Numbers 31:1-6

1The Lord said to Moses,

2‘You must punish the Midianites because they caused the Israelites to worship idols. After you have done that, you will die.’

3Moses said to the people, ‘Choose some men to go and fight against the Midianites. Give them weapons to punish the Midianites as the Lord wants.

4Choose 1,000 men from each Israelite tribe to go and fight.’

5They did that. There were 12,000 men ready with weapons to fight the battle.

6Moses sent those men out to fight. There were 1,000 men from each tribe. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, went with them. Phinehas took with him the special things from God's Holy Tent. He also took the trumpets to make sounds for the battle.