Numbers 31:3

3 And Moses spoke unto the people, saying, "Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites and avenge the LORD 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 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,

2 "Avenge the children of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people."

3 And Moses spoke unto the people, saying, "Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites and avenge the LORD on Midian.

4 From every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war."

5 So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.