Numbers 31 Introduction

Structure and Formatting

4. At the plains of Moab (22:1–36:13) * Battle with Midian, cleansing, and plunder (31:1–54) In this chapter, the Israelites attack and defeat the Midianites (31:1–12). When the soldiers return, Moses and Eleazar give them commands about how they and their plunder should be purified (31:13–24). After that, Yahweh gives Moses instructions about how to divide the plunder among the soldiers, the rest of the Israelites, the priests, and the Levites, which Moses follows (31:25–47). Finally, the commanders of the army offer a special gift to Yahweh because none of the Israelite soldiers died (31:48–54).

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

War for Yahweh

When the Israelites fought wars that Yahweh commanded them to fight, they sometimes killed all the men of the people they were fighting. That is what they do when they defeat the Midianites in this chapter. While God does not give explicit instructions, Moses also requires the Israelites to kill the boys and the women who have had sex. These actions are very violent, and scholars interpret the meaning in different ways. It is recommended that translations simply represent the violence.

Purity and impurity

This chapter refers back to concepts that were important in Numbers 19. Those concepts include impurity because of dead bodies and the special water that the Israelites could use to cleanse this impurity. In this chapter, the soldiers, captives, and plunder are impure. The the people must be cleansed by washing with the special water as they wait outside the camp for seven days. The plunder must be cleansed by the special water and, in some cases, by fire. Once everything is cleansed, the people and plunder may enter the Israelite camp. (See: purify and defile)

The levy for Yahweh and the Levites

This chapter refers to a “levy” from the plunder that the Israelites needed to pay to Yahweh and to the Levites. Moses first divided the plunder in half. One half was for the soldiers who had fought in the battle. From this half, they had to give one out of every 500 people and animals to Yahweh as the “levy.” Yahweh then granted this levy to Eleazar and the rest of the priests. From the other half that belonged to the rest of the Israelites, they had to give one out of every 50 people and animals to the Levites. Some translations refer to this “levy” as a tax or a tribute. Consider how you might refer to the levy in your language.

Translation Issues in This Chapter

Balaam

This chapter refers to the same Balaam from Numbers 22–24. The Israelites killed him when they attacked the Midianites (see [31:8](../31/08.md)). Later in the chapter [31:16](../31/16.md), Moses indicates that Balaam was the one who told the Midianites to convince the Israelites to worship Baal of Peor, which is narrated in [Numbers 25](../25/01.md). Consider how you can make it clear to your readers that this chapter refers to the same Balaam from Numbers 22–24 and the same event from Numbers 25.

Hyperbole

In this chapter, the narrator speaks as if the Israelites had completely destroyed all the Midianite men and cities and had taken every single thing that the Midianites owned. However, it is clear from later stories that many Midianites were not killed (for example, see the story in [Judges 6](../../jdg/06/01.md)). The narrator may be using hyperbole to indicate that the Israelites defeated and killed many Midianites. Or, the narrator may mean that the Israelites defeated and killed all the men in specific group of Midianites. It is recommended that you preserve the strong language in your translation, but you could include a footnote explaining what the extreme language may mean.

Large numbers

There are many large numbers in this chapter, including many over 10,000. Consider how you would express large numbers in your language and use that form consistently in this chapter. See how you translated the large numbers in [chapter 1](../01/01.md).