While your other objections are sound, you seem to be applying your modern ethics to the ancient times in your emotionally charged story of the girl.
For comparison, here is a more likely point of view from that girl. Her mother was likely stolen by her father from a neighboring tribe and used for sex, chores and housekeeping at the ripe old age of 12. The woman was constantly raped and beaten by her husband (=owner). The daughter, the girl you are describing, is also considered a property of her father, and is often beaten and abused by her father (and maybe even her mother) and his family, maybe even raped, depending on the local customs.
When the handsome and muscular soldier killed the hated abusers, she looked with hope at the person whose strange customs she had only heard of. She does not mind in the least his quick inspection of her virginity, knowing that it raises her worth, and the odds of better treatment by her future owner.
She has no concept of genocide, which is a norm of the times. She does not mind learning the new language and the new prayers, and is happy to discover that she would not be sacrificed as an offering to her old gods, something she had seen her tribe do countless times with the prisoners and even with their own.
The next time she watches her new owner kiss the Torah, she recites the words with him and hopes that this strange invisible god will be more merciful to her than the gods of her mother or the gods of her father.
For comparison, here is a more likely point of view from that girl.
Does “logic” truly tell you that the young pubescent and prepubescent girls in the situation were more likely to feel gratitude at the killing of their mothers, fathers, brothers and older sisters, than they were to feel grief and hatred for it?
That for the Midianite girls in question P(glad|whole family killed) > P(sad|whole family killed) ?
Again, applying modern standards to the life 3000 years ago is not helpful. Here is another potential option: her grandfather, realizing that all is lost, decides to deprive the attackers of as much profit as he can, destroying all his valuable property, including the women. He kills the girl’s mother and is trying to kill the girl, when he is slain by the soldiers.
This seems highly implausible to me.
An informed opinion of an expert would be more helpful than our idle musings.
Again, applying modern standards to the life 3000 years ago is not helpful.
I’m not applying modern standards. Even Deuterenomy 21:10-14 seems to predict that young captured women will be mourning their father and mother, not be glad at their deaths.
The default emotional response of any human is grief (and/or anger/hate) at the death of one’s family, not joy. This seems just human nature, not culture-specific behavior. The exceptions are just that.
While your other objections are sound, you seem to be applying your modern ethics to the ancient times in your emotionally charged story of the girl.
For comparison, here is a more likely point of view from that girl. Her mother was likely stolen by her father from a neighboring tribe and used for sex, chores and housekeeping at the ripe old age of 12. The woman was constantly raped and beaten by her husband (=owner). The daughter, the girl you are describing, is also considered a property of her father, and is often beaten and abused by her father (and maybe even her mother) and his family, maybe even raped, depending on the local customs.
When the handsome and muscular soldier killed the hated abusers, she looked with hope at the person whose strange customs she had only heard of. She does not mind in the least his quick inspection of her virginity, knowing that it raises her worth, and the odds of better treatment by her future owner.
She has no concept of genocide, which is a norm of the times. She does not mind learning the new language and the new prayers, and is happy to discover that she would not be sacrificed as an offering to her old gods, something she had seen her tribe do countless times with the prisoners and even with their own.
The next time she watches her new owner kiss the Torah, she recites the words with him and hopes that this strange invisible god will be more merciful to her than the gods of her mother or the gods of her father.
Does “logic” truly tell you that the young pubescent and prepubescent girls in the situation were more likely to feel gratitude at the killing of their mothers, fathers, brothers and older sisters, than they were to feel grief and hatred for it?
That for the Midianite girls in question P(glad|whole family killed) > P(sad|whole family killed) ?
This seems highly implausible to me.
Again, applying modern standards to the life 3000 years ago is not helpful. Here is another potential option: her grandfather, realizing that all is lost, decides to deprive the attackers of as much profit as he can, destroying all his valuable property, including the women. He kills the girl’s mother and is trying to kill the girl, when he is slain by the soldiers.
An informed opinion of an expert would be more helpful than our idle musings.
I’m not applying modern standards. Even Deuterenomy 21:10-14 seems to predict that young captured women will be mourning their father and mother, not be glad at their deaths.
The default emotional response of any human is grief (and/or anger/hate) at the death of one’s family, not joy. This seems just human nature, not culture-specific behavior. The exceptions are just that.
..
As long as we’re swapping emotionally inciting stories, maybe you could pick a consistent one.
… those were just some possible options, they don’t need to be “consistent”. I guess I could have phrased it better.