Save the virgins. It sounds rather pervy.

This seems to be a rather scholarly article on the subject: http://www.christian-thinktank.com/midian.html With love in Christ.

It means just what it says, Moses made a judgement on a people group who had offended God and His people. God's judgement was pronounced and Moses ordered it to be carried out. Pretty simple really! that is the meaning but whether we like or approve is a different matter especially in the 21st century!

It's one of many Old Testament stories which you should not confuse with the true nature of God, which is total love.

This command to soldiers preparing to go to war sounds very much like a command to slaughter mercilessly and keep the young women as a reward. After looking into the situation, though, I find it to be much different. The people they were fighting were the Midians. The Midians were a hostile, nomadic tribe of raiders that launched a massive attack against the Israelites led by Moses. Though battle was also involved, one successful tactic was to spread disease to Israeli men by use of Midian women. The prostitutes and married women who committed these acts dressed in a very distinguishable way, and the virgins mentioned dressed otherwise. The virgins mentioned were typically less than 12 (average age of about 5) because they married as soon as they became fertile. After a successful battle with the Midianites, the soldiers brought back all the warriors they didn’t kill and the women in the camp. Moses realized the problems of having the prostitutes living with his people (they had already killed 24,000 men with disease), so he ordered their deaths along with the males which would be prone to rebel. The younger women, who were distinguishable because of their age and attire, were allowed to assimilate into Hebrew families. There was a great need for fertile women in this culture, and assimilation into families was a moral way to accomplish it. There is no evidence which said they were sex slaves, or slaves of any kind, and it would be inconsistent to infer so after Moses’ army had so many other chances to do the same thing. If the captured women did anything, it would be to help the mother of the household 3-4 hours a day once they were 8 years old

It means god don't have a problem with slaughtering little boys, slaughtering women, slaughtering pregnant women and their babies, slaughtering men and having 'his' people keep little girls for "their own purposes". God, of course, being the same yesterday, today and forever, must still approve of this behaviour under certain circumstances. Which circumstances? Read earlier in Numbers. The israelites turned up, a few of their soldiers went off and shagged some Middianite women. Obviously this was ALL the women's fault and the men were poor innocent, holy victims.

Essentially this is a condemnation of these people, that there should be no more future generations. All the males, all the women who have had children (and could therefore be pregnant) are condemned. Those who are still virgins can be taken as wives.

It means that Yahweh and Moses not only approve of genocide and rape, they personally command it. Every last one of the Midanites were slaughtered, except for the young, virgin girls. They were kept for forced marriage (they had no say) and breeding. Aka: they were repeatedly raped. There is no justification for this possible, and this is one of the reasons I hold that Yahweh is evil.