Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. Ver. 2. _Avenge the children of Israel._] This is called the vengeance of Jehovah. Num 31:3 The righteous Judge will not fail to avenge our unrighteous vexations, if we "commit ourselves to him in wel... [ Continue Reading ]
And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the LORD of Midian. Ver. 3. _Arm some of yourselves unto the war._] Lactantius _a_ being, according to his name, a mild and gentle man, abhorred bloodshed, thought it not... [ Continue Reading ]
So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of [every] tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. Ver. 5. _Twelve thousand._] This was no great army, but they were _Deo armati,_ with whom "there is no restraint to save by many or by few." 1Sa 14:6 How wondrously did God work by th... [ Continue Reading ]
And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of [every] tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand. Ver. 6. _Them and Phinehas._] Not without Joshua, the general (though not here mentioned), the mighty conqueror... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; [namely], Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword._ Ver. 8. _And Zur._] The father of Cozbi, that noble harlot. _Dignitas in indigno est orname... [ Continue Reading ]
And the children of Israel took [all] the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. Ver. 9. _Took all the women._] The Jews are a nation, to this day noted for effeminate; and yet they hold that women are of a... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire._ Ver. 10. _And they burnt all their cities._] For the same reason, perhaps, that our Henry VIII demolished so many monasteries, saying, _Corvorum nidos esse penitus disturbandos, ne iterunt ad cohibitandum... [ Continue Reading ]
And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp. Ver. 13. _Went forth to meet them._] As Melchisedec went forth to meet Abraham returning with victory; Gen 14:18 as Archbishop Hubert met our Richard I returning from the Holy Land,... [ Continue Reading ]
And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, [with] the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. Ver. 14. _And Moses was wroth._] For all the joy he could not but be zealous for the Lord of hosts, when he saw the train. Zeal is the cream of all the affe... [ Continue Reading ]
And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Ver. 15. _Have ye saved all the women alive._] By whom ye have so lately sinned, and so lately suffered! "Keep thee far from an evil matter," Exo 23:7 _Circa serpentis antrum positus, non eris diu illaesus,_ saith Isidore. We should take... [ Continue Reading ]
But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. Ver. 18. _That have not known a man._] As far as they could conjecture by their age. But the way of a man with a maid, is one of Solomon's secrets. Pro 30:19 Of Rebecca it is noted, that she went for... [ Continue Reading ]
And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify [both] yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day. Ver. 19. _Whosoever hath killed any person._] War, though never so just, is the slaughter house o... [ Continue Reading ]
Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make [it] go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water. Ver. 23. _And all that abideth not the fire._] We must deal with... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they said unto Moses, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which [are] under our charge, and there lacketh not one man of us._ Ver. 49. _And there lacketh not one man of us._] A wonderful work of God; a whole nation cut off with no loss at all. "This was the Lord's own doing, and... [ Continue Reading ]
Numbers 31:53 ([For] the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.) Ver. 53. _For the men of war had taken spoil._] And kept what they caught to themselves. The Turks, when they had taken Constantinople, wondered at the wealth thereof - which the citizens would not be drawn to part with fo... [ Continue Reading ]