I have done Custody and Visitation Work for over 25 years and I have done emancipation of minors during the same time period (and Protection from Abuse). From that practice I have seen there is a clear difference between teenage boys and girls when it comes to their relationship with their parents.
Boys tend to embrace the basic beliefs and outlook of their parents. In my opinion, more what they Mother believe then their fathers. At the same time when a Woman leaves the family she was raised in, she tends to embrace the basic beliefs and outlook of her husband (or other man in her life). Thus boys tend to adopt the outlook of their fathers via their mothers.
Women tend to embrace the outlook of their husbands. Thus you see almost no difference between married men and the women they are married to when it comes to voting, most women will vote the same as their husbands (Women who are separated from their husbands OR never developed a relationship with a man, tend to vote more to the left then married women). While there is a clear difference between married and unmarried women when it comes to voting, not such difference exists between married men and unmarried men when it comes to voting patterns.
In my experience, the above is because women when they turn 14 to 16 want to leave the family they grew up in and on a subconscious basis wants to move in with a man. I also see a lot of teenage women in conflict not only with themselves but their parents, for such teenage women KNOW it is better for them to finish High School, but on a subconscious basis they want to move in with a man. Notice such teenager women KNOW they should NOT move in with a man, AND they know it would be best to finish High School, but that subconscious instinct does come into play and leads to internal conflict within the Teenage woman AND an external conflict between her and her parents.
Teenage boys, also want to develop a relationship with a woman, but a woman their Mother will approve of for the instinct in males is to move that woman in to the same house as their mother. This is a huge difference between the sexes and Moses understood it.
I recently read a study of men and women in rural Turkey. The men almost all stayed in the Village they were raised in, but about 1/3 of the women move to other villages when it comes time to marry. That is something I have seen over and over again, men prefer to stay with the group they grew up in, it is women who will go elsewhere to find a mate. This same observation was noted in the Former East Germany after reunification of Germany. The men tended to stay in East Germany even if it meant not being able to find work, it was their sisters who moved to West Germany to find work and husbands. Women are much more willing to move from the group they were born and raised in, then are men.
Now as to your quote from Numbers. In that situation Moses had ordered his men to kill anyone among them who had embraced the pagan gods of Moab. Now, today this sounds in religion, but at that time period, the gods one worshiped determined who you looked for leadership i.e. you were NOT defined by your Nationality or Tribe but by the gods you worshiped. Thus worshiping a pagan god, would be the same as swearing allegiance to a foreign country today. You must understand that concept, this act by Moses was NOT an attack on heretics but traitors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heresy_of_Peor
Once you understand that we are discussing something more like modern treason then heresy, then you understand why Moses ordered the men killed who had embraced that pagan gods of Moab. Once you understand that sons tend to follow and want to revenge their fathers, you see why they had to die (in the eyes of Moses). As to the women who had "known men" such women would have embraced the outlook of their man, and thus would raise their sons to revenge their man's death (or if no son, do it themselves). Thus such women, women who had embraced a man, had to die (again in the eyes of Moses). On the other hand, women who has NOT known a man, would embrace the outlook of whatever man they sooner or later moved in with, thus they could be spared for they were no threat to ruling elite of Moses and the rest of the leaders of the Ancient Israelis. There was NO need to kill the unmarried women for they would embrace the outlook of their husband when it came time to wed and thus not a threat to the Tribes of Israel.
No wonder why the ancient Israelis followed Moses, he understood people and what was needed to form the ancient tribes of Israel into a nation. That is very difficult given their tribal nature and why Moses was held in high honor by the Ancient Israelis and the Christian Church.
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