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Numbers 31:15

in Numbers 31

“Have you spared all the women?” he asked them.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?

KJV

And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?

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This verse in Numbers 31

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

It is just that they should die. The law in case of whoredom was, The adulterer and adulteress should surely be put to death. God had put to death the adulterers of Israel by the plague, and now it was fit that the adulteresses of Midian, especially since they had been the tempters, should be put to death by the sword.

This site's exposition

went forth to meet them without the camp

on Numbers 31:13-16

The army is met outside the camp with the women of Midian alive among the captives, and Moses is angry with the officers. Verse 16 supplies what chapters 22 to 24 never said, that these women acted through the counsel of Balaam in the matter of Peor. Chapter 25 had told the seduction without naming its author, and the New Testament follows this verse rather than the narrative at 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 11 and Revelation 2:14, where Balaam is the man who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And Moses said unto them, have ye saved all the women alive?

The words behind it

6 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֥אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • אֲלֵיהֶ֖םto them

    ʾaleihemH413 →5510 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֑הMoses

    moshehH4872 →765 times

  • הַֽחִיִּיתֶ֖ם¿ have you let live

    hachiyitemH2421 →282 times

  • כָּל־every

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • נְקֵבָֽה׃female

    nekevahH5347 →

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

12 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

1 Samuel 15:3Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”4 works2 Chronicles 20:25Then Jehoshaphat and his people went to carry off the plunder, and they found on the bodies an abundance of goods and valuables—more than they could carry away. They were gathering the plunder for three days because there was so much.4 worksDeuteronomy 2:34At that time we captured all his cities and devoted to destruction the people of every city, including women and children. We left no survivors.3 worksJeremiah 48:10Cursed is the one who is remiss in doing the work of the LORD, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed.3 worksDeuteronomy 20:13When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword.2 worksJoshua 10:40So Joshua conquered the whole region—the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, and the slopes, together with all their kings—leaving no survivors. He devoted to destruction everything that breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.2 works
The other 6 cross-references, with their words ▾
Joshua 11:14The Israelites took for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but they put all the people to the sword until they had completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone who breathed.2 worksDeuteronomy 20:16–18However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.2 worksJoshua 6:21At the edge of the sword they devoted to destruction everything in the city—man and woman, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.2 worksJoshua 8:25A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.2 worksPsalms 137:8–9O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.2 worksEzekiel 9:6Slaughter the old men, the young men and maidens, the women and children; but do not go near anyone who has the mark. Now begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the temple.2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 48:10

    Cursed is the one who is remiss in doing the work of the LORD, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed.

    it leads to

    • 1 Samuel 15:3

      Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 1 Kings 20:42

      And the prophet said to the king, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have let slip from your hand the man I had devoted to destruction, your life will be exchanged for…

    • Judges 5:23

      ‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of the LORD. ‘Bitterly curse her inhabitants; for they did not come to help the LORD, to help the LORD against the mighty.’

    • 1 Samuel 15:9

      Saul and his troops spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs, and the best of everything else. They were unwilling to destroy them, but they…

    • 2 Kings 13:19

      But the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times. Then you would have struck down Aram until you had put an end…

  • Through

    1 Samuel 15:3

    Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 20:16–18

      However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.

    • Numbers 24:20

      Then Balaam saw Amalek and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Amalek was first among the nations, but his end is destruction.”

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 2:34

    At that time we captured all his cities and devoted to destruction the people of every city, including women and children. We left no survivors.

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 7:2

      and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Numbers: the study guide →Read Numbers 31 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Numbers 31 →