Numbers 31:17

17 Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has ever slept with a man.

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 Moshe asked them, "You let the women live?

16 Why, these are the ones who - because of Bil'am's advice -caused the people of Isra'el to rebel, breaking faith with ADONAI in the P'or incident, so that the plague broke out among ADONAI's community!

17 Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has ever slept with a man.

18 But the young girls who have never slept with a man, keep alive for yourselves.

19 Pitch your tents outside the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed a person or touched the corpse of someone slain, purify yourselves on the third and seventh days, you and your captives.