13 Mosheh and the priest Eleazar and all the Israeli leaders left the camp to meet them, 14 but Mosheh was angry at the top army leaders who were coming back from the battle. 15 “Why did you allow all the women to live?” he asked them. 16 “They’re the very ones who did what Bileam (Balaam) suggested to urge the people to be unfaithful to Yahweh at Peor, leading to the plague that struck Yahweh’s people.[ref] 17 So now, kill all the boys plus every woman who’s slept with a man—18 spare only the young, unmarried girls for yourselves.

19 “Then everyone who’s killed someone or touched a dead body must stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third day, you all must purify yourselves, and again on the seventh day but this time including your captives. 20 Also, you all must purify all your clothes, plus anything else made of leather or goats’ hair or wood.”

21 Then the priest Eleazar told the warriors who’d gone to battle, “This is what Yahweh has instructed Mosheh: 22 Only the gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead, 23 must pass through fire to make it ‘clean’. Nevertheless, it must still be purified with the special purifying water, along with anything that wouldn’t handle the fire. 24 On the seventh day, you all must wash your clothes and then you’ll be ‘clean’ and be allowed to reenter the camp.