Numbers 31

1Yahweh said to Moses,

2“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that you will be gathered to your people.”

3So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your men for war, so that they may go against Midian and carry out Yahweh’s vengeance on Midian.

4Send a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.”

5So a thousand men from each tribe were provided from the thousands of Israel, twelve thousand men armed for war.

6Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who took with him the holy articles and the trumpets for sounding the alarm.

7They waged war against Midian, as Yahweh had commanded Moses, and killed every male.

8Along with the rest of those they killed, they killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.

9The Israelites took the women of Midian and their little ones captive, and they plundered all their animals, all their livestock, and all their goods.

10They burned with fire all the towns where they had lived and all their encampments.

11They took all the spoil and all the plunder, both people and animals,

12and brought the captives, the plunder, and the spoil to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the Israelites, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

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

14But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had returned from the battle.

15Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live?

16These are the very ones who, on Balaam’s advice, caused the Israelites to be unfaithful to Yahweh in the matter of Peor, so that the plague struck Yahweh’s congregation.

17Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has slept with a man.

18But keep alive for yourselves all the young girls who have not slept with a man.

19You are to stay outside the camp for seven days. All of you who have killed anyone or touched anyone killed must purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day.

20Purify every garment, every article of leather, everything made of goat hair, and every article of wood.”

21Then Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, “This is the statute of the law that Yahweh has commanded Moses:

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

23everything that can withstand fire, you are to pass through the fire, and it will be clean. But it must also be purified with the water for removing impurity. Whatever cannot withstand fire you are to pass through the water.

24On the seventh day wash your clothes, and you will be clean. After that you may come into the camp.”

25Yahweh said to Moses,

26“You and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the ancestral houses of the congregation are to count the plunder that was captured, both people and animals.

27Divide the plunder into two halves, one for the soldiers who went out to battle and one for the rest of the congregation.

28From the soldiers who went out to battle, set apart a tribute for Yahweh: one out of every five hundred, whether people, cattle, donkeys, or sheep.

29Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as Yahweh’s contribution.

30From the Israelites’ half, take one out of every fifty, whether people, cattle, donkeys, or sheep, from all the animals, and give them to the Levites who are responsible for the care of Yahweh’s tabernacle.”

31So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

32The plunder remaining from the spoil that the soldiers had taken was 675,000 sheep,

33seventy-two thousand cattle,

34sixty-one thousand donkeys,

35and thirty-two thousand people in all, women who had not slept with a man.

36The half that was the share of those who had gone out to war was: 337,500 sheep,

37and the tribute for Yahweh from the sheep was 675;

38thirty-six thousand cattle, and the tribute for Yahweh from them was seventy-two;

3930,500 donkeys, and the tribute for Yahweh from them was sixty-one;

40and sixteen thousand people, and the tribute for Yahweh from them was thirty-two people.

41Moses gave the tribute, Yahweh’s contribution, to Eleazar the priest, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

42From the Israelites’ half, which Moses had separated from that of the soldiers,

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

44thirty-six thousand cattle,

4530,500 donkeys,

46and sixteen thousand people.

47From the Israelites’ half, Moses took one out of every fifty, both people and animals, and gave them to the Levites who were responsible for the care of Yahweh’s tabernacle, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

48Then the officers over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, came to Moses

49and said to him, “Your servants have counted the soldiers under our command, and not one of us is missing.

50So we have brought as an offering to Yahweh the gold articles each man found: armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for ourselves before Yahweh.”

51Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all of it in the form of crafted articles.

52All the gold of the contribution that they presented to Yahweh from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds came to 16,750 shekels.

53Each of the soldiers had taken plunder for himself.

54Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a reminder for the Israelites before Yahweh.