1 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, 2 'Execute the vengeance of the sons of Israel against the Midianites — afterwards thou art gathered unto thy people.' 3 And Moses speaketh unto the people, saying, 'Be ye armed some of you for the host, and they are against Midian, to put the vengeance of Jehovah on Midian; 4 a thousand for a tribe — a thousand for a tribe, to all the tribes of Israel — ye do send to the host.' 5 And there are given out of the thousands of Israel a thousand for a tribe, twelve thousand armed ones of the host; 6 and Moses sendeth them, a thousand for a tribe, to the host, them and Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, to the host; and the holy vessels, and the trumpets of the shouting, in his hand. 7 And they war against Midian, as Jehovah hath commanded Moses, and slay every male; 8 and the kings of Midian they have slain, besides their pierced ones, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian; and Balaam son of Beor, they have slain with the sword. 9 And the sons of Israel take captive the women of Midian, and their infants; and all their cattle, and all their substance, and all their wealth they have plundered; 10 and all their cities, with their habitations, and all their towers, they have burnt with fire. 11 And they take all the spoil, and all the prey, among man and among beast; 12 and they bring in, unto Moses, and unto Eleazar the priest, and unto the company of the sons of Israel, the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto the camp, unto the plains of Moab, which [are] by Jordan, [near] Jericho. 13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the company, go out to meet them, unto the outside of the camp, 14 and Moses is wroth against the inspectors of the force, chiefs of the thousands, and chiefs of the hundreds, who are coming in from the host of the battle. 15 And Moses saith unto them, 'Have ye kept alive every female? 16 lo, they — they have been to the sons of Israel, through the word of Balaam, to cause a trespass against Jehovah in the matter of Peor, and the plague is in the company of Jehovah. 17 'And now, slay ye every male among the infants, yea, every woman known of man by the lying of a male ye have slain; 18 and all the infants among the women, who have not known the lying of a male, ye have kept alive for yourselves. 19 'And ye, encamp ye at the outside of the camp seven days — any who hath slain a person, and any who hath come against a pierced one, ye cleanse yourselves on the third day, and on the seventh day — ye and your captives; 20 and every garment, and every skin vessel, and every work of goats' [hair], and every wooden vessel, ye yourselves cleanse.' 21 And Eleazar the priest saith unto the men of the host who go in to battle, 'This [is] the statute of the law which Jehovah hath commanded Moses: 22 only, the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, 23 every thing which may go into fire, ye cause to pass over through fire, and it hath been clean; only, with the water of separation it is cleansed, and all that may not go into fire, ye cause to pass over through water; 24 and ye have washed your garments on the seventh day, and have been clean, and afterwards ye come in unto the camp.' 25 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, 26 'Take up the sum of the prey of the captives, among man and among beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers of the company; 27 and thou hast halved the prey between those handling the battle who go out to the host and all the company; 28 and thou hast raised a tribute to Jehovah from the men of war, who go out to the host, one body out of five hundred, of man, and of the herd, and of the asses, and of the flock; 29 from their half ye do take, and thou hast given to Eleazar the priest — the heave-offering of Jehovah. 30 'And from the sons of Israel's half thou dost take one possession out of fifty, of man, of the herd, of the asses, and of the flock, of all the cattle, and thou hast given them to the Levites keeping the charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah.' 31 And Moses doth — Eleazar the priest also — as Jehovah hath commanded Moses. 32 And the prey, the residue of the spoil which the people of the host have spoiled, is of the flock six hundred thousand, and seventy thousand, and five thousand; 33 and of the herd two and seventy thousand; 34 and of asses one and sixty thousand; 35 and of human beings — of the women who have not known the lying of a male — all the persons [are] two and thirty thousand. 36 And the half — the portion of those who go out into the host — the number of the flock is three hundred thousand, and thirty thousand, and seven thousand and five hundred. 37 And the tribute to Jehovah of the sheep is six hundred five and seventy; 38 and the herd [is] six and thirty thousand, and their tribute to Jehovah [is] two and seventy; 39 and the asses [are] thirty thousand and five hundred, and their tribute to Jehovah [is] one and sixty; 40 and the human beings [are] sixteen thousand, and their tribute to Jehovah [is] two and thirty persons. 41 And Moses giveth the tribute — Jehovah's heave-offering — to Eleazar the priest, as Jehovah hath commanded Moses. 42 And of the sons of Israel's half, which Moses halved from the men who war — 43 and the company's half is, of the flock three hundred thousand, and thirty thousand, seven thousand and five hundred; 44 and of the herd six and thirty thousand; 45 and of asses thirty thousand and five hundred; 46 and of human beings sixteen thousand — 47 Moses taketh from the sons of Israel's half the one possession from the fifty, of man and of beast, and giveth them to the Levites keeping the charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah, as Jehovah hath commanded Moses. 48 And the inspectors whom the thousands of the host hath, (heads of the thousands and heads of the hundreds), draw near unto Moses, 49 and they say unto Moses, 'Thy servants have taken up the sum of the men of war who [are] with us, and not a man of us hath been missed; 50 and we bring near Jehovah's offering, each that which he hath found, vessels of gold — chain, and bracelet, seal-ring, [ear] -ring, and bead — to make atonement for ourselves before Jehovah.' 51 And Moses receiveth — Eleazar the priest also — the gold from them, every made vessel, 52 and all the gold of the heave-offering which they have lifted up to Jehovah is sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, from heads of the thousands, and from heads of the hundreds; 53 (the men of the host have spoiled each for himself); 54 and Moses taketh — Eleazar the priest also — the gold from the heads of the thousands and of the hundreds, and they bring it in unto the tent of meeting — a memorial for the sons of Israel before Jehovah.
Numbers · Young's Literal Translation
Numbers 31 Young's Literal 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)