Numbers 31:13-24

Complete Jewish Bible

(RY: ii, LY: iii) ¹³ Moshe, El‘azar the cohen and all the community leaders went to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴ But Moshe was angry with the army officers, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds coming in from the battlefield. ¹⁵ Moshe asked them, “You let the women live? ¹⁶ Why, these are the ones who — because of Bil‘am’s advice — caused the people of Isra’el to rebel, breaking faith with Adonai in the P‘or incident, so that the plague broke out among Adonai’s community! ¹⁷ Now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has ever slept with a man. ¹⁸ But the young girls who have never slept with a man, keep alive for yourselves. ¹⁹ Pitch your tents outside the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed a person or touched the corpse of someone slain, purify yourselves on the third and seventh days, you and your captives. ²⁰ Also purify every garment, whether of skin or goat’s hair, and everything made of wood.”

²¹ El‘azar the cohen said to the soldiers who had gone to the front, “This is the regulation from the Torah which Adonai has ordered Moshe. ²² Even though gold, silver, brass, iron, tin and lead ²³ can all withstand fire, so that you are indeed to purify everything made of these materials by having them pass through fire; nevertheless they must also be purified with the water for purification. Everything that can’t withstand fire you are to have go through the water. ²⁴ On the seventh day you are to wash your clothes, and you will be clean; after that you may enter the camp.”