Baidarka

I have added an image to my Biblical images folder - Phinehas Murders Zimri and Cozbi http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=4187799 click on Biblical images and check out the last image.


Numbers 25

Then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand 8 and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them-through the Israelite and into the woman's body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; 9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000. 10 The LORD said to Moses, 11 "Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them. 12 Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. 13 He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites." 14 The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family. 16 The LORD said to Moses, 17 "Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them, 18 because they treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the affair of Peor and their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of Peor."

So many confusing things going on here. Didn't Moses marry a Midianite woman?
Didn't he say something about treating foreigners nicely? Wasn't King David's Grandma a shiksa? What happened to thou shalt not kill?
Which Biblical writer are we reading here and what was his agenda?
This passage seems similar to an episode in Ezra where the foreign wives and their children were banished.

Clutch

Well, the obvious thing to say is that this is a different God -- tribal, obsessed with honor, unforgiving, inconstant, and cruel to enemies -- than the sanitized, Platonized, universalized fella that Christians have tried to project back onto the OT.

Baidarka

First we read a that Moses escapes to the land of Midian and that he is taken in by a Midianite Priest and that he marries one of the Priests daughters. Then we read that this Midianite Priest offers burnt offerings to God on behalf of Moses and the Israelites.
Now Jethro’s name turns to Reuel and Moses is offering land and brotherhood to his Midianite Brother in law.
For some reason when we get to Numbers 25 the Midianites become Israel’s enemies.
The fact that Moses is married to a Midianite does not stop God from ordering Moses to “Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them�
Does Moses kill his wife and children?
What’s going on here?
Is this an internal textural argument?


Exodus 3:1

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Exodus 18

11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly." 12 Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God.
13 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.

Numbers 10

29 Now Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are setting out for the place about which the LORD said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us and we will treat you well, for the LORD has promised good things to Israel."
30 He answered, "No, I will not go; I am going back to my own land and my own people."
31 But Moses said, "Please do not leave us. You know where we should camp in the desert, and you can be our eyes. 32 If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the LORD gives us."

Numbers 25

16 The LORD said to Moses, 17 "Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them, 18 because they treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the affair of Peor and their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of Peor."

Could this chapter in Ezra record a horrible, gingoistic event that needed older Biblical justification causing the perplexing Numbers 25 Chapter to be written?

Ezra 10

1 While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites-men, women and children-gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. 2 Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, "We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. 3 Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. 4 Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it."
5 So Ezra rose up and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel under oath to do what had been suggested. And they took the oath. 6 Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.