﻿Numbers.
Chapter 31.
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 
“Avenge the Israelites on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.” 
Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Let men from among you arm themselves for war and go against Midian, to carry out the LORD’s vengeance against Midian. 
A thousand from each tribe, a thousand from each tribe, from all the tribes of Israel, you shall send to war.” 
So a thousand from each tribe were supplied from the thousands of Israel, twelve thousand armed for war. 
Moses sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to war. He sent them and Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to war, with the holy objects and the trumpets for sounding the alarm in his hand. 
They fought against Midian as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed every male. 
They killed the kings of Midian along with the others who were slain: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. 
The Israelites took the women of Midian and their little ones captive. They plundered all their animals, all their livestock, and all their wealth. 
They burned all the cities where they lived and all their encampments with fire. 
They took all the spoil and all the captured booty, both people and animals. 
They brought the captives, the captured booty, and the spoil to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the Israelites, to the camp in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, opposite Jericho. 
Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp. 
Moses was angry with the army officers, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who were returning from the military campaign. 
Moses said to them, “Have you kept all the women alive? 
Look, these were the very ones who, through Balaam’s counsel, caused the Israelites to act unfaithfully against the LORD in the matter of Peor, so that the plague came upon the LORD’s congregation. 
Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has had sexual relations with a man. 
But keep alive for yourselves all the girls who have not had sexual relations with a male. 
You shall camp outside the camp seven days. All of you who have killed a person or touched someone slain shall purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives. 
You shall also purify every garment, every leather object, everything made of goats’ hair, and every wooden object.” 
Eleazar the priest said to the army men who had gone to battle, “This is the statute of the law that the LORD commanded Moses: 
As for gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead, 
everything that can withstand fire you shall pass through fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it must also be purified with the water for purification. Everything that cannot withstand fire you shall pass through water. 
You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean. Afterward you may enter the camp.” 
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 
“Take a count of the captured booty, both people and animals, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the congregation’s ancestral households. 
Divide the booty into halves between the combatants who went out to war and the whole congregation. 
Set aside a tribute to the LORD from the men of war who went out to battle: one out of every five hundred living beings, from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the flocks. 
You shall take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as the LORD’s raised offering. 
From the Israelites’ half you shall take one out of every fifty, from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the flocks, from all the animals, and give them to the Levites who keep the charge of the LORD’s tabernacle.” 
Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD had commanded Moses. 
The booty remaining from the plunder taken by the army men was six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep and goats, 
seventy-two thousand cattle, 
and sixty-one thousand donkeys. 
The people, the women who had not had sexual relations with a male, were thirty-two thousand in all. 
The half that was the portion of those who went out to war numbered three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep and goats. 
The LORD’s tribute from the sheep and goats was six hundred seventy-five. 
The cattle were thirty-six thousand, and their tribute to the LORD was seventy-two. 
The donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred, and their tribute to the LORD was sixty-one. 
The people were sixteen thousand, and their tribute to the LORD was thirty-two people. 
Moses gave the tribute, the LORD’s raised offering, to Eleazar the priest, as the LORD had commanded Moses. 
As for the Israelites’ half, which Moses had divided off from the men who went to war, 
the congregation’s half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep and goats, 
thirty-six thousand cattle, 
thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, 
and sixteen thousand people. 
Moses took from the Israelites’ half one out of every fifty, from the people and the animals, and gave them to the Levites who kept the charge of the LORD’s tabernacle, as the LORD had commanded Moses. 
The officers over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, came forward to Moses. 
They said to Moses, “Your servants have counted the men of war under our charge, and not one man of us is missing. 
So we have brought the LORD’s offering, what each man found: gold objects, armlets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and other ornaments, to make atonement for our lives before the LORD.” 
Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from them, all the crafted objects. 
All the gold of the raised offering that they presented to the LORD, from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, weighed about four hundred twenty pounds. 
The army men had taken plunder, each for himself. 
Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and brought it to the Tent of Meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD. 
