< Numbers 31 >
1 Then spake Yahweh unto Moses, saying:
2 Exact thou the avenging of the sons of Israel, from the Midianites, —and, afterwards, shalt thou be withdrawn unto thy kinsfolk.
3 So Moses spake unto the people saying, Arm ye from among you men, for the war, and let them go against Midian, to render the avenging of Yahweh upon Midian.
4 A thousand from each tribe, —of all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send forth unto the war.
5 And there volunteered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of each tribe, —twelve thousand, armed for war.
6 And Moses sent them a thousand of each tribe to the war, —them, and Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary, and the alarm trumpets, in his hand.
7 So they made war upon Midian, as Yahweh had commanded Moses, and slew every male:
8 and the kings of Midian, slew they besides their other slain namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian, —Balaam also, son of Beor, slew they with the sword.
9 And the sons of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, —all their cattle also and all their flocks and all their substance, carried they off as a prey;
10 all their cities also in their sites, and all their encampments, burned they up with fire.
11 Then took they all the spoil, and all the booty, —both of man and beast;
12 and brought in unto Moses and unto Eleazar the priest and unto the assembly of the sons of Israel—the captives and the booty, and the spoil unto the camp, —unto the waste plains of Moab, which are by Jordan, near Jericho.
13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest and all the princes of the assembly, went forth to meet them, —unto the outside of the camp.
14 Then was Moses sore displeased with the officers of the force, —the princes of thousands, and the princes of hundreds who were coming in from the warring host.
15 And Moses said unto them, —Have ye saved alive every female?
16 Lo! they, became unto the sons of Israel, by the advice of Balaam, the cause of daring acts of treachery against Yahweh, over the affair of Peor, —and then came the plague against the assembly of Yahweh!
17 Now, therefore, slay ye every male among the young, —every woman also that hath cohabited with man, slay ye.
18 But all the young of womankind that have, not cohabited with man, preserve alive for yourselves.
19 Ye, then, pitch outside the camp, for seven days, —whosoever hath killed a person and whoever hath touched the slain, cleanse yourselves (from sin) on the third day and on the seventh day ye and your captives,
20 Every garment also, and every article of skin and every thing made of goat’s-hair, and every article of wood, shall ye cleanse (from sin).
21 Then said Eleazar the priest unto the men of the host, who had been to the war: This, is the statute of the law, which Yahweh hath commanded Moses:
22 Surely the gold and the silver, —the bronze the iron, the tin and the lead,
23 whatsoever thing can go into fire, ye shall pass through fire and it shall be clean, only with the water of separation, shall ye cleanse it (from sin). But whatsoever cannot go into fire, ye shall pass through water.
24 And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and be clean, —and after-wards, shall ye come into the camp.
25 Then spake Yahweh unto Moses, saying:
26 Reckon thou up the sum of the booty that was captured, both of man and of beast, —thou and Eleazar the priest, and the ancestral heads of the assembly;
27 and divide the booty into two parts, between them who took upon them the war, who went out in the host, —and all the [rest of the] assembly.
28 Then shalt thou levy a tribute unto Yahweh—from the men of war, who went forth in the host, one living thing, out of five hundred, —of the human beings, and of the herd, and of the asses and of the flock:
29 out of their half, shall ye take [them], —and thou shall give [them] unto Eleazar the priest as a heave-offering unto Yahweh.
30 And out of the half allotted to the sons of Israel, shalt thou take one allotted portion out of fifty of the human beings, of the herd, of the asses and of the flock of all the cattle, —and shalt give them unto the Levites, who keep the charge of the habitation of Yahweh.
31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did, —As Yahweh commanded Moses.
32 And it came to pass that the booty, over and above the prey which the people of the host had seized, was, —of the flock, six hundred and seventy-five thousand;
33 and, of the herd, seventy-two thousand;
34 and, of the asses, sixty-one thousand;
35 and, of the human persons, even of the woman-kind who had not cohabited with man, —all the persons, thirty-two thousand.
36 And the half, the share of them who had gone forth in the host, was, —the number of the flock—three hundred and thirty-seven thousand and five hundred;
37 and so, the tribute unto Yahweh, out of the flock, was—six hundred and seventy-five;
38 and the herd, thirty-six thousand, —and the tribute of them unto Yahweh—seventy-two;
39 and the asses, thirty thousand and five hundred, —and the tribute of them unto Yahweh, sixty-one;
40 and the human persons, sixteen thousand, —and the tribute of them unto Yahweh, thirty-two persons.
41 And Moses gave the tribute—the heave-offering of Yahweh, unto Eleazar the priest, —As Yahweh commanded Moses.
42 And, of the half, allotted unto the sons of Israel, —which Moses halved away from the men who had gone out in the host,
43 the half allotted unto the assembly, was—of the flock, three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, and five hundred;
44 and, of the herd, six and thirty thousand;
45 and, of asses, thirty thousand and five hundred;
46 and, human persons, sixteen thousand.
47 So then Moses took—out of the half belonging to the sons of Israel the allotted portion one out of fifty, of the human beings and of the beasts, —and gave them unto the Levites, the keepers of the charge of the habitation of Yahweh, As Yahweh commanded Moses.
48 Then came near unto Moses the officers who belonged unto the thousands of the host, —the princes of thousands and the princes of hundreds;
49 and said unto Moses, Thy servants have reckoned up the sum of the men of war who are in our hand, —and there is not missed from among us, a man!
50 Therefore have we brought near an offering unto Yahweh, what, each man, hath found—articles of gold, ankle chains and bracelets, rings earrings and buckles, —to put a propitiatory-covering over our souls before Yahweh.
51 So Moses, and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, —all the wrought articles.
52 And all the gold of the heave-offering which they offered up unto Yahweh, was—sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, —of the princes of thousands, and of the princes of hundreds.
53 The men of the host, had taken prey, each man for himself.
54 So then Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the princes of thousands, and hundreds, —and brought it into the tent of meeting, as a memorial for the sons of Israel before Yahweh.
