The Israelis attacked the Midian people-group

31 Yahweh spoke to Moses/me and said, 2 “Before you die, tell the Israeli people that they should ◄pay back/get revenge on► the Midian people-group for what they did to you.”

3 So Moses/I said to the people, “Get some men prepared for battle. Yahweh will enable them to ◄pay back/get revenge on► the Midian people-group for what they did to us. 4 Select 1,000 men from each tribe to fight.” 5 So 12,000 men prepared for fighting in the battle, 1,000 from each tribe. 6 When Moses/I sent them to the battle, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, went with them. He took with him some of the things from the Sacred Tent and the trumpets that would be blown to give the signal to start the battle.

7 The Israeli men fought the soldiers from the Midian people-group, as Yahweh had told Moses/me to tell them to do, and they killed every man from the Midian people-group. 8 Among those whom they killed were the five kings of the Midian people-group—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. They also killed with a sword Balaam, the son of Beor. 9 They captured all the women and children of the Midian people-group and took away their cattle, their flocks of sheep, and herds of goats, and all their other possessions. 10 Then they burned down all the houses in the towns and villages where the people of the Midian people-group lived, 11 but they took home with them all the women and children and animals and possessions. 12 They brought all these to Eliezer and Moses/me, and to the rest of the Israeli people who were at their/our camp on the plains where the Moab people-group lived, near the Jordan River, across from Jericho. 13 Eleazar and all the leaders of the people and Moses/I went outside the camp to greet/meet with them.

14 But Moses/I was angry with some of the men who had returned from the battle. He/I was angry with the army officers and the men who were commanders of 1,000 men and those who were commanders of 100 men. 15 He/I asked them, “Why did you allow the women to live [RHQ]? 16 They are the ones who did what Balaam suggested and urged/persuaded our people to worship Baal instead of Yahweh. As a result, Yahweh caused a plague to strike his people while they were at Peor. 17 So, now you must kill all the boys of the Midian people-group, and also kill all the women who have had sex [EUP] with any man. 18 Spare only the girls who are virgins [EUP]. You can keep them to be your wives or your slaves.

19 All of you who have killed someone or touched the corpse of someone who was killed in the battle must stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and on the seventh day, you must perform the ritual to cause you and those whom you have captured to become acceptable to God again. 20 You must also wash your clothes and anything that you took to the battle that is made of leather or goat’s hair or wood.”

21 Then Eleazar said to the soldiers who had returned from the battle, “This is what Yahweh has instructed Moses: 22 You must put into a fire any gold or silver or bronze or iron or tin or lead things that you brought back from the battle. 23 Put everything that will not burn into the fire, and then they will be acceptable for you to use. But also sprinkle those things with the water that causes things and people to become acceptable to God. The things that would burn if you put them in a fire, sprinkle them with that water. 24 On the seventh day, wash your clothes, and then you will become acceptable to God again. After you do that, you may return to the camp.”