Numbers 31:25-47

Evangelical Heritage Version

Dividing the Plunder

²⁵ The Lord spoke to Moses: ²⁶ “You, Eleazar the priest, and the leading fathers^[a] of the community are to count the spoils of war—the captives, both people and animals— ²⁷ and divide the spoils of war into two equal parts: one part for the troops who went out for combat and one for all the rest of the community. ²⁸ Raise a tribute to the Lord to be given by the fighting men who went out for battle. Take one out of every five hundred from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the flocks. ²⁹ Take it from the fighting men’s half, and give it to Eleazar the priest as an elevated offering^[b] to the Lord. ³⁰ Also from the Israelites’ half, you will take one out of every fifty from the people, the cattle, the donkeys, the flocks, and all the animals, and give them to the Levites, who attend to the duties at the Lord’s Dwelling.”

³¹ Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses. ³² Now the spoils of war remaining from the plunder that the army took was 675,000 animals from the flocks, ³³ 72,000 cattle, ³⁴ 61,000 donkeys, ³⁵ and 32,000 people in all, that is, the women who had not had sexual relations with a man.

³⁶ The half share for those who went out into combat numbered 337,500 animals from the flocks, ³⁷ and the tribute for the Lord from the flocks was 675. ³⁸ The cattle numbered 36,000; the tribute for the Lord was 72. ³⁹ The donkeys numbered 30,500; the tribute for the Lord was 61. ⁴⁰ The people numbered 16,000; the tribute for the Lord was 32 people. ⁴¹ Moses gave the tribute, the elevated offering to the Lord, to Eleazar the priest as the Lord commanded Moses.

⁴² From the Israelites’ half, which Moses set aside from the share of the men who fought, ⁴³ the community’s half share was 337,500 animals from the flocks, ⁴⁴ 36,000 cattle, ⁴⁵ 30,500 donkeys, ⁴⁶ and 16,000 people. ⁴⁷ From the Israelites’ half share Moses took one out of every fifty from the people and the animals and gave them to the Levites, who attended to the duties at the Lord’s Dwelling, as the Lord commanded Moses.