Numbers 31:13-24 - The Army Returns

13 And Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went out to meet them outside the camp. 14 But 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. 15 And Moses said to them, "You have kept alive every female? 16 Behold, these women {caused} the {Israelites}, 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. 17 Now kill every male among the little children, and kill every woman who has {had sexual intercourse with a man}. 18 But all the females who have not {had sexual intercourse with a man}, keep alive for yourselves.

19 And 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. 20 You will purify yourselves and every garment and every object of hide and all the work of goats' hair, and every object of wood."

21 Then 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. 22 Only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead-- 23 everything 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. 24 And you will wash your garments on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you will come into the camp."