Numbers 31

KJV · Chapter 31/36

¹And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

²Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.

³And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian.

⁴Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war.

⁵So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

⁶And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand.

⁷And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.

⁸And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.

⁹And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.

¹⁰And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.

¹¹And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.

¹²And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.

¹³And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.

¹⁴And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.

¹⁵And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?

¹⁶Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.

¹⁷Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

¹⁸But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

¹⁹And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.

²⁰And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats’ hair, and all things made of wood.

²¹And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord commanded Moses;

²²Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

²³Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

²⁴And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp.

²⁵And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

²⁶Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the chief fathers of the congregation:

²⁷And divide the prey into two parts; between them that took the war upon them, who went out to battle, and between all the congregation:

²⁸And levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep:

²⁹Take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for an heave offering of the Lord.

³⁰And of the children of Israel’s half, thou shalt take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all manner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.

³¹And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses.

³²And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, was six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand sheep,

³³And threescore and twelve thousand beeves,

³⁴And threescore and one thousand asses,

³⁵And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of women that had not known man by lying with him.

³⁶And the half, which was the portion of them that went out to war, was in number three hundred thousand and seven and thirty thousand and five hundred sheep:

³⁷And the Lord’s tribute of the sheep was six hundred and threescore and fifteen.

³⁸And the beeves were thirty and six thousand; of which the Lord’s tribute was threescore and twelve.

³⁹And the asses were thirty thousand and five hundred; of which the Lord’s tribute was threescore and one.

⁴⁰And the persons were sixteen thousand; of which the Lord’s tribute was thirty and two persons.

⁴¹And Moses gave the tribute, which was the Lord’s heave offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses.

⁴²And of the children of Israel’s half, which Moses divided from the men that warred,

⁴³(Now the half that pertained unto the congregation was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep,

⁴⁴And thirty and six thousand beeves,

⁴⁵And thirty thousand asses and five hundred,

⁴⁶And sixteen thousand persons;)

⁴⁷Even of the children of Israel’s half, Moses took one portion of fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them unto the Levites, which kept the charge of the tabernacle of the Lord; as the Lord commanded Moses.

⁴⁸And the officers which were over thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, came near unto Moses:

⁴⁹And they said unto Moses, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which are under our charge, and there lacketh not one man of us.

⁵⁰We have therefore brought an oblation for the Lord, what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the Lord.

⁵¹And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even all wrought jewels.

⁵²And all the gold of the offering that they offered up to the Lord, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.

⁵³(For the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.)

⁵⁴And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tabernacle of the congregation, for a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God orders Israel to carry out vengeance against the Midianites for their role in the seduction at Baal-Peor. Israel wins the war, kills the five Midianite kings and Balaam, and after Moses rebukes them for sparing the women, purifies the plunder and divides it between the warriors and the congregation.

Explanation

This particular war against Midian is presented not as an ordinary territorial conquest, but as a response of justice for the spiritual and physical harm caused through the seduction plan revealed as orchestrated by Balaam (v. 16), directly linking this chapter to the events of chapter 25. Moses's order to kill the women who took part in the seduction, though troubling by modern standards, reflects the understanding that the specific threat came from them — this was not general ethnic vengeance, but the elimination of those who had been the direct instrument of Israel's spiritual corruption. The careful and proportional division of the plunder between those who fought and the whole congregation, including a tribute for the priests and Levites, shows an organized system of distributive justice even in wartime.

Fun facts

Balaam's death in this battle (v. 8) clarifies his final fate after all his earlier oracles — despite having blessed Israel by God's command, he perished among the Midianites because of the treacherous counsel he gave, showing narrative coherence between chapters 22-24 and 31.
The process of purifying metal objects captured in war through fire, and other materials through water (v. 21-24), demonstrates a practical understanding that different materials required different methods of ritual purification, adapting the general principle to the physical reality of the objects.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Numbers 31:1The LORD speaks to Moses, launching the war against Midian, already announced back in chapter 25 as a response to the episode at Baal-peor.
Numbers 31:2God orders a war against the Midianites as retaliation for the episode at Baal-peor in chapter 25, in which Midianite women had drawn the people into another cult. It is presented as a specific act of vengeance for that event, not a war of territorial conquest like the earlier ones.
Numbers 31:3Moses passes the order on to the people: some men were to arm themselves to carry out this specific act of the LORD’s vengeance against the Midianites.
Numbers 31:4The call asks for a thousand men from each tribe of Israel to form the army for this war.
Numbers 31:5In total, twelve thousand armed men are gathered, a thousand from each of the twelve tribes.
Numbers 31:6Moses sends this army to war along with Phinehas, son of Eleazar, carrying the sacred objects and the trumpets for sounding the alarm.
Numbers 31:7They fight against the Midianites exactly as the LORD had commanded, killing all the men.
Numbers 31:8Among the dead were five kings of Midian, and also Balaam, son of Beor — the same prophet who had refused to curse Israel, but who apparently stayed nearby and ended up caught up in the Baal-peor scheme.
Numbers 31:9The Israelites capture the Midianite women and children, as well as taking all the cattle, flocks, and goods as spoils of war.
Numbers 31:10All the Midianite cities, dwellings, and encampments are burned completely.
Numbers 31:11Israel gathers up all this plunder, both people and animals, to bring back with them.
Numbers 31:12The captives and the plunder are brought to Moses, Eleazar, and the whole congregation, at the camp in the plains of Moab.
Numbers 31:13Moses, Eleazar, and the leaders of the congregation go out to meet the army outside the camp itself.
Numbers 31:14Moses becomes furious with the army officers, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds who were returning from the war.
Numbers 31:15He asks the commanders directly: why did you let all the women live?
Numbers 31:16Moses explains the reason for his anger: it was precisely these women who, following Balaam’s advice, led Israel into sin in the episode at Baal-peor, causing the plague that killed thousands.
Numbers 31:17After the victory, Moses orders the killing of every boy and every woman who had already been with a man, but sparing the young virgin girls. It is a shocking order by today’s standards; the text ties these women specifically to the episode at Baal-peor, treating them as responsible for drawing Israel into another cult, but there is no softening the harshness of the measure itself.
Numbers 31:18Even with the harsh order in the previous verse, the girls who had not yet been with any man could be spared.
Numbers 31:19The soldiers who had killed someone or touched a dead body had to stay seven days outside the main camp, going through a purification process before they could return. It was the same logic as other laws in the book: contact with death, even in war, left a person temporarily unclean.
Numbers 31:20After the war, it was also necessary to purify clothing, leather goods, goat-hair items, and wooden articles, all contaminated by contact with death.
Numbers 31:21Eleazar explains to the soldiers that this purification was part of a specific law the LORD had already given to Moses.
Numbers 31:22The rule lists the metals captured as plunder: gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead.
Numbers 31:23Anything that could withstand fire had to go through fire to become clean, and then also go through the water of purification; whatever could not withstand fire had to go through the water alone.
Numbers 31:24The soldiers themselves still had to wash their clothes on the seventh day before they could finally return to the camp.
Numbers 31:25The LORD speaks to Moses once more, now to explain how to divide all the captured plunder.
Numbers 31:26The instruction is to take a full count of everything captured, people and animals, with the help of Eleazar and the family leaders.
Numbers 31:27Once counted, the plunder was to be divided into two equal halves: one for the soldiers who went to war, the other for the rest of the congregation.
Numbers 31:28A portion of what was taken in the war, both people and animals, was set apart as a tribute to the LORD, given to the priests and the Levites. It was a way of acknowledging that the victory came from God, dividing the spoils of war formally between those who had fought and the rest of the people.
Numbers 31:29From the soldiers’ half, a specific portion was to be set apart and given to Eleazar, as a heave offering to the LORD.
Numbers 31:30From the half that stayed with the rest of the people, the proportion was smaller: one out of every fifty, given to the Levites responsible for the tabernacle.
Numbers 31:31Moses and Eleazar carry out this division exactly as the LORD had commanded.
Numbers 31:32The total plunder captured by the soldiers came to 675,000 sheep.
Numbers 31:33These 72,000 cattle are part of the plunder taken from the Midianites, along with sheep, donkeys, and captives — all later divided in half between the soldiers and the rest of the people.
Numbers 31:34The 61,000 donkeys complete the list of plunder from Midian, together with cattle and an even larger number of sheep — 675,000 in all, according to this chapter’s account.
Numbers 31:35Among the captured women, 32,000 were girls who had not yet been with any man.
Numbers 31:36The half set aside for the soldiers who went to war totaled 337,500 sheep.
Numbers 31:37From that half of the sheep, the tribute set apart for the LORD was 675 animals.
Numbers 31:38The cattle in that half totaled 36,000, with a tribute of 72 for the LORD.
Numbers 31:39Of the 30,500 donkeys, 61 went as tribute to the LORD — one out of every five hundred, the same proportion applied to everything that fell to the soldiers.
Numbers 31:40The captured people totaled 16,000, with a tribute of 32 for the LORD.
Numbers 31:41Moses hands over this specific tribute to Eleazar, exactly as the LORD had commanded.
Numbers 31:42Moving now to the other half, set aside for the rest of the people who did not go to war,
Numbers 31:43This half belonging to the congregation totaled 337,500 sheep — the same number as the soldiers’ half, since the division had been made in equal parts.
Numbers 31:44These 36,000 cattle are exactly half of the 72,000 captured — the other half went to the soldiers who fought in the war; this half belonged to the rest of the people.
Numbers 31:4530,500 is half of the 61,000 donkeys taken as plunder, set aside for the rest of the congregation — the other half went to those who actually fought against Midian.
Numbers 31:46And the captured people totaled 16,000 — identical numbers to the other half.
Numbers 31:47From this half belonging to the people, Moses sets apart one out of every fifty and gives it to the Levites, exactly as the LORD had commanded.
Numbers 31:48The army commanders, in charge of the thousands and hundreds of soldiers, present themselves before Moses.
Numbers 31:49They report that they took a count of the men under their command and that not a single soldier had been lost in the battle.
Numbers 31:50Because of this, they bring an extra offering to the LORD: gold jewelry that each man found as plunder, offered as a way of making atonement for their own lives.
Numbers 31:51Moses and Eleazar receive this gold, all of it already crafted into pieces.
Numbers 31:52The total gold offered by the commanders came to 16,750 shekels.
Numbers 31:53The text notes that, apart from this extra offering, each soldier had already kept his own personal plunder from the war.
Numbers 31:54Moses and Eleazar bring this gold to the tent of meeting, keeping it as a permanent reminder before the LORD on behalf of the people of Israel.

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