By Rabbi Dr Walter Rothschild, Berlin

Where is Nebo? I recently passed it, situated on the B5113 off the A470 between Betws-y-Coed and Conwy. But Nebo in the Bible is where Moses went to die and before he died he ordered a revenge massacre on the Midianites which is described in Numbers Chapter 31. It does not make pleasant reading for modern eyes and hence is often ‘skipped’ in our readings but I believe that, especially now, when we are all involved physically or emotionally in a long-drawn-out and brutal (and almost world-wide) conflict, it is important to read it and in context. Not to glorify it, but to understand it as a part of the regional history.

Many people talk vaguely of ‘International Law’ when what they really mean is ”I am uncomfortable with this.” International Laws permit War – War being defined as a conflict declared between sovereign States with recognisable uniformed and structured armed forces. Such as that between Russia and Ukraine. What usually happens these days is however not a ‘War’ but a ‘Conflict’ against a non-uniformed terror militia formed of armed civilians and the normal boundaries between armed forces and civilians, the rules and conventions for taking and keeping prisoners, do not apply in the same way. So let us look at Chapter 31.

The text describes it as “Nekama” – this is “Revenge” on the Midianites – not “Punishment” or Conquest or just light-hearted genocide for the sake of it. The term is significant and has to be understood as such.

For what ‘crime’ is it a punishment? There are two possibilities:

– a).In Num. 22:2 & 22:7 Midian and Moab have formed an alliance against the Israelites. (Balak of Moab had fear of the Israelites after what they had done to other tribes, and sought supernatural help – which of course didn’t work.)

– b). For the Plague which has just killed 24,000 Israelites – caused initially by the Moabites but with Midianite assistance.

But it is important to try to understand the purpose and extent of this conflict. It is not about territorial conquest – as against the other tribes in the Land – but about ideological differences. The Midianites are considered a threat to the spiritual purity of the Israelites. They are seductive, not just aggressive. This must be why a Priest rather than a General is put in charge of the campaign.

The appointment of Pinchas, a priest, is the clue. A priest should normally keep out of conflicts, as he should avoid contact with blood or corpses. (Pinchas, famously, has already intervened violently once before.) But this means it is a ‘holy war’ of spiritual survival.

In Num. 31: 1-7. 1,000 Israelites per tribe are called up. This is actually a very small army of 12,000 in comparison with the 600-plus thousand of which we have read earlier. By having the same number per tribe, no single tribe is given a majority or command. It is a symbolic army, the task is to be divided evenly. And by appointing a Levite as chief, no individual other tribe is given advantage or disadvantage. Where is Joshua? One would expect him to be appointed as the General in charge. But he is missing entirely from this part of the story. We are not told what he is doing or what his role is. We are also not told how many Midianites there were…. The gaps are significant in this story. In 31:2f. God says “Revenge Israel”, but Moses passes on the message as “Revenge God”. Why the change? Is Moses passing on the blame?)

The war is swift and brutal and Israel defeats the Five Kings of Midian. Who is Midian? Who is Midian? One of the sons of Abraham by Keturah! cf. Gen. 25:2 where he is listed there as having five sons. So “Midian” is somehow a confederation of five tribes or families. (And moreover, Midian is also somehow ‘family’ – in Deut. 1-2, God will tell Moses to respect the lands of descendants of other distant family members, such as Moab and Amnon and Esau, because they are ‘family’.)

The rules of the period seem simple. If someone comes to attack you and to wipe you out, you have two options: To lose and submit and be exterminated and your women enslaved for sexual purposes, por to fight and kill and do the same to your enemy before he can do this. There is no discussion here of diplomacy. But if one looks at what happened in the twentieth century to the Armenians or the Kurds or the Jesiden the pattern is clear. It is horrible, but this seems to be how things are.

This is from an article in ‘Palestine Exploration Quarterly’ Vol. 153 No. 2 for June 2021 by Danielson and Foran : ”Khirbat al-Mukhayyat / Nebo in its Iron Age context”:

”Iron Age Mukahyat, identified as ancient Nebo, is best known through its mention in the Mesha Inscription (MI) as a target of Mesha’s state formation activities. In the Inscription, Mesha describes an attack against the city of Nebo:

”…and Kemosh said to me, ‘Go, take Nebo from Israel.’ And I went in the night and I fought against it from the break of the morning until noon. And I took it and I killed all seven thousand male citizens and foreign men, female citizens, foreign women and female slaves. For Ashtar Kemosh I made it an inalienable possession (cherem) (through destruction). And I took from there the vessels of Yahweh and I hauled them before Kemosh.” (MI 14-18).

Dated to the Iron IIB period (mid-9th. Century BCE) the text reveals several interesting features. First, it indicates that the fortified site was supposedly under the control of the Omride kings ruling from Samaria, and that there was an Israelite cultic site at Nebo. While the number of individuals killed is undoubtedly exaggerated and most likely reflects a symbolic ideal. Mesha indicates that the site was not under his nor his deity’s formal control. This is admitted in the act of militaristic ritual genocide, hrm, which served to unite Mesha’s dynastic deity, in this case a gendered manifestation of Kemosh, ‘str-kms (MI17) to the new land and its people…. In this fashion, Nebo served a clear strategic function for both the Omrides and for Mesha’s new kingdom, an advantage held in its commanding view and ability to monitor access between the Jordan Valley and Transjordanian plateau. This strategic advantage may be one of the factors that led the purported Omride counterattack, as descibed in 2 Kings 3:9-9, to be directed through the region of Edom, geographically an otherwise illogical route to take. Indeed additional forts and watchtowers along the western edge of the Transjordanian plateau within Mukhayyat’s vicinity (e.g. Tell el-Meshad) and a small fortress on the Wadi Kafrain indicate that Mukhayyat fits within a broader regional pattern. These fortified borderland sites were concerned with the monitoring of east-west access to and from the Jordan Valley for defensive purposes but also for the economic opportunity afforded by open and accessible trade networks…..”

The ‘Mesha Inscription’ or ‘Mesha Stone’, an inscribed Stele, was discovered in 1868. The relevant part of it reads (in the 1878 translation by James King, not King James!):

”I am Mesha, son of Chemosh-gad, king of Moab, the Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I have reigned after my father. And I have built this sanctuary for Chemosh in Karchah, a sanctuary of salvation, for he saved me from all aggressors, and made me look upon all mine enemies with contempt. Omri was king of Israel, and oppressed Moab during many days, and Chemosh was angry with his aggressions. His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab. In my days he said, Let us go, and I will see my desire upon him and his house, and Israel said, I shall destroy it for ever. Now Omri took the land of Madeba, and occupied it in his day, and in the days of his son, forty years. And Chemosh had mercy on it in my time. And I built Baal-meon and made therein the ditch, and I built Kiriathaim. And the men of Gad dwelled in the country of Ataroth from ancient times, and the king of Israel fortified Ataroth. I assaulted the wall and captured it, and killed all the warriors of the city for the well-pleasing of Chemosh and Moab, and I removed from it all the spoil, and offered it before Chemosh in Kirjath; and I placed therein the men of Siran, and the men of Mochrath. And Chemosh said to me, Go take Nebo against Israel, and I went in the night and I fought against it from the break of day till noon, and I took it: and I killed in all seven thousand men, but I did not kill the women and maidens, for I devoted them to Ashtar-Chemosh; and I took from it the vessels of Jehovah, and offered them before Chemosh. And the king of Israel fortified Jahaz, and occupied it, when he made war against me, and Chemosh drove him out before me, and I took from Moab two hundred men in all, and placed them in Jahaz, and took it to annex it to Dibon….”
. …… and so on. Boasting of one successful campaign after another. This section clearly refers to the conflict described in the Bible in 2 Kings 3:4-28, but from the opposing perspective.

Rabbinic Judaism has focussed on how to behave as Jews when we have no military power; In these combined sidrot the Israelites have spent forty years preparing to take the Land they have been promised and soon, under Joshua, they will cross the Jordan and set out to do just that. But it won’t be a picnic. There will be conflict. Wars with local kings and local tribes. That is the way it is.
This is not the ”nicest” chapter in the Torah but it is an important one and it teaches us that sometimes, alas, conflict is necessary if we are to survive; that sometimes the distinctions between combatant and civilian are truly hard to tell. Judaism is not based just on ‘Peace’ – this concept is imported from what Christians say (but often don’t do); Judaism is based on Covenant and how we keep our side of it. From the time in Genesis Chapter 12 when God promises Abram a Land, it is made clear that there are other people also there.

It is only when the Midianites are defeated and eliminated that the journeying in the wilderness can end and the Israelites can move on.

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