Numbers 31:49

49 and they said to Moses, "Your servants have {taken count} of the men of war who [were] {in our charge}, and no man is missing from us.

Numbers 31:49 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 31:49

And they said unto Moses
Gave the following relation to him, which is a very surprising one: thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which are under our
charge;
since the war with Midian was over, they had mustered the several companies under their command, such as had thousands, and those that had hundreds: and there lacketh not one man of us;
which is a most amazing and unheard of thing, that in waging war with a whole nation, slaying all their males, sacking and burning so many cities, plundering the inhabitants of their substance, taking and carrying off such a vast number of captives, yet not one should fall by the sword of the enemy, or by any disease or accident whatever, but all to a man should return to the camp of Israel again; this is not to be paralleled in any history.

Numbers 31:49 In-Context

47 From the half that belonged to the {Israelites}, Moses took one share drawn by lot out of every fifty humans and domestic animals, and he gave them to the Levites, who keep the responsibility of the tabernacle of Yahweh, just as Yahweh commanded Moses.

48 Then the leaders of the thousands of the army, the commanders of the thousands and the commanders of the hundreds, approached Moses,

49 and they said to Moses, "Your servants have {taken count} of the men of war who [were] {in our charge}, and no man is missing from us.

50 So we brought the offering of Yahweh, what each man found, objects of gold, bangles, bracelets, rings, earrings, and female ornaments, to make atonement for ourselves {before} Yahweh."

51 Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all objects of work.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "lifted up the head"
• [b]. Literally "in our hand"