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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Numbers 31 New American Bible</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/numbers/31.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div 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cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../numbers/30.htm" title="Numbers 30">◄</a> Numbers 31 <a href="../numbers/32.htm" title="Numbers 32">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New American Bible Revised Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><section id="ch04031" class="chapter"> <h1 id="cn04031" class="cn"></h1> <p class="pf"><span class="hemb">Campaign Against the Midianites.</span> <span id="v04031001" class="ver">1</span>The <span class="tetr">Lord</span> said to Moses:<a id="rfn04031001-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn04031001-1">*</a> <span id="v04031002" class="ver">2</span>Avenge the Israelites on the Midianites, and then you will be gathered to your people. <span id="v04031003" class="ver">3</span>So Moses told the people, “Arm some men among you for the campaign, to attack Midian and to execute the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>’s vengeance on Midian. <span id="v04031004" class="ver">4</span>From each of the tribes of Israel you will send a thousand men to the campaign.” <span id="v04031005" class="ver">5</span>From the contingents of Israel, therefore, a thousand men of each tribe were levied, so that there were twelve thousand men armed for war. <span id="v04031006" class="ver">6</span>Moses sent them out on the campaign, a thousand from each tribe, with Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest for the campaign, who had with him the sacred vessels and the trumpets for sounding the alarm. <span id="v04031007" class="ver">7</span>They waged war against the Midianites, as the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> had commanded Moses, and killed every male. <span id="v04031008" class="ver">8</span>Besides those slain in battle, they killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian;<a id="rfn04031008-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn04031008-1">*</a> and they also killed Balaam, son of Beor, with the sword. <span id="v04031009" class="ver">9</span>But the Israelites took captive the women of the Midianites with their children, and all their herds and flocks and wealth as loot, <span id="v04031010" class="ver">10</span>while they set on fire all the towns where they had settled and all their encampments. <span id="v04031011" class="ver">11</span>Then they took all the plunder, with the people and animals they had captured, and brought the captives, together with the spoils and plunder, <span id="v04031012" class="ver">12</span>to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the Israelite community at their camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Treatment of the Captives.</span> <span id="v04031013" class="ver">13</span>When Moses and Eleazar the priest, with all the leaders of the community, went outside the camp to meet them, <span id="v04031014" class="ver">14</span>Moses became angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who were returning from the military campaign. <span id="v04031015" class="ver">15</span>“So you have spared all the women!” he exclaimed. <span id="v04031016" class="ver">16</span>“These are the very ones who on Balaam’s advice were behind the Israelites’ unfaithfulness to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> in the affair at Peor,<a id="ren04031016-a" class="enref" href="footnotes.htm#en04031016-a">a</a> so that plague struck the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>’s community. <span id="v04031017" class="ver">17</span><a id="rfn04031017-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn04031017-1">*</a> Now kill, therefore, every male among the children and kill every woman who has had sexual relations with a man. <span id="v04031018" class="ver">18</span>But you may spare for yourselves all the girls who have not had sexual relations.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Purification After Combat.</span> <span id="v04031019" class="ver">19</span>“Moreover, remain outside the camp for seven days; every one of you who has killed anyone or touched someone killed will purify yourselves on the third and on the seventh day—both you and your captives. <span id="v04031020" class="ver">20</span>You will also purify every garment, every article of leather, everything made of goats’ hair, and every article of wood.”</p> <p><span id="v04031021" class="ver">21</span>Eleazar the priest told the soldiers who had taken part in the battle: “This is the prescribed ritual which the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> has commanded Moses: <span id="v04031022" class="ver">22</span>gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin and lead— <span id="v04031023" class="ver">23</span>whatever can stand fire—you shall put into the fire, that it may become clean; however, it must also be purified with water of purification.<a id="rfn04031023-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn04031023-1">*</a> But whatever cannot stand fire you must put into the water. <span id="v04031024" class="ver">24</span>On the seventh day you will wash your garments, and then you will again be clean. After that you may enter the camp.”</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Division of the Spoils.</span> <span id="v04031025" class="ver">25</span>The <span class="tetr">Lord</span> said to Moses: <span id="v04031026" class="ver">26</span>With the help of Eleazar the priest and of the heads of the ancestral houses of the community, inventory all the spoils captured, human being and beast alike; <span id="v04031027" class="ver">27</span>then divide the spoils<a id="rfn04031027-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn04031027-1">*</a> between the warriors who went on the campaign and the whole community. <span id="v04031028" class="ver">28</span>You will levy a tax for the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> on the soldiers who went on the campaign: one out of every five hundred persons, oxen, donkeys, and sheep. <span id="v04031029" class="ver">29</span>From their half you will take it and give it to Eleazar the priest as a contribution to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>. <span id="v04031030" class="ver">30</span>From the Israelites’ half you will take one captive from every fifty human beings, oxen, donkeys, and sheep—all the animals—and give them to the Levites, who perform the duties of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>’s tabernacle. <span id="v04031031" class="ver">31</span>So Moses and Eleazar the priest did this, as the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> had commanded Moses.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Amount of the Plunder.</span> <span id="v04031032" class="ver">32</span>This plunder, what was left of the loot which the troops had taken, amounted to six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, <span id="v04031033" class="ver">33</span>seventy-two thousand oxen, <span id="v04031034" class="ver">34</span>sixty-one thousand donkeys, <span id="v04031035" class="ver">35</span>and thirty-two thousand women who had not had sexual relations.</p> <p><span id="v04031036" class="ver">36</span>The half-share that fell to those who had gone out on the campaign was in number: three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, <span id="v04031037" class="ver">37</span>of which six hundred and seventy-five fell as tax to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>; <span id="v04031038" class="ver">38</span>thirty-six thousand oxen, of which seventy-two fell as tax to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>; <span id="v04031039" class="ver">39</span>thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, of which sixty-one fell as tax to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>; <span id="v04031040" class="ver">40</span>and sixteen thousand persons, of whom thirty-two persons fell as tax to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>. <span id="v04031041" class="ver">41</span>Moses gave the taxes contributed to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> to Eleazar the priest, exactly as the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> had commanded Moses.</p> <p><span id="v04031042" class="ver">42</span>As for the Israelites’ half, which Moses had taken from the men who had fought— <span id="v04031043" class="ver">43</span>the community’s half was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, <span id="v04031044" class="ver">44</span>thirty-six thousand oxen, <span id="v04031045" class="ver">45</span>thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, <span id="v04031046" class="ver">46</span>and sixteen thousand persons. <span id="v04031047" class="ver">47</span>From the Israelites’ half, Moses took one captive from every fifty, from human being and beast alike, and gave them to the Levites, who performed the duties of the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>’s tabernacle, exactly as the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> had commanded Moses.</p> <p class="psec"><span class="hemb">Gifts of the Officers.</span> <span id="v04031048" class="ver">48</span>Then those who were officers over the contingents of the army, commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, came up to Moses <span id="v04031049" class="ver">49</span>and said to him, “Your servants have counted the soldiers under our command, and not one of us is missing. <span id="v04031050" class="ver">50</span><a id="rfn04031050-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn04031050-1">*</a> So, we have brought as an offering to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span> articles of gold that each of us has picked up—anklets, bracelets, rings, earrings, or pendants—to make atonement for ourselves before the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>.” <span id="v04031051" class="ver">51</span>Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from them, all fashioned pieces. <span id="v04031052" class="ver">52</span>The gold that was given as a contribution to the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>—from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds—amounted in all to sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels. <span id="v04031053" class="ver">53</span>What the common soldiers had looted each one kept for himself.<a id="rfn04031053-1" class="fnref" href="footnotes.htm#fn04031053-1">*</a> <span id="v04031054" class="ver">54</span>So Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and put it in the tent of meeting as a reminder on behalf of the Israelites before the <span class="tetr">Lord</span>.</p> </section> <br /><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="intro.htm"><span class="ac">Book Introduction</span></a></h1><h1 class="cn"><a class="xref" href="footnotes.htm"><span class="ac">Footnotes</span></a></h1></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the <i>New American Bible, revised edition</i> © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. 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