31:14. And Moses being angry with the chief officers of the army, the
tribunes, and the centurions that were come from the battle,
31:15. Said: Why have you saved the women?
31:16. Are not these they, that deceived the children of Israel by the
counsel of Balaam, and made you transgress against the Lord by the sin
of Phogor, for which also the people was punished?
The sin of Phogor.... The sin committed in the worship of Beelphegor.
31:17. Therefore kill all that are of the male sex, even of the
children: and put to death the women, that have carnally known men.
Of children.... Women and children, ordinarily speaking, were not to be
killed in war, Deut. 20.14. But the great Lord of life and death was
pleased to order it otherwise in the present case, in detestation of
the wickedness of this people, who by the counsel of Balaam, had sent
their women among the Israelites on purpose to draw them from God.
31:18. But the girls, and all the women that are virgins save for
yourselves:
31:19. And stay without the camp seven days. He that hath killed a man,
or touched one that is killed, shall be purified the third day and the
seventh day.
31:20. And of all the spoil, every garment, or vessel, or any thing
made for use, of the skins, or hair of goats, or of wood, shall be
purified.
31:21. Eleazar also the priest spoke to the men of the army, that had
fought, in this manner: This is the ordinance of the law, which the
Lord hath commanded Moses:
31:22. Gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin,
31:23. And all that may pass through the fire, shall be purified by
fire, but whatsoever cannot abide the fire, shall be sanctified with
the water of expiation:
31:24. And you shall wash your garments the seventh day, and being
purified, you shall afterwards enter into the camp.
31:25. And the Lord said to Moses:
31:26. Take the sum of the things that were taken both of man and
beast, thou and Eleazar the priest and the princes of the multitude:
31:27. And thou shalt divide the spoil equally, between them that
fought and went out to the war, and between the rest of the multitude.
31:28. And thou shalt separate a portion to the Lord from them that
fought and were in the battle, one soul of five hundred as well of
persons as of oxen and asses and sheep.
31:29. And thou shalt give it to Eleazar the priest, because they are
the firstfruits of the Lord.
31:30. Out of the moiety also of the children of Israel thou shalt take
the fiftieth head of persons, and of oxen, and asses, and sheep, and of
all beasts, and thou shalt give them to the Levites that watch in the
charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.
31:31. And Moses and Eleazar did as the Lord had commanded.
31:32. And the spoil which the army had taken, was six hundred
seventy-five thousand sheep,
31:33. Seventy-two thousand oxen,
31:34. Sixty-one thousand asses:
31:35. And thirty-two thousand persons of the female sex, that had not
known men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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