Numbers 31:14 Moses was angry with the officers of the army--the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds--who returned from the battle.

◄ Numbers 31:14 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
Moses was angry with the officers of the army--the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds--who returned from the battle.

English Standard Version
And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.

New American Standard Bible
Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.

King James Bible
And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
But Moses became furious with the officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, who were returning from the military campaign. "

International Standard Version
But Moses became livid with anger at the officers of the army, the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds who had returned from servicing in the battle.

American Standard Version
And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Moses being angry with the chief officers of the army, the tribunes, and the centurions that were come from the battle,

Darby Bible Translation
And Moses was wroth with the officers of the army, with the captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war;

Young's Literal Translation
and Moses is wroth against the inspectors of the force, chiefs of the thousands, and chiefs of the hundreds, who are coming in from the host of the battle.

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's 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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

14-18. And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host—The displeasure of the great leader, though it appears the ebullition of a fierce and sanguinary temper, arose in reality from a pious and enlightened regard to the best interests of Israel. No order had been given for the slaughter of the women, and in ancient war they were commonly reserved for slaves. By their antecedent conduct, however, the Midianitish women had forfeited all claims to mild or merciful treatment; and the sacred character, the avowed object of the war (Nu 31:2, 3), made their slaughter necessary without any special order. But why "kill every male among the little ones"? It was designed to be a war of extermination, such as God Himself had ordered against the people of Canaan, whom the Midianites equalled in the enormity of their wickedness.