Numbers 31:1-8

Christian Standard Bible

War with Midian

31 The Lord spoke to Moses, ² “Execute vengeance for the Israelites against the Midianites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”^(A)

³ So Moses spoke to the people, “Equip some of your men for war. They will go against Midian to inflict the Lord’s vengeance^(B) on them. ⁴ Send one thousand men to war from each Israelite tribe.” ⁵ So one thousand were recruited from each Israelite tribe out of the thousands^[a] in Israel—twelve thousand equipped for war. ⁶ Moses sent one thousand from each tribe to war. They went with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, in whose care were the holy objects and signal trumpets.

⁷ They waged war against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and killed every male.^{(C) 8} Along with the others slain by them, they killed the Midianite kings—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian.^(D) They also killed Balaam son of Beor^(E) with the sword.