Numbers31chapter 31

Numbers 31:13-16

Moses meets the army outside the camp and is angry that the women of Midian are alive. Verse 16 supplies what chapters 22 to 25 never said, that these women acted "through the counsel of Balaam" at Peor. The New Testament follows this verse at 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 11 and Revelation 2:14, where Balaam "taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites".

The anger falls on the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, the men who answered for what the army did. The same officers come back at verse 48 with their count of the men and a gift of gold. Here they are rebuked; there they give thanks.

Matthew Henry answers from the law of Leviticus 20:10, which put both parties to adultery to death. God had already killed the guilty men of Israel by the plague of chapter 25, and Henry holds that the women of Midian, who had tempted them, fell under the same sentence. Verse 16 names the charge.

through the counsel of Balaam: Chapters 22 to 24 end with Balaam going home at 24:25, so this verse adds the fact behind Peor. Albert Barnes renders it more literally, that the women became to Israel a cause of treachery to the LORD. Revelation 2:14 draws on this verse.

Numbers 31:17-18

The order rests on verse 16, Peor and its plague, and Barnes reads the campaign as a sentence on a national sin, since Midian’s rulers took the counsel and their people acted on it. Clarke writes that the author of life may dispose of it and holds out mercy for the souls of the slain. Gill takes the spared girls into Israelite households, under the captive-wife law of Deuteronomy 21:10-14.

John Gill reads for yourselves as taking the girls into households as servants, or as wives once grown and made proselytes. Verse 35 counts them at 32,000. Augustine cites this verse to show that Hebrew usage calls every female a woman, the unmarried girl included.

Numbers 31:19-25

Victory exempts no one from the law of the dead: whoever killed or touched a body waits outside seven days and is purified with "the water of purification", the red heifer rite of chapter 19. Eleazar adds a rule chapter 19 did not give: metal that can withstand fire goes through fire, and what cannot goes through water. The captives are purified with the soldiers.

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the cleansing as reaching everything a body had lain on, the bloodied hands had touched, or idolaters had owned. Numbers 19:14-18 had already made a tent and its vessels unclean by a death. Goods and men fall under one law.

Eleazar speaks here, though Moses gave the order at verse 19. John Gill takes the priest's words to confirm what Moses had already said about purification. Matthew Henry adds that goods once used by Midianites had to be set apart for a holy people before Israel could use them.

Albert Barnes renders the bronze as copper and notes that all six metals were common in Egypt centuries before the Exodus. John Gill notes that these metals made tools and vessels of many kinds. Verse 23 sends them through the fire.

Adam Clarke identifies the water of purification as the water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer in Numbers 19. He thinks the metal was probably melted down. So the metal passes through fire and is still sprinkled with that water.

The seventh day matches the law of Numbers 19:19, where the unclean man washes his clothes and is clean at evening. John Gill compares the leper of Leviticus 14:9, who also washed his clothes on the seventh day. Only then may the soldiers enter the camp.

John Gill places this word after the soldiers, their captives and the spoil had been purified. The count of the prey waits until the seven days are over. What follows is a law for dividing spoil.

Numbers 31:26-31

The plunder is halved between the troops and the congregation that stayed behind, a principle David makes a statute at 1 Samuel 30:24-25. The halves are then taxed differently: the soldiers give "one out of every five hundred" to Eleazar and the congregation gives "one out of every fifty" to the Levites. The levy on those who stayed is ten times the levy on those who went.

John Gill makes the two halves equal, so twelve thousand soldiers took as much as the rest of the congregation together. Matthew Henry reasons that the war was waged for the whole congregation, which likely helped by its prayers. David makes it a statute at 1 Samuel 30:24-25.

The soldiers pay one head in five hundred. Adam Clarke takes the persons in this tribute as given to service under the Levites, and the cattle as sacrifices or for the use of the Levites. John Gill notes that the Targum of Jonathan reads one soul as one woman.

Albert Barnes notes that the word for this offering comes from the same verb rendered levy in verse 28. He compares Numbers 18:24, where the offerings of Israel go to the Levites. John Gill calls it a thanksgiving for victory.

One in fifty is ten times the rate laid on the soldiers at verse 28. The larger levy goes to the Levites, who by Numbers 18:23-24 have no inheritance and live on what Israel offers. The priest takes the smaller share.

John Gill sums up what they did: they counted the booty, halved it between the army and the congregation, and took the levy from each half. The levy went to the priests and the Levites. The sums follow in verses 32 to 47.

Numbers 31:32-40

The plunder comes to 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys and 32,000 women, and the soldiers’ half pays one in five hundred exactly: 675 sheep from 337,500. Clarke rejects an old reading that the 32 persons were sacrificed and takes them as given to sanctuary service. Verse 32 says "this plunder remained from the spoils", leaving room for what verse 53 says the men kept.

Half of 72,000 is 36,000, the figure for each half at verses 38 and 44. One in five hundred of 36,000 is the tribute of 72 in verse 38. Albert Barnes notes the totals are round thousands.

Half of 61,000 is 30,500, as verses 39 and 45 give. One in five hundred of 30,500 is the tribute of 61 at verse 39. Albert Barnes notes that the wealth of Midian still lay in livestock when it raided Israel in the days of the Judges, at Judges 6:5.

These are the girls spared under verse 18. Half of 32,000 is 16,000, at verses 40 and 46, and one in five hundred of that half is the tribute of 32. Adam Clarke adds that not one Israelite appears to have fallen, which verse 49 confirms.

The soldiers' half is set out in verses 37 to 40, and the congregation's matching half in verses 43 to 46. The two lists carry the same figures. Only the levy on them differs, one in five hundred here against one in fifty at verse 47.

337,500 is half of the 675,000 sheep in verse 32. One in five hundred of 337,500 is 675, so the tribute repeats the digits of the whole flock at a thousandth of its size. Albert Barnes notes that the round thousands make the tribute come out even.

The cattle follow the rule of verse 28 exactly. Half of 72,000 is 36,000, and one in five hundred of 36,000 is 72. Adam Clarke thinks such tribute cattle went for sacrifice or for the use of the Levites.

One in five hundred of 30,500 is 61. Donkeys were unclean by Leviticus 11:3, so they could not go on the altar. Adam Clarke allows that tribute animals went either to sacrifice or to the use of the Levites, and the donkeys fit only the second.

One in five hundred of 16,000 is 32. Adam Clarke places these persons in the Lord's service under the Levites. Joshua 9:27 shows foreign servants later set to such work, when the Gibeonites cut wood and drew water for the altar.

Numbers 31:41-47

And Moses gave the tribute: Moses hands the soldiers’ tribute to Eleazar, and the congregation’s half is written out a second time. Its levy of one in fifty goes to "the Levites who kept charge of the tabernacle of the LORD", resting on Numbers 18:21-24, where the Levites hold no inheritance and live on what Israel brings. The phrase "as the LORD had commanded" falls at verses 7, 31, 41 and 47.

The verse opens a parenthesis that repeats the congregation's half before its levy is stated at verse 47. Moses divides, as verse 27 ordered. The camp's share equals the army's to the last head.

The congregation receives 337,500 sheep, the same number the soldiers received at verse 37. Their levy is one in fifty by verse 30, ten times the soldiers' rate of one in five hundred. Verse 47 gives the rate alone.

The congregation's 36,000 cattle match the soldiers' 36,000 at verse 38. Together the two halves make the 72,000 of verse 33. The Levites take their share of these at one in fifty, by verse 47.

The 30,500 donkeys here equal the soldiers' half at verse 39. Together the two halves make the 61,000 of verse 34. The Levites draw one in fifty from this half, under the rule Moses gave at verse 30.

These 16,000 match the soldiers' 16,000 at verse 40, and both halves come from the 32,000 girls of verse 35. By verse 47 the Levites take one in fifty of them. John Gill reads such girls as kept for service, or for marriage once grown.

Here Moses carries out the order of verse 30. The Levites receive this share because they kept charge of the tabernacle, the duty Numbers 3 and 18 assign them. John Gill notes that each half paid its levy, the soldiers' to the priest and the congregation's to the Levites.

Numbers 31:48-50

The officers come unsent and report "not one of us is missing", and Barnes notes that the chapter records no resistance from Midian and that the gift is brought because of it. Their words "to make atonement for ourselves" are the language of Exodus 30:12, where a census required a ransom so that no plague would come. This camp had buried 24,000 in the plague of 25:9.

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call a victory with no Israelite loss an astonishing miracle. Adam Clarke holds that Midian must have fought back in some measure, but in vain, because the battle was the LORD's. Matthew Henry sees care in officers who counted every man.

Albert Barnes compares Exodus 30:11-16, the half shekel paid at a census. He reads this atonement as thanks for undeserved mercy, since a particular sin would have called for a blood sacrifice. Adam Clarke notes this gold lay outside the general count.

Numbers 31:51-54

The commanders bring gold weighing 16,750 shekels. Verse 53 adds that "Each of the soldiers had taken plunder for himself", and Barnes takes it that the common soldiers gave nothing while Gill has every man giving from what he kept. The gold goes into the Tent of Meeting "as a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD", the use Exodus 30:16 gave the atonement money of a numbered people.

John Gill cites Scheuchzer, who reckoned 16,750 shekels at 7,780 ounces and a fraction. Barnes valued it near 20,000 British pounds. Gill adds that common soldiers may have given through their officers, though the verse names only the commanders.

The verse explains where the gold of verse 50 came from, since it stood outside the counted prey of verses 32 to 47. Albert Barnes adds that such private plunder held much besides gold, the goods named at verses 20 and 22. Gill thinks every man gave from it.

Matthew Henry reads the memorial two ways, as a record of God's goodness to hearten Israel in later wars and as a sign of their thanks. Exodus 30:16 gives the census money for the Tent of Meeting the same name. Both gifts went to the sanctuary.