Numbers 31–33

Chapter 31

The Slaughter of Midian

¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²“^aTake full vengeance for the sons of Israel on the Midianites; afterward you will be ^bgathered to your people.”

³Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may ¹go against Midian to execute ^athe Lord’s vengeance on Midian.

⁴“A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.”

⁵So there were ¹furnished from the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

⁶Moses sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the war, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war with them, ^aand the holy vessels and ^bthe trumpets for the alarm in his hand.

⁷So they made war against Midian, just as the Lord had commanded Moses, and ^athey killed every male.

⁸They killed the kings of Midian along with the rest of their slain: ^aEvi and Rekem and ^bZur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian; they also killed ^cBalaam the son of Beor with the sword.

⁹The sons of Israel captured the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their cattle and all their flocks and all their goods they plundered.

¹⁰Then they burned all their cities where they lived and all their camps with fire.

^11aThey took all the spoil and all the prey, both of man and of beast.

¹²They brought the captives and the prey and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the sons of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan opposite Jericho.

¹³Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp.

¹⁴Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.

¹⁵And Moses said to them, “Have you ¹spared ^aall the women?

¹⁶“^aBehold, these ¹caused the sons of Israel, through the ²counsel of ^bBalaam, to ³trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the Lord.

¹⁷“^aNow therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man ¹intimately.

¹⁸“But all the ¹girls who have not known man ²intimately, ³spare for yourselves.

¹⁹“^aAnd you, camp outside the camp seven days; whoever has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves, you and your captives, on the third day and on the seventh day.

²⁰“You shall purify for yourselves every garment and every article of ¹leather and all the work of goats’ hair, and all articles of wood.”

²¹Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, “This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded Moses:

²²only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin and the lead,

²³everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean, but it shall be purified with ^awater for impurity. But whatever cannot stand the fire you shall pass through the water.

²⁴“And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may enter the camp.”

Division of the Booty

²⁵Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁶“You and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers’ households of the congregation take a count of the booty ¹that was captured, both of man and of animal;

²⁷and ^adivide the booty between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation.

²⁸“^aLevy a tax for the Lord from the men of war who went out to battle, one ¹in five hundred of the persons and of the cattle and of the donkeys and of the sheep;

²⁹take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest, as an ¹offering to the Lord.

³⁰“From the sons 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 sheep, from all the animals, and give them to the Levites who ^akeep charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.”

³¹Moses and Eleazar the priest did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

³²Now the booty that remained from the spoil which the ¹men of war had plundered was 675,000 sheep,

³³and 72,000 cattle,

³⁴and 61,000 donkeys,

³⁵and of human beings, of the women who had not known man ¹intimately, all the persons were 32,000.

³⁶The half, the portion of those who went out to war, was as follows: the number of sheep was 337,500,

³⁷and the Lord’s levy of the sheep was 675;

³⁸and the cattle were 36,000, from which the Lord’s levy was 72;

³⁹and the donkeys were 30,500, from which the Lord’s levy was 61;

⁴⁰and the human beings were 16,000, from whom the Lord’s levy was 32 persons.

⁴¹Moses gave the levy which was the Lord’s offering to Eleazar the priest, just ^aas the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁴²As for the sons of Israel’s half, which Moses ¹separated from the men who had gone to war—

⁴³now the congregation’s half was 337,500 sheep,

⁴⁴and 36,000 cattle,

⁴⁵and 30,500 donkeys,

⁴⁶and the human beings were 16,000—

⁴⁷and from the sons of Israel’s half, Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of animals, and gave them to the Levites, who kept charge of the tabernacle of the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁴⁸Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, approached Moses,

⁴⁹and they said to Moses, “Your servants have taken a census of men of war who are in our charge, and no man of us is missing.

⁵⁰“So we have brought as an offering to the Lord what each man found, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces, ^ato make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.”

⁵¹Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all kinds of wrought articles.

⁵²All the gold of the offering which they offered up to the Lord, from the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, was 16,750 shekels.

^53aThe men of war had taken booty, every man for himself.

⁵⁴So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it to the tent of meeting as ^aa memorial for the sons of Israel before the Lord.

Chapter 32

Reuben and Gad Settle in Gilead

¹Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had an ^aexceedingly large number of livestock. So when they saw the land of ^bJazer and the land of Gilead, that ¹it was indeed a place suitable for livestock,

²the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the congregation, saying,

³“^aAtaroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon,

⁴the land ^awhich the Lord ¹conquered before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

⁵They said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession; do not take us across the Jordan.”

⁶But Moses said to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to war while you yourselves sit here?

⁷“^aNow why are you ¹discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land which the Lord has given them?

⁸“¹This is what your fathers did when I sent them from ^aKadesh-barnea to see the land.

⁹“For when they went up to ^athe ¹valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they ²discouraged the sons of Israel so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them.

¹⁰“So ^athe Lord’s anger burned in that day, and He swore, saying,

¹¹‘^aNone of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully,

¹²except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, ^afor they have followed the Lord fully.’

¹³“^aSo the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the Lord was destroyed.

¹⁴“Now behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinful men, to add still more to the burning ^aanger of the Lord against Israel.

¹⁵“For if you ^aturn away from following Him, He will once more abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”

¹⁶Then they came near to him and said, “We will build here sheepfolds for our livestock and cities for our little ones;

^17abut we ourselves will be armed ready to go before the sons of Israel, until we have brought them to their place, while our little ones live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁸“^aWe will not return to our homes until every one of the sons of Israel has possessed his inheritance.

¹⁹“For we will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has fallen to us ^aon this side of the Jordan toward the east.”

^20aSo Moses said to them, “If you will do ¹this, if you will arm yourselves before the Lord for the war,

²¹and all of you armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven His enemies out from before Him,

^22aand the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you shall return and be free of obligation toward the Lord and toward Israel, and this land shall be yours for a possession before the Lord.

²³“But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure ^ayour sin will find you out.

²⁴“Build yourselves cities for your little ones, and sheepfolds for your sheep, and ^ado ¹what you have promised.”

²⁵The sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, “Your servants will do just as my lord commands.

²⁶“^aOur little ones, our wives, our livestock and all our cattle shall ¹remain there in the cities of Gilead;

²⁷while your servants, everyone who is armed for war, will ^across over in the presence of the Lord to battle, just as my lord says.”

²⁸So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the sons of Israel.

²⁹Moses said to them, “If the sons of…