Numbers 31:15

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

Numbers 31:15 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 31:15

And Moses said unto them, have ye saved all the women alive?
] Which either had been reported to him, or he concluded, by seeing so many with them; and this question is put, not for information, but by way of reproof, and as chiding them for what they had done; for they might have received orders from him to put them to death, when he sent them out; and if so, there was the more reason to be angry with them; or he might conclude they would have done this of themselves, knowing what instruments of mischief these women had been to Israel.

Numbers 31:15 In-Context

13 Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp.

14 Moses became angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.

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

16 These women here, on Balaam's advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the Lord in the affair of Peor, so that the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.

17 Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by sleeping with him.