Numbers 31:25–54

²⁵The Lord said to Moses, ²⁶“You, the priest Eleazar, and the heads of the families of the community need to count all the loot, including the people and animals you captured. ²⁷Divide the loot between the soldiers who served in the war and the rest of the community. ²⁸Collect a tax for the Lord. From the soldiers who served in the war collect one out of every 500 things. This includes people, cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats. ²⁹Collect all these things from the soldiers’ half of the loot, and give them to the priest Eleazar as a contribution to the Lord. ³⁰From the Israelites’ half of the loot, collect one out of every 50 things. This includes people, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, and every other kind of animal. Give them to the Levites who are in charge of the work done at the Lord’s tent.” ³¹Moses and the priest Eleazar did as the Lord commanded Moses. 

³²This is the loot that was left from everything that the troops took: 675,000 sheep and goats, ³³72,000 cattle, ³⁴61,000 donkeys, and ³⁵32,000 women who had never gone to bed with a man. 

³⁶Half of it went to the soldiers who served in the war. Of the 337,500 sheep and goats they received, ³⁷675 went to the Lord as taxes. ³⁸Of the 36,000 cattle they received, 72 went to the Lord as taxes. ³⁹Of the 30,500 donkeys they received, 61 went to the Lord as taxes. ⁴⁰Of the 16,000 people they received, 32 went to the Lord as taxes. 

⁴¹Moses gave the Lord’s taxes to the priest Eleazar, as the Lord had commanded him. 

⁴²Moses took the Israelites’ half of the loot from the soldiers. ⁴³The community received 337,500 sheep and goats, ⁴⁴36,000 cattle, ⁴⁵30,500 donkeys, ⁴⁶and 16,000 people. 

⁴⁷From the Israelites’ half Moses collected one out of every 50 things, including people and animals, as the Lord commanded him. Then he gave all this to the Levites who were in charge of the work done at the Lord’s tent. 

⁴⁸Then the officers from the military divisions, the commanders of the companies and battalions of men, came to Moses. ⁴⁹They said to him, “Sir, we have counted all the soldiers under our command, and not one of them is missing. ⁵⁰So we have brought as gifts to the Lord the gold jewelry that each of us found—arm bands, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and pendants. We offer them to make peace with the Lord.” 

⁵¹Moses and the priest Eleazar took all the hand-crafted gold articles from them. ⁵²All the gold contributed to the Lord by the commanders weighed about 420 pounds. ⁵³Each soldier kept his own loot. ⁵⁴Moses and the priest Eleazar took the gold from the commanders and brought it into the Lord’s presence at the tent of meeting as a reminder to the Israelites.