Numbers 31:17

17 Now kill every male among the little children, and kill every woman who has {had sexual intercourse 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 And Moses said to them, "You have kept alive every female?

16 Behold, these women {caused} the {Israelites}, by the word of Balaam, to be in apostasy against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, so that the plague was among the community of Yahweh.

17 Now kill every male among the little children, and kill every woman who has {had sexual intercourse with a man}.

18 But all the females who have not {had sexual intercourse with a man}, keep alive for yourselves.

19 And you, camp outside the camp seven days; all who killed a person and all who touched the slain purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "who has known the bed of a male"