The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

210 THE BIBLICAL AND QUMRANIC CONCEPT OF WAR
is often represented as being led by a divine commander or accompanied
by divine troops. Heavenly and earthly activities are no more clearly distinguished
in warfare than in any other aspect of life. We begin with
a consideration of “holy war,” which we define as warfare undertaken as
a religious activity and thus associated with certain ritual practices and a
religious ideology.
The Hebrew Bible contains descriptions of such an institution. Much
of it belongs to what are called the “Deuteronomic” or “Deuteronomistic”
books (Deuteronomy and the “Deuteronomistic History” of Joshua-Kings
excluding Ruth); Deuteronomy 20 and 23 present blocks of rules for such
warfare. Thus, Deuteronomy 20 prescribes that a priest will address the
troops before battle, encouraging them not to fear, because their God is
fighting for them (vv. 2–4); after this, appointed officers will permit those
who have just built houses or planted a vineyard or married to leave, so
that, if they die, their property (including the wife) will not pass to another
(vv. 5–8). Then, the commanders of the army are appointed (v. 9).
The rest of the chapter deals mostly with the treatment of the enemy.
When attacking cities that do not belong to those nations being displaced,
Deuteronomy stipulates that if the inhabitants surrender, they are to be
made subject, and if they resist, all males are to be slaughtered. The
women, children, and livestock may be taken as property (20:10–15). But
“as for the towns of these peoples that Yahweh your God is giving you
as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive.
You shall annihilate them—the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites
and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites—just as Yahweh your God
has commanded, so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent
things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against Yahweh your
God” (vv. 16–18). 1 The remaining rules (vv. 19–20) require that trees
bearing edible fruit should not be destroyed in the event of a long siege
(so that the besieging army may eat during the operations). Other trees
may be used for building ramps against the city.
In Deut 23:9–14, the regulations deal with the holiness of the military
camp: every offensive thing must be removed; any warrior who has
made himself ritually unclean through nocturnal emission of sperm must
leave the camp and wash, returning the next day; and toilets must be outside
the camp. The reason given for these regulations is that “Yahweh
your God travels along with your camp, to save you and to hand over
your enemies to you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may
not see anything indecent among you, and turn away from you” (23:14
1. All quotations from the Bible are taken from the NRSV, except for the substitution
of “Yahweh” for “the LORD.”