sole authentic worship of God; Judaism retains real, if diminished, privileges, guaranteed by statute, and in stark contrast to the law's all but unmitigated severity with respect to paganism. Those privileges accorded to Judaism certainly derive from the long tradition of Jewish favor with Roman legislators, but this must have been reinforced by the incontrovertible prestige of the Jews (Synan, The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages, p. 17).
In a Papal Bull called Sicut Judaeis (Latin: "As the Jews") issued by Pope Calixtus II in 1120, anybody seeking to convert the Canaanites to Christianity was excommunicated.
Ever mindful of the source of their revenue, the Popes sought to protect their cash cow because usury was forbidden under Papal Canon Law.
Over and over in the New Covenant, the real Jewish Messiah warned his people about the counterfeit Canaanites:
I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan (Revelation 2:9).
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but are liers; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee (Revelation 3:9).
But be not called Rabbi: for one is your Teacher, even Christ; and ye are all brethren (Matthew 23:8).
In June 2014, a man who calls himself "Holy Father" met with the Canaanites in Jerusalem:
And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven (Matthew 23:9).
The Holy Bible specifically warns US against giving flattering titles to men (Job 32: 21-22).
Pope Francis with "Rabbi" Yitzhak Yosef and "Rabbi" David Lau in Jerusalem.
Since the time of Constantine, the Canaanites or fake "Jews" have financed the Papacy through usury.
The Canaanites also financed the Crusades in the hope of taking Palestine from the Arabs!!
Canaanite and Catholic are synonymous terms!!
Pope "Freedom" meeting with a group of Canaanites in Jerusalem!!
When the letter "Y" is substituted for the letter "J" by the Canaanites, it representsthe FORKED TONGUE of that old Serpent the Devil and Satan (Revelation 12:9).
When Satan needed to move his troops to a more strategic spot on the battlefield, the monks would stir up the people by calling the fake "Jews" "Christ Killers." This happened frequently during the Dark Ages and especially in Spain around the time of Ferdinand and Isabella.
No real Jew would ever be a banker, financier, or usurer. The real Jewish Prophet Jeremiah said:
Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury (interest in modern Bibles), nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me (Jeremiah 15:10).
The ancient Canaanites were notorious for incest so Moses prohibited incest and inbreeding among the Jews:
No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am JEHOVAH (Leviticus 18:6).
Additionally, only the Aaronic priests who ministered in the Temple, wore head coverings.
According to Moses, the Jewish year begins in the springtime–14 days before the Passover:
This month (Nisan) shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you (Exodus 12:2).
Additionally, real Jews were forbidden to keep the Passover anywhere except at Jerusalem:
Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which JEHOVAH Elohim giveth thee: But at the place which JEHOVAH Elohim shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 16:5-6).
All of the present Canaanites or "Jewish" holidays are fraudulent because only at Jerusalem could the great festivals of the real Jews be celebrated!!
At the end of time, the real Jewish Messiah predicted that the Canaanites or synagogue of Satan would try to bring the whole world under the Latin Man through economic coercion:
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 666 (Revelation 13:16-18).
As true Christians living in the United States of Israel we have nothing to fear from the CURSES of the Canaanites:
Surely there is no sorcery against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath Elohim wrought!(Numbers 23:23).