§outh§tar said:
Now you wouldn't mind providing a reference for that load of information you just fed me, would you? I presumed not.
Numbers 31
10 They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. 11 They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, 12 and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho. [1]
13 Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. 14 Moses was angry with the officers of the army-the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds-who returned from the battle.
15 "Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. 16 "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people. 17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
Of course we can see from the context that you are being extremely dense. Moses did not give them any "option", he was furious at the Hebrew warriors for allowing the women to live, blaming them in a gross generalization for something they did not do. Remember, not only did he blame the women, but he ordered the genocide of boys as well, reminding his warriors to save the girls for themselves. Now I don't know if you are trying to be stupid, but I have never heard of a women with a venereal disease taken captive for the end these warriors were seeking. But then I challenge you once again to show me your reference for that information.
Now ordering the mass murder of mere boys, and taking women as concubines, that doesn't sound too humane, now does it? Did I mention they also made slaves of the remnant? I am sure that was the humane thing to do for someone like you who thinks this atrocity was "necessary".
I am beginning to understand why you fell from the faith. You have almost no understanding of what you are reading.
First, the Midianites were not part of the Canaanites - they were actually of the descendants of Abraham. The Midianites/Moabites lived in the Western Arabian pennensula, not in Canaan. The Midianites and the Moabites tried to seduce the Israelites into worshipping their gods and leave Jehovah. They didn't think they could defeat them militarily so they did this by sending all their most beautiful women into the Israelite camp and starting an orgy (whordom with the daughters of Moab) - and in doing so they started a plauge. From Numbers 25, it is obvious that the plauge was sexually transmitted and the Israelites even killed their own men who had particpated in the orgy - they had become infected. They were trying very hard to control the plauge of venereal disease. Is it any wonder they only kept the virgins?
Second, when the bible uses the word "woman" it usually means non-virgin/married. If the bible means virgin, it uses damsel or maid (or occasionally it actually uses the word for virgin). There are times when the Hebrew word "isha" is used which just means female. The KJV translators had to take their best guess on this one (fortunately in the case of Num 31:15-18 you don't have to guess because the verse clearly says to kill all the non-virgins). The Isrealite solders were allowed, if they desired, to take concubines. The "option" comes from Num 31:18-35 & Deut 21:10-13. God knew which towns needed to be totally destroyed with even their animals (to control the plauge), and which could be set right with less than total destruction - which is why God told Joshua to completely burn some towns (like Jericho and Hatsor), but in other towns they only killed the men, or something in between.
We have a much better handle on disease than they had 3500 years ago at the time of the Exodus. Even now, with a severe outbreak, we must resort to the old tactics of quarintine. However, Moses (actually God) was faced with a massive outbreak on an entire regional scale. How can you quarintine everyone (even the cattle) from hundreds of towns and villiages? I understand why God had the Israelites simply wipe them out, I'm just glad I didn't have to be one of the soldiers. It would have been an awful job.
REFERENCES:
It is a very simple thing to find this information using Google, but I will nevertheless help you find it. You wanted an archeological reference - start with the Phoenician historian Philo Byblos. Most historians could not believe his accounts. They were so lurid and horrendous and extremely corrupt that the historians simply could not comprehend that any such society could exist. However, more recent archeological digs have uncovered Canaanite libraries (Ugarit) which show the situation was even worse than Philo described.
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Philo of Byblos
or this one (which I quote from)
http://www.theology.edu/canaan.htm
Philo of Byblos
The main source of knowledge about Canaanite religion before the new sources became available after 1930 (primarily the Ugaritic materials) was Philo of Byblos, the Greek name of ancient Gebal on the Mediterranean (Josh. 13:5, 1 Kings 5:18), forty-two miles north of Sidon. Philo lived around 100 AD. He was a native Phoenician scholar and gathered data for a historical work called Phoenikika or "Phoenician Matters", designated "Phoenician History" by later Greek scholars. According to Porphery and Eusebius, Philo translated the writings of an earlie Phoenician named Sanchuniathon, who was supposed to have lived at a very remote age, whom W. F. Albright placed between 700 and 500 BC. Sanchuniathon in turn supposedly got his material from one Hierombalus under Abibal, king of Berytus, who is said to have flourished before the Trojan War.
or how about this one
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/2938/biblio3.html
Attridge, Harold W. and Oden, Robert A., Jr. Philo of Byblos, The Phoenician History: Introduction, Critical Text, Translation, Notes. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 9, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1981.
An English translation facing the original Greek, with extensive notes, of all that remains of the works of Philo of Byblos about the Phoenician myths, extracted from writings of early Christian authors, primarily Eusebius. Scholars long considered Philo's work to be of dubious value. The discoveries at Ugarit have raised him in their estimation, as they verify much of what Philo said. His work is definitely Hellenized, and includes a Phoenician creation myth, which is missing from Ugarit.
Most sites avoid the actual texts of Philo or the library of Ugarit, since they would quite literally be considered pornographic.
Here are some more (I don't vouch for everything these sites say, so just read the parts about Canaan):
http://www.pbc.org/old-pbc1/dp/roper/kings/3064.html
http://www.british-israel.ca/Canaanites.htm
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qamorite.html