Numbers 31:15

15 And Moses said to them, Why have you kept all the women safe?

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 Then Moses and Eleazar the priest and the chiefs of the people went out to them before they had come into the tent-circle.

14 And Moses was angry with the chiefs of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds who had come back from the war.

15 And Moses said to them, Why have you kept all the women safe?

16 It was these who, moved by Balaam, were the cause of Israel's sin against the Lord in the question of Peor, because of which disease came on the people of the Lord.

17 So now put every male child to death, and every woman who has had sex relations with a man.