Numbers 31:18
◄  Numbers 31:18  ►
New International Version (©2011)
but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

New Living Translation (©2007)
Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.

English Standard Version (©2001)
But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
but keep alive for yourselves all the young females who have not had sexual relations."

International Standard Version (©2012)
You are to allow the young women who haven't yet had sexual relations with a man to live for yourselves."

NET Bible (©2006)
But all the young women who have not had sexual intercourse with a man will be yours.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
But save for yourselves every girl who has never gone to bed with a man.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
But all the young girls, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

American King James Version
But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

American Standard Version
But all the women-children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But the girls, and all the women that are virgins save for yourselves:

Darby Bible Translation
but all the children among the women that have not known lying with a man, keep alive for yourselves.

English Revised Version
But all the women children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Webster's Bible Translation
But all the female children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

World English Bible
But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Young's Literal Translation
and all the infants among the women, who have not known the lying of a male, ye have kept alive for yourselves.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

31:13-18 The sword of war should spare women and children; but the sword of justice should know no distinction, but that of guilty or not guilty. This war was the execution of a righteous sentence upon a guilty nation, in which the women were the worst criminals. The female children were spared, who, being brought up among the Israelites, would not tempt them to idolatry. The whole history shows the hatefulness of sin, and the guilt of tempting others; it teaches us to avoid all occasions of evil, and to give no quarter to inward lusts. The women and children were not kept for sinful purposes, but for slaves, a custom every where practised in former times, as to captives. In the course of providence, when famine and plagues visit a nation for sin, children suffer in the common calamity. In this case parents are punished in their children; and for children dying before actual sin, full provision is made as to their eternal happiness, by the mercy of God in Christ.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - Keep alive for yourselves, i.e., for domestic slaves in the first instance. Subsequently no doubt many of them became inferior wives of their masters, or were married to their sons. Infants were probably put to death with their mothers.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But all the women children,.... The females among the little ones:

that have not known a man by lying with him; which might be pretty clear, and easily concluded, from their age:

keep for yourselves; either to be handmaids to them, or to be married among them when grown up, and become proselytes, and initiated into their religion.

Numbers 31:18 Parallel Commentaries

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Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


Vengeance on Midian
…17Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that has known man by lying with him. 18But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. 19And do you abide without the camp seven days: whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day. …

Numbers 31:17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,
Numbers 31:19 "Anyone who has killed someone or touched someone who was killed must stay outside the camp seven days. On the third and seventh days you must purify yourselves and your captives.