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Read the Bible

Literal Standard Version

Numbers 31:18

and all the infants among the women who have not known the lying of a male you have kept alive for yourselves.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Captive;   Sanitation;   Women;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Desert, Journey of Israel through the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Midianites;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Moab;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Concubine;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Midian, Mtdianites;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Eleazar ;   Midian, Midianites ;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - On to Canaan;   Moses, the Man of God;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Slave;   Stranger and Sojourner (in the Old Testament);   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Hafṭarah;   Midian and Midianites;   Sidra;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
King James Version
But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
Lexham English Bible
But all the females who have not had sexual intercourse with a man, keep alive for yourselves.
English Standard Version
But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.
New Century Version
But save for yourselves the girls who have not had sexual relations with a man.
New English Translation
But all the young women who have not had sexual intercourse with a man will be yours.
Amplified Bible
"But all the young girls who have not known a man intimately, keep alive for yourselves [to marry].
New American Standard Bible
"However, all the girls who have not known a man intimately, keep alive for yourselves.
Geneva Bible (1587)
But all the women children that haue not knowen carnall copulation, keepe aliue for your selues.
Legacy Standard Bible
But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves.
Contemporary English Version
But do not kill the young women who have never had sex. You may keep them for yourselves."
Complete Jewish Bible
But the young girls who have never slept with a man, keep alive for yourselves.
Darby Translation
but all the children among the women that have not known lying with a man, keep alive for yourselves.
Easy-to-Read Version
You can let all the young girls live—but only if they never had sexual relations with any man.
George Lamsa Translation
But all the female children, who have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
Good News Translation
but keep alive for yourselves all the girls and all the women who are virgins.
Christian Standard Bible®
but keep alive for yourselves all the young females who have not gone to bed with a man.
Literal Translation
And you shall keep alive for yourselves all the female children who have not known a man by lying with a male.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But all the wemen chidren yt haue knowne no me ner lien wt them, kepe those alyue for youre selues.
American Standard Version
But all the women-children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
Bible in Basic English
But all the female children who have had no sex relations with men, you may keep for yourselves.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But all the women children that haue not lien with men carnally, kepe alyue for your selues.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
But all the women children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
King James Version (1611)
But all the women children that haue not knowen a man by lying with him, keepe aliue for your selues.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And as for all the captivity of women, who have not known the lying with man, save ye them alive.
English Revised Version
But all the women children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
Berean Standard Bible
but spare for yourselves every girl who has never had relations with a man.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
forsothe reserue ye to you damesels, and alle wymmen virgyns,
Young's Literal Translation
and all the infants among the women, who have not known the lying of a male, ye have kept alive for yourselves.
Update Bible Version
But all the women-children, that haven't had sex with a man, keep alive for yourselves.
Webster's Bible Translation
But all the female children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
World English Bible
But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
New King James Version
But keep alive for yourselves all the young girls who have not known a man intimately.
New Living Translation
Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.
New Life Bible
But keep alive for yourselves all the girls who have not had a man.
New Revised Standard
But all the young girls who have not known a man by sleeping with him, keep alive for yourselves.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
But all the young of womankind that hay, not cohabited with man, preserve alive for yourselves.
Douay-Rheims Bible
But the girls, and all the women that are virgins save for yourselves:
Revised Standard Version
But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves.

Contextual Overview

13And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, go out to meet them, to the outside of the camp, 14and Moses is angry against the inspectors of the force, chiefs of the thousands, and chiefs of the hundreds, who are coming in from the warfare of battle. 15And Moses says to them, "Have you kept every female alive? 16Behold, they have been to the sons of Israel, through the word of Balaam, to cause a trespass against YHWH in the matter of Peor, and the plague is in the congregation of YHWH. 17And now, slay every male among the infants, indeed, slay every woman knowing a man by the lying of a male; 18and all the infants among the women who have not known the lying of a male you have kept alive for yourselves.19And you, encamp at the outside of the camp [for] seven days; any who has slain a person, and any who has come against a pierced one, cleanse yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day—you and your captives; 20and every garment, and every skin vessel, and every work of goats' [hair], and every wooden vessel, you yourselves cleanse." 21And Eleazar the priest says to the men of war who go to battle, "This [is] the statute of the law which YHWH has commanded Moses: 22only the gold, and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

keep alive for yourselves: It has been groundlessly asserted, that Moses here authorised the Israelites to make concubines of the whole number of female children; and an insidious objection against his writings has been grounded upon this monstrous supposition. But the whole tenor of the law, and especially a statute recorded in Deuteronomy 21:10-14, proves most decisively to the contrary. They were merely permitted to possess them as female slaves, educating them in their families, and employing them as domestics; for the laws concerning fornication, concubinage, and marriage, were in full force, and prohibited an Israelite even from marrying a captive, without delays and previous formalities; and if he afterwards divorced her, he was to set here at liberty, "because he had humbled her." Leviticus 25:44, Deuteronomy 20:14, Deuteronomy 21:10-14, 2 Chronicles 28:8-10, Isaiah 14:2

Reciprocal: Genesis 24:16 - known Deuteronomy 20:13 - thou shalt smite Deuteronomy 21:11 - that Judges 21:11 - every male

Cross-References

Genesis 27:41
And Esau hates Jacob, because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau says in his heart, "The days of mourning [for] my father draw near, and I slay my brother Jacob."
Genesis 28:21
when I have turned back in peace to the house of my father, and YHWH has become my God,
Genesis 31:1
And he hears the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken all that our father has; indeed, from that which our father has, he has made all this glory";
Genesis 31:2
and Jacob sees the face of Laban, and behold, it is not with him as before.
Genesis 31:27
Why have you hidden yourself to flee, and deceive me, and have not declared to me, and I send you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with harp,
Genesis 31:29
my hand is to God to do evil with you, but the God of your father last night has spoken to me, saying, Take heed to yourself from speaking with Jacob from good to evil.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But all the women children,.... The females among the little ones:

that have not known a man by lying with him; which might be pretty clear, and easily concluded, from their age:

keep for yourselves; either to be handmaids to them, or to be married among them when grown up, and become proselytes, and initiated into their religion.


 
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