War against the Midianites

31 The Lord spoke to Moses: ² Take just reparations for the Israelites from the Midianites. Afterward you will join your ancestors.

³ Moses spoke to the people: “Equip some of your men for battle so that they may go against Midian and execute the Lord’s just punishment against Midian. ⁴ You will send out for battle one thousand from each of the tribes of Israel.”

⁵ From the thousands of Israel, one thousand from each tribe were selected. Twelve thousand were equipped for battle. ⁶ Moses sent them to battle, one thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas, Eleazar the priest’s son, who carried the sanctuary equipment and the trumpets for sounding the alarm in his hand. ⁷ They battled against Midian as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they killed every male. ⁸ They killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian, along with others slain. They also killed Balaam, Beor’s son, with the sword. ⁹ The Israelites took captive the Midianite women, their little ones, all their cattle, their herds, and their possessions. ¹⁰ They burned all the cities where they lived and their encampments. ¹¹ They took all the spoils of war and the valuable property, both human and animal, ¹² and they brought the captives, the valuable property, and the spoils of war to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the Israelite community, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

Purification from war

¹³ Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs of the community went to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴ Moses became angry with the commanders of the army, the officers of thousands and the officers of hundreds, who came back from the battle. ¹⁵ Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live? ¹⁶ These very women, on Balaam’s advice, made the Israelites break faith with the Lord in the affair at Peor, so there was a plague among the Lord’s community. ¹⁷ Now kill every male child and every female who has known a man intimately by sleeping with him. ¹⁸ But all the young girls who have not known a man intimately by sleeping with him, spare for yourselves. ¹⁹ You will remain outside the camp for seven days. Everyone among you or your captives who has killed a person or touched a corpse must purify themselves on the third and seventh days. ²⁰ You must also purify every garment, and everything made of leather, goats’ hair, or wood.”

Instructions about the spoils of war

²¹ Eleazar the priest said to the men of battle who had gone out to war, “This is the regulation in the Instruction that the Lord commanded Moses: ²² Gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead— ²³ anything that can withstand fire—you will put through the fire and it will be clean. It will also be purified with the water of purification. Anything that isn’t able to withstand fire, you will immerse in water. ²⁴ You must wash your clothes on the seventh day and you will be clean. Afterward you may enter the camp.”

²⁵ The Lord said to Moses: ²⁶ You, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the community’s households must take an inventory of the valuable property and the captives, both human and animals, ²⁷ and divide the valuable property between the warriors who went into battle and the entire community. ²⁸ You will offer as tribute to the Lord from each warrior who went into battle one living being in five hundred, whether human, oxen, donkeys, or flocks. ²⁹ Take it from the warriors’ half and give it to Eleazar the priest as a gift offering to the Lord. ³⁰ But from the Israelites’ half you will take one out of every fifty, whether from human, oxen, donkeys, or flock—all the animals. You will give them to the Levites who carry out the duties of the Lord’s dwelling.

³¹ Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses. ³² The valuable property remaining from the spoils of war that the people of the army had taken was 675,000 sheep, ³³ 72,000 oxen, ³⁴ 61,000 donkeys, ³⁵ and 32,000 women who hadn’t known a man intimately by sleeping with him. ³⁶ The half-share of those who had gone out to battle numbered 337,500 sheep, ³⁷ of which the Lord’s tribute was 675. ³⁸ The oxen were 36,000, of which the Lord’s tribute was 72. ³⁹ The donkeys were 30,500, of which the Lord’s tribute was 61. ⁴⁰ Humans were 16,000, of which the Lord’s tribute was 32 persons. ⁴¹ Moses gave the tribute, a gift offering for the Lord, to Eleazar the priest as the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁴² As for the half-share of the Israelites that Moses divided from those who had gone out to battle: ⁴³ the community’s half-share was 337,500 sheep, ⁴⁴ 36,000 oxen, ⁴⁵ 30,500 donkeys, ⁴⁶ and 16,000 humans. ⁴⁷ Moses took from the Israelites’ half one out of every fifty, from humans and animals. He gave them to the Levites who carry out the duties of the Lord’s dwelling, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁴⁸ The commanders over the thousands of the army, officers over thousands and officers over hundreds, approached Moses ⁴⁹ and said to Moses, “Your servants have counted the warriors in our charge and not one of us is missing. ⁵⁰ We have brought the Lord’s offering that each found, gold articles—anklets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces—to seek reconciliation for ourselves before the Lord.” ⁵¹ Moses and Eleazar the priest took all the gold articles from them. ⁵² All the gold for the gift offering that was presented to the Lord from the officers of thousands and the officers of hundreds was sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty shekels. ⁵³ Each of the men of battle took spoils of war for himself. ⁵⁴ Yet Moses and Eleazar the priest also received the gold from the officers of thousands and of hundreds, and they brought it to the meeting tent as a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord.

Reuben and Gad request land

32 The livestock owned by the Reubenites and the Gadites were unusually vast and numerous. They saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead were exactly the place for livestock. ² So the Gadites and the Reubenites came and said to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs of the community: ³ “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon is ⁴ the land that the Lord struck down before the Israelite community. It is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” ⁵ They said, “If you approve our request, give this land to your servants as property. Don’t make us cross the Jordan.”

⁶ Moses said to the Gadites and the Reubenites, “Should your brothers go to war, while you stay here? ⁷ Why would you destroy the Israelites’ resolve to cross into the land that the Lord gave them? ⁸ Your ancestors did this, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to inspect the land. ⁹ They went up to the Cluster ravine, saw the land, and destroyed the Israelites’ resolve to enter the land that the Lord had given them. ¹⁰ The Lord became angry on that day and promised, ¹¹ ‘None of the persons that went up from Egypt, those 20 years old and above, will see the fertile ground that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they didn’t remain true to me, ¹² except Caleb, Jephunneh the Kenizzite’s son, and Joshua, Nun’s son, because they remained true to the Lord.’ ¹³ The Lord became angry with the Israelites and made them wander in the desert for forty years until the entire generation had died, which had done evil in the Lord’s eyes. ¹⁴ Now you’ve taken the place of your ancestors, a group of sinful men, to intensify the Lord’s anger against Israel. ¹⁵ If you turn away from him, he will turn away again to abandon Israel in the desert. Then you will destroy this entire people.”

Conditions for possession of the land

¹⁶ So they approached him and said, “We will build walled enclosures here for our livestock and towns for our children. ¹⁷ Then we will eagerly fight in front of the Israelites until we have brought them into their place. Our children will live in the fortified cities because of the land’s inhabitants. ¹⁸ And we won’t return to our homes until each one of the Israelites takes possession of his property. ¹⁹ We won’t inherit land with them there across the Jordan, because we’ve received our property on the east side of the Jordan.”

²⁰ Moses said to them, “Do this and fight before the Lord in war. ²¹ All of you who are equipped for war, cross the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven his enemies out before him ²² and the land is subdued in the Lord’s presence. Then you may return innocently before the Lord and Israel, and this land will be your property before the Lord. ²³ But if you don’t do this, you’ve sinned against the Lord. Know that your sin will find you. ²⁴ So build towns for your children and walled enclosures for your flocks, but do what you have promised.”

²⁵ The Gadites and the Reubenites said to Moses, “Your servants will do as my master has commanded. ²⁶ Our children, wives, livestock, and all of our animals will remain in the cities of Gilead. ²⁷ But your servants, everyone equipped for war before the Lord, will go over to do battle as my master said.”

²⁸ Moses made demands for them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua, Nun’s son, and to the leaders of the households of the Israelite tribes. ²⁹ Moses said to them, “If the Gadites and the Reubenites cross the Jordan with you, each equipped for battle before the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, then you will give them the land of Gilead as a possession. ³⁰ If, however, they don’t cross with you, equipped for war, they will take possession of property with you in the land of Canaan.”

³¹ The Gadites and the Reubenites answered, “We’ll do just as the Lord has spoken to your servants. ³² We’ll cross into the land of Canaan before the Lord, equipped for war. But the property we inherit will be across the Jordan.”

Territory of Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh

³³ So Moses gave to them—to the Gadites, the Reubenites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, Joseph’s son—the kingdom of Sihon the king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og the king of Bashan, including the land, its cities, and the territory surrounding the land’s cities. ³⁴ The Gadites built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, ³⁵ Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, ³⁶ Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran, fortified cities and walled enclosures for flocks. ³⁷ The Reubenites built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, ³⁸ Nebo, and Baal-meon (whose names were changed), and Sibmah. They named the cities that they built. ³⁹ The descendants of Machir, Manasseh’s son, went to Gilead, captured it, and drove out the Amorites who were there. ⁴⁰ So Moses gave Gilead to Machir, Manasseh’s son, and he lived there. ⁴¹ Manasseh’s son Jair went and captured their villages and named them Havvoth-jair.^{[a] 42} Nobah went and captured Kenath and its surrounding villages. He renamed it Nobah after himself.