Numbers 31:25-47

GOD’S WORD Translation

²⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁶ “You, the priest Eleazar, and the heads of the families of the community need to count all the loot, including the people and animals you captured. ²⁷ Divide the loot between the soldiers who served in the war and the rest of the community. ²⁸ Collect a tax for the Lord. From the soldiers who served in the war collect one out of every 500 things. This includes people, cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats. ²⁹ Collect all these things from the soldiers’ half of the loot, and give them to the priest Eleazar as a contribution to the Lord. ³⁰ From the Israelites’ half of the loot, collect one out of every 50 things. This includes people, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, and every other kind of animal. Give them to the Levites who are in charge of the work done at the Lord’s tent.” ³¹ Moses and the priest Eleazar did as the Lord commanded Moses.

³² This is the loot that was left from everything that the troops took: 675,000 sheep and goats, ³³ 72,000 cattle, ³⁴ 61,000 donkeys, and ³⁵ 32,000 women who had never gone to bed with a man.

³⁶ Half of it went to the soldiers who served in the war. Of the 337,500 sheep and goats they received, ³⁷ 675 went to the Lord as taxes. ³⁸ Of the 36,000 cattle they received, 72 went to the Lord as taxes. ³⁹ Of the 30,500 donkeys they received, 61 went to the Lord as taxes. ⁴⁰ Of the 16,000 people they received, 32 went to the Lord as taxes.

⁴¹ Moses gave the Lord’s taxes to the priest Eleazar, as the Lord had commanded him.

⁴² Moses took the Israelites’ half of the loot from the soldiers. ⁴³ The community received 337,500 sheep and goats, ⁴⁴ 36,000 cattle, ⁴⁵ 30,500 donkeys, ⁴⁶ and 16,000 people.

⁴⁷ From the Israelites’ half Moses collected one out of every 50 things, including people and animals, as the Lord commanded him. Then he gave all this to the Levites who were in charge of the work done at the Lord’s tent.