Numbers 31:1-20

1The Lord spoke to Moses,

2“Execute vengeance for the Israelites against the Midianites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”

3So Moses spoke to the people, “Equip some of your men for war. They will go against Midian to inflict the Lord’s vengeance on them.

4Send one thousand men to war from each Israelite tribe.”

5So one thousand were recruited from each Israelite tribe out of the thousands in Israel — twelve thousand equipped for war.

6Moses sent one thousand from each tribe to war. They went with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, in whose care were the holy objects and signal trumpets.

7They waged war against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and killed every male.

8Along with the others slain by them, they killed the Midianite kings — Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.

9The Israelites took the Midianite women and their dependents captive, and they plundered all their cattle, flocks, and property.

10Then they burned all the cities where the Midianites lived, as well as all their encampments,

11and took away all the spoils of war and the captives, both people and animals.

12They brought the prisoners, animals, and spoils of war to Moses, the priest Eleazar, and the Israelite community at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

13Moses, the priest Eleazar, and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp.

14But Moses became furious with the officers, the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, who were returning from the military campaign.

15“Have you let every female live?” he asked them.

16“Yet they are the ones who, at Balaam’s advice, incited the Israelites to unfaithfulness against the Lord in the Peor incident, so that the plague came against the Lord’s community.

17So now, kill every male among the dependents and kill every woman who has gone to bed with a man,

18but keep alive for yourselves all the young females who have not gone to bed with a man.

19“You are to remain outside the camp for seven days. All of you and your prisoners who have killed a person or touched the dead are to purify yourselves on the third day and the seventh day.

20Also purify everything: garments, leather goods, things made of goat hair, and every article of wood.”