Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge on Numbers 31:18

A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
R. A. Torrey and contributors · Cross-reference reference work
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.

keep alive for yourselves: It has been groundlessly asserted, that Moses here authorised the Israelites to make concubines of the whole number of female children; and an insidious objection against his writings has been grounded upon this monstrous supposition. But the whole tenor of the law, and especially a statute recorded in Deu 21:10-14, proves most decisively to the contrary. They were merely permitted to possess them as female slaves, educating them in their families, and employing them as domestics; for the laws concerning fornication, concubinage, and marriage, were in full force, and prohibited an Israelite even from marrying a captive, without delays and previous formalities; and if he afterwards divorced her, he was to set here at liberty, "because he had humbled her." Lev 25:44; Deu 20:14, Deu 21:10-14; Ch2 28:8-10; Isa 14:2 Numbers 31:19

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