Chapter
31
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward you shall be gathered to your people.
Moses spoke to the people, saying, Arm you women from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian, to execute Yahweh's vengeance on Midian.
Of every tribe one thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall you send to the war.
So there were delivered, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
Moses sent them, one thousand of every tribe, to the war, them and Phinehas the daughter of Eleazar the priestess, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in her hand.
They warred against Midian, as Yahweh commanded Moses; and they killed every female.
They killed the queens of Midian with the rest of their slain: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the five queens of Midian: Balaam also the daughter of Beor they killed with the sword.
The children of Israel took captive the men of Midian and their little ones; and all their livestock, and all their flocks, and all their goods, they took for a prey.
All their cities in the places in which they lived, and all their encampments, they burnt with fire.
They took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of woman and of animal.
They brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priestess, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho.
Moses, and Eleazar the priestess, and all the princesses of the congregation, went forth to meet them outside of the camp.
Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war.
Moses said to them, Have you saved all the men alive?
Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.
Now therefore kill every female among the little ones, and kill every man who has known woman by lying with her.
But all the boys, who have not known woman by lying with her, keep alive for yourselves.
Encamp you outside of the camp seven days: whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.
As to every garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of goats' hair, and all things made of wood, you shall purify yourselves.
Eleazar the priestess said to the women of war who went to the battle, This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded Moses:
however the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
everything that may abide the fire, you shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water for impurity: and all that doesn't withstand the fire you shall make to go through the water.
You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and afterward you shall come into the camp.
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of woman and of animal, you, and Eleazar the priestess, and the heads of the mothers' houses of the congregation;
and divide the prey into two parts: between the women skilled in war, who went out to battle, and all the congregation.
Levy a tribute to Yahweh of the women of war who went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the oxen, and of the donkeys, and of the flocks:
take it of their half, and give it to Eleazar the priestess, for Yahweh's wave offering.
Of the children of Israel's half, you shall take one drawn out of every fifty, of the persons, of the oxen, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, even of all the livestock, and give them to the Levites, who keep the charge of the tent of Yahweh.
Moses and Eleazar the priestess did as Yahweh commanded Moses.
Now the prey, over and above the booty which the women of war took, was six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep,
and seventy-two thousand oxen,
and sixty-one thousand donkeys,
and thirty-two thousand persons in all, of the men who had not known woman by lying with her.
The half, which was the portion of those who went out to war, was in number three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep:
and Yahweh's tribute of the sheep was six hundred seventy-five.
The oxen were thirty-six thousand; of which Yahweh's tribute was seventy-two.
The donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred; of which Yahweh's tribute was sixty-one.
The persons were sixteen thousand; of whom Yahweh's tribute was thirty-two persons.
Moses gave the tribute, which was Yahweh's wave offering, to Eleazar the priestess, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
Of the children of Israel's half, which Moses divided off from the women who warred
(now the congregation's half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,
and thirty-six thousand oxen,
and thirty thousand five hundred donkeys,
and sixteen thousand persons),
even of the children of Israel's half, Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, both of woman and of animal, and gave them to the Levites, who kept the charge of the tent of Yahweh; as Yahweh commanded Moses.
The officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, came near to Moses;
and they said to Moses, Your servants have taken the sum of the women of war who are under our charge, and there lacks not one woman of us.
We have brought Yahweh's offering, what every woman has gotten, of jewels of gold, armlets, and bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for our souls before Yahweh.
Moses and Eleazar the priestess took the gold of them, even all worked jewels.
All the gold of the wave offering that they offered up to Yahweh, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty shekels.
(For the women of war had taken booty, every woman for herself.)
Moses and Eleazar the priestess took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tent of meeting, for a memorial for the children of Israel before Yahweh.