Numbers 31–33

War Against the Midianites

31Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Seek vengeance for the Israelites^a on the Midianites; afterward you will be gathered to your people.” ³Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm yourself from among your men for the battle, so that they will go^b against Midian to mete out the vengeance of Yahweh on Midian. ⁴A thousand from each tribe of every tribe of Israel you will send to battle.” ⁵So they were assigned from the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand equipped for battle. ⁶Moses sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the battle, and Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the battle with them, and the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets of the blast were in his hand. ⁷And they fought against Midian just as Yahweh commanded Moses, and they killed every male. ⁸They killed the kings of Midian in addition to the ones they had slain: Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian; they also killed Balaam son of Beor by the sword. ⁹The Israelites^c took captive the women of Midian and their children, and they plundered all their domestic animals and all their livestock and all their wealth. ¹⁰They burned all their cities where they dwelled and all their camps with fire. ¹¹They took all the plunder and all the war-booty with the humans^d and domestic animals.^{e 12}They brought the captives, the war-booty, and the plunder to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the community of the Israelites,^f to the camp to the desert-plateau of Moab, which was on the Jordan across Jericho.

¹³And Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went out to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴But Moses was angry toward the leaders of the troops, the commanders of the thousands and the commanders of the hundreds, who came from the battle of the war. ¹⁵And Moses said to them, “You have kept alive every female? ¹⁶Behold, these women caused^g the Israelites,^h by the word of Balaam, to be in apostasy against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, so that the plague was among the community of Yahweh. ¹⁷Now kill every male among the little children, and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man.^{i 18}But all the females who have not had sexual intercourse with a man,^j keep alive for yourselves. ¹⁹And you, camp outside the camp seven days; all who killed a person and all who touched the slain purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives. ²⁰You will purify yourselves and every garment and every object of hide and all the work of goats’ hair, and every object of wood.”

²¹Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of the battle who came from the war, “This is the decree of the law that Yahweh commanded Moses. ²²Only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead—²³everything that will go through the fire—you will pass through the fire, and it will be clean, and only in waters of impurity will it be purified. Whatever does not go into the fire you will pass through the waters. ²⁴And you will wash your garments on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you will come into the camp.”

Division of the War-Booty

²⁵Yahweh said to Moses, saying, ²⁶“You and Eleazar the priest and the leaders of the families^k of the community, take count^l of the war-booty that was captured, both humans^m and the domestic animals;^{n 27}divide the war-booty between those who engaged in the war, who went out to the battle, and all the community. ²⁸Exact a tribute for Yahweh from the men of the war, those who went out to the battle, one from five hundred persons, and from the cattle and from the male donkeys and from the flock; ²⁹take from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as a contribution to Yahweh. ³⁰From half of the Israelites,^o take one share drawn by lot from the fifty from the humans,^p from the cattle, from the male donkeys, from the flock, from all the domestic animals,^q and give them to the Levites who keep the responsibilities of the tabernacle of Yahweh.” ³¹Moses and Eleazar the priest did just as Yahweh commanded Moses.

³²Thus the war-booty that remained of the plunder that the people of the battle plundered was six hundred and seventy-five thousand flocks of sheep, ³³seventy-two thousand cattle, ³⁴sixty-one thousand male donkeys, ³⁵and the life of humankind, from the women who did not have sexual intercourse with a man,^r all the persons^s were thirty-two thousand.

³⁶The half of the share that was going out to the battle: the number of the flock of sheep was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred; ³⁷the tribute to Yahweh from the flock was six hundred and seventy-five; ³⁸and the cattle were thirty-six thousand; and the tribute to Yahweh was seventy-two. ³⁹Of the male donkeys there were thirty thousand five hundred, and the tribute to Yahweh was sixty-one; ⁴⁰the humans^t were sixteen thousand, and the tribute to Yahweh was thirty-two persons. ⁴¹And Moses gave away the tribute of the contribution of Yahweh to Eleazar the priest, just as Yahweh commanded Moses.

⁴²From the half of the Israelites,^u which Moses divided from the men who were fighting, ⁴³the half that belonged to the community was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred from the flock, ⁴⁴and thirty-six thousand cattle, ⁴⁵and thirty thousand five hundred male donkeys, ⁴⁶and sixteen thousand humans.^{v 47}From the half that belonged to the Israelites,^w Moses took one share drawn by lot out of every fifty humans^x and domestic animals, and he gave them to the Levites, who keep the responsibility of the tabernacle of Yahweh, just as Yahweh commanded Moses.

⁴⁸Then the leaders of the thousands of the army, the commanders of the thousands and the commanders of the hundreds, approached Moses, ⁴⁹and they said to Moses, “Your servants have taken count^y of the men of war who were in our charge,^z and no man is missing from us. ⁵⁰So we brought the offering of Yahweh, what each man found, objects of gold, bangles,^a bracelets,^b rings,^c earrings,^d and female ornaments,^e to make atonement for ourselves before^f Yahweh.” ⁵¹Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all objects of work. ⁵²All the gold of the contribution that they raised up to Yahweh, from the commanders of the thousands and the commanders of the hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels. ⁵³The men of battle plundered each for himself. ⁵⁴So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the commanders of the thousands and hundreds, and they brought it to the tent of the assembly as a memorial for the Israelites^g before Yahweh.

Gad and Reuben Inherit Gilead

32The descendants^a of Reuben and the descendants^b of Gad had a very large number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold it was a place for livestock. ²The descendants^c of Gad and the descendants^d of Reuben came, and they said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the community, saying, ³“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon, ⁴the land that Yahweh struck before the community of Israel, is a land of livestock, and your servants have livestock.” ⁵They said, “If we have found favor in your sight,^e let this land be given to your servants as property; do not lead us across the Jordan.”

⁶But Moses said to the descendants^f of Gad and to the descendants^g of Reuben, “Will your brothers go to war while you yourselves live here? ⁷Why are you discouraging the hearts of the Israelites^h from crossing into the land that Yahweh gave to them? ⁸This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. ⁹When they went up to the valleyⁱ of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the Israelites^j so that they did not come to the land that Yahweh gave to them. ¹⁰So Yahweh’s anger burned^k on that day, and he swore an oath, saying, ¹¹‘The men who went up from Egypt, from those twenty years old^l and above, will not see the land that I swore with an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because they have not wholly followed me, ¹²except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, because they followed Yahweh wholly.’ ¹³And Yahweh became angry,^m and he made them wander in the desert forty years until the entire generation who did evil in the sight of Yahwehⁿ had died.^{o 14}Behold, you stand in the place of your fathers, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more Yahweh’s fierce anger^p against Israel. ¹⁵If you turn from following him, he will again abandon them^q in the wilderness, and you would have destroyed all these people.”

¹⁶They came near to him and said, “We will build sheep pens here for the flock of our livestock and cities for our little children; ¹⁷but we ourselves will become armed and ready before the Israelites^r until we have brought them to their place, and our little children will live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁸We will not return to our houses until the Israelites^s each obtain their^t inheritance for themselves. ¹⁹For we will not take possession with them from across the Jordan and beyond because our inheritance has come to us from across the Jordan to the east.”

²⁰So Moses said to them, “If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before^u Yahweh for the war, ²¹and everyone of you armed cross the Jordan before^v Yahweh until he has driven out his enemies from before him, ²²and the land is subdued before^w Yahweh, then afterward you will return and be free of obligation from Yahweh and from Israel, and this land will be your property before^x Yahweh. ²³But if you do not do so, behold, you have sinned against Yahweh, and know that your sin will find you. ²⁴Build for yourselves cities for your little children and sheep pens for your flocks; what has gone out from your mouth you will do.”

²⁵So the descendants^y of Gad and the descendants^z of Reuben said to…