Bamidbar 31:3

3 And Moshe spoke unto HaAm, saying, Arm some of your anashim unto war, let them go against Midyan, and avenge Hashem of Midyan.

Bamidbar 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.

Bamidbar 31:3 In-Context

1 1 And Hashem spoke unto Moshe, saying,

2 Avenge the Bnei Yisroel of the Midyanim; afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.

3 And Moshe spoke unto HaAm, saying, Arm some of your anashim unto war, let them go against Midyan, and avenge Hashem of Midyan.

4 Of every matteh a thousand, throughout kol mattot Yisroel, shall ye send to war.

5 So there were supplied out of the thousands of Yisroel, an elef (a thousand) of every matteh, sheneym asar elef armed for war.