Rape in the Hebrew Bible
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The Hebrew Bible contains a number of references to rape and other forms of sexual violence, both in the Law of Moses, its historical narratives and its prophetic poetry.
Jan Wellens de Cock, Lot and his daughters
Shechem seizes Dinah. Italian artist, 17th century.
José y la mujer de Putifar, oil on canvas by Esquivel (1854)
The Women of Midian Led Captive by the Hebrews, James Tissot c. 1900 Midianite women, children and livestock taken captive by Israelite soldiers after all Midianite men had been killed and their towns burnt.
Numbers 31
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Numbers 31 is the 31st chapter of the Book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Pentateuch, the central part of the Hebrew Bible, a sacred text in Judaism and Christianity. Scholars such as Israel Knohl
Rape in the Hebrew Bible
…elopement) rather than rape stories. An example of a rare exception to this is a claim by Thomas Paine, who asserted in The Age of Reason (1795) that Numbers 31 portrayed Moses as ordering the Israelites to kill all Midianites except the virgin girls, whom they could keep for what Paine termed "debauchery…
Phinehas slaying Zimri and Kozbi the Midianite (c.1590) by Joos van Winghe
Five Kings of Midian Slain by Israel (1728) by Gerard Hoet
Idolatry with Baal-Peor (1970) by Phillip Medhurst