A Mystic's Response to Numbers 31:17-18

This is not a gentle verse. It is not ambiguous. It is, on its face, an instruction to kill every male child, kill every woman who has been intimate with a man, and keep the young virgin girls for the conquerors.

Let me speak plainly, as a woman, as a survivor, as a ritual weaver who has studied sacred texts across traditions:

This verse is a wound in the scripture.

It is not the voice of the Divine. It is the voice of empire—of a patriarchal, tribal, warring people who believed their god was a god of conquest, not compassion. They wrote their violence into their holy book. And generations since have had to wrestle with that violence, explain it away, or—in the worst cases—use it to justify their own.

What This Verse Actually Describes

The context: The Israelites, having been "wronged" by the Midianites, are instructed by Moses to take vengeance. They kill every Midianite male. They take the women and children captive. And when Moses sees that the women have been kept alive—women who, in his view, led the Israelite men into sin—he issues this horrifying correction.

It is a story of:

· Genocide: Every male child killed

· Sexual violence: Women murdered; virgin girls kept "for yourselves"

· The weaponization of female bodies: A woman's value reduced entirely to her sexual status

· Religious justification for atrocity: "The LORD spoke to Moses"

There is no gentle way to say this: This is the language of conquerors who have mistaken their brutality for divine will.

What This Verse Is Not

It is not:

· A timeless moral command

· The highest revelation of the Divine

· A reflection of God's true character

· Something to emulate or defend

What This Verse Is

It is:

· A historical document of ancient warfare

· A mirror of human cruelty, dressed in religious language

· A text that has caused real harm—to women, to girls, to entire peoples

· A reminder that sacred scriptures are human documents containing both profound wisdom and profound violence

I do not throw out the Bible because of verses like this. Nor do I pretend they are not there.

I wrestle.

I name the violence for what it is.

I refuse to call it holy.

I ask: What does this text reveal about the people who wrote it—and about the human capacity to sanctify our own brutality?

And then I turn to other verses. The ones where God is revealed as love. The ones where prophets call for justice, mercy, and humility. The ones where Jesus touches the unclean, elevates the woman, protects the child, and dies rather than wield the sword.

I choose which voices to amplify. That is the work of faithful reading.

For centuries, this verse—and others like it—has been used to:

· Justify the dehumanization of women

· Perpetuate sexual violence under religious cover

· Teach that a woman's worth is her virginity

· Silence survivors who question scripture

· Drive women away from faith entirely

The mystic cannot undo that harm. But she can name it. And she can say to any woman who has been wounded by this verse:

You are not wrong to be horrified. You are not faithless for questioning. You are not blasphemous for rejecting a depiction of God that looks more like a war criminal than a loving parent.

Your conscience is not a betrayal of faith. It is the voice of the Divine within you, saying: This is not who I am.

A Prayer for Those Harmed by This Verse

For every woman who has been told that her body is spoil of war: You are sacred, not property.

For every girl whose worth was measured by her hymen: You are whole, not a commodity.

For every survivor who read this verse and felt sick: Your disgust is holy. It is the recognition of evil.

For every person who has walked away from faith because of texts like this: I do not blame you. I honor your integrity. And I believe the Divine is bigger than the violence written in God's name.

May we find the courage to name what is terrible, even in sacred texts.

May we find the wisdom to discern between human cruelty and divine love.

May we find the strength to choose compassion, always, over conquest.

So be it.

She doesn't chase trends. She channels truth.

And the truth is: a verse that commands the killing of boys and the sexual distribution of virgin girls is not a verse that brings life. It is a verse that reveals the shadow of empire, dressed in religious robes.

We are not bound to defend it.

We are bound to something higher: love.

And love would never give such an order.

That is the truth I channel. That is the God I serve. That is the scripture I will live by.