Numbers 31:18

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

Numbers 31:18 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 31:18

But all the women children
The females among the little ones:

that have not known a man by lying with him;
which might be pretty clear, and easily concluded, from their age:

keep for yourselves;
either to be handmaids to them, or to be married among them when grown up, and become proselytes, and initiated into their religion.

Numbers 31:18 In-Context

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.

20 You will purify yourselves and every garment and every object of hide and all the work of goats' hair, and every object of wood."

Footnotes

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