Numbers 31:17

17 Now kill every male child and every female who has known a man intimately by sleeping with him.

Numbers 31:17 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 31:17

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones
Which they had taken and brought captives, ( Numbers 31:9 )

and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him;
who might be such, at least many of them, who had lain with Israelitish men; and as the adulterers had been put to death, so now the adulteresses; or they were ordered to, be slain, even all of them, lest they should entice the children of Israel to uncleanness, and so to idolatry again: now these were known to be such, either by conjecture at their age, or rather, through the examination of matrons, unless it can be thought, as it is by some, that it was by divine revelation.

Numbers 31:17 In-Context

15 Moses said to them, "Have you let all the women live?

16 These very women, on Balaam's advice, made the Israelites break faith with the LORD in the affair at Peor, so there was a plague among the LORD's community.

17 Now kill every male child and every female who has known a man intimately by sleeping with him.

18 But all the young girls who have not known a man intimately by sleeping with him, spare for yourselves.

19 You will remain outside the camp for seven days. Everyone among you or your captives who has killed a person or touched a corpse must purify themselves on the third and seventh days.