Numbers 31:1-24

Numbers 31:1-24

[1] And the LORD  spake  unto Moses,  saying,  [2] Avenge  the children  of Israel  of the Midianites:  afterward  shalt thou be gathered  unto thy people.  [3] And Moses  spake  unto the people,  saying,  Arm  of yourselves unto the war,  and let them go against the Midianites,  and avenge  the LORD  of Midian.  [4] Of every tribe  a thousand,  throughout all the tribes  of Israel,  shall ye send  to the war.  [5] So there were delivered  out of the thousands  of Israel,  a thousand  of every tribe,  twelve  thousand  armed  for war.  [6] And Moses  sent  them to the war,  a thousand  of every tribe,  them and Phinehas  the son  of Eleazar  the priest,  to the war,  with the holy  instruments,  and the trumpets  to blow  in his hand.  [7] And they warred  against the Midianites,  as the LORD  commanded  Moses;  and they slew  all the males.  [8] And they slew  the kings  of Midian,  beside  the rest of them that were slain;  namely, Evi,  and Rekem,  and Zur,  and Hur,  and Reba,  five  kings  of Midian:  Balaam  also the son  of Beor  they slew  with the sword.  [9] And the children  of Israel  took all the women  of Midian  captives,  and their little ones,  and took the spoil  of all their cattle,  and all their flocks,  and all their goods.  [10] And they burnt  all their cities  wherein they dwelt,  and all their goodly castles,  with fire.  [11] And they took  all the spoil,  and all the prey,  both of men  and of beasts.  [12] And they brought  the captives,  and the prey,  and the spoil,  unto Moses,  and Eleazar  the priest,  and unto the congregation  of the children  of Israel,  unto the camp  at the plains  of Moab,  which are by Jordan  near Jericho.  [13] And Moses,  and Eleazar  the priest,  and all the princes  of the congregation,  went forth  to meet  them without  the camp.  [14] And Moses  was wroth  with the officers  of the host,  with the captains  over thousands,  and captains  over hundreds,  which came  from  the battle.  [15] And Moses  said  unto them, Have ye saved  all the women  alive?  [16] Behold, these  caused  the children  of Israel,  through the counsel  of Balaam,  to commit  trespass  against the LORD  in the matter  of Peor,  and there was a plague  among the congregation  of the LORD.  [17] Now therefore kill  every male  among the little ones,  and kill  every woman  that hath known  man  by lying  with him.  [18] But all the women  children,  that have not known  a man  by lying  with him, keep alive  for yourselves. [19] And do ye abide  without  the camp  seven  days:  whosoever hath killed  any person,  and whosoever hath touched  any slain,  purify  both yourselves and your captives  on the third  day,  and on the seventh  day.  [20] And purify  all your raiment,  and all that is made  of skins,  and all work  of goats'  hair, and all things made  of wood.  [21] And Eleazar  the priest  said  unto the men  of war  which went  to the battle,  This is the ordinance  of the law  commanded  Moses;  [22] Only the gold,  and the silver,  the brass,  the iron,  the tin,  and the lead,  [23] Every thing  that may abide  the fire,  ye shall make it go through  the fire,  and it shall be clean:  nevertheless it shall be purified  with the water  of separation:  and all that abideth  not the fire  ye shall make go through  the water.  [24] And ye shall wash  your clothes  on the seventh  day,  and ye shall be clean,  and afterward  ye shall come  into the camp. 

What does Numbers 31:1-24 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

The "vengeance" Israel was to take ( Numbers 31:2) was for the spiritual and sexual seduction the Midianites had led the Moabites to practice with them. This had resulted in the defeat of God"s people (ch25). Her enemies had lured Israel away from her true husband, Yahweh.
Moses did not give us the name of Israel"s military leader in this battle. However Phinehas, the high priest"s Song of Solomon , is the prominent person in the record ( Numbers 31:6). This phenomenon points to the nature of the battle as being primarily for spiritual purposes. Israel did not annihilate the Midianites simply because they were her political and military enemies. She did so primarily because she was God"s instrument of judgment for the Midianites" spiritual sins (idolatry, sacred prostitution, etc.). This was holy war.
"The battle . . . had the character of an execution, in the form of a ban. The ban was a religious institution exercised for a time in Israel as well as among some of its Semitic neighbors that placed people judged to be hostile to the deity under a sentence of destruction." [1]
"The command in holy war to kill women and children seems in modern times a terrible thing to have been done (and it was), and something they ought not to have done. But this criticism fails to understand the situation in the ancient world. The entire life of the ancient world was tribal warfare, necessitating warfare. God"s judgment is poured out on whole groups of people who act with moral abandonment and in sinful pursuit." [2]
The Israelites killed every male Midianite ( Numbers 31:7) yet we read about the Midianites existing after this battle. Perhaps Moses meant they killed every Midianite they encountered. [3] Another writer explained this problem as follows.
"The Midianites were a larger confederation of tribes, associated with various smaller groups such as the Ishmaelites ( Genesis 37:28; Judges 8:22; Judges 8:24), the Moabites ( Numbers 22:4; Numbers 22:7), the Amalekites ( Judges 6:3; Judges 6:33), and Ephah ( Genesis 25:4; Isaiah 60:6). They roamed through the arid lands of Sinai, the Negeb and Transjordan. Here it is those Midianites associated with Moab that are picked out for vengeance (8 , 16; cf. chapters22,25), not the whole group." [4]
Among the men killed were Zur and Balaam ( Numbers 31:8). Zur was probably the father of Cozbi (cf. Numbers 25:15).
Burning enemy cities and taking spoil and living beings captive, mainly women and children, became standard procedure in Israel"s wars with the Canaanites ( Numbers 31:10-11). The soldiers brought what they had captured to the leaders of the congregation rather than personally appropriating these things ( Numbers 31:12).
Normally Israel spared the enemy women in battle since the Israelites viewed them as less responsible for the war than the men. However in this case the women had actively solicited the Israelites to idolatry through their prostitution. Therefore God ordered that His people should spare only women who were virgins in this battle. They brought these women into Israel, and in due course most of them married Israelite men.
"It Isaiah , it seems, essential for the very existence of a new emergent community that discipline be harsh and stringent." [5]
The warriors had to undergo the rites of purification as did the prisoners because they had contracted ritual uncleanness through contact with dead bodies. They also purified the booty taken as the spoils of war. The objects that were not combustible they passed through fire, and the others they washed with water. These laws reminded the Israelites that even in victory death is a terrible disruption of God"s creation.
". . . this is the only example of fire being required for purification in the Bible and is therefore highly unique.
"Fire, a more intensive form of purification, is chosen to accord with corpse-contamination, a more intensive form of impurity." [6]
"Moses" speech in Numbers 31:19-20 is based solidly on the prescriptions of Num xix, deviating only in regard to how they apply to the particular war situation. Had Moses continued with Numbers 31:22-23, it would have appeared that he was inventing the new regulations out of thin air. Consequently, Eleazer begins to speak, prefacing his remarks by the statement "this is the decree of the ritual prescription which the Lord commanded Moses," showing that what he is about to say is not in fact new, but actually part of the original revelation given to Moses. From a literary point of view, to have Eleazer speak allows the law of Num. xix to be amended or clarified without raising the suspicion of human invention." [7]