Did God Allow Child Marriage in Numbers 31:18
The Charge
Numbers 31:17-18 - LSB
17 So now, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. 18 But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves.
See! God allows child marriage!
Quick Answer
Nowhere in this passage does it say that those little girls were taken to have sex.
Those little girls were taken to be spared from being killed.
In what world does “sparing” means to have sex?
The Context
Numbers 31:15-18 - LSB
15 So Moses said to them, “Have you spared all the women? 16 Behold, these caused the sons of Israel, through the word of Balaam, to act unfaithfully against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh. 17 So now, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. 18 But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves.
The Moabite women started to entice the Israelite men to have sex with them as part of worshiping their false god (Balaam).
Moses commands those women and men who engaged in this activity to be killed. But the little girls were to be spared. Why? Because they did not engage in this activities.
Incorporation Into Society
These girls were to be instead incorporated into the Israelite nation.
Deuteronomy 21:10-14 - LSB
10 “If you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God gives them over into your hands and you take them away captive, 11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman and set your affection on her and would take her as a wife for yourself, 12 then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13 She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house and weep for her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 And it will be that, if you do not desire her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes; but you shall certainly not sell her for money; you shall not mistreat her because you have humbled her.
This passage talks about mature women (not young women), who are captured in war.