Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Numbers 31:1-24
(i) The Sentence Passed and Carried Out on the Local Midianites (Numbers 31:1).
Analysis.
a The command to avenge Yahweh on Midian (Numbers 31:1).
b The judgment of Yahweh in the defeat of Midian (Numbers 31:7).
c The sparing of the women who had caused them to sin at Baal-peor (Numbers 31:9).
c The judgment on the sparing of the women who had made them sin (Numbers 31:13).
b Purification before returning to the camp to avoid judgment (Numbers 31:19).
a Retention and purification of the spoils (Numbers 31:21).
‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,'
Once again it is emphasised that we have here the words of Yahweh to Moses.
‘Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterwards you shall be gathered unto your people.'
The avenging of the people of Israel on the Midianites was to be Moses' final act. After that he was to be ‘gathered to his people'. He was to die, but it was the death of the righteous. He would join those who had been faithful to Yahweh. The avenging was on the basis of ‘a life for a life', on the basis of ‘whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed' (Genesis 9:6). For while Midian had not done the actual killing, it was as a result of their deliberate manoeuvrings that so many had died
‘And Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm you men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian, to execute Yahweh's vengeance on Midian.”
So Moses was called on to arrange for the arming of a sufficient task force to destroy Midian, that is, the Midianites who were still encamped either in a part of the former kingdom of Sihon (Joshua 13:21), or over the border in Moab, having escaped there from the slaughter of the Amorites. They were to ‘execute Yahweh's vengeance' on Midian. These Midianites had sought to woo His people from Him, and He was a jealous God, and was concerned for the purity of the worship of His people. So His concern was such that Midian must be blotted out because of what they had done. Indeed had they not been blotted they would probably have called in their roving Midianite and Amalekite allies for a major attack on Israel (such as would come later in Judges 6), taking them in the rear as they invaded the land. It was therefore essential that they be wiped out before they could stir up further trouble.
“ Of every tribe an 'eleph, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall you send to the war.”
That the Midianite numbers were fairly small comes out in that it was not the whole army that was to be involved. A military unit (and eleph) taken from each tribe was considered to be sufficient for the task
‘So there were delivered, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.'
So out of the many fighting units of Israel, twelve units, one from each tribe, were armed for the purpose of taking out Midian.
‘And Moses sent them, a thousand of every tribe, to the war, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.'
With them went Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the Priest, who would have responsibility for the Ark of the covenant of Yahweh and the trumpets which would sound so as to convey the commander's messages to his troops. His presence and possibly that of the Ark and some holy vessels would be the assurance that this was holy war and that Yahweh was with them. The High Priest himself would not want to become ‘unclean, by the contact with death, for that would interfere with his daily ministry.
“With the vessels of the Sanctuary.” This could actually indicate the priestly garments (the word means ‘garments' in Deuteronomy 22:5), but the Ark does seem to have been intended to lead the way for Israel (Numbers 3-36), and its presence along with some holy vessels used for some special purpose, would be a huge encouragement as it would be in Joshua 6:3 where it was assumed that the Ark would go with the army. Alternately we may read, ‘with the vessels of the Sanctuary, even the trumpets for the alarm', seeing the trumpets as being the ‘accoutrements of the Sanctuary'.
‘And they warred against Midian, as Yahweh commanded Moses; and they slew every male.'
So the twelve military units of Israel attacked the Midianites with overwhelming force. There may well have been only a few hundred Midianite soldiers. And they may well have caught the Midianites unprepared and in fact in battles with the kind of weapons that they had casualties were regularly light. It was when one side panicked and fled that the real killing took place. It would seem probable that that is what happened in this case, and that they pursued them until every Midianite man was dead. Being caught unprepared and fleeing in panic would explain why there was not a single fatal casualty among the Israelites (Numbers 31:49).
‘And they slew the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.'
All were slain, including the ‘kings' of Midian whose names are given, and Balaam the diviner who was found to be among them. The giving of names confirms the authenticity of the account. It was a daughter of Zur who was slain by Phinehas in Numbers 25:8; Numbers 25:14, and that he would have been seeking blood revenge was one reason why the destruction of the Midianites was so necessary, while the fact Balaam was there among them suggests that that vengeance was already being planned. This was not an attack on an innocent people, but on a very belligerent and determined enemy who would stop at nothing.
‘And the children of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods, they took for a prey.'
The children of Israel then took over the Midianite camps, taking captive all the Midianite women, with their children, together with their cattle, flocks and a host of spoils.
‘And all their cities in the places in which they dwelt, and all their encampments, they burned with fire.'
We must not read too much into ‘cities'. An encampment could be called a ‘city' (see Numbers 13:19), which was probably the fact in this case, and a ‘city' could contain a mere fifty men with their families, or even less. These were burned to the ground. They were ‘devoted' to Yahweh.
‘And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of man and of beast. And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho.'
So everything that belonged to the Midianites was taken, both of man and of beast, their wives, their young men, their daughters, their herds and their flocks. And they brought them to Moses and Eleazar, to the camp of Israel in the plains of Moab.
‘And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them outside the camp.'
And Moses and Eleazar and the chieftains went out from the camp to meet and welcome the victorious army.
‘And Moses was angry with the officers of the host, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war.'
But when Moses saw that they had allowed the wives of the Midianites to live he was angry with their officers and NCOs.
‘And Moses said to them, “Have you saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.” '
He angrily pointed out that these women were the ones responsible for turning so many Israelites away from Yahweh and thus causing so many deaths in Israel. They were the most blood guilty of all. They should not have been allowed to live.
It is made quite clear that the women had engaged in an act of war. They were not innocent. Following the guidance of Balaam they had deliberately sought to separate between the men of Israel and Yahweh their God as a military strategy so that Yahweh would then curse Israel. Balaam had clearly still not given up his attempts to persuade Yahweh that His people were worthy of cursing. Once they had succeeded the plan was that Balaam would persuade Yahweh to curse His errant people and the Midianites would then attack, assisted by the Moabites. And it had so nearly succeeded.
‘Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.'
So he commanded the soldiers to kill all the male children, and to kill every woman who had known a man by lying with him, the wives and seducers of the enemy.
We might be horrified at what was commanded, but there was really little alternative. There was no possibility of setting up prisoner-of-war camps. Even had they been a settled people it would not have been possible, but being on the march towards Canaan it was totally impractical. Furthermore, while they might have enslaved them, every Midianite boy would have grown up knowing that it was his bounden duty to obtain blood vengeance against Israel, and with Midianites scattered throughout the wilderness and desert regions east of the Jordan, who could be called on for assistance on the grounds of blood ties, they would have been a constant danger. Allowing them to live would have been like taking to bed a deadly poisonous snake on the grounds of being kind to animals. It might have been a different matter if they had already been settled in the land.
Furthermore the women had been guilty of seducing many Israelites to their death. They were even more guilty. Their blood was required as a recompense. Nor would they have made suitable wives, they would have been vipers in the nest, to say nothing of further attempts to turn Israel's menfolk away from Yahweh.
‘But all the women-children, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.'
But the young women children were a different matter. They could be taken in marriage or as servants and would expect to accept the religion of their new husbands or masters. They would gradually be merged into Israel. Compare Deuteronomy 21:10. They would not feel the same responsibility for blood vengeance which was mainly incumbent on the males.
‘And you encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.'
However, as a result of their contact with the dead enemy, any who had killed someone, or who had touched a dead body, were to purify themselves with the water of uncleanness as described in Numbers 19. For that purpose they had to remain outside the camp with their captives. The taint of death must not enter the camp of Israel in such quantity. Death was ever to be seen as contrary to what Yahweh was. It was true that it was sometimes necessary in order to compensate for other deaths, in order to bring out the heinousness of murder, and it was even sometimes commanded by Yahweh for that reason, but it was still contrary to His original purpose in creation which had been that man should produce life (Genesis 1:28), not death. Death was the result of man's fall in the Garden, and the sin that had permeated mankind ever since. It was an intruder in God's creation.
‘And as to every garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of goats' hair, and all things made of wood, you shall purify yourselves.'
And this was to be true of all their clothing, and all captured clothing, which would need to be purified by washing, including all that was made of skin, or goats' hair, and the same applied to anything made of wood.
‘And Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who went to the battle, This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded Moses,'
Eleazar now informed the men who had been in the battle of the statute of the instruction which Yahweh had commanded Moses in these circumstances.
‘Only the gold, and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that may abide the fire, you shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless it shall be purified with the water for uncleanness, and all that abides not the fire you shall make to go through the water.'
All that could survive fire had to be cleansed by being put through the fire. That included the gold, the silver, the bronze (or copper), the iron, the tin and the lead. Then it would be clean. And yet even then it had to go through the water of uncleanness (Numbers 19). And anything that could not stand being put through the fire had to be cleansed with the water of uncleanness. It is clear from this that the taint of death was seen as connected with the spoils, whose masters were dead.
‘And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and afterwards you shall come into the camp.'
Then the men were to wash their clothes and be clean. After that they could come into the camp. Note here that the clothes, which might have been defiled by blood, were what needed to be washed. Bathing was not necessary. Indeed bathing was never said to cleanse. It was preparatory to the waiting before God that did cleanse.
This account brings out for us any number of lessons. It stresses God's hatred of sin and especially of anything that turns His people away from Him. It brings out that while merciful (if Midian had kept out of Israel's way they would have been left alone), His holiness demands justice on those who will not respond to His mercy. It reveals God's might acting on behalf of His people, and that all of us need to be continually cleansed if we would come into His presence. It brings out that God is both light and love. Those who turn from His love come into His awesome light which can only result in their condemnation (John 3:18). In what follows it also reveals that in the end Yahweh always rewards His people with good things.