Numbers 31:9-20

9The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder.

10They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps.

11They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals,

12and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.

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

14Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.

15“Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them.

16“They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people.

17Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,

18but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

19“Anyone who has killed someone or touched someone who was killed must stay outside the camp seven days. On the third and seventh days you must purify yourselves and your captives.

20Purify every garment as well as everything made of leather, goat hair or wood.”