Did the Jewish prophets speak about Hamas’ use of rape in warfare?
Before I started studying prophecy, I thought that the task of prophets was to speak holy words about holy topics. As I dug into the details, I learned that G-d disclosed to his messengers some unsettling concepts, including predictions about rape.
Many centuries ago, Jewish men called Masoretes shared the view about the holiness of sacred texts. Their name means “Masters of Tradition” and they had the task of Torah version control as the Diaspora grew.[1] In “preserving” what was written, they eliminated from the scrolls the Hebrew word for rape, which they considered obscene. They replaced שָׁגַל (shagel: to violate, ravish) with שָׁכַב (shakab: to lie down).[2] Does G-d fumble in his word choice when communicating with his prophets?
Regardless of our comfort level when talking about such horrific acts, failure to do so would be like ignoring a gas light when it comes on in your car.
Rape as a weapon of warfare differs from the horror of the atomic bomb because of its personal nature. Sexual offense unfolds from person to person. An atomic bomb destroys; rape invades. Uses of anatomy may limit the scope of the crime, but the damage from its discharge continues long after the crime is committed.
It is interesting to note that when G-d made an everlasting covenant with Abraham, he required specific grooming of the male reproductive organ. G-d gave his plan for circumcision to Abraham as a sign - in Abraham’s flesh - of the relationship between the G-d and Abraham and his descendants. Centuries later, Jews still embrace this covenantal sign. Circumcising the foreskin of Jewish boys when they are eight days old continues in a ceremony called a bris.
One promise stated in G-d’s covenant with Abraham that directly tied to circumcision was G-d giving Abraham’s descendants the whole land of Canaan.[3]
On October 7, 2023, Hamas targeted Israelis, surviving descendants of Abraham, for rape. Can you see the multi-faceted mockery of G-d’s covenant in their actions? Hamas terrorists used their sexual organs (which may or may not have evinced signs of the Abrahamic covenant) to damage the people that G-d blessed over disagreements about the land that G-d gifted to those very people.
Why is rape an effective miliary tool? To answer this question, let’s consider what the goal of military action in war is. Here is one definition:
Military action consists in asserting one’s presence in a given physical space, despite the adversary’s violence, and producing the opposite effect on the enemy by using violence to prevent the enemy from enjoying any form of presence.[4]
Rape accomplishes it military goal by preventing the one being raped from enjoying any form of presence. Physical pain combined with humiliation, a sense of injustice, feelings of helplessness, awareness of sickening body and breath odors, and concerns about disease transmission and conception characterize the crime of rape. Very young girls who get raped don’t know enough to think about that last point. Their naivety does not diminish their suffering during those excruciating minutes or hours of the assault.
Although rape is an effective military weapon, it is not an ethical one in a civilized world according to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Hamas completely disregarded Articles 13 and 32 which specified that “Civilians are to be protected from murder, torture or brutality, and from discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, religion or political opinion.”[5]
A quick scan of mainstream and social media unveils acceptance, applause and defense of the terrorist group. Seeing this saddens me. I remember the words of Anatole France:
What men call civilization is the condition of present customs; what they call barbarism, the condition of past ones.[6]
With wide-spread approval of Hamas, will rape be a defining feature of “civilization” in our lifetimes?
Eye-witness testimonies from October 7 as well as examination of the human wreckage Hamas left behind in Israel confirmed the targeting of women.[7] U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller speculated that Hamas backed out of releasing at least 20 women and children during the late-November cease-fire so that those hostages couldn’t testify about the sexual abuse that has happened to them in Gaza.[8]
For those who simply want rape to go away, we ask “Is it possible to pray long enough and hard enough to convince G-d to rid our world of this evil?” Now we get to the unsettling concepts and prophetic predictions about rape that I referenced earlier.
Zechariah prophesied that all the nations of the world would come together to wage war against Jerusalem. His words in chapter 14 verse 2 describe the following:
I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to wage war. The city shall be captured, the houses ransacked and the women ravished.[9]
At this future time, when Israel’s enemies conquer the city, they will “let loose all their barbarity upon it, plundering the houses and ravishing the women (cf. Isaiah 13:16, where the same thing is affirmed of Babylon).”[10]
Barnes' Notes on the Bible say this:
The horrors of pagan war repeat themselves through people's ever-recurring passions. What was foretold as to Babylon is repeated in the same words. [11]
This means that more rape is in Israel’s future.
Having talked to and interacted with survivors of sexual violence in the United States as Founder of Dancing is My Voice, I can assure you that men are not immune from interpersonal violence. But the prophet’s words specify the gender that will be brutalized. Zechariah’s use of הַנָּשִׁ֖ים (hanashim) makes it clear that women will be vulnerable to sexual violence during future times of war.
Fortunately, the prophet Zechariah tells us how the story will end:
Ad-nai will then be King over all the earth. In that day Ad-nai will be Echad and His Name Echad.[12]
Jerusalem will live in security.[13]
Until that time, how do we find ways of surviving rape? How do we prepare for more crimes like this? How do we recover from secondary trauma resulting from seeing rapes or hearing about them through the media? How do counselors and humanitarian aid workers live with the truths they have heard and seen?
The prophets answered these questions centuries ago. May you find what you are looking for among their words.
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[1] Jewish Virtual Library, “Jewish Concepts: Masoretic Text,” https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/masoretic-text
[2] Strong’s Concordance, 7693. shagel, Bible Hub, https://biblehub.com/hebrew/7693.htm
[3] Genesis 17:8
[4] Benoît Durieux, “What is the purpose of military action, a century after 1917?” Dans Inflexions 2017/3 (N° 36), pages 213 à 226, https://www.cairn.info/revue-inflexions-2017-3-page-213.htm#:~:text=Military%20action%20consists%20in%20asserting,enjoying%20any%20form%20of%20presence.
[5] “ Summary of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Their Additional Protocols,” International Humanitarian Law, American Red Cross, April 2011, https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/atg/PDF_s/International_Services/International_Humanitarian_Law/IHL_SummaryGenevaConv.pdf
[6]Forbes magazine, https://www.forbes.com/quotes/423/
[7] NBC News, “Growing evidence of Hamas’ sexual crimes against women during attack, Israeli investigators say,” https://youtu.be/rnQjH8lyXTU?feature=shared
[8] AP and TOI Staff, “At least 10 freed hostages were sexually abused in Hamas captivity, doctor says,” The Times of Israel, December 6, 2023, 12:14 pm
[9] Zechariah 14:2
[10] Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, Zechariah 14:2, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/zechariah/14-2.htm
[11] Barnes' Notes on the Bible, Zechariah https://biblehub.com/commentaries/barnes/zechariah/14.htm
[12] Zechariah 14:9
[13] Zechariah 14:11