The Fourth Book of Moses: Numbers

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- Chapter 31 -

Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

“Tell the Israelite people that they should pay back the Midian people group for what they did to you. After that happens, you will die.”

So Moses said to the people, “Get some men prepared for battle. Yahweh will enable them to pay back the Midian people group for what they did to us.

Select a thousand men from each tribe to fight.”

So twelve thousand men prepared for fighting in the battle, one thousand from each tribe.

When Moses sent them to the battle, Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, went with them. He took with him some of the things from the sacred tent and the trumpets that would be blown to give the signal to start the battle.

The Israelite men fought the soldiers from the Midian people group, as Yahweh had told Moses to tell them to do, and they killed every man from the Midian people group.

Among those whom they killed were the five kings of the Midian people group, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with a sword.

They captured all the women and children of the Midian people group and took away their cattle, their flocks of sheep, and herds of goats, and all their other possessions.

Then they burned down all the houses in the towns and villages where the people of the Midian people group lived.

But they took home with them all the women and children and animals and possessions.

They brought all these to Eleazer and Moses, and to the rest of the Israelite people who were at their camp on the plains of Moab, near the Jordan River, across from Jericho.

Eleazar and all the leaders of the people and Moses went outside the camp to greet them.

But Moses was angry with some of the men who had returned from the battle. He was angry with the army officers, those men who were commanders over thousands of men and those who were commanders over hundreds of men.

He asked them, “Why did you allow the women to live?

They are the ones who did what Balaam suggested and urged our people to worship Baal instead of Yahweh. As a result, Yahweh caused a plague to strike his people while they were at Peor.

So, now you must kill all the boys of the Midian people group, and also kill all the women who have slept with any man.

Spare only the girls who are virgins. You can keep them to be your wives or your slaves.

All of you who have killed someone or touched the corpse of someone who was killed in the battle must stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and on the seventh day, you must perform the ritual to enable you to become acceptable to God again.

You must also wash your clothes and anything that you took to the battle that is made of leather or goat’s hair or wood.”

Then Eleazar said to the soldiers who had returned from the battle, “This is what Yahweh has instructed Moses.

You must put into a fire any gold or silver or bronze or iron or tin or lead things that you brought back from the battle.

Put everything that will not burn into the fire, and then they will be acceptable for you to use. But also sprinkle those things with the water that causes things and people to become acceptable to God. The things that would burn if you put them in a fire, sprinkle them with that water.

On the seventh day, wash your clothes, and then you will become acceptable to God again. After you do that, you may return to the camp.”

Division of the Spoils

Yahweh also said to Moses,

“Write down a list of all the goods, the women, and the animals that were captured in the battle.

Then tell Eleazar and the leaders of the family groups that they must divide all those things between the men who fought in the battle and the rest of the people.

From the men who fought in the battle, take one from every five hundred people and from every five hundred cattle and donkeys and sheep, to be a tax for me.

Take these things to Eleazar to be my share as the offering presented to me.

And from the other things, take one item from every fifty. That includes people, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, and other animals. Give those things to the descendants of Levi who take care of my sacred tent.”

So Eleazar and Moses did what Yahweh commanded.

There were 675,000 sheep,

seventy-two thousand cattle,

sixty-one thousand donkeys,

and thirty-two thousand virgins that they had captured from the Midian people group.

The men who fought in the battle took 337,000 sheep from the battle,

and they gave 675 of them to Yahweh.

They took thirty-six thousand cattle and gave 72 of them to Yahweh.

They took 30,500 donkeys, and they gave 61 of them to Yahweh.

They took sixteen thousand virgins, and they gave 32 of them to Yahweh.

Moses gave to Eleazar all the animals that had been presented to Yahweh, as Yahweh had commanded.

Moses separated what those who had fought in the battle

received from what the other people received.

The people received 337,500 sheep,

thirty-six thousand cattle,

30,500 donkeys, and sixteen thousand virgins.

From what the people received, Moses took one from every fifty items and gave them to Yahweh. That included animals and people. As Yahweh commanded, Moses gave them all to the descendants of Levi who took care of the sacred tent.

The Voluntary Offering

Then the army officers, those who were commanders over thousands of men and those who were commanders over hundreds of men, they came to Moses.

They said, “We, who are your servants, have counted the soldiers whom we command, and we found that none of them is missing.

So to thank Yahweh for that, we have brought to him a gift of the gold items that we found after the battle, gold arm bands and bracelets and rings, earrings and necklaces. We hope that this will atone for our sins.”

So Eleazar and Moses accepted the gold items that they brought.

The total of the offering they presented weighed about one hundred and ninety one kilograms.

Each soldier had taken these things for himself.

Eleazar and Moses accepted these gold items from these commanders and put them in the sacred tent to remind the Israelite people about how Yahweh had helped them defeat the Midian people group.

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

“Avenge the children of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.”

Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for war, that they may go against Midian, to execute the LORD’s vengeance on Midian.

You shall send one thousand out of every tribe, throughout all the tribes of Israel, to the war.”

So there were delivered, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

Moses sent them, one thousand of every tribe, to the war with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.

They fought against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses. They killed every male.

They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword.

The children of Israel took the women of Midian captive with their little ones; and all their livestock, all their flocks, and all their goods, they took as plunder.

All their cities in the places in which they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire.

They took all the captives, and all the plunder, both of man and of animal.

They brought the captives with the prey and the plunder, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho.

Moses and Eleazar the priest, with all the princes of the congregation, went out to meet them outside of the camp.

Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war.

Moses said to them, “Have you saved all the women alive?

Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of the LORD.

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.

But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

“Encamp outside of the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.

You shall purify every garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made of wood.”

Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who went to the battle, “This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded Moses.

However the gold, and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

everything that may withstand the fire, you shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water for impurity. All that doesn’t withstand the fire you shall make to go through the water.

You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean. Afterward you shall come into the camp.”

Division of the Spoils

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

“Count the plunder that was taken, both of man and of animal, you, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers’ households of the congregation;

and divide the plunder into two parts: between the men skilled in war, who went out to battle, and all the congregation.

Levy a tribute to the LORD of the men of war who went out to battle: one soul of five hundred; of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys, and of the flocks.

Take it from their half, and give it to Eleazar the priest, for the LORD’s wave offering.

Of the children of Israel’s half, you shall take one drawn out of every fifty, of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, of all the livestock, and give them to the Levites, who perform the duty of the LORD’s tabernacle.”

Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Now the plunder, over and above the booty which the men of war took, was six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep,

seventy-two thousand head of cattle,

sixty-one thousand donkeys,

and thirty-two thousand persons in all, of the women who had not known man by lying with him.

The half, which was the portion of those who went out to war, was in number three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep;

and the LORD’s tribute of the sheep was six hundred seventy-five.

The cattle were thirty-six thousand, of which the LORD’s tribute was seventy-two.

The donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred, of which the LORD’s tribute was sixty-one.

The persons were sixteen thousand, of whom the LORD’s tribute was thirty-two persons.

Moses gave the tribute, which was the LORD’s wave offering, to Eleazar the priest, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Of the children of Israel’s half, which Moses divided off from the men who fought

(now the congregation’s half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,

thirty-six thousand head of cattle,

thirty thousand five hundred donkeys,

and sixteen thousand persons),

even of the children of Israel’s half, Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of animal, and gave them to the Levites, who performed the duty of the LORD’s tabernacle, as the LORD commanded Moses.

The Voluntary Offering

The officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, came near to Moses.

They said to Moses, “Your servants have taken the sum of the men of war who are under our command, and there lacks not one man of us.

We have brought the LORD’s offering, what every man found: gold ornaments, armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for our souls before the LORD.”

Moses and Eleazar the priest took their gold, even all worked jewels.

All the gold of the wave offering that they offered up to the LORD, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty shekels.(a)

The men of war had taken booty, every man for himself.

Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the Tent of Meeting for a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD.

Footnotes

(a)31:52 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 16,750 shekels is about 167.5 kilograms or about 368.5 pounds.