The Lord wasn’t a fan of the Midianites, so he told Moses to command his army to slaughter all of them. Well, almost all of them…
Much like the modern day Boko Haram in northern Nigeria, Moses’ army took the virgins for themselves, to do with as they pleased – turning them into forced brides, sex slaves, or to sell on the black market. Interestingly, God never disciplined Moses or even mentioned the horrible actions against women and children. Instead, the story goes on to explain how the Lord made a deal with Moses to receive an offering of the spoils of war through Eleazar the priest. In the end, 32,000 virgins were captured and divided with the rest of the livestock – 16,000 of the girls were given to the soldiers while the Lord demanded 32 virgins for… Himself!