Numbers 31:1-54
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.
3 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.
4 Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war.
5 So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
6 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.
7 And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.
8 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.
9 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.
10 And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.
11 And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.
12 And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.
14 And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.a
15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.b
18 But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
19 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.
20 And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats' hair, and all things made of wood.
21 And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD commanded Moses;
22 Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
23 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.
24 And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp.
25 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
26 Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the chief fathers of the congregation:
27 And divide the prey into two parts; between them that took the war upon them, who went out to battle, and between all the congregation:
28 And levy a tribute unto the LORD of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep:
29 Take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for an heave offering of the LORD.
30 And of the children of Israel's half, thou shalt take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks,c of all manner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.
31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.
32 And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, was six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand sheep,
33 And threescore and twelve thousand beeves,
34 And threescore and one thousand asses,
35 And thirty and two thousand persons in all, of women that had not known man by lying with him.
36 And the half, which was the portion of them that went out to war, was in number three hundred thousand and seven and thirty thousand and five hundred sheep:
37 And the LORD'S tribute of the sheep was six hundred and threescore and fifteen.
38 And the beeves were thirty and six thousand; of which the LORD'S tribute was threescore and twelve.
39 And the asses were thirty thousand and five hundred; of which the LORD'S tribute was threescore and one.
40 And the persons were sixteen thousand; of which the LORD'S tribute was thirty and two persons.
41 And Moses gave the tribute, which was the LORD'S heave offering, unto Eleazar the priest, as the LORD commanded Moses.
42 And of the children of Israel's half, which Moses divided from the men that warred,
43 (Now the half that pertained unto the congregation was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep,
44 And thirty and six thousand beeves,
45 And thirty thousand asses and five hundred,
46 And sixteen thousand persons;)
47 Even of the children of Israel's half, Moses took one portion of fifty, both of man and of beast, and gave them unto the Levites, which kept the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses.
48 And the officers which were over thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, came near unto Moses:
49 And they said unto Moses, Thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which are under our charge,d and there lacketh not one man of us.
50 We have therefore brought an oblation for the LORD, what every man hath gotten,e of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the LORD.
51 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even all wrought jewels.
52 And all the gold of the offeringf that they offered up to the LORD, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.
53 (For the men of war had taken spoil, every man for himself.)
54 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tabernacle of the congregation, for a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD.
Then as we get into Numbers chapter thirty-one, the Lord orders the destruction of the Midianites.
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward thou shall be gathered to your people (Numbers 31:2)
So this was to be sort of the final act of Moses. They are just about ready to enter into the land that God has promised and God orders the avenging against the Midianites, who actually created a problem with the children of Israel that we were studying last week. Balak the king, sending the girls into the camp, causing the children of Israel to commit fornication and idolatry. And so now God is taking out judgement against the Midianites for those actions. And so Moses ordered a thousand men from each of the tribes to arm themselves for battle. And so there were a thousand from each of the tribes, twelve thousand men armed for war that came to Moses. And they were ordered to go in against the cities of the Midianites.
Now Eleazar was the high priest. His son Phinehas went with the armies to fight against the Midianites and the Lord delivered the Midianites into the hands of these twelve thousand men.
And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they killed all of the males. (Numbers 31:7)
And this also included this prophet Balaam. Now you remember in the first prophecy that Balaam had uttered over the children of Israel. He said, "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last days be as his" (Numbers 23:10). That request wasn't granted. He did not die the death of the righteous. Balaam was guilty of greed. He allowed that greed to master him, and allowing the greed to master his life, he removed himself from the place of God's blessing. And rather than dying the death of the righteous, he was slain when the children of Israel conquered over the Midianites; Balaam also was slain.
So they took the women of Midian as their captives, and the little ones, and they took the spoil of all of their cattle, their flocks and their goods. They burnt the cities where they were living and all of the beautiful castles with fire. And they took all the spoil and all the prey, both of the men and beasts. And they brought the captives, and the spoil. Now Moses was angry with the officers of the army, and the captains over the thousands, and the captains over the hundreds, which have come from the battle. And Moses said unto them, Have you saved all of the woman alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, [and here we have it] through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, which and there was the plague among the congregation of the LORD. Therefore kill all of the male babies, and all of the women who are not virgins (Numbers 31:9-12; Numbers 31:14-18).
You can save the little girls and the virgins alive but the rest of them are to be slain because these are the women that were used in this subterfuge to bring a curse upon the children of Israel.
Now at this point it should be noted that there are many people who have difficulty with the Old Testament, and especially in the areas where we are going to be entering into next, as we get into Joshua and Judges, into the Kings and all. People have difficulty with the orders for extermination of the people. How is it that God would order that they totally wipe out a nation, the children and all, the women and the children in many cases? In some cases, even the animals, everything was to be obliterated. How is it that God would order such an extermination? When they came into the land they weren't to make a league or a covenant, a treaty with any of the peoples within the land. They were to utterly destroy them or drive them out. Why would God command such a thing?
In order to understand these commands, it would of course be necessary to understand a little bit about the culture of these people and especially their religious practices. In all of the history of the world there were probably-these people were probably living on the lowest kind of moral levels that man ever lived, every kind of sin you could possibly imagine was practiced by these people. Marriage vows were nothing. They lived as animals and even to the point of bestiality as a common practice. Their manner of living was so polluted and so corrupted that it was impossible that they could survive. They believed in human sacrifice and offered their children as sacrifices unto their gods. The things that were done by these people are so polluted, so vile, that it would be impossible to tell you in a mixed company the practices that were common among the people called the Canaanites, those that inhabited the land that God ordered exterminated.
God ordered their extermination lest their pollution would also pollute His children. God is bringing them into a land using them, first of all, as a tool of judgement against these people because of the horrible, abominable practices they all were deserving to die. You say, "Well, what about the little children, the babies, the infants?" Without their parents and all to raise them, they would have had a horrible, miserable life if they were allowed to continue to live. It was in mercy that the children were taken. But God ordered their extermination, lest they would become a polluting influence to His people and His own people would be dragged down into the same moral pits that these people were living in.
God used the children of Israel as His instruments of judgement to destroy an exceedingly vile group of people. Now, God brought the flood to destroy people who had lived in such a horrible way, and all were destroyed by the flood, with the exception of Noah and his immediate family. God used the flood as an instrument of judgement. Now God is using the nation Israel, as His instrument of judgement against these people whose practices had sunk so low that it was necessary that God's judgement fall upon them. That is why God ordered their extermination. It was His judgement against their horrible sin that they were committing, and to destroy them lest they be a polluting influence upon His people. It was to protect His own children from the mad dog culture of the Canaanites.
So, Moses was angry because they kept the women alive and he ordered them to kill all of the little baby boys and just save alive those women who were virgins and the little girls and they were to become slaves to the Israelites. Now Moses said, "Take the spoil that they have gotten in the battle and divide it in two. And a half of the spoil is to go to all of Israel and a half of the spoil will go to the twelve thousand men who went to battle".
Now of the twelve thousand men who went to battle, the half of the spoil that they received, one in five hundred was to go Eleazar the high priest. Which meant that Eleazar became overnight a very wealthy man because there was about three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep alone for the half of the amount for their six hundred and seventy-five thousand total sheep that they took. So the half of those that went to the twelve thousand that went to battle, one of five hundred of those three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred went to Eleazar. So suddenly he had just an awful lot of sheep.
And then of course it gives the number of cattle and the number of donkeys that they had taken. There were seventy-two thousand beasts and sixty-one thousand donkeys and thirty-two thousand persons in all that were young women who were virgins. So, these were divided as the spoil to the children of Israel. Now, from the half that went to all of Israel, one in five was to go to the rest of the Levites. So that was their portion, a twentieth of that which was taken in the battle. And so they divided up the spoils of war.
Now, when the fellas came back from war they numbered off and they found out there wasn't one man missing. They'd destroyed all of these Midianite cities, had taken all of these captives, had killed all of these men without a single casualty. Impossible in the natural but we're not dealing with natural things. We're dealing with God's hand and God's intervention. And thus, grateful for the fact that there wasn't a single casualty among them, that all twelve thousand returned from the battle. The captains brought unto the Lord an offering of the portion of the gold and the silver and the brass, the precious metals that they had taken. They brought a portion to the Lord, to offer to the Lord in thanksgiving for his preservation of their troops in the battle. That's in the latter portion of chapter thirty-one.
So Moses, [verse fifty-one] and Eleazar the priest took the gold, and all of the jewels. The offering that they offered to the LORD, from the captains over the thousands and hundreds, and there was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels. (Numbers 31:51-52)
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