1And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying:
2“Avenge the vengeance of the sons of Israel on the Midianites; afterward you will be gathered to your people.”
3And Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the army, that they may go against Midian to render Yahweh’s vengeance on Midian.
4A thousand from each tribe, a thousand from each tribe, from all the tribes of Israel, you shall send to the army.”
5So there were levied from the thousands of Israel a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for the army.
6And Moses sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the army—them and Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, to the army, with the holy vessels and the trumpets of the alarm in his hand.
7And they made war against Midian, as Yahweh had commanded Moses, and they killed every male.
8And the kings of Midian they killed along with their slain: Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian; and Balaam son of Beor they killed with the sword.
9And the sons of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and all their cattle and all their livestock and all their wealth they plundered.
10And all their cities in their settlements and all their encampments they burned with fire.
11And they took all the spoil and all the plunder, in man and in beast.
12And they brought to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the sons of Israel the captives and the plunder and the spoil, to the camp, to the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan of Jericho.
13And Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp.
14And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who were coming in from the campaign of war.
15And Moses said to them, “Have you kept every female alive?
16Behold, these were the very ones who, by the word of Balaam, caused the sons of Israel to commit treachery against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, so that the plague came upon the congregation of Yahweh.
17Now then, kill every male among the little ones, and every woman who has known a man by lying with a male, kill.
18But all the young girls who have not known lying with a male, keep alive for yourselves.
19As for you, encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever has killed a person and whoever has touched a slain one, you shall purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.
20And every garment, and every article of skin, and everything made of goats’ hair, and every article of wood, you shall purify.
21And Eleazar the priest said to the men of the army who had gone into the battle, “This is the statute of the law that Yahweh commanded Moses:
22Only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead—
23every thing that can go through fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it will be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of impurity. And everything that cannot go through fire, you shall pass through the water.
24And you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you will be clean, and afterward you may come into the camp.”
25And Yahweh said to Moses, saying:
26“Take the count of the plunder that was captured, in man and in beast—you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the congregation.
27And you shall divide the plunder in half, between those skilled in war who went out to the army and all the congregation.
28And you shall levy a tribute for Yahweh from the men of war who went out to the army: one life out of five hundred—from the people, from the cattle, from the donkeys, and from the flock.
29From their half you shall take it, and give it to Eleazar the priest as a contribution to Yahweh.
30And from the half belonging to the sons of Israel you shall take one drawn out of every fifty—from the people, from the cattle, from the donkeys, and from the flock, from all the livestock—and give them to the Levites, who keep the charge of the dwelling of Yahweh.
31And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
32Now the plunder, the rest of the spoil that the people of the army had seized, was: sheep, six hundred and seventy-five thousand;
33and cattle, seventy-two thousand;
34and donkeys, sixty-one thousand;
35and human beings—from the women who had not known lying with a man—all told, thirty-two thousand.
36And the half, the portion of those who had gone out in the army, was: the number of the sheep, three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred;
37and the tribute for Yahweh from the sheep was six hundred and seventy-five.
38And the cattle were thirty-six thousand, and their tribute for Yahweh was seventy-two.
39And the donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred, and their tribute for Yahweh was sixty-one.
40And the human beings were sixteen thousand, and their tribute for Yahweh was thirty-two persons.
41And Moses gave the tribute, the contribution for Yahweh, to Eleazar the priest, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
42And from the half belonging to the sons of Israel, which Moses had divided off from the men who had served in the army—
43now the congregation’s half was: from the sheep, three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred;
44and cattle, thirty-six thousand;
45and donkeys, thirty thousand five hundred;
46and human beings, sixteen thousand—
47from the half belonging to the sons of Israel Moses took the portion taken, one out of every fifty, from the humans and from the animals, and gave them to the Levites, keepers of the charge of Yahweh’s dwelling, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
48And the officers who were over the thousands of the army—the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds—drew near to Moses,
49and they said to Moses, “Your servants have taken the sum of the men of war who are under our command, and not a man of us is missing.
50So we have brought Yahweh’s offering—each man what he found, articles of gold: armlet and bracelet, signet ring, earring, and ornament—to make atonement for ourselves before Yahweh.”
51And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all of it worked articles.
52And all the gold of the contribution that they lifted up for Yahweh was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, from the commanders of thousands and from the commanders of hundreds.
53The men of the army had plundered, each man for himself.
54And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial for the sons of Israel before Yahweh.
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