Numbers 31:15

15 "Have^[a] you let every female live?" he asked them.

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 community went to meet them outside the camp.

14 But Moses became furious with the officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, who were returning from the military campaign.

15 "Have you let every female live?" he asked them.

16 "Yet they are the ones who, at Balaam's advice, incited the Israelites to unfaithfulness against the Lord in the Peor incident, so that the plague came against the Lord's community.

17 So now, kill all the male children and kill every woman who has had sexual relations with a man,

Footnotes

• [a]. Sam, LXX, Syr, Vg read Why have