Violence of Conquering (BDJ Simchat Torah)

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:
I the LORD am your God. You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws. My rules alone shall you observe, and faithfully follow My laws: I the LORD am your God. You shall keep My laws and My rules, by the pursuit of which man shall live: I am the LORD. None of you shall come near anyone of his own flesh to uncover nakedness: I am the LORD. Your father’s nakedness, that is, the nakedness of your mother, you shall not uncover; she is your mother—you shall not uncover her nakedness. Do not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife;^-a it is the nakedness of your father. The nakedness of your sister—your father’s daughter or your mother’s, whether born into the household or outside—do not uncover their nakedness. The nakedness of your son’s daughter, or of your daughter’s daughter—do not uncover their nakedness; for their nakedness is yours. The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, who was born into your father’s household—she is your sister; do not uncover her nakedness. Do not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh. Do not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister; for she is your mother’s flesh. Do not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother: do not approach his wife; she is your aunt. Do not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness. Do not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is the nakedness of your brother.^-a Do not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; nor shall you marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and uncover her nakedness: they are kindred; it is depravity. Do not marry a woman as a rival to her sister and uncover her nakedness in the other’s lifetime. Do not come near a woman during her period of uncleanness to uncover her nakedness. Do not have carnal relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her. Do not allow any of your offspring to be offered up to Molech, and do not profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abhorrence. Do not have carnal relations with any beast and defile yourself thereby; and let no woman lend herself to a beast to mate with it; it is perversion. Do not defile yourselves in any of those ways, for it is by such that the nations that I am casting out before you defiled themselves. Thus the land became defiled; and I called it to account for its iniquity, and the land spewed out its inhabitants. But you must keep My laws and My rules, and you must not do any of those abhorrent things, neither the citizen nor the stranger who resides among you; for all those abhorrent things were done by the people who were in the land before you, and the land became defiled. So let not the land spew you out for defiling it, as it spewed out the nation that came before you.

While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people profaned themselves by whoring^-a with the Moabite women, who invited the people to the sacrifices for their god. The people partook of them and worshiped that god.

When the LORD your God brings you to the land that you are about to enter and possess, and He dislodges many nations before you—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations much larger than you— and the LORD your God delivers them to you and you defeat them, you must doom them to destruction: grant them no terms and give them no quarter. You shall not intermarry with them: do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your children away from Me to worship other gods, and the LORD’s anger will blaze forth against you and He will promptly wipe you out.

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Avenge the Israelite people on the Midianites; then you shall be gathered to your kin.”

She said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given the country to you, because dread of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land are quaking before you.

The men answered her, “Our persons are pledged for yours, even to death! If you do not disclose this mission of ours, we will show you true loyalty when the LORD gives us the land.”

The men answered her, “Our persons are pledged for yours, even to death! If you do not disclose this mission of ours, we will show you true loyalty when the LORD gives us the land.”

Now after the death of Yehoshua it came to pass, that the children of Yisra᾽el asked the Lord, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Kena῾ani first, to fight against them? And the Lord said, Yehuda shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. And Yehuda said to Shim῾on his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Kena῾ani; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So Shim῾on went with him. And Yehuda went up; and the Lord delivered the Kena῾ani and the Perizzi into their hand: and they smote of them in Bezeq ten thousand men.

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Yisra᾽el that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the far side of mount Efrayim, who took to him a concubine out of Bet-leĥem-yehuda. And his concubine was faithless to him, and went away from him to her father’s house to Bet-leĥem-yehuda, and was there four whole months. And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak kindly to her, and to bring her back, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father’s house: and when the father of the girl saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. And his father in law, the girl’s father, detained him; and he abode with him three days: so they did eat and drink, and lodged there. And it came to pass on the fourth day, that they arose early in the morning, and he rose up to depart: and the girl’s father said to his son in law, Refresh thy heart with a morsel of bread, and afterwards go your way. And they sat down, and did eat and drink both of them together: for the girl’s father had said to the man, Be content, I pray thee, and tarry all night, and let thy heart be merry. And when the man rose up to depart, his father in law urged him: therefore he lodged there again. And he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart: and the girl’s father said, Refresh thy heart, I pray thee, and delay until the afternoon, and they did eat both of them. And when the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father in law, the girl’s father, said to him, Behold, now the day draws towards evening, I pray you stay the night: behold the day comes to an end; stay here the night, and thy heart may be merry; and tomorrow get you early on your way, that thou mayst go home. But the man would not tarry that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Yevus, which is Yerushalayim; and there were with him two asses saddled; his concubine also was with him. And when they were by Yevus, the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn in into this city of the Yevusi, and we will spend the night here. But his master said to him, We will not turn aside here into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Yisra᾽el; we will pass over to Giv῾a. And he said to his servant, Come, and let us draw near to one of these places to lodge all night, in Giv῾a, or in Rama. And they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down upon them when they were by Giv῾a, which belongs to Binyamin. And they turned aside there to go in and to lodge in Giv῾a: and when he went in, he sat down in the open place of the city: for there was no man that took them into his house to lodge the night. And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at evening, who was also of mount Efrayim; and he sojourned in Giv῾a: but the men of the place were Beneyamini. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw a traveller in the open place of the city: and the old man said, Where dost thou go, and where hast thou come from? And he said to him, We are passing from Bet-leĥem-yehuda and on to the far side of mount Efrayim; I am from there: and I went to Bet-leĥem-yehuda, but I am now going to the house of the Lord; and there is no man that receives me in his house. Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for thy handmaid, and for the young man who is with thy servants: there is no want of any thing. And the old man said, Peace be with thee; only let all thy wants lie upon me; but lodge not in the street. So he brought him into his house, and gave fodder to the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink. Now as they were gladdening their hearts, behold, the men of the city, worthless men, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring out the man that came into thy house, that we may have our desire of him. And the man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, No, my brethren, no, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, do not carry out this vileness. Behold, here is my daughter a virgin, and his concubine; them I will bring out now; ravish them, and do with them what seems good to you: but to this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him: so the man seized his concubine, and brought her out to them; and they had their desire of her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. And he said to her, Up, and let us be going. But there was no answer. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and went to his place. And when he was come to his house, he took a knife, and laid hold of his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into the whole territory of Yisra᾽el. And it was so, that all that saw it said, No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children of Yisra᾽el came up out of the land of Miżrayim to this day: consider of it, take counsel, and speak your minds.

In the days when the chieftains ruled, there was a famine in the land; and a man of Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the country of Moab.

And the children of Yisra᾽el arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Binyamin? And the Lord said, Yehuda shall go up first.

In those days there was no king in Yisra᾽el: and in those days the tribe of the Dani sought for itself an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day a due inheritance had not fallen to their share among the tribes of Yisra᾽el. And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their chieftains, men of valour, from Żor῾a, and from Eshta᾽ol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Efrayim, to the house of Mikha, they lodged there. When they were by the house of Mikha, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned aside there, and said to him, Who brought thee here? and what doest thou in this place? and what hast thou here? And he said to them, Thus and thus has Mikha done for me, and has hired me, and I am his priest. And they said to him, Ask counsel, we pray thee, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous. And the priest said to them, Go in peace: the way you go is before the Lord. Then the five men departed, and came to Layish, and saw the people that were there, how they dwelt in safety, after the manner of the Żidonim, quiet and secure; and there was no one in the land that put them to shame in any thing; such as a hereditary ruler, and they were far from the Żidonim, and had no business with any man. And they came to their brethren to Żor῾a and Eshta᾽ol: and their brethren said to them, What say you? And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are you idle? be not slothful to go, and to enter and possess the land. When you go, you shall come to an unsuspecting people, and to a broad land: for God has given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth. And from there went out of the family of the Dani, out of Żor῾a and out of Eshta᾽ol, six hundred men girded with weapons of war. And they went up, and pitched in Qiryat-ye῾arim, in Yehuda: therefore they called that place Maĥane-dan to this day: behold, it is behind Qiryat-ye῾arim. And they passed from there to mount Efrayim, and came to the house of Mikha. Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Layish, and said to their brethren, Do you know that there is in these houses an efod, and terafim, and a carved and a molten idol? now therefore consider what you have to do. And they turned aside there, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, to the house of Mikha, and greeted him. And the six hundred men girded with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the carved idol, and the efod, and the terafim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girded with weapons of war. And these went to Mikha’s house, and fetched the carving, the efod, and the terafim, and the molten image. Then said the priest to them, What are you doing? And they said to him, Hold thy peace, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest to the house of one man, or that thou be a priest to a whole tribe and a family in Yisra᾽el? And the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the efod, and the terafim, and the carved idol, and went in the midst of the people. So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the goods before them. And when they were a good way from the house of Mikha, the men that were in the houses near to Mikha’s house mustered and overtook the children of Dan. And they cried to the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said to Mikha, What ails thee, that thou comest with such a company? And he said, you have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away: and what have I more? and how then do you say to me, What ails thee? And the children of Dan said to him, Do not raise thy voice among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household. And the children of Dan went their way: and when Mikha saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house. And they took the things which Mikha had made, and the priest which he had, and came upon Layish, upon a quiet and unsuspecting people: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire. And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Żidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lies by Bet-reĥov. And they built a city, and dwelt in it. And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Yisra᾽el: but the name of the city at first was Layish. And the children of Dan set up the carving: and Yehonatan, the son of Gershom, the son of Menashshe, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. And they set up for themselves Mikha’s carving, which he had made, all the time that the house of God was in Shilo.