Bible Contradiction? How should the Moabites be treated?

For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: How should the Moabites be treated?

Here are the answers which the skeptic believes indicate a Bible contradiction:

Do not fight against them or take their land.

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Do not attack Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.” (Deuteronomy 2:9)

Kill them and take their land.

“Then he said to them, “Pursue them, for the Lord has handed your enemies the Moabites over to you.” So they went down after him and took control of the crossing places of the Jordan opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross. 29 They struck and killed about ten thousand Moabites at that time, all robust and valiant men; and no one escaped. 30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land was at rest for eighty years.” (Judges 3:28-30)

“There is no longer praise for Moab; In Heshbon they have devised disaster against her: ‘Come and let’s cut her off from being a nation!’ You too, [a]Madmen, will be silenced; The sword will follow you.” (Jeremiah 48:2)

(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)

Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:

1. When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction.  A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time.  To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
2. One should be skeptical of whether this is a Bible contradiction given the Skeptic Annotated Bible’s track record of inaccurately handling the Bible.  See the many examples of their error which we have responded to in this post: Collection of Posts Responding to Bible Contradictions.  Of course that does not take away the need to respond to this claim of a contradiction, which is what the remainder of this post will do.  But this observation should caution us to slow down and look more closely at the passages cited by the Skeptic Annotated Bible to see if they interpreted the passages properly to support their conclusion that it is a Bible contradiction.
3. The skeptic tries to pit Deuteronomy 2:9 as affirming the claim “Do not fight against Moab or take their land” against both Judges 3:28-30 and Jeremiah 48:2 as affirming “Kill Moabites and take their land.”
4. For background information Moab is a nation that neighbors Israel.  According to Genesis 19;37 Lot’s older daughter named her son Moab, and he’s the father of the Moabite nation.
5. We should know the contexts of what is going on with these three verses.
   1. Deuteronomy 2:9 records the words of an elderly Moses to the Hebrews who were to go into the Promise Land in which he told them what they were to do and not to do.  This include nations they were not to attack such as the Edomites and Moabites.
   2. As context for Judges 3:28-30 according to Judges 3:13-14 we see the Moabite King Eglon has invaded and occupied Israel and Israel was forced to serve the Moabites for 18 years.
   3. According to the verse before Jeremiah 48:2 the context of Jeremiah 48:2 is God’s prophecy against Moab.  This action is told to Jeremiah the Prophet and the destruction and demise of Moab is foretold.   According to Jeremiah 48:46 the Moabites will be punished by being taken to captivity which in the context of the book suggests the punishment is carried out by Babylonians.
6. Knowing the context we see the skeptics cited Deuteronomy 2:9 correctly that God ordered Israel not to fight against Moab or take their land.  Two specific limitations are mentioned: Israel is not to initiate conflict with Moab (“provoke them to war,“) nor secondly should they start wars for conquest of Moabite territory (“ will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession“).  However it must also be clear that this does not mean Israel cannot act in self-defense from Moabite aggressions against Israel.  We know this because chronologically before Deuteronomy 2:9 Moab desired to harm Israel and Israel had to take defensive military means to defend itself from Moab’s seductive strategy in Numbers 22-32.
7. Knowing the context we see the skeptics did not cited Judges 3:28-30 correctly that God ordered the killing of Moabites and to take their land.
   1. In Judges 3:28-30 these are the words of the Judge Ehud to his own countrymen to defend themselves and remove the Moabite occupiers in their lands.  This is not an invasion of Moab but a military campaign of liberation of their own country.
   2. Note verse 29 explicitly said Ehud was “opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross” into Moab, of the occupying forces so they won’t be able to return to Moab but were militarily eliminated instead.  Again there is nothing in the passage for the skeptic to conclude anything about taking their land.
8. Knowing the context we see the skeptics did not cited Jeremiah 48:2 correctly that God ordered the killing of Moabites and to take their land.
   1. While the passage predicts the Babylonians will occupy Moab and kill its inhabitants and take them captive this is not the same thing as prescribing this as a practice.
   2. Also the passage is telling us statement of facts not giving imperatives for others to do.
   3. Still there’s a difference between Israel and Babylonians as the referents of these actions being done to Moab, reinforcing our point that the skeptics misinterpreted the passage  .Again there is nothing in the passage for the skeptic to conclude anything about Israel taking Moab’s land.
9. There is no contradiction here.  Seems the skeptic needs to learn of How to Handle Bible Contradictions.
10. We shouldn’t miss that worldviews are at play even with the skeptic’s objection to Christianity.  The worldview of the author of the Skeptic Annotated Bible actually doesn’t even allow for such a thing as the law of non-contradiction to be meaningful and intelligible.  In other words for him to try to disprove the Bible by pointing out that there’s a Bible contradiction doesn’t even make sense within his own worldview.  Check out our post “Skeptic Annotated Bible Author’s Self-Defeating Worldview.”

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