Numbers 31:1-24 - War Against The Midianites

¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Take vengeance for the Israelites on the Midianites; afterward you will be gathered to your people [in death].”

³ Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for war, so that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord’s vengeance on Midian [for seducing Israel to participate in idolatry]. ⁴ A thousand [fighting men] from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.” ⁵ So out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe were selected, twelve thousand armed for war. ⁶ Moses sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the war, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to war with them, and the sacred vessels [of the sanctuary] and the trumpets to blow the alarm in his hand.

⁷ They made war against Midian, just as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they killed every male. ⁸ They killed the kings of Midian along with the rest of their slain: Evi and Rekem and Zur [the father of Cozbi] and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian; also Balaam the son of Beor they killed with the sword. ⁹ The sons of Israel captured the women of Midian and their children; and all their cattle, all their livestock, and all their property they took as spoil [of war]. ¹⁰ They burned all the cities where they lived, and all their encampments with fire. ¹¹ They took all the plunder and all the spoils of war, both people and livestock. ¹² Then they brought the captives, the spoils, and the plunder to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the Israelites at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan [River] across from Jericho.

¹³ Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴ But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, who served in the war. ¹⁵ And Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? ¹⁶ Look, these [are the women who] caused the Israelites, by the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and so a plague came among the congregation of the Lord. ¹⁷ Now therefore, kill every male among the children, and kill every woman who is not a virgin. ¹⁸ But all the young girls who have not known a man intimately, keep alive for yourselves [to marry].

¹⁹ Camp outside the camp for seven days; whoever has killed any person and whoever has touched any dead body, purify yourselves and your captives, on the third day and on the seventh day. ²⁰ You shall purify every garment and every article made of leather and all the things made of goats’ hair, and every article made of wood.”

²¹ Then 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: ²² only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, ²³ everything that can stand fire, you shall pass through fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified with the water of purification [to remove its impurity]; and all that cannot stand fire [such as fabrics] you shall pass through water. ²⁴ And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may come into the camp.”