Numbers 31:1-12

Complete Jewish Bible

31 (LY: ii) Adonai said to Moshe, ² “On behalf of the people of Isra’el, take vengeance on the Midyanim. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”

³ Moshe said to the people, “Equip men from among yourselves for war. They are to go and fight Midyan, in order to carry out Adonai’s vengeance on Midyan. ⁴ You are to send to the war a thousand men from every one of Isra’el’s tribes.” ⁵ So out of the thousands of people in Isra’el, a thousand armed men from each tribe, 12,000 altogether, were mustered for war. ⁶ Moshe sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the war; he sent them and Pinchas the son of El‘azar the cohen to the war, with the holy utensils and the trumpets for sounding the alarm in his care.

⁷ They fought against Midyan, as Adonai had ordered Moshe, and killed every male. ⁸ They killed the kings of Midyan along with the others who were slain — Evi, Rekem, Tzur, Hur and Reva, the five kings of Midyan. They also killed Bil‘am the son of B‘or with the sword. ⁹ The people of Isra’el took captive the women of Midyan and their little ones, and they took as booty all their cattle, flocks and other goods. ¹⁰ They set fire to all their cities in the areas where they lived and all their camps. ¹¹ They took all the booty, all the people and animals they had captured, ¹² and brought the captives, booty and spoil to Moshe, El‘azar the cohen and the community of Isra’el in the camp on the plains of Mo’av by the Yarden across from Yericho.