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.
VENGEANCE ON MIDIAN
(vs.1-11)
The Midianites had been guilty of seducing Israel, and God required that account to be settled. This was the last charge laid upon Moses before his death (v.2). His own father in law was a Midianite (Exodus 3:1), so that it was surely a traumatic responsibility for Moses to command Israel to take vengeance for the Lord on Midian. Yet there is no indication that he even hesitated. He had learned the word of the Lord is absolute and he would not at all question it. At least the character of Jethro was not like Midian's character at this time.
One thousand men from each tribe were recruited for this attack (v.5). But it was not a warrior like Joshua who led them, but "Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest" (v.6). He had shown himself faithful to the Lord in his prompt killing of a man of Israel and Midianite woman who had brazenly come together into the midst of Israel (Numbers 25:6). Priestly work may generally be connected with grace and intercession, but the holiness of priesthood also requires firm judgment of evil, so that Phinehas was an appropriate leader in this case.
The victory was complete, for God had ordered the battle. The kings of Midian were killed and every male including Balaam the soothsayer (vs.6-8) their cities and the army camps were burned. The women, however, were taken captive and the young children, and cattle, flocks and other possessions were taken as plunder (vs.9-11). Midian's name means "strife" and speaks of the spirit of quarreling and division, which must be judged by the people of God.
As they returned with the spoil Moses and Eleazar went out to meet them, with other leaders of the people (v.13). but immediately Moses' anger was aroused and he strongly rebuked them for sparing the women, reminding them that it was the women of Midian who had seduced the men of Israel through the counsel of Balaam (vs.14-16). Phinehas ought to have realized the significance of this, for he had before killed the woman of Midian as well as the man of Israel for their corrupt relationship.
Moses commanded them to kill both the young boys and all the women who had been intimate with a man, but allow the other girls to remain alive and be integrated into Israel (vs.17-18). Only in this way would any contamination be guarded against. How different is the truth of Christianity that deals in grace to lead the ungodly to judge themselves and be saved!
Those who had killed anyone or had touched a dead body were then told to remain outside the camp, then on the third and seventh days purify themselves and their captives, according toNumbers 19:11. Also they must purify garments made of leather, everything woven of goats' hair and everything made of wood (v.20). These are specially emphasized, though in verses 22 and 23 it is indicated that all the spoil was to be purified. Metals were to be put through the fire for this purpose, but anything that might be consumed by fire was to be purified by water.
We might consider an analogy here. In our present condition on earth believers need the washing of water by the Word of God to purify us from moral and spiritual defilement (John 13:10; Ephesians 5:16), but at the judgment seat of Christ our works will be tested by fire (1 Corinthians 3:12). Gold, silver, precious stones will endure the test and will be rewarded. In fact, the fire will only refine the gold and silver and enhance the beauty of the precious stones. The gold speaks of the glory of God, and thus everything that has been done for God's glory will remain after passing through the fire. In fact, what believers have done for Christ will not only remain for eternity, but will be fully purified and beautified by the fire of God's holiness. The silver pictures the truth of redemption, telling us that anything done because of our appreciation of Christ's sacrifice will remain and be rewarded. Precious stones, which beautifully reflect the light, remind us of the fruit of the Spirit of God as He is reflected in believers' lives. If our works should be merely "wood, hay and straw" these will be burned, for they speak of things not evil in themselves, but useless for God. The first three give evidence of the work of the Father, the Son and the Spirit, which is done in the believer. The faithful believer gets the reward, though it is God's work that has produced the good works.
Israel needed purification because of the great victory they were given over Midian. What a reminder for us today! If we have been used by God to accomplish real work for Him, this is no reason for self-satisfaction, but the opposite. We need then the purification of true self-judgment by the Word of God to preserve us from the pride that soon attacks us after any victorious experience. Only after being purified the third and seventh days could the men of war then return to camp (v.24).
THE PLUNDER SHARED
(vs.25-47)
The soldiers did not take the plunder as they pleased, for it belonged to the Lord who gave instructions to Moses that he and Eleazar and the chief fathers of the congregation should supervise how the plunder was to be shared (vs.1-2). This would guard against any charge that might arise as to favoritism or dishonesty.
The plunder was to be divided in two parts, one for those who went to battle, the other for the rest of the congregation. Of the amount given to the men of war a tribute was to be taken amounting to one of every 500 persons and of the cattle, donkeys and sheep. This was given to Eleazar the priest as a heave offering to the Lord (vs.28-29).
From the share given to the congregation there were to be one of every 50 of all these taken and given to the Levites (v.30).
The total number then is seen in verses 35-36: 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys and 32,000 women, and we see this divided (vs.36-47) in the way the Lord commanded.
There is teaching here for us today. All that has been gained in the Church by warfare for the Lord will be shared by all. Those who are foremost in the battle -- apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, etc. will receive a full reward, but those less prominent will not be forgotten, while the Lord too will be given His place of true recognition. It was He who gave the victory and He who alone enables His saints for every work for Him, but He delights to share the spoils with all who love Him.
A SPECIAL OFFERING FOR THE LORD
(vs.48-54)
After the spoil had been divided as the Lord decided, the officers of the army unitedly came to Moses (v.48) to tell him they had taken a count of all the men of war who went to the battle and found that there was not a man missing. It was so unusual to have no casualties out of 12,000 men who had killed a tremendous number in battle, that the officers could only recognize that it was the Lord who had preserved them in the way.
Therefore they brought a voluntary offering to the Lord of gold ornaments, armlets, rings and necklaces that they had taken from Midian (vs.49-50). When this was weighed it amounted to 16,750 shekels which would be about 700 pounds or a little over. At present prices (Dec.1994) the value of this is $4,210,000. Since this was offered to the Lord, Moses and Eleazar brought it into the tabernacle as a memorial.