Numbers 31:13-24

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

14 Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.

15 “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them.

16 “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the LORD in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the LORD’s people.

17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,

18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

19 “Anyone who has killed someone or touched someone who was killed must stay outside the camp seven days. On the third and seventh days you must purify yourselves and your captives.

20 Purify every garment as well as everything made of leather, goat hair or wood.”

21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, “This is what is required by the law that the LORD gave Moses:

22 Gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, lead

23 and anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean. But it must also be purified with the water of cleansing. And whatever cannot withstand fire must be put through that water.

24 On the seventh day wash your clothes and you will be clean. Then you may come into the camp.”

Numbers 31:13-24 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 31

This chapter contains an order to make war upon Midian, which was accordingly done, Nu 31:1-12, but Moses was wroth, because they saved the women alive, who, through the counsel of Balaam, had been the cause of sin, and of the plague for it in Israel, and therefore orders them, and the male children, to be slain, Nu 31:13-18, and then directs to the purification of the soldiers, their captives and spoil, Nu 31:19-24, and by the command of God an account is taken of the prey, and a division of it made between the soldiers and the congregation, and out of each part a tribute is levied for the Lord, Nu 31:25-31 and the sum of the whole booty is given, Nu 31:32-35 and of the part which belonged to the soldiers, and of the tribute given to the Lord, Nu 31:36-41 and of the part which belonged to the children of Israel, Nu 31:42-47 and besides the above tribute to the Lord, the officers made a voluntary oblation out of their spoil, both by way of gratitude for sparing their lives, and to make atonement for their souls, Nu 31:48-54.

Cross References

• 1. ver 48; Exodus 18:21; Deuteronomy 1:15; 2 Samuel 18:1
• 2. S Numbers 22:5; S Numbers 24:14; S 2 Peter 2:15; Revelation 2:14
• 3. S Numbers 23:28; Numbers 25:1-9
• 4. S Numbers 14:37
• 5. Deuteronomy 7:2; Deuteronomy 20:16-18; Judges 21:11
• 6. Numbers 19:16
• 7. S Leviticus 21:1
• 8. Numbers 19:12
• 9. Numbers 19:19
• 10. S Leviticus 11:32
• 11. S ver 5
• 12. Joshua 6:19; Joshua 22:8
• 13. S 1 Corinthians 3:13
• 14. S Numbers 8:7; Numbers 19:9,17
• 15. S Leviticus 11:25
• 16. S Leviticus 14:8