Beginning
Vengeance on the Midianites
31 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Take vengeance against the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”
3 Moses spoke to the people, “Equip some of your men for combat. They will go against Midian to carry out the Lord’s vengeance on Midian. 4 Send one thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel into combat.” 5 So out of all the thousands of Israel, a military unit of a thousand was selected from each tribe—a total of twelve thousand men armed for battle. 6 Moses sent them into combat, one thousand from each tribe. Moses sent them and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, into combat. Things from the sanctuary[a] and the trumpets for signaling were in his hand.
7 They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they killed every male. 8 Along with the others who were slain, they killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. 9 The Israelites took the women of Midian and their children captive. They plundered all their animals, property, and possessions. 10 They burned all their cities where they settled and all their camps. 11 They took all the plunder and all the spoils of war, both people and animals. 12 They brought the captives, the spoils of war, and the plunder to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the Israelite community at the camp on the Plains of Moab, which was by the Jordan across from Jericho.
13 Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the tribal chiefs of the community went out to meet them outside of the camp. 14 Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds—who were coming back from the military campaign.
15 Moses said to them, “Have you allowed every woman to live? 16 Look, following Balaam’s advice, these women were the ones who incited the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, and so the plague came upon the community of the Lord. 17 Now, kill every male among the children, and kill every woman who has had sexual relations with a man. 18 But you may keep alive for yourselves all the young females who have not had sexual relations with a man.
19 “All of you who have killed a person or touched a slain body shall stay outside of the camp for seven days. Purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. 20 Also purify every garment, every leather item, everything made of goat hair, and every item of wood.”
21 Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, “These are the regulations which the Lord has commanded Moses: 22 The gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead 23 (everything that can withstand fire) you must be sure to pass through the fire, and it will be clean. It also is to be purified with the water for removing impurity. Everything that cannot withstand fire, you are to pass through the water. 24 You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you will be clean. After that, you may come into the camp.”
Dividing the Plunder
25 The Lord spoke to Moses: 26 “You, Eleazar the priest, and the leading fathers[b] 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[c] 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.
48 The officers who were over the units of a thousand in the army—the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds—approached Moses. 49 They said to Moses, “Your servants have taken a head count of the fighting men who were under our command, and not one of them is missing. 50 So we have brought as an offering to the Lord the gold items which every man acquired—armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces—to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.”
51 Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from them, all the crafted items. 52 All the gold from the elevated offering that the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds lifted up to the Lord amounted to 16,750 shekels.[d] 53 Each of the soldiers had taken plunder for himself. 54 Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from the commanders of thousands and hundreds and brought it into the Tent of Meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord.
The Transjordan Tribes
32 The descendants of Reuben and Gad had very large flocks and herds of livestock. They saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was ideal for livestock. 2 The descendants of Gad and Reuben came and spoke to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the tribal chiefs of the community. They said, 3 “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon— 4 the land which the Lord struck down before the community of Israel—is an ideal land for livestock. We, your servants, have livestock.” 5 They continued, “If we have found favor in your eyes, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not require us to cross the Jordan.”
6 Moses said to the descendants of Gad and Reuben, “Do you expect your brothers to go into battle while you live here? 7 Why are you disheartening the Israelites from crossing over into the land which the Lord has given to them? 8 Your fathers did that same thing when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. 9 They had gone up as far as the Valley of Eshcol and had seen the land. Then they disheartened the Israelites so that they would not go into the land which the Lord had given them. 10 The Lord’s anger burned on that day, and he swore an oath, 11 ‘Surely none of the men twenty years old and up who came up from Egypt will see the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not followed me completely, 12 except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, because they have followed the Lord completely.’ 13 The Lord’s anger burned against Israel so he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the entire generation that had done evil in the Lord’s sight was gone.”
14 He continued, “See, here you are, a band of sinners standing in your fathers’ place, adding still more to the Lord’s fierce anger against Israel. 15 If you turn away from following him, he will once again leave these people in the wilderness, and you will have destroyed all these people.”
16 They approached him and said, “We will build sheep pens here for our livestock and cities for our children, 17 but we will be quick to arm ourselves to go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their own places. Our children will live in our fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land, 18 but we will not return to our houses until the Israelites have each taken possession of their inheritance. 19 We certainly will not have any claim to an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan, because our inheritance has come to us here on the east side of the Jordan, toward the sunrise.”
20 Moses said to them, “If you will do what you have said, if you will arm yourselves before the Lord for battle, 21 and if every one of you who is armed will cross over the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies before him, 22 and until the land has been subdued before the Lord, then after that you may return home. You will be guiltless toward the Lord and Israel. This land will be a possession for you in the presence of the Lord.
23 “But if you will not do this, look, you will have sinned against the Lord. Know that your sin will find you out. 24 Build cities for your children, and pens for your flocks, but keep the promises that have come out of your mouth.”
25 The descendants of Gad and Reuben spoke to Moses: “We, your servants, will do as my lord commands. 26 Our children, our wives, our livestock, and all our animals will stay here by the cities of Gilead, 27 but your servants, every man who is armed for war, will cross over before the Lord for battle, as my lord says.”
28 So Moses gave a command concerning them to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leading fathers of the Israelite tribes. 29 Moses said to them, “If the descendants of Gad and Reuben, everyone who is armed for battle, will cross over the Jordan with you before the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, then you will give them the land of Gilead as a possession. 30 But if they are not willing to cross over with you armed, they will have an inheritance among you in the land of Canaan.”
31 The descendants of Gad and Reuben answered, “We will do what the Lord has said to us, your servants. 32 We will cross over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, but the property that comes to us as our inheritance will be east of the Jordan.”
33 Moses gave the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan to the descendants of Gad, to the descendants of Reuben, and to half of the tribe descended from Manasseh, the son of Joseph—the land including its cities with the territories surrounding them. 34 The descendants of Gad rebuilt Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, 35 Atroth Shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, 36 Beth Nimrah, and Beth Haran as fortified cities and built sheep pens there. 37 The descendants of Reuben built up Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, 38 Nebo and Baal Meon (their names were changed), and Sibmah. They gave names to the cities they rebuilt. 39 The descendants of Makir, the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead, captured it, and drove out the Amorites who were there. 40 Moses gave Gilead to the clan of Makir, the descendants of Manasseh, and they lived there. 41 Jair, a descendant of Manasseh, went and captured their villages and called them Havvoth Jair.[e] 42 Nobah went and captured Kenath and its settlements. He renamed it Nobah after himself.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.