Numbers 31:1-24

New Catholic Bible

Chapter 31

Israel Battles the Midianites.^{[a] 1} The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Take vengeance upon the Midianites for the people of Israel. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”

³ Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm some of your men for war so that they might go out against the Midianites to execute the Lord’s vengeance upon Midian. ⁴ Send a thousand men to war from each of the tribes of Israel.”

⁵ So they set aside a thousand from each tribe of Israel, twelve thousand armed for battle. ⁶ Moses sent them out to battle, a thousand from each tribe, along with Eleazar the priest. He took the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hands. ⁷ They battled against the Midianites, as the Lord had commanded Moses, killing all of the males. ⁸ They killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian, along with the others they killed. They also killed Balaam, the son of Beor, with the sword.

⁹ The people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones and all their cattle and all their flocks and all their goods. ¹⁰ They also burned down all the cities in which they dwelt and all their fortresses. ¹¹ They took all the booty and all the spoils, both of man and beast ¹² and brought the captives, the spoils, and the booty to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the assembly of the people of Israel at the camp on the plain of Moab which is near the Jordan, across from Jericho.

¹³ Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the assembly met them outside of the camp. ¹⁴ Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of the thousands and the captains of the hundreds, who had returned from battle. ¹⁵ Moses said to them, “Have you spared all the women? ¹⁶ These are the ones who caused the people of Israel to follow the advice of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the affair of Peor, causing a plague among the assembly of the Lord. ¹⁷ Now kill every boy and kill every woman who has slept with a man, ¹⁸ but save the girls for yourselves who have not yet slept with a man.

¹⁹ Purification after Battle.^[b]“Any of you who has killed a person and anyone who has touched any of those who have been killed must stay outside of the camp for seven days. You are to purify yourself and your captives on the third and the seventh days. ²⁰ Purify all of your clothes as well as all of your leather goods and everything made from goat hair and everything made from wood.”

²¹ Then Eleazar said to the men of war who had gone into battle: “This is a statute of the law which the Lord has commanded Moses: ²² gold, silver, brass, iron, tin, lead, ²³ and anything else that can withstand fire will be pure if you pass it through fire. However, it must also be purified with the water of purification. Whatever cannot withstand fire must pass through water. ²⁴ You will wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you will be pure, and you can then enter the camp.”