Numbers 31:3

3 So Moses said to the people, "Arm some of your number for the war, so that they may go against Midian, to execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian.

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 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

2 "Avenge the Israelites on the Midianites; afterward you shall be gathered to your people."

3 So Moses said to the people, "Arm some of your number for the war, so that they may go against Midian, to execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian.

4 You shall send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war."

5 So out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe were conscripted, twelve thousand armed for battle.