Troublesome TopicISRAELITES DID NOT GO INTO BATTLE NAKED!

Many statues, paintings, and ancient friezes depict people of ancient times going into battle naked in order to show their manliness. It may have happened some of the time, but I doubt it was as prevalent as people think because armor and articles of clothing are also depicted and described. Ancient friezes are divided on this issue. I think that the friezes showing a naked warrior may have been a way for the artist to show the manliness of his subjects, rather than a depiction of reality. Similarly, it could be said that the women in those friezes who have their breasts exposed are depicted that way, not because it was reality, but because the artist wanted to show how attractive the women of that culture were. 

However, regarding the soldiers of Israel I can emphatically state that they did not go into battle naked. The Law of God given through Moses considered it shameful to expose any skin remotely close to a reproductive organ. Exposing the reproductive organs themselves was strictly prohibited. For certain types of work or for running, they would tuck their robe into their belt and expose their knees, but they were willing to suffer a little bit of shame in order to get a job done more efficiently. However, the Jews saw battle as a holy thing – the soldiers were required to be “clean” in order to go into battle because the battle and the victory belonged to the Lord. They were only supposed to go into battle if God commanded it, and they had to follow His rules in order to expect a victory. So they did not want to expose parts of them that God had said never to expose in public.

Those captured in battle were often made to walk naked in the parade of the conquering hero as a form of disgrace. David’s emissaries to Hanun, the Ammonite king, suffered the great indignation of having their robes cut short in the back to expose their buttocks (or almost expose them). David took this as a huge affront to him, his soldiers and his people. This act by Hanun fomented a war between him and David, a war which David won decisively.

So, I am happy to inform you that the famous statue of David with everything exposed except one shoulder!? is not based on a clear understanding of the Bible’s depiction of Israelite history.

Remember the time that David went to the priest Ahimelek, and the priest gave Goliath’s sword back to David?

1 Samuel 21:5

Translation

The priest responded by saying to DAVID, “I assure you there is no common bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread, if the young men have kept themselves from women.”

Paraphrase

The priest answer the question of THE ONE WHO IS LOVED by saying, “I don’t have any bread on hand I can give you, except maybe this bread that has been consecrated for the tabernacle and should only be eaten by priests. But I suppose I can give it to you on one condition, that the young men with you have not had sex with any woman recently.”

1 Samuel 21:6

Translation

DAVID responded to the priest by saying, “Certainly, women have been kept from us, as has been the case from the beginning until now when I go out, and the ‘equipment’

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of the young men is holy even on common journeys, how much more today has their ‘equipment’ been kept holy.”

Paraphrase

THE ONE WHO IS LOVED answered the priest in this way, “I assure you that we have been kept away from all women, just as we have always done when we go out on missions; I can also assure you that, for common missions, the body parts of the young men are set apart for God’s tasks, not personal pleasure; on this mission more than usual their body parts have been kept holy.”

David and his men took seriously the teaching that all the battles God commanded them to enter were holy battles and therefore all the Israelite soldiers were careful to keep themselves pure.

That is the same reason that Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, did not go home to sleep with his wife when he had opportunity (II Sam 11). He knew that if he were sent back to the battlefield, he would not be able to fight that day unless he had kept himself from all women, including his wife. Besides that, he was more strict on himself than the Law required. In this situation he proved to be a more righteous man than David.

All this to say that there is no way David or any other Jewish soldier would expose his reproductive organs in battle just to show the enemy how manly he was. All of them were more concerned about showing the God who could grant them victory how righteous they were.

Footnotes

1

The word I have rendered as “equipment” has the idea of “something prepared or finished,” but it can also mean “article, vessel, tool, apparatus, implement of any kind, instrument, furniture, jewelry.” Since the question asked by the priest had to do with abstaining from sexual intercourse, the “equipment” in mind had nothing to do with armor or weapons; context demands that it refer to the body parts involved in sexual intercourse.