Numbers 31: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Moses to take vengeance on the Midianites before he dies, and Israel sends a thousand men from each tribe, who kill every Midianite male, including five kings and Balaam, and take the women, children, animals, and goods. Moses is angry that the women were spared, and orders the boys and the women who have slept with a man killed, and the soldiers and their captives purified outside the camp for seven days. The rest of the plunder is counted and split between the soldiers and the community, with a share set aside for Eleazar the priest and for the Levites. The officers, finding not one of their men missing, bring gold articles as an offering, which Moses and Eleazar place in the Tent of Meeting.

Claim by Claim

1. 31:1
   • The LORD spoke to Moses.
   • The LORD told Moses to say the following.
2. 31:2
   • The LORD commanded Moses to take vengeance for the children of Israel on the Midianites.
   • The LORD said that afterward Moses would be gathered to his people.
3. 31:3
   • Moses spoke to the people.
   • Moses told them to arm some men from among themselves for the army.
   • Moses said the armed men were to go against Midian.
   • Moses said the purpose was to execute the LORD's vengeance on Midian.
4. 31:4
   • Moses said to send a thousand men from each tribe.
   • Moses said this applied to all the tribes of Israel.
   • Moses said these men were to be sent to the war.
5. 31:5
   • A thousand men from each tribe were handed over out of the thousands of Israel.
   • The total was twelve thousand men armed for war.
6. 31:6
   • Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe.
   • Moses sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the war with them.
   • The holy vessels were with Phinehas.
   • The trumpets for sounding the alarm were in his hand.
7. 31:7
   • They waged war against Midian.
   • They did so as the LORD had commanded Moses.
   • They killed every male.
8. 31:8
   • They killed the kings of Midian along with the rest of their slain.
   • The kings killed were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba.
   • There were five kings of Midian.
   • They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.
9. 31:9
   • The children of Israel took the women of Midian captive.
   • The children of Israel took the Midianite children captive.
   • They plundered all the Midianites' animals.
   • They plundered all the Midianites' livestock.
   • They plundered all the Midianites' wealth.
10. 31:10
    • They burned all the Midianite cities in the places where they lived.
    • They burned all the Midianite encampments.
    • They burned these with fire.
11. 31:11
    • They took all the spoil.
    • They took all the plunder.
    • The plunder was of both people and animals.
12. 31:12
    • They brought the captives, the plunder, and the spoil to Moses.
    • They brought them to Eleazar the priest.
    • They brought them to the congregation of the children of Israel.
    • They brought them to the camp.
    • The camp was on the plains of Moab.
    • The plains of Moab are by the Jordan near Jericho.
13. 31:13
    • Moses went out to meet them.
    • Eleazar the priest went out to meet them.
    • All the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them.
    • They met them outside the camp.
14. 31:14
    • Moses was angry with the officers of the army.
    • The officers were the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds.
    • These officers were coming from the military campaign.
15. 31:15
    • Moses said to them.
    • Moses asked whether they had kept all the females alive.
16. 31:16
    • Moses said that these women caused the children of Israel to act unfaithfully against the LORD.
    • Moses said this was done through the counsel of Balaam.
    • Moses said this happened in the matter of Peor.
    • Moses said that a plague came upon the congregation of the LORD.
17. 31:17
    • Moses commanded them to kill every male among the children.
    • Moses commanded them to kill every woman who has known a man by lying with him.
18. 31:18
    • Moses commanded them to keep alive for themselves all the young females who have not known lying with a man.
19. 31:19
    • Moses commanded them to camp outside the camp for seven days.
    • The command applied to whoever had killed a person.
    • The command applied to whoever had touched a slain person.
    • They were to purify themselves on the third day and on the seventh day.
    • They were to purify their captives as well.
20. 31:20
    • They were to purify every garment.
    • They were to purify every article made of leather.
    • They were to purify everything made of goats' hair.
    • They were to purify every article made of wood.
21. 31:21
    • Eleazar the priest spoke to the men of the army who had gone into the battle.
    • Eleazar said this is the statute of the law.
    • Eleazar said the LORD had commanded this law to Moses.
22. 31:22
    • The ruling concerns the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead.
23. 31:23
    • Everything that can go into the fire must be passed through the fire.
    • Once passed through the fire it will be clean.
    • It must nevertheless be purified with the water of purification.
    • Everything that cannot go into the fire must be passed through the water.
24. 31:24
    • They were to wash their clothes on the seventh day.
    • Then they would be clean.
    • Afterward they could come into the camp.
25. 31:25
    • The LORD spoke to Moses.
    • The LORD told Moses to say the following.
26. 31:26
    • The LORD commanded that a count be taken of the plunder that was captured.
    • The count was to include both people and animals.
    • Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the congregation were to do the counting.
27. 31:27
    • Moses was to divide the plunder into two parts.
    • One part was for those who took part in the war and went out to battle.
    • The other part was for all the congregation.
28. 31:28
    • A tribute was to be levied for the LORD from the men of war who went out to battle.
    • The tribute was one person or animal out of every five hundred.
    • The tribute was taken from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the flocks.
29. 31:29
    • The tribute was to be taken from the soldiers' half.
    • The tribute was to be given to Eleazar the priest.
    • The tribute was a heave offering of the LORD.
30. 31:30
    • From the children of Israel's half, one out of every fifty was to be taken.
    • This was taken from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, the flocks, and all the animals.
    • These were to be given to the Levites.
    • The Levites keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.
31. 31:31
    • Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.
32. 31:32
    • The plunder was what remained of the spoil the fighting men had taken.
    • The plunder included 675,000 sheep.
33. 31:33
    • The plunder included 72,000 cattle.
34. 31:34
    • The plunder included 61,000 donkeys.
35. 31:35
    • The plunder included 32,000 human persons.
    • These were women who had not known lying with a man.
36. 31:36
    • The half that was the portion of those who went out in the army was counted.
    • That half was 337,500 sheep.
37. 31:37
    • The LORD's tribute from the sheep was 675.
38. 31:38
    • The cattle in that half were 36,000.
    • The LORD's tribute from them was 72.
39. 31:39
    • The donkeys in that half were 30,500.
    • The LORD's tribute from them was 61.
40. 31:40
    • The human persons in that half were 16,000.
    • The LORD's tribute from them was 32 persons.
41. 31:41
    • Moses gave the tribute to Eleazar the priest.
    • The tribute was the LORD's heave offering.
    • Moses did this as the LORD had commanded Moses.
42. 31:42
    • There was also the children of Israel's half.
    • Moses had divided that half off from the men who had gone to war.
43. 31:43
    • The congregation's half of the sheep was 337,500.
44. 31:44
    • The congregation's half included 36,000 cattle.
45. 31:45
    • The congregation's half included 30,500 donkeys.
46. 31:46
    • The congregation's half included 16,000 human persons.
47. 31:47
    • Moses took from the children of Israel's half the portion of one out of fifty.
    • This was taken from both people and animals.
    • Moses gave them to the Levites.
    • The Levites kept the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.
    • Moses did this as the LORD had commanded Moses.
48. 31:48
    • The officers who were over the units of the army came near to Moses.
    • These officers were the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds.
49. 31:49
    • They said to Moses.
    • They said their servants had taken the count of the men of war under their command.
    • They said not one man of them was missing.
50. 31:50
    • They said they had brought an offering for the LORD.
    • The offering was what each man had found of gold articles.
    • The articles were armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and gold ornaments.
    • They said the offering was to make atonement for their souls before the LORD.
51. 31:51
    • Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them.
    • The gold consisted of all the crafted articles.
52. 31:52
    • All the gold of the offering they lifted up to the LORD was 16,750 shekels.
    • The gold came from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds.
53. 31:53
    • The men of the army had taken plunder, each man for himself.
54. 31:54
    • Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds.
    • They brought it into the tent of meeting.
    • It was a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

31:2

The Midianites were a group of tent-dwelling and herding peoples ranging over the deserts east and south of Canaan, sometimes trading, sometimes raiding. Genesis traces them to Midian, a son of Abraham by Keturah, so the biblical writers understood them as distant relatives of Israel. The word translated "pay back" (Hebrew *naqam*) means punishment exacted by a rightful authority for a wrong already done, not a private grudge.

31:3

"Carry out the LORD's payback on Midian" reflects a Hebrew phrase that treats the offense at Peor (see verse 16) as committed against the LORD himself, so the punishment is described as his rather than Israel's.

31:4

A tribe was one big family group. Israel had twelve of them, one for each son of a man named Jacob.

31:5

The Hebrew word for "thousand" (*elef*) is also the name of a military and clan unit, so "out of all their thousands" can mean either the numerical thousands of men or the army's organized companies.

31:6

Phinehas was the son of Eleazar the high priest and grandson of Aaron. He is the man who, in the earlier incident at Peor (Numbers 25), killed an Israelite man and the Midianite woman with him and so stopped the plague, which is why he is the priest sent on this particular campaign. The "holy objects" translate a vague Hebrew phrase ("the holy things" or "holy vessels"); it may mean equipment from the sanctuary, or the priestly objects used for seeking a decision from God. The trumpets are the two silver trumpets of Numbers 10, blown to muster the camp, signal a march, and sound the alarm in battle.

31:7

"They slew all the males" is the sweeping, total language ancient war reports normally use. Midianites turn up again later in the Bible, most famously as Gideon's enemies in Judges, so the phrase describes the settlements this raid actually reached.

31:8

Balaam was the foreign seer of Numbers 22–24, hired by Balak of Moab to curse Israel; he blessed them instead. Verse 16 reflects a tradition that he afterwards advised the Midianite and Moabite women in the affair at Peor. Zur, one of the five kings, is named in Numbers 25:15 as the father of Cozbi, the Midianite woman killed by Phinehas.

31:9

"Spoil" means the animals, goods, and people taken from a defeated enemy. It was the normal reward for an ancient army.

31:10

The word behind "camps" (KJV "goodly castles") is uncertain. It seems to mean a ring of tents or huts enclosed by a wall, the kind of fortified encampment used by herding peoples, as distinct from a walled town.

31:11

In the King James, "prey" does not mean an animal being hunted. Here it means everything captured in the battle, both people and animals.

31:12

The plains of Moab were the flat stretch of the Jordan valley on the east bank, opposite Jericho. This is Israel's last camp before crossing the river, and the setting for everything from Numbers 22 to the end of Deuteronomy.

31:13

The leaders go out rather than waiting inside because the returning army is ritually unclean from contact with the dead and cannot enter the camp yet (see verse 19).

31:14

Israel's army is described as organized in units of a thousand and of a hundred, each with its own commander, the structure of civil and military leadership set out in Exodus 18.

31:16

"What happened at Peor" refers to Numbers 25, where Israelite men at Shittim joined Moabite and Midianite women in the worship of the local god, Baal of Peor, and a plague killed twenty-four thousand people. "Unfaithful" translates a word used both for breaking faith with God and for a wife's adultery.

31:17

The killing of the boys follows the logic of ancient blood vengeance: sons who survived would grow up obliged to avenge their fathers, and so were treated as future combatants. The women are singled out because verse 16 identifies them as the ones involved at Peor.

31:18

"Keep alive for yourselves" means the girls became part of Israelite households, as servants or eventually as wives. Deuteronomy 21:10–14 sets out rules for marrying a woman taken captive in war.

31:19

Under the law of Numbers 19, anyone who killed a person or touched a corpse, a grave, or even a tent where someone had died became ritually unclean for seven days and had to stay outside the camp. Being unclean is a matter of ceremonial status, not guilt or dirt: it barred a person from the sanctuary until the set washings on the third and seventh days were done.

31:20

Cloth, leather, goat hair (woven into tent cloth and sacking) and wood are the porous materials, which absorb uncleanness and so must be washed rather than burned or melted.

31:21

An "ordinance" is a rule or a law that has been officially given.

31:22

"Brass" in the King James means bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. True brass, copper mixed with zinc, was not in use at this time.

31:23

"The water used for cleansing" is the mixture described in Numbers 19: spring water combined with the ashes of a red heifer burned outside the camp, sprinkled on a person or object to remove the uncleanness that came from contact with the dead.

31:26

"Take the sum" simply means make a count or a tally.

31:27

Splitting captured goods evenly between the men who fought and those who stayed behind was a known custom in Israel; David later makes it a standing rule after a raid (1 Samuel 30:24–25).

31:28

A "payment" here is a levy or tax taken off the top of the soldiers' share before they keep the rest, one animal or person in five hundred, a fifth of one percent.

31:29

"A gift lifted up and presented" translates the Hebrew *terumah*, literally something raised or set apart from a larger quantity and handed over to the sanctuary. It is the standard word for a contribution given to the priests.

31:30

The Levites were the tribe set apart to carry, guard, pitch and service the worship tent. They were not priests, only Aaron's line served at the altar, but they did the tribe's practical and guard duties and, owning no territory, lived on shares like this one.

31:32

"Sheep" translates a general word for small livestock, covering both sheep and goats. The figures that follow are laid out so that each share matches the fractions commanded in verses 28 and 30 exactly.

31:33

The King James counts in scores, a score being twenty, so "threescore and twelve thousand" is 72,000. Totals on this scale are enormous for a raid by twelve thousand men, and scholars have long argued over whether the figures are exact, later scribal expansions, or built on a Hebrew word that can mean either "thousand" or a military unit of unfixed size.

31:35

The captives are listed in the same tally as the sheep, cattle, and donkeys, and divided by the same arithmetic. That is how the passage classifies prisoners of war: as property to be counted and shared out.

31:40

The chapter does not say what became of the thirty-two people handed to the priest, or of the larger group given to the Levites. The usual understanding is that they were put to work at the sanctuary, in the way that the animals went into its herds.

31:49

Counting fighting men was regarded as risky: Exodus 30:12 requires each man counted in a census to pay a ransom "so that no plague will come on them." The officers report a count with no losses and immediately bring the gold, which is why the gift is described in the next verse as making things right for their lives.

31:50

The exact sense of several of these Hebrew words for gold ornaments is uncertain; they cover armbands worn on the upper arm, bangles, signet or nose rings, earrings, and pendants or beads worn at the neck. "To make things right" translates a word meaning a ransom or covering price paid for a life.

31:52

A shekel was a weight, not a coin, coined money did not yet exist. It was roughly two-fifths of an ounce, about eleven and a half grams, so 16,750 shekels is somewhere near 420 pounds, or 190 kilograms, of gold.

31:53

This aside makes clear that the gold offering came from the officers only. The ordinary soldiers kept whatever they had picked up for themselves, over and above the plunder that was counted and divided.

31:54

"A reminder before the LORD" describes an object deposited in the sanctuary so that the event it stands for is kept permanently in view, the same idea as the engraved stones on the high priest's shoulders in Exodus 28:12.