The Israelites go to war_against the Midianites
1The Lord said to Moses: 2‘The Israelites must punish the Midianites for what they did and after that you will die.’
3Moses said to the people: ‘The Lord wants some of you to prepare and go to war and attack the Midianites to punish them. 4You must send 1 000 men from each tribe to go and fight.’
5They told 1 000 men from each tribe to prepare. There were 12 000 men ready to go to war. 6Moses sent them to go and fight, and Phinehas, son of the priest Eleazar, went with them. He had the covenant box and the holy things from the tent of the Lord with him. He also had the trumpets which they had to blow. There were 1 000 men from each tribe.
7The people made war_against the Midianites, as the Lord had said, and they killed all the men 8and the kings of Midian. The 5 kings of Midian were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba. The Israelites also killed Balaam, son of Beor. They stabbed him to death. 9The Israelites took the women of Midian and their children back with them. They also took all their animals, their sheep and goats and everything that they had. 10The Israelites burnt all the towns and cities where the Midianites lived, and all their camps, 11but they took with them everything that they could, all the animals and the people. 12They took all the prisoners and the plunder to Moses and the priest Eleazar and to all the Israelites. They took it to the camp in the flatlands of Moab near the Jordan River near the city of Jericho. 13Moses, the priest Eleazar, and the leaders of the people went to the army outside the camp. 14Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the leaders of 1 000 men and the leaders of 100 men who came back from the war. 15Moses asked them: ‘Why did you let all the women live? 16These are the women who made the Israelites unfaithful to the Lord. They were the people who listened to Balaam when he said that the Israelites must serve the idol Baal-Peor, and they did. That is why so many of the people of God died. 17You must kill all the boys and every woman who has had sex. 18But you may keep all the young girls alive, all of them who have never had sex, and you may take them for yourselves. 19You must put up your tents outside the camp and stay there for 7 days. Anyone who has killed someone or who has touched the body of a dead person must stay there. You and your prisoners must purify yourselves on the 3rd day and on the 7th day. 20You must also purify your clothes and everything that is made of animal skin, hair of a goat, or wood.’
21The priest Eleazar talked to the people who had made war. He said to them: ‘This is what the Lord told Moses and what you must always do. 22-23You must purify everything that can not burn, things like gold, silver, bronze, tin or lead, by putting it into a fire. Then you must purify it with the water that purifies people. You must purify everything with water, everything that can burn. 24You must wash your clothes on the 7th day, then you will be purified and you may go back into the camp.’
Plunder from the prisoners
25The Lord said to Moses: 26‘You, the priest Eleazar and all the family leaders must count everything that the men took from the Midianites, all the people and animals. 27Then you must divide the plunder into 2 parts. Give one half to the men who went to war and the other half to all the people of Israel. 28You must take a part of the plunder that the men who went to war get, and give that part to the Lord. The part that the Lord must get is one out of every 500 people, cattle, donkeys and sheep. 29You must take that from the half that the men get and you must give it to the priest Eleazar. This is an offering for the Lord.
30You must also take a part from the half that the other Israelites get. Take one out of 50 from the people, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats and other animals. You must give this to the Levites who work at the tent of the Lord.’
31Moses and the priest Eleazar did what the Lord told Moses. 32The men took 675 000 sheep and goats, 3372 000 cattle, 3461 000 donkeys 35and 32 000 women who had never had sex.
36The part of the plunder that the men who went to war got was 337 500 sheep and goats, 37and from that, they gave 675 to the Lord, 3836 000 cattle, and from that, they gave 72 to the Lord, 3930 500 donkeys and from that they gave 61 to the Lord. 40They got 16 000 women, and from them they gave 32 to the Lord. 41Moses gave the part for the Lord to the priest Eleazar. It was the offering for the Lord as He said.
42Moses took half of the plunder that the men brought back from the war and he gave it to the Israelites. 43This was 337 500 sheep and goats, 4436 000 cows, 4530 500 donkeys and 4616 000 women. 47Moses took one out of every 50 from the half that the people got, people and animals, and he gave them to the Levites who work at the tent of the Lord. It was as the Lord had said to Moses.
The offerings of the officers
48The officers of the army came to Moses. They were the leaders of 1 000 men and leaders of 100 men. 49They said to Moses: ‘We have counted the men who went to war with us. They are all here, and all of us are still_alive. 50This is why we are bringing an offering to the Lord from the plunder that we got. Here are golden things, arm bands, bracelets, rings, ear rings and other jewellery. We bring this offering to make atonement for us before the Lord.’
51Moses and the priest Eleazar took the gold from the officers. All the gold 52that the leaders of 1 000 men and of 100 men gave as an offering to the Lord weighed 16 750 shekels. 53Each soldier had taken plunder for himself. 54Moses and the priest Eleazar received the gold from the officers and they took it to the tent of the Lord. They did this so that the Lord would always think of the Israelites.
