UST NUM Chapter 31

◄ NUM 31 ► ║ ═ ©

31 Yahweh told Moses, 2 “Have the Israelites punish the Midianites for what they did to you all. Then, you will die and be with your ancestors who have already died.”

3 So Moses told the Israelites, “Some of you men must prepare yourselves to fight. You will fight against the Midianites, and Yahweh will use you to punish them. 4 Each Israelite tribe must have 1,000 men go to fight the Midianites.” 5 So, out of the many Israelite men, 1,000 men from each tribe prepared themselves to fight the Midianites. There were 12,000 men in all. 6 Then, Moses had them go to fight the Midianites. One thousand men from each tribe went, and Eleazar’s son Phinehas, the priest, went with them. Eleazar took with him some of the equipment for the sacred tent and the trumpets that they would sound in a special way to communicate. 7 The Israelites did what Yahweh told Moses to do. They attacked the Midianites. They killed all the adult Midianite men. 8 In addition to the soldiers they killed, the Israelites also killed the five men who ruled the Midianites: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. They also killed Beor’s son, Balaam. 9 The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children. They took away all the farm animals and valuable things that belonged to the Midianites. 10 They burned down all the towns and settlements where the Midianites lived. 11 They collected everything that they had captured, including the people and the farm animals. 12 They took the prisoners and everything that they had captured to where the Israelites had set up their tents. That was in the flatlands that were part of Moab, on the east side of the Jordan River, across from Jericho. They presented all those things to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the rest of the Israelite community.

13 Now Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the men who led the Israelite community had walked outside the area where the Israelites set up their tents to welcome the soldiers. 14 Moses became angry with some of the soldiers who had returned from fighting the Midianites. Specifically, he became angry with the commanders over groups of 1,000 and 100 soldiers. 15 He told them, “You should not have allowed all the Midianite women to live! 16 Remember, these are the women who did to us Israelites what Balaam said. Many of us stopped being loyal to Yahweh when they convinced them to worship the god Baal whom people worship at Peor. Because of that, many people in our community that worships Yahweh became sick with a terrible disease. 17 So, you must kill every boy and every woman who has had sex with a man. 18 However, you must allow every girl who has not had sex with a man to live among you. 19 As for you all, you must stay outside the area where the Israelites set up their tents for seven days. Every one of you who has killed someone or who has touched a corpse must cleanse himself or herself two days and six days after it happened. That applies both to you and to your prisoners. 20 You must also cleanse each piece of clothing and every item that people made out of animal skin, goat hair, or wood.”

21 Then Eleazar the priest told the soldiers who had returned from fighting the Midianites, “Here is a rule from the instructions that Yahweh gave to Moses. 22 As for anything that people made out of gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead, 23 those things will not burn up. So, you must put them in a fire and also cleanse them using the water and ashes that make things pure. Then they will become pure. As for things that will burn up, you must put them in that special water to cleanse them. 24 On the sixth day after you became impure, you must wash your clothes. Then, you will become pure. After that, you can return to the area where the Israelites set up their tents.”

25 Then Yahweh told Moses, 26 “You, Eleazar the priest, and the men who lead the ancestral families that make up the Israelite community must count everything that you have captured, including the people and the farm animals. 27 Then, you must give half of what you captured to the soldiers who fought against the Midianites. You must give the other half to the rest of the Israelite community. 28 You must require the soldiers who fought against the Midianites to give me one out of every 500 people, oxen, donkeys, and sheep and goats that they received. 29 You must transfer to Eleazar the priest what the soldiers give to me from what they received. 30 Also, you must transfer to the Levites one out of every 50 people and animals, including oxen, donkeys, and sheep and goats, that the rest of the Israelites received. The Levites guard the sacred tent.” 31 Moses and Eleazar the priest did exactly what Yahweh told Moses to do.

32 Here is a record of how many people and animals the soldiers captured. They captured 675,000 sheep and goats. 33 They captured 72,000 oxen. 34 They captured 61,000 donkeys. 35 They captured 32,000 women who had not had sex with a man. 36 The soldiers who had fought against the Midianites received one out of every two people and animals. They received 337,500 sheep and goats. 37 They gave 675 of those sheep and goats to Yahweh. 38 They received 36,000 oxen. They gave 72 of those oxen to Yahweh. 39 They received 30,500 donkeys. They gave 61 of those donkeys to Yahweh. 40 They received 16,000 people. They gave 32 of those people to Yahweh. 41 Then Moses transferred to Eleazar the priest what the soldiers gave to Yahweh. He did what Yahweh told him to do.

42 Then Moses gave the other one out of every two people and animals to the rest of the Israelites. 43 So, the Israelite community received 337,500 sheep and goats. 44 They received 36,000 oxen. 45 They received 30,500 donkeys. 46 They received 16,000 people. 47 Then Moses transferred to the Levites one out of every 50 people and animals that the rest of the Israelites received. The Levites guarded the sacred tent. Moses did what Yahweh told him to do

48 Then some of the soldiers, specifically the commanders over groups of 1,000 and 100 soldiers, approached Moses. 49 They told him, “We who serve you have counted the soldiers whom we commanded when we fought against the Midianites. All of them returned safely. 50 So, each of us is presenting to Yahweh the golden jewelry that we collected. That includes arm bands, wrist bands, rings, decorations for ears, and necklaces. By doing that, we will ransom ourselves from Yahweh, who kept us safe.” 51 So Moses and Eleazar the priest received from them those items that people had made out of gold. 52 Moses and Eleazar received all those gold items from the commanders over groups of 1,000 and 100 soldiers and dedicated them to Yahweh. All together, those items weighed about 184 kilograms. 53 Those items came from what each of the soldiers had taken for himself. 54 When Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold items from the commanders over groups of 1,000 and 100 soldiers, they put them in the sacred tent. That way, Yahweh would think about the Israelites.

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