Numbers 31
31
Chapter 31
War against the Midianites
1The Lord said to Moses, 2‘You must punish the Midianites because they caused the Israelites to worship idols. After you have done that, you will die.’
3Moses said to the people, ‘Choose some men to go and fight against the Midianites. Give them weapons to punish the Midianites as the Lord wants. 4Choose 1,000 men from each Israelite tribe to go and fight.’
5They did that. There were 12,000 men ready with weapons to fight the battle. 6Moses sent those men out to fight. There were 1,000 men from each tribe. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, went with them. Phinehas took with him the special things from God's Holy Tent. He also took the trumpets to make sounds for the battle.
7They attacked the Midianites as the Lord had told them. They killed all the men. 8That included the five kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba. They also killed Balaam, the son of Beor, with a sword.
9Israel's men took hold of the women and children of Midian. They took their animals and everything that was valuable. 10They burned all their towns and their camps. 11They took for themselves the people, the animals and everything that was valuable. 12They took all the prisoners and the things that they had taken to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest. They brought them to the camp of the Israelites. That was on the flat ground in Moab beside the Jordan River. Jericho was on the other side of the river.
13Moses, Eleazar and the leaders of the Israelites went to meet them outside the camp. 14Moses was angry with the leaders and the officers of the army who had come back from the battle against the Midianites.
15Moses said to them, ‘Why have you let all the women live? 16You should not have done that. These women caused the Israelites to turn against the Lord. They did what Balaam said to them at Peor. As a result, a bad disease killed many of the Lord's people. 17Because of that, kill all the boys, and kill every woman who has had sex with a man. 18But as for the girls who have not had sex with a man, you may keep them for yourselves.’
19Moses said, ‘Any soldier who has killed someone, or who has touched a dead body is unclean. He must stay outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and on the seventh day, you must wash yourselves to become clean. You must do the same thing to your Midianite prisoners. 20You must also make these things clean: any clothes or anything made from leather, wool or wood.’
21Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers, ‘This is the rule that the Lord told Moses: 22You must put all the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, and other metals in a fire. 23Put in the fire anything that the fire will not destroy. The fire will make those things clean. But you must also wash them with water. As for anything that the fire would destroy, wash them with water to make them clean. 24On the seventh day, you must wash your clothes. After that you will be clean again. Then you can come into the camp.’
They shared the things that they had taken
25The Lord said to Moses, 26‘You and Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the family clans must count all the people and animals that you took in the battle. 27Give one half of all those things to the soldiers who went to fight the war against the Midianites. Give the other half to the rest of the people. 28From the half which belongs to the soldiers, keep one part out of every 500. Do that with the Midianite prisoners, the cows, the donkeys and the sheep. Those parts will be for the Lord. 29Give those to Eleazar the priest. He will offer them to the Lord. 30From the half that belongs to the people, keep one part out of every 50. Do that with the Midianite prisoners, the cows, the donkeys and the sheep. Those parts will be for the Levites who take care of the Lord's special tent.’
31Moses and Eleazar did as the Lord said.
32The soldiers had brought from the battle: 675,000 sheep, 3372,000 cows, 3461,000 donkeys 35and 32,000 young women who had not had sex with a man.
36The soldiers' half included 337,500 sheep. 37So there were 675 sheep for the Lord. 38The soldiers' half also included 36,000 cows. So there were 72 cows for the Lord. 39The soldiers' half also included 30,500 donkeys. So there were 61 donkeys for the Lord. 40The soldiers' half also included 16,000 people. So there were 32 people for the Lord.
41Moses gave the part that was for the Lord to Eleazar, the priest. He would offer these to the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
42Moses made the half for the Israelite people separate from the half that was for the soldiers. 43The people's half included 337,500 sheep, 4436,000 cows, 4530,500 donkeys 46and 16,000 people. 47From the Israelites' half, Moses took one part out of every 50. He gave those to the Levites who took care of the Lord's special tent. That was what the Lord had commanded Moses to do.
48Then the leaders and the officers of the army went to Moses. 49They said to him: ‘We have counted the soldiers who went to fight against the Midianites. They have all come back safely. 50So we have brought a gift to offer to the Lord. We have brought gold rings, ear-rings, necklaces and other gold things that people wear. They are gifts to remove our sins so that the Lord will forgive us.’
51Moses and Eleazar took all the gold things that the soldiers' officers and leaders brought to them. 52They weighed all the gold that was offered to the Lord. The weight was 16,750 shekels. 53The soldiers had also taken gold things from the enemy for themselves. 54Moses and Eleazar took the gold gifts from the soldiers' officers and leaders into the Tent of Meeting. It would help the Israelites to remember how the Lord had helped them.
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Numbers 31: EASY
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