Numbers
Chapter 31
1 God spoke to Moses, saying,
2 Get justice for the Israelites against the Midianites; then you will join your ancestors.
3 Moses said to the people, “Get some of you ready for battle, and attack the Midianites to take revenge for God.”
4 From every tribe of Israel, send a thousand people to fight in the war.
5 From the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand ready for battle, were given.
6 Moses sent a thousand men from each tribe to fight, including Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest, with the holy items and trumpets to sound.
7 They fought against the Midianites, as God told Moses; and they killed all the men.
8 They killed the Midianite kings along with the others who were killed; the kings were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. They also killed Balaam, Beor’s son, with the sword.
9 The people of Israel captured all the women and children of Midian, and took all their cows, sheep, and possessions.
10 They burned all the cities they lived in, and all their beautiful strongholds, with fire.
11 They took everything they captured, including people and animals.
12 They brought the prisoners, the captured goods, and the stolen items to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the Israelites’ assembly at the camp on the Moab plains by the Jordan River, close to Jericho.
13 Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went out of the camp to meet them.
14 Moses was angry with the army officers, the leaders of thousands and the leaders of hundreds, who returned from the battle.
15 Moses asked them, “Did you keep all the women alive?”
16 Look, these people led the Israelites, following Balaam’s advice, to sin against God at Peor, and a disease spread among God’s people.
17 Now, kill all the boys and every woman who has slept with a man.
18 Keep alive all the young girls who have never slept with a man for yourselves.
19 Stay outside the camp for seven days if you’ve killed someone or touched a dead body. Clean yourselves and your prisoners on the third and seventh days.
20 Clean all your clothes, everything made of skin, all goat hair items, and all wooden things.
21 Priest Eleazar told the soldiers who fought in the battle, “This is the rule of the law that God gave to Moses.”
22 Keep only the gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead.
23 Everything that can withstand fire must be passed through it to become clean; however, it must also be purified with special water. But everything that cannot withstand fire must be passed through water.
24 On the seventh day, wash your clothes, and then you will be clean. After that, you can return to the camp.
25 God spoke to Moses, saying,
26 Count all the captured people and animals, you, Eleazar the priest, and the leading elders of the community.
27 Split the loot into two parts: one for those who fought in the battle, and the other for the whole community.
28 Collect a tax for God from the soldiers who fought in battle: one out of every five hundred people, cattle, donkeys, and sheep.
29 Take some from their share and give it to priest Eleazar as a gift for God.
30 From the Israelites’ half, take one out of every fifty people and animals, including cattle, donkeys, and sheep, and give them to the Levites who are responsible for maintaining God’s tent.
31 Moses and Eleazar the priest did as God commanded Moses.
32 The spoils, which were the remaining things captured by the soldiers, were six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep.
33 Seventy-two thousand cows,
34 Sixty-one thousand donkeys.
35 In total, thirty-two thousand women who had never slept with a man.
36 And the half for those who went to battle was 337,500 sheep.
37 God’s share of the sheep was six hundred seventy-five.
38 There were 36,000 cattle; God’s share was 72.
39 There were thirty thousand and five hundred donkeys, and God’s share was sixty-one.
40 There were 16,000 people; God’s share was 32 people.
41 Moses gave the special gift for God to Priest Eleazar, as God told Moses to do.
42 From the half belonging to the Israelites, which Moses separated from the soldiers,
43 The part that belonged to the people was 337,500 sheep.
44 Thirty-six thousand cattle,
45 Thirty thousand and five hundred donkeys.
46 And sixteen thousand people.
47 From the Israelites’ half, Moses took one out of every fifty people and animals and gave them to the Levites, who looked after God’s tent, as God told Moses.
48 The leaders in charge of a thousand soldiers, and the captains of hundreds, approached Moses.
49 They told Moses, “Your servants have counted all the soldiers we are responsible for, and not one man is missing.”
50 We have brought a gift for God, including gold jewelry like chains, bracelets, rings, earrings, and pendants, to ask forgiveness for our souls before God.
51 Moses and Priest Eleazar took the gold from them, including all the crafted jewels.
52 All the gold given to God by the leaders of the thousands and hundreds was 16,750 shekels.
53 The soldiers had taken loot, each man for himself.
54 Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the leaders of thousands and hundreds and brought it to the meeting tent as a reminder for the Israelites before God.