1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Avenge the children of Israel upon the Midianites; afterwards shalt thou be gathered unto thy peoples. 3 And Moses spoke to the people, saying, Arm from amongst you men for military service, that they go against Midian to execute Jehovah's vengeance upon Midian. 4 Of every tribe a thousand, of all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. 5 And there were levied out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand by tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. 6 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand by the tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, and the holy instruments, even the alarm-trumpets in his hand. 7 And they warred against Midian, as Jehovah had commanded Moses, and slew all the males. 8 And they slew the kings of Midian, besides the others slain, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian; and Balaam the son of Beor they slew with the sword. 9 And the children of Israel took the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took for a spoil all their cattle and all their flocks and all their goods; 10 and all their cities in their settlements and all their encampments they burned with fire. 11 And they took all the booty, and all the prey, of man and of cattle; 12 and they brought to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the assembly of the children of Israel, the captives and the prey and the booty, to the camp in the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan of Jericho. 13 And Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the princes of the assembly went forth to meet them outside the camp. 14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the army, with the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war; 15 and Moses said to them, Have ye saved all the women alive? 16 Lo, these, through the counsel of Balaam, caused the children of Israel to commit sin against Jehovah in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague on the assembly of Jehovah. 17 And now slay every male among the little ones, and slay every woman that hath known man by lying with him, 18 but all the children among the women that have not known lying with a man, keep alive for yourselves. 19 And encamp outside the camp seven days; whoever hath killed a person, and whoever hath touched any slain; ye shall purify yourselves on the third day, and on the seventh day, you and your captives. 20 And every garment, and every vessel of skin, and all work of goat's hair, and every utensil of wood shall ye purify. 21 And Eleazar the priest said to the men of war that had gone to the battle, This is the statute of the law which Jehovah hath commanded Moses. 22 Only the gold, and the silver, the copper, the iron, the tin, and the lead, 23 everything that passeth through the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean; only it shall be purified with the water of separation; and everything that cannot pass through the fire ye shall make go through the water. 24 And ye shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean; and afterwards ye may come into the camp. 25 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, 26 Take the sum of the prey that was taken, of man and of cattle, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the chief fathers of the assembly; 27 and divide the prey into halves, between them that conducted the war, who went out to the battle, and the whole assembly. 28 And thou shalt levy a tribute for Jehovah of the men of war who went out to the army, one soul of five hundred of the persons, and of the oxen, and of the asses, and of the small cattle. 29 Of their half shall ye take it, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for a heave-offering of Jehovah. 30 And of the children of Israel's half, thou shalt take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the oxen, of the asses, and of the small cattle, of every [kind of] beasts, and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, who keep the charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah. 31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as Jehovah had commanded Moses. 32 And the prey, the rest of the spoil, which the men of war had taken, was six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, 33 and seventy-two thousand oxen, 34 and sixty-one thousand asses, 35 and of human persons, of the women that had not known lying with a man, all the persons were thirty-two thousand. 36 And the half, the portion of them that had gone out to the war, was in number three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, 37 and the tribute for Jehovah of the sheep was six hundred and seventy-five; 38 and the oxen were thirty-six thousand, and the tribute thereof for Jehovah, seventy-two; 39 and the asses were thirty thousand five hundred, and the tribute thereof for Jehovah, sixty-one; 40 and the human persons were sixteen thousand, of whom the tribute for Jehovah was thirty-two persons. 41 And Moses gave the tribute of Jehovah's heave-offering to Eleazar the priest, as Jehovah had commanded Moses. 42 And of the children of Israel's half, which Moses had divided, [taking it] from the men that served in the war, 43 (now the half belonging to the assembly was of the sheep, three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred, 44 and thirty-six thousand oxen, 45 and thirty thousand five hundred asses, 46 and sixteen thousand human persons,) 47 ...of the children of Israel's half, Moses took one portion of fifty, of man and of cattle, and gave them to the Levites who kept the charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah; as Jehovah had commanded Moses. 48 And the officers who were over the thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, came near to Moses, 49 and they said to Moses, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war who were under our hand, and there is not one man of us lacking. 50 So we present the offering of Jehovah, that which each one hath found, jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for our souls before Jehovah. 51 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, all manner of wrought jewels. 52 And all the gold of the heave-offering that they offered to Jehovah was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, from the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds. 53 (The men of war had taken spoil each one for himself.) 54 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tent of meeting, as a memorial for the children of Israel before Jehovah.
Numbers 31 Darby Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Evi
One of the five kings of Midian killed in Israel's war of vengeance against the Midianites.
Cited in the guide: Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:21
Hur
One of the five kings of Midian killed in Israel's war of vengeance against the Midianites.
Cited in the guide: Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:21
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Reba
One of the five kings of Midian killed in Israel's war of vengeance against the Midianites.
Cited in the guide: Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:21
Rekem
One of the five kings of Midian killed in Israel's war of vengeance against the Midianites.
Cited in the guide: Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:21
Zur
A tribal chief of a Midianite family and father of Cozbi; a Zur is also named among the five Midianite kings killed in the war of vengeance.
Cited in the guide: Numbers 25:15; Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:21
Cross references (32)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 2 Numbers 27:13; Numbers 25:14–18; Judges 2:10; Revelation 6:10; Psalm 94:1–3
- 3 Leviticus 26:25; Numbers 25:13; Exodus 17:16; 2 Kings 10:30; Numbers 25:11
- 4 1 Samuel 14:6; Leviticus 26:8; Judges 7:2
- 6 Numbers 14:44; Numbers 10:8–9; 2 Chronicles 13:12–15; Joshua 6:4–6; Joshua 6:13–15
- 7 Judges 21:11; 1 Kings 11:15–16; 1 Samuel 27:9; Judges 6:1–2; Deuteronomy 20:13–14
- 8 Joshua 13:21–22; Numbers 25:15; Revelation 2:14; Jude 11; Numbers 25:18
- 9 2 Chronicles 28:8–10; Deuteronomy 20:14; 2 Chronicles 28:5; Numbers 31:15–16
- 10 Isaiah 1:7; 1 Samuel 30:1; Revelation 18:8; 1 Kings 9:16; Joshua 6:24
- 11 Deuteronomy 20:14; Joshua 8:2
- 12 Numbers 22:1
- 13 Numbers 31:12; Genesis 14:17; 1 Samuel 15:12; 1 Samuel 30:21; Numbers 31:22–24
- 14 Numbers 31:48; Exodus 32:19; Leviticus 10:16; Numbers 12:3; 1 Samuel 15:13–14
- 15 1 Samuel 15:3; Deuteronomy 2:34; Jeremiah 48:10; Psalm 137:8–9; Joshua 10:40
- 16 2 Peter 2:15; Numbers 25:1–9; Revelation 2:14; Deuteronomy 4:3; Joshua 22:17
- 17 Deuteronomy 20:16–18; Judges 21:11–12; Deuteronomy 7:2
- 18 Deuteronomy 21:10–14; Leviticus 25:44; Deuteronomy 20:14; 2 Chronicles 28:8–10; Isaiah 14:2
- 19 Numbers 5:2; Numbers 19:11–22; 1 Chronicles 22:8
- 20 Genesis 35:2; Exodus 19:10; Numbers 19:14–16; Numbers 19:22
- 21 Numbers 30:16
- 23 Numbers 19:9; 1 Corinthians 3:13; Numbers 19:17; Matthew 3:11; Isaiah 43:2
- 24 Leviticus 11:25; Numbers 19:19; Leviticus 15:13; Leviticus 14:9
- 27 Joshua 22:8; 1 Samuel 30:24–25; Psalm 68:12; 1 Samuel 30:4
- 28 Numbers 18:26; Numbers 31:47; Numbers 31:30; Proverbs 3:9–10; Genesis 14:20
- 29 Numbers 18:26; Deuteronomy 12:12; Deuteronomy 12:19; Exodus 29:27
- 30 Numbers 3:7–8; Numbers 3:31; Numbers 3:25; 1 Chronicles 26:20–27; Numbers 18:23–28
- 41 Numbers 18:8; Numbers 18:19; Numbers 31:29–31; Galatians 6:6; Matthew 10:10
- 47 Numbers 31:30; Luke 10:1–8; Deuteronomy 12:17–19; Numbers 18:21–24; Isaiah 56:10–11
- 49 John 18:9; 1 Samuel 30:18–19; Psalm 72:14
- 50 Exodus 30:12; Exodus 30:15–16; Psalm 116:12; Psalm 107:15; Psalm 116:17
- 51 Numbers 7:2–6
- 53 Deuteronomy 20:14; Numbers 31:32
- 54 Exodus 30:16; Zechariah 6:14; Numbers 16:40; Psalm 103:1–2; Joshua 4:7
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
You have a plain passage in Genesis, when Eve herself was first made, "He made her a woman." Scripture also in another place saith, that God ordered "the women" to be separated "which had not known man by lying with him." This then ought now to be well established, and should not detain us, that so we may be able …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)