The Bible

The Bible › Numbers

Numbers 31

1Yahweh spoke to Moses: 2“Take vengeance for the sons of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you will be gathered to your people.” 3Moses spoke to the people: “Arm some men from among you for the army, so that they may go against Midian and carry out Yahweh's vengeance on Midian. 4Send a thousand from each tribe to the army, from all the tribes of Israel.” 5From Israel's thousands, a thousand from each tribe were handed over, 12,000 men armed for the army. 6Moses sent them to the army, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, with the holy articles and the signal trumpets in his charge. 7They waged war against Midian, as Yahweh had commanded Moses, and killed every male. 8Among their slain they killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. 9The sons of Israel took the women of Midian and their little ones captive. They plundered all their animals, all their livestock, and all their wealth. 10They burned all their inhabited towns and all their encampments with fire. 11They took all the spoil and all the captured people and animals. 12They brought the captives, the captured animals, and the spoil to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the congregation of the sons of Israel, to the camp in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

13Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp. 14Moses was angry with the army's officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds who were coming from the military campaign. 15Moses said to them, “Have you let every female live? 16Look, these were the ones who, at Balaam's word, led the sons of Israel to act unfaithfully against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, so that the plague came upon Yahweh's congregation. 17Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with a male. 18But keep alive for yourselves all the little ones among the females who have not known lying with a male. 19You must camp outside the camp for seven days. All of you who have killed a person or touched someone slain must purify yourselves on the third day and the seventh day, both you and your captives. 20Purify every garment, every article of leather, everything made of goats' hair, and every wooden article.” 21Eleazar the priest said to the men of the army who had gone to battle, “This is the statute of the instruction Yahweh commanded Moses: 22Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead— 23everything that can withstand fire you must pass through fire, and it will be clean. Yet it must also be purified with the water of purification. Whatever cannot withstand fire you must pass through water. 24Wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you will be clean. Afterward you may enter the camp.”

25Yahweh said to Moses, 26“You, Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the congregation's ancestral houses must count the captured spoil, people and animals. 27Divide the captured spoil in half between the warriors who went out to the army and the whole congregation. 28Levy a tribute to Yahweh from the warriors who went out to the army: one in five hundred, from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the flocks. 29Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as Yahweh's contribution. 30From the sons of Israel's half, take one in fifty from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the flocks, from all the animals. Give them to the Levites who keep charge of Yahweh's dwelling.” 31Moses and Eleazar the priest did as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

32The captured spoil remaining from the plunder the army had taken was 675,000 sheep and goats, 3372,000 cattle, 3461,000 donkeys, 35and 32,000 people in all, females who had not known lying with a male. 36The half belonging to those who went out to the army numbered 337,500 sheep and goats, 37and Yahweh's tribute from the sheep and goats was 675. 38The cattle numbered 36,000, and their tribute to Yahweh was seventy-two. 39The donkeys numbered 30,500, and their tribute to Yahweh was sixty-one. 40The people numbered 16,000, and their tribute to Yahweh was thirty-two people. 41Moses gave the tribute, Yahweh's contribution, to Eleazar the priest, as Yahweh had commanded Moses. 42From the sons of Israel's half, which Moses had separated from the men who had fought— 43the congregation's half was 337,500 sheep and goats, 4436,000 cattle, 4530,500 donkeys, 46and 16,000 people— 47Moses took one in fifty from the sons of Israel's half, from the people and the animals, and gave them to the Levites who kept charge of Yahweh's dwelling, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

48The officers over the army's thousands, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, approached Moses. 49They said to Moses, “Your servants have counted the warriors in our charge, and not one man of ours is missing. 50So we have brought Yahweh's offering, whatever gold articles each man found: armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and ornaments, to make atonement for our lives before Yahweh.” 51Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from them, all of it worked articles. 52All the gold of the contribution they presented to Yahweh from the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds weighed 16,750 shekels. 53The men of the army had each taken plunder for himself. 54Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial for the sons of Israel before Yahweh.

Translation notes 5

31:2–8 — Vengeance and killing. Yahweh's command, Moses' mobilization, the killing of every male, and Balaam's death are explicit. The draft does not narrow “every male” to “every armed combatant” or rewrite the account as a metaphor. The exact regional scope and relation to later Midianites are historical questions the verse does not settle. The holy articles carried with Phinehas are not itemized, so they are not identified with specific objects here.

31:15–18 — Women and children. Moses orders the killing of male little ones and females who have had intercourse, while retaining sexually inexperienced female little ones “for yourselves.” These are captives subject to allocation, not volunteers or merely rescued guests. The narrative reports Balaam's role in Peor here without supplying that counsel in the earlier oracles. No omitted speech or justification is inserted to soften the commands.

31:19–24 — Purification after war. People who killed or touched the slain, as well as the captives, require purification. Fire-resistant metals pass through fire and also require the water of purification; other objects pass through water. These requirements are retained alongside the war's stated authorization. They are ritual instructions and do not by themselves supply a complete moral explanation of the campaign.

31:26–47 — Captives and tribute. The captured people and animals are divided into equal halves. The warriors' half supplies one in five hundred to Eleazar; the congregation's half supplies one in fifty to the Levites. The thirty-two people in verse 40 are living human captives included in the tribute; the passage does not say they are killed as sacrifices. The text does place them under others' control. Every stated total and repeated half is retained; the large numbers are not reduced by changing “thousand” to another unit.

31:48–54 — Gold and atonement. The commanders report no man missing and bring gold to make atonement for their lives. The text does not state that the payment purchases forgiveness for one particular unreported offense. The exact forms of some ornaments, especially the last term, are uncertain. Shekels are weights here; no minted coinage is implied. The soldiers' individual plunder remains explicit in verse 53.