Numbers 31:1-12 ▼

1 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

2 “Execute the vengeance of the sons of Israel against the Midianites—afterward you are gathered to your people.”

3 And Moses speaks to the people, saying, “Arm men from [among] you for the war, and they are against Midian, to put the vengeance of YHWH on Midian;

4 one thousand for a tribe—you send one thousand for a tribe, of all the tribes of Israel, to the war.”

5 And there are given out of the thousands of Israel one thousand for a tribe—twelve thousand armed ones [for] war;

6 and Moses sends them, one thousand for a tribe, to the war; [he sent] them and Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the war, with the holy vessels and the trumpets of shouting in his hand.

7 And they war against Midian, as YHWH has commanded Moses, and slay every male;

8 and they have slain the kings of Midian besides their pierced ones: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba—five kings of Midian; and they have slain Balaam son of Beor with the sword.

9 And the sons of Israel take the women of Midian and their infants captive; and they have plundered all their livestock, and all their substance, and all their wealth;

10 and they have burned all their cities, with their habitations, and all their towers, with fire.

11 And they take all the spoil and all the prey, among man and among beast;

12 and they bring in the captives, and the prey, and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the sons of Israel, to the camp, to the plains of Moab, which [are] by the Jordan, [near] Jericho.