Conquest Narrative Revisited:
Interrogating our Legacy of Conquest & Annihilation
The Old Testament reading a few Sundays ago was from Numbers 21. I’m going to give you a paraphrase. Full passage of Numbers 21:1-10 is at the end of the article for reference.
The Canaanite king in the Negev heard the Israelites were coming near them. He ordered an unprovoked attack and captured some of them. (Whether he thought offense was the best strategy for self-protection so he attacked out of fear, or whether he attacked maliciously, we don’t know.)
The Israelites responded by telling God, if God would let the Israelites win, they would give the Canaanites and their cities over to God by totally destroying them.* (Like genocide was a wonderful gift they were offering to God that would convince God to let them win.) According to the narrative in Numbers, God thought this was a good idea and let the Israelites win. Afterwards, they named the place Destruction.
Scene change. The Israelites kept wandering through the wilderness. They complained about Moses and God, so God sent poisonous snakes to attack them and many died. The people said they had sinned and repented. Moses asked God for mercy, and God said if you make a bronze snake, they can look at that and be healed.
*According to Bible Gateway's notes, “the Hebrew term [that they translated destroy] refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.” There’s a word that means that? It’s so ingrained in the language and life of the people that there is a word for this?!?
What in the actual heck? I grew up reading this, hearing this, week in, week out. I am more removed from it now, and see it differently when I do encounter it. I feel like I’m pretty much shocked by everything I hear from the Bible and Christian songs these days.
I so appreciate Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s article about the Conquest narrative in what we know as the Old Testament. Please take the time to read it now or sometime later.
I’m going to give my thoughts on this as a Trauma Therapist and anti-conquest advocate.
I feel like we could replace the first part of this story with modern day language and it would read almost the same. I.e. The leaders of attacked, killed, raped, and captured Nation B. The Nation A government responded by attempting to totally destroy Nation B and its cities.
Based on Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s take on the conquest narrative, we don’t know if this Canaanite attack actually happened or if it was written in later as part of a conquest narrative. Either way it’s really disturbing.
In My Grandmother's Hands, Psychotherapist Resmaa Menachem gives such a helpful framework for how trauma experienced in our histories and narratives continue to affect us and play out in our societies. He names the legacy of torture, fear, and oppression that Europeans experienced in the Dark Ages carrying over to the torture, fear, and oppression that European invaders brought to Turtle Island (what we now call North America) in their treatment of Native Americans and enslaved Afro-Americans. I think it goes much further back than that. This passage from Numbers is a good example of this on a societal level. Genocide was considered a gift that God would be pleased with. The story of Cain and Abel goes back to the beginnings of the Judeo-Christian narrative of humans. And already it was “dog-eat-dog” or brother-kill-brother. This is the legacy we have been given. In our cosmology, in our stories, and in our bones. Is it any wonder it is coming out of the lips of conservative elements in our society now?
What a different vision of human nature, the divine, conflict, and reconciliation we find in Indigenous cultures. It is personally one of my guiding points. I think one of the only ways we are going to remove the trauma of oppression (enacted and survived) is:
Honesty about what happened, and is happening,
Collective as well as personal grieving. We need rituals, spaces, and public acknowledgement of the pain caused. We need ways to grieve collectively.
We need ways to heal and live differently in our bodies and in the world. Internal Family Systems, Rest as Resistance (which I mention in my first podcast episode), Somatic practices, and somatic abolition are some I've encountered.
Enacting frameworks for providing both justice and care in society, such as Restorative justice. Truth and reconciliation. Accountability and rehabilitation. It shocks me that in this narrative account, what the Israelites think they need to repent of is complaining, but not genocide. Genocide is God-sponsored and state-sponsored in this account.
We need new stories and narratives. New cosmologies and education.
What else do you need? What else do you recommend?
The goal of my podcast Who We Are & What We Need is to explore these healing themes. You can listen to Episode 1: We Can Rest to get started on the journey. I will continue to explore these topics - how we frame what’s happening and how we create spaces of healing, connection, and care in future episodes. I would love to hear any of your thoughts and insights on this. You can reply to this email or comment in substack. Let's build a community of healing imagination and embodied experience of needs-honoring and reciprocity.
If you’re hungry for more while you wait for more of my podcast episodes to be aired, I encourage you to listen to Prentis Hemphill’s podcast Finding Our Way. All of the recent revisit episodes that you’ll find listed first on Apple, Spotify, etc. have been amazing. They are speaking to all these things I’m passionate about and exploring. Prentis is “unearthing the connections between healing, community accountability and our most inspired visions for social transformation. Prentis is a therapist, somatics teacher and facilitator, political organizer, writer and the founder of The Embodiment Institute” (https://prentishemphill.com/).
I think you're amazing,
Catherine
Numbers 21:1-10 (NIV)
Arad Destroyed
21 When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. 2 Then Israel made this vow to the Lord: “If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy[a] their cities.” 3 The Lord listened to Israel’s plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.[b]
The Bronze Snake
4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea,[c] to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
