31 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Avenge the children of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.”

³ Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for war, that they may go against Midian, to execute Yahweh’s vengeance on Midian. ⁴ You shall send one thousand out of every tribe, throughout all the tribes of Israel, to the war.” ⁵ So there were delivered, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. ⁶ Moses sent them, one thousand of every tribe, to the war with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand. ⁷ They fought against Midian, as Yahweh commanded Moses. They killed every male. ⁸ They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. ⁹ The children of Israel took the women of Midian captive with their little ones; and all their livestock, all their flocks, and all their goods, they took as plunder. ¹⁰ All their cities in the places in which they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire. ¹¹ They took all the captives, and all the plunder, both of man and of animal. ¹² They brought the captives with the prey and the plunder, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho. ¹³ Moses and Eleazar the priest, with all the princes of the congregation, went out to meet them outside of the camp.