Numbers 31-32 (Amplified Bible)

Numbers 31

 ¹THE LORD said to Moses,

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

    ³And Moses said to the people, Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian and execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian [for seducing Israel].^(A)

    ⁴From each of the tribes of Israel you shall send 1,000 to the war.

    ⁵So there were provided out of the thousands of Israel 1,000 from each tribe, 12,000 armed for war.

    ⁶And Moses sent them to the war, 1,000 from each tribe, together with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, with the [sacred] vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets to blow the alarm in his hand.

    ⁷They fought with Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and slew every male,

    ⁸Including the five kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba; also Balaam son of Beor they slew with the sword.^(B)

    ⁹And the Israelites took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and all their cattle, their flocks, and their goods as booty.

    ¹⁰They burned all the cities in which they dwelt, and all their encampments.

    ¹¹And they took all the spoil and all the prey, both of man and of beast.

    ¹²Then they brought the captives, the prey, and the spoil to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the Israelites at the camp on the plains of Moab by Jordan at Jericho.

    ¹³Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the princes or leaders of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp.

    ¹⁴But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, who served in the war.

    ¹⁵And Moses said to them, Have you let all the women live?

    ¹⁶Behold, these caused the Israelites by the counsel of Balaam to trespass and act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and so a [smiting] plague came among the congregation of the Lord.^(C)

    ¹⁷Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who is not a virgin.

    ¹⁸But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.

    ¹⁹Encamp outside the camp seven days; whoever has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day.

    ²⁰You shall purify every garment, all that is made of skins, all work of goats' hair, and every article of wood.

    ²¹And Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded Moses:

    ²²Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

    ²³Everything that can stand fire, you shall make go through fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless it shall also be purified with the water of impurity; and all that cannot stand fire [such as fabrics] you shall pass through water.

    ²⁴And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and you shall be clean; then you shall come into the camp.

    ²⁵And the Lord said to Moses,

    ²⁶Take the count of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers' houses of the congregation.

    ²⁷Divide the booty into two [equal] parts between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation.

    ²⁸And levy a tribute to the Lord from the warriors who went to battle, one out of every 500 of the persons, the oxen, the donkeys, and the flocks.

    ²⁹Take [this tribute] from the warriors' half and give it to Eleazar the priest as an offering to the Lord.

    ³⁰And from the Israelites' half [of the booty] you shall take one out of every fifty of the persons, the oxen, the donkeys, the flocks, and of all livestock, and give them to the Levites who have charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.

    ³¹And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses.

    ³²The prey, besides the booty which the men of war took, was 675,000 sheep,

    ³³And 72,000 cattle,

    ³⁴And 61,000 donkeys,

    ³⁵And 32,000 persons in all, of the women who were virgins.

    ³⁶And the half share, the portion of those who went to war, was: 337,500 sheep,

    ³⁷And the Lord's tribute of the sheep was 675;

    ³⁸The cattle were 36,000, of which the Lord's tribute was 72;

    ³⁹The donkeys were 30,500, of which the Lord's tribute was 61;

    ⁴⁰The persons were 16,000, of whom the Lord's tribute was 32 persons.

    ⁴¹And Moses gave the tribute which was the Lord's offering to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses.

    ⁴²And the Israelites' half Moses separated from that of the warriors'--

    ⁴³Now the congregation's half was 337,500 sheep,

    ⁴⁴And 36,000 cattle,

    ⁴⁵And 30,500 donkeys,

    ⁴⁶And 16,000 persons--

    ⁴⁷Even of the Israelites' half, Moses took one of every 50, both of persons and of beasts, and gave them to the Levites, who had charge of the tabernacle of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.

    ⁴⁸And the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and hundreds, came to Moses.

    ⁴⁹They told [him], Your servants have counted the warriors under our command, and not one man of us is missing.

    ⁵⁰We have brought as the Lord's offering what each man obtained--articles of gold, armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, neck ornaments--to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.

    ⁵¹Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all the wrought articles.

    ⁵²And all the gold of the offering that they offered to the Lord from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds was 16,750 shekels.

    ⁵³For the men of war had taken booty, every man for himself.

    ⁵⁴And Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and brought it into the Tent of Meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord.

   

Numbers 32

 ¹NOW THE sons of Reuben and of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle, and they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead [on the east side of the Jordan], and behold, the place was suitable for cattle.

    ²So the sons of Gad and of Reuben came and said to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the congregation,

    ³[The country around] Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,

    ⁴The land the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and your servants have cattle.

    ⁵And they said, If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.

    ⁶And Moses said to the sons of Gad and of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here?

    ⁷Why do you discourage the hearts of the Israelites from going over into the land which the Lord has given them?

    ⁸Thus your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land!

    ⁹For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the hearts of the Israelites from going into the land the Lord had given them.

    ¹⁰And the Lord's anger was kindled on that day and He swore, saying,

    ¹¹Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me--

    ¹²Except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.

    ¹³And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel and He made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed.

    ¹⁴And behold, you are risen up in your fathers' stead, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel.

    ¹⁵For if you turn from following Him, He will again abandon them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.

    ¹⁶But they came near to him and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our flocks and walled settlements for our little ones.

    ¹⁷But we will be armed and ready to go before the Israelites until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones shall dwell in the fortified settlements because of the people of the land.

    ¹⁸We will not return to our homes until the Israelites have inherited every man his inheritance.

    ¹⁹For we will not inherit with them on the [west] side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.

    ²⁰Moses replied, If you will do as you say, going armed before the Lord to war,

    ²¹And every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies before Him

    ²²And the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you shall return and be guiltless [in this matter] before the Lord and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord.

    ²³But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out.

    ²⁴Build settlements for your little ones, and folds for your sheep, and do that of which you have spoken.

    ²⁵And the sons of Gad and of Reuben said to Moses, Your servants will do as my lord commands.

    ²⁶Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle shall be there in the cities of Gilead.

    ²⁷But your servants will pass over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to battle, as my lord says.

    ²⁸So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun and the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of Israel.

    ²⁹And Moses said to them, If the sons of Gad and Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man armed to battle before the Lord, and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession.

    ³⁰But if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.

    ³¹The sons of Gad and Reuben answered, As the Lord has said to your servants, so will we do.

    ³²We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side of the Jordan may be ours.

    ³³Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad and of Reuben and to half the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan--the land with its cities and their territories, even the cities round about the country.

    ³⁴And the sons of Gad built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,

    ³⁵Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah,

    ³⁶Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran, fortified cities, and folds for sheep.

    ³⁷And the sons of Reuben built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,

    ³⁸Nebo, and Baal-meon--their names were to be changed--and Shibmah; and they gave other names to the cities they built.

    ³⁹And the sons of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it.

    ⁴⁰And Moses gave Gilead to Machir son of Manasseh, and he settled in it.

    ⁴¹Jair son of Manasseh took their villages and called them Havvoth-jair.

    ⁴²And Nobah took Kenath and its villages and called it Nobah after his own name.