2a“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the children of Israel. Afterward you shall bbe gathered to your people.”
3 So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm some of yourselves for war, and let them go against the Midianites to take vengeance for the Lord on aMidian.
4 A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.”
5 So there were recruited from the divisions of Israel one thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
6 Then Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from each tribe; he sent them to the war with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the holy articles and athe signal trumpets in his hand.
7 And they warred against the Midianites, just as the Lord commanded Moses, and athey killed all the bmales.
8 They killed the kings of Midian with therestof those who were killed—aEvi, Rekem, bZur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. cBalaam the son of Beor they also killed with the sword.
9 And the children of Israel took the women of Midian captive, with their little ones, and took as spoil all their cattle, all their flocks, and all their goods.
10 They also burned with fire all the cities where they dwelt, and all their forts.
11 And athey took all the spoil and all the booty—of man and beast.
Return from the War
12 Then they brought the captives, the booty, and the spoil to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, acrossfrom Jericho.
13 And Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation, went to meet them outside the camp.
14 But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, with the captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, who had come from the battle.
15 And Moses said to them: “Have you kept aall the women alive?
16 Look, athese women caused the children of Israel, through the bcounsel of Balaam, to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and cthere was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.
17 Now therefore, akill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately.
18 But keep alive afor yourselves all the young girls who have not known a man intimately.
19 And as for you, aremain outside the camp seven days; whoever has killed any person, and bwhoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day.
20 Purify every garment, everything made of leather, everything woven of goats’ hair, and everything made of wood.”
21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to the battle, “This is the1 ordinance of the law which the Lord commanded Moses:
22 Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
23 everything that can endure fire, you shall put through the fire, and it shall be clean; and it shall be purified awith the water of purification. But all that cannot endure fire you shall put through water.
24aAnd you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may come into the camp.”
26 “Count up the plunder that was1 taken—of man and beast—you and Eleazar the priest and the chief fathers of the congregation;
27 and adivide the plunder into two parts, between those who took part in the war, who went out to battle, and all the congregation.
28 And levy a tribute for the Lord on the men of war who went out to battle: aone of every five hundred of the persons, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep;
29 take it from their half, and agive it to Eleazar the priest as a heave offering to the Lord.
30 And from the children of Israel’s half you shall take aone of every fifty, drawn from the persons, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep, from all the livestock, and give them to the Levites bwho keep charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.”
31 So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses.
32 The booty remaining from the plunder, which the men of war had taken, was six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep,
47 and afrom the children of Israel’s half Moses took one of every fifty, drawn from man and beast, and gave them to the Levites, who kept charge of the tabernacle of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.
48 Then the officers who were over thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, came near to Moses;
49 and they said to Moses, “Your servants have taken a count of the men of war who are under our command, and not a man of us is missing.
50 Therefore we have brought an offering for the Lord, what every man found of ornaments of gold: armlets and bracelets and signet rings and earrings and necklaces, ato make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.”
51 So Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from them, all the fashioned ornaments.
52 And all the gold of the offering that they offered to the Lord, from the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.
53a(The men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.)
54 And Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tabernacle of meeting aas a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord.
The title commonly given to this book is evidently suggested by the two numberings of the people recorded in Num. 1 and Num. 26.
The book narrates the history of the Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness from the completion of the law-giving at Sinai, Leviticus 27:34, to their mustering in the plains of Moab for actual entry into the land of promise.
The incidents are generally given in their chronological order, except in the third part. The five chapters comprised in this part appear to deal with a long period, from which only isolated episodes are given; and of these the dates can only be conjectured.
Between the two dates "the first day of the second month of the second year after they were come out of Egypt" Numbers 1:1, and the death of Aaron Numbers 33:38, intervene no less than 38 years and 3 months (compare Deuteronomy 2:14), the long and dreary period of tarrying in the wilderness until the disobedient generation had wasted away.
From the death of Aaron to the date given in the opening verses of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 1:1-3, occurred a space of exactly six months, in which all the events narrated in the fourth part of the Book of Numbers, from Numbers 20:1 to the end, would seem to have occurred, with the probable exception of the defeat of the king of Arad Numbers 21:1-3.
As regards the authorship and date of composition, the notes of time, the tenor of the contents, no less than the direct assertions of the text itself, lead to the conclusion that Moses is properly spoken of as the writer of the Book of Numbers. It is in substance his work; though many portions of it were probably committed to writing many years before the whole was completed; and the concluding chapters were not written until toward the close of the 40th year after the exodus.
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