Christian Standard Bible
Numbers 31:18
18but keep alive for yourselves all the young females who have not gone to bed with a man.
Numbers 31:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
- New International Version (NIV)but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
- English Standard Version (ESV)But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.
- New King James Version (NKJV)But keep alive for yourselves all the young girls who have not known a man intimately.
Context of Numbers 31:18
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, but 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.”
Read all of Numbers 31Numbers 31:18 word by word
וְכֹל֙ הַטַּ֣ף בַּנָּשִׁ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹא־יָדְע֖וּ מִשְׁכַּ֣ב זָכָ֑ר הַחֲי֖וּ לָכֶֽם׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Numbers 31:18
- Numbers 21:10The Israelites set out and camped at Oboth.
- Leviticus 25:44Your male and female slaves are to be from the nations around you; you may purchase male and female slaves.
- Deuteronomy 20:14But you may take the women, dependents, animals, and whatever else is in the city — all its spoil — as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you.
- Deuteronomy 21:10“When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God hands them over to you and you take some of them prisoner, and
- 2 Chronicles 28:8Then the Israelites took two hundred thousand captives from their brothers — women, sons, and daughters. They also took a great deal of plunder from them and brought it to Samaria.
- Isaiah 14:2The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their captors and will rule over their oppressors.
Commentaries on Numbers 31:18
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 13-18Verses 13-18 The sword of war should spare women and children; but the sword of justice should know no distinction, but that of guilty or not guilty. This war was the execution of a righteous sentence upon a guilty nation, in which the women were the worst criminals. The female children were spared, who, being brought up among the Israelites, would not tempt them to idolatry. The whole history shows the hatefulness of sin, and the guilt of tempting…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 17-18Only young, virgin women were to be spared. They were allowed to live because they had not taken part in the sin at Baal Peor.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 14-1814-18. And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host--The displeasure of the great leader, though it appears the ebullition of a fierce and sanguinary temper, arose in reality from a pious and enlightened regard to the best interests of Israel. No order had been given for the slaughter of the women, and in ancient war they were commonly reserved for slaves. By their antecedent conduct, however, the Midianitish women had forfeited all claims to mild or…Read the comment
Topics related to Numbers 31:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Numbers 31
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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