Numbers 31:3

3 And Moses spake vnto the folke sayenge: Harnesse some of you vnto warre and let them goo apon the Madianites and auenge the Lorde of the Madianitis.

Numbers 31:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 31:3

And Moses spake unto the people, saying
In obedience to the divine command; this must be supposed to be spoken to the heads or princes of the tribes:

arm some of yourselves unto the war:
not the whole body of the militia, 600,000 men and upwards, only some of them, and these choice and select men; and, according to the Jewish writers, good men, who, detesting the sins of lewdness and idolatry, would more strictly and severely avenge themselves on the Midianites for drawing their brethren into those sins, whereby they fell; and so Jarchi calls them righteous men:

[and] let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of
Midian:
what the Lord calls the vengeance of the Israelites, Moses calls the vengeance of the Lord, because they were the Lord's people, and his cause and theirs the same: and because the sins they were drawn into by the Midianites were not only against themselves, and to their prejudice, but against the Lord and to the dishonour of his name.

Numbers 31:3 In-Context

1 And the Lorde spake vnto Moses sayenge:

2 auenge the childern of Israel of the Madianites and afterwarde be gathered vnto thy people.

3 And Moses spake vnto the folke sayenge: Harnesse some of you vnto warre and let them goo apon the Madianites and auenge the Lorde of the Madianitis.

4 Ye shall sende vnto the warre a thousande of euery trybe thorow out all the trybes of Israel.

5 And there were taken oute of the thousandes of Israel .xij. thousande prepared vnto warre of euery trybe a thousande.