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Numbers 31

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Numbers 31 Overview

Numbers 31 records Israel's war against Midian as a specific judgment connected with the Baal-peor crisis. Phinehas accompanies the army; Midianite kings and Balaam are killed; captives and spoil are brought back. Moses cites the women's role in the Peor trespass and gives severe commands concerning the captives. The soldiers and spoil then undergo purification, the booty is divided by rule, and portions are assigned to the LORD, priests, and Levites. The officers also bring a voluntary offering after discovering that none of Israel's soldiers are missing.

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Before you read Numbers 31

Coming from

Numbers 30 regulated vows; the narrative now returns to the unresolved Midianite role in Israel’s apostasy.

In this chapter

Israel executes judgment on Midian, Balaam dies, captives and spoil are purified and divided, and officers offer thanksgiving.

Leads into

Numbers 32 addresses Reuben and Gad’s request to settle east of Jordan.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The war against Midian is explicitly presented as a specific act of covenant judgment connected with the Peor crisis, not as an ordinary model for religious warfare. Twelve thousand Israelite soldiers go to battle, Midianite kings and Balaam are killed, and captives and spoil are brought back. Moses then cites the Peor trespass and gives severe commands concerning the captives, including the death of male children and women who had known a man, while young girls are spared. The text is morally difficult and should be reported accurately without inventing motives or claiming every individual captive had personally committed the same act.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

The war is explicitly connected with Midian’s role in Israel’s Peor rebellion.

Truth 2

Balaam’s death completes the narrative of the man who could not curse Israel but counseled its corruption.

Truth 3

Even victorious soldiers and spoil require purification after contact with death.

Truth 4

Spoils are distributed by rule rather than seized individually.

Truth 5

The officers’ voluntary offering responds to remarkable preservation in battle.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Numbers 25 records the Baal-peor sin involving Midian.

Connection 2

Numbers 31:16 explicitly attributes the seduction strategy to Balaam’s counsel.

Connection 3

Revelation 2:14 recalls Balaam teaching Balak to cast a stumbling block before Israel.

Connection 4

Deuteronomy 20 provides broader laws of Israelite warfare, though different conflicts have different commands.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

This chapter belongs to a unique divinely commanded covenant-war judgment and must not be generalized into permission for modern religious violence.

Keep this clear 2

The treatment of captives, including the commands concerning male children and women who had known a man, is morally difficult for modern readers and should be stated honestly without inventing details beyond the text.

Keep this clear 3

The purification laws distinguish contact with death from ordinary spoil-taking.

Keep this clear 4

The campaign should not be described as the extinction of every Midianite people-group; Midianites appear again later in Israelite history.

Read Numbers 31 watching for…

Phinehas accompanying the army.

Balaam among the slain.

Moses’ explanation in verse 16.

The purification period.

The exact division of spoil.

The officers’ voluntary offering.

Chapter outline5 sections

1-6Israel is sent to avenge itself on Midian 7-12Midian is defeated and Balaam is slain 13-24Moses gives instructions concerning the captives and spoil 25-47The spoil is divided and tribute is given to the LORD 48-54The officers bring an offering because none of their men were missing

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.

And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the LORD of Midian.

Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war.

So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand.

And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.

And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.

And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.

And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.

And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.

And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.

And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.

And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.

And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?

Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.

But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.

And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats' hair, and all things made of wood.

And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commanded Moses;

Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the chief fathers of the congregation:

And divide the prey into two parts; between them that took the war upon them, who went out to battle, and between all the congregation:

And levy a tribute unto the LORD of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep:

Take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for an heave offering of the LORD.

And of the children of Israel's half, thou shalt take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all manner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.

And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.

And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, was six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand sheep,

And threescore and twelve thousand beeves,

And threescore and one thousand asses,

And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of women that had not known man by lying with him.

And the half, which was the portion of them that went out to war, was in number three hundred thousand and seven and thirty thousand and five hundred sheep:

And the LORD's tribute of the sheep was six hundred and threescore and fifteen.

And the beeves were thirty and six thousand; of which the LORD's tribute was threescore and twelve.

And the asses were thirty thousand and five hundred; of which the LORD's tribute was threescore and one.

And the persons were sixteen thousand; of which the LORD's tribute was thirty and two persons.

And Moses gave the tribute, which was the LORD's heave offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as the LORD commanded Moses.

And of the children of Israel's half, which Moses divided from the men that warred,

(Now the half that pertained unto the congregation was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep,

And thirty and six thousand beeves,

And thirty thousand asses and five hundred,

And sixteen thousand persons;)

Even of the children of Israel's half, Moses took one portion of fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them unto the Levites, which kept the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses.

And the officers which were over thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, came near unto Moses:

And they said unto Moses, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which are under our charge, and there lacketh not one man of us.

We have therefore brought an oblation for the LORD, what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the LORD.

And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even all wrought jewels.

And all the gold of the offering that they offered up to the LORD, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.

(For the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.)

And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tabernacle of the congregation, for a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD.

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Numbers 31:50

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