Biblical Rape Statutes

"When you go out to war against your enemies, and Yahweh your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a woman of beautiful form, and you desire her (chashaq) and would take her as your wife, then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head, pare her nails, and take off the clothes of her captivity. She shall remain in your house and weep for her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her master/husband (ba'al), and she shall be your wife. And if you have no delight in her, you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her for money. You shall not treat her as a slave, because you have humiliated/violated her ('anah)."

"When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her."

This is divinely regulated human trafficking and wartime rape. An invading soldier helps slaughter a woman's community, spots her in the crowd of prisoners, and claims her because she looks attractive. God commands the soldier to bring her to his home, strip her clothes, shave her head, and give her thirty days to cry over her murdered family. Once the month expires, the soldier is granted divine permission to enter her room and have non-consensual sex with her. If he gets bored of her later, he casts her out into a foreign land. Apologists argue that a thirty-day waiting period was "progressive and merciful for the ancient Near East," but no amount of etiquette changes the reality: God codifies the right of a soldier to claim a traumatized prisoner of war as a forced sexual possession.

"If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and seizes her (taphas) and lies with her, and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give fifty shekels of silver to the girl's father, and she shall be his wife because he violated/humiliated her ('anah). He cannot divorce her all his days."

"If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days."

Under biblical law, if an unbetrothed woman is seized and raped, the rapist does not go to prison or face execution. Instead, the rapist pays a property fine of fifty silver pieces directly to the woman's father to compensate him for damaged bridal value. The victim's punishment is permanent: she is handed over to her rapist as his legal wife for the rest of her life, with divorce prohibited. God's moral code sentences the victim of a sexual assault to spend every night in bed with the man who attacked her.

"If there is a young woman who is a virgin betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones to death: the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst."

"If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you."

If an engaged woman is sexually assaulted inside a city, God presumes her guilt unless someone heard her scream. If she freezes in terror, is gagged, is overpowered, or fears for her life and does not make enough noise to alert the neighbors, the law rules that she consented. Both the attacker and the victim are dragged out to the city gate and stoned to death with rocks. Biblical justice executes the woman for failing to produce auditory evidence during her assault.

"Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the female children who have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."

"Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."

Moses becomes furious because his military officers spared Midianite women and children during a holy war. Under divine authority, Moses issues an order: execute every captured baby boy, butcher every woman who is not a virgin, but keep the young virgin girls alive "for yourselves." According to Numbers 31:35, the count of captive virgin girls distributed among the soldiers and the priesthood as plunder totaled 32,000. God's holy prophet literally authorized the mass slaughter of mothers and boys while distributing tens of thousands of young virgins to his army as sexual concubines.

"Thus says Yahweh: 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.' ... So they pitched a tent for Absalom upon the roof; and Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel."

"Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun... So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel."

David commits adultery with Bathsheba and has her husband murdered to cover it up. When God hands down the punishment, David is allowed to live—while his innocent wives and concubines are selected to pay the penalty. God explicitly declares that He personally will take David's women and hand them over so another man can violate them publicly. In chapter 16, David's son Absalom pitches a tent on the palace roof and rapes ten of David's concubines in plain sight of the entire nation, fulfilling God's exact divine judgment. The women committed zero crimes, had zero choice, and were used by God as disposable sexual pawns to humiliate a king.