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,
NUMBERS. This book is so called because it contains an account of the enumeration and arrangement of the Israelites. The early part of it, from the first through the tenth chapters, appears to be a supplement to Leviticus, being occupied with relating the appointment of the Levites to the sacred offices. The journal of the march through the wilderness is then given as far as Numbers 21:20; after which the early incidents of the invasion are narrated. One direct quotation only from this book (Numbers 16:5) is made in the New Testament (II Timothy 2:19); but indirect references to it by the later sacred writers are very numerous.
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