Numeri 31:3

Nova Vulgata

Statimque Moyses: "Armate, inquit, ex vobis viros ad pugnam, qui possint ultionem Domini expetere de Madianitis.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Statimque Moyses : Armate, inquit, ex vobis viros ad pugnam, qui possint ultionem Domini expetere de Madianitis.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Statimque Moyses: Armate, inquit, ex vobis viros ad pugnam, qui possint ultionem Domini expetere de Madianitis.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Arm some: Exodus 17:9-13

avenge the Lord: It was God's quarrel, not their own, that they were now to take up. These people were idolaters, and had seduced the Israelites to practise the same abominations. Idolatry is an offence against God; and the civil power has no authority to meddle with what belongs to Him, without especial directions, certified, as in this case, in the most unequivocal manner. Private revenge, ambition, or avarice were to have no place in this business: Jehovah is to be avenged; and through Him, the children of Israel - Numbers 31:2, because they were nearly ruined by their idolatries. If Jehovah, instead of punishing sinners by earthquakes, pestilence, or famine,is pleased expressly to command any person or people to avenge his cause, this commission justifies, nay sanctifies, war, massacre, or devastation. Though none at present shew such a commission, yet the Israelites could; and it is therefore absurd to censure Moses, Joshua, and Israel, for the dreadful slaughter made by them. God himself passed sentence of condemnation, and employed them merely as ministers of his vengeance; and unless it could be proved that the criminals did not deserve their doom, or that God had no right to punish his rebellious creatures, such objectors only shew their enmity to God by becoming the unsolicited advocates of his enemies. Numbers 25:11, Numbers 25:13, Exodus 17:16, Leviticus 26:25, Judges 5:2, Judges 5:23, 2 Kings 9:7, 2 Kings 10:30, Jeremiah 46:10, Jeremiah 50:28

Reciprocal: Genesis 37:28 - Midianites Psalms 149:7 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Moses spake unto the people, saying,.... In obedience to the divine command; this must be supposed to be spoken to the heads or princes of the tribes:

arm some of yourselves unto the war: not the whole body of the militia, 600,000 men and upwards, only some of them, and these choice and select men; and, according to the Jewish writers, good men, who, detesting the sins of lewdness and idolatry, would more strictly and severely avenge themselves on the Midianites for drawing their brethren into those sins, whereby they fell; and so Jarchi calls them righteous men:

[and] let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian: what the Lord calls the vengeance of the Israelites, Moses calls the vengeance of the Lord, because they were the Lord's people, and his cause and theirs the same: and because the sins they were drawn into by the Midianites were not only against themselves, and to their prejudice, but against the Lord and to the dishonour of his name.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Avenge the Lord of Midian - The war against the Midianites was no ordinary war. It was indeed less a war than the execution of a divine sentence against a most guilty people.

Doubtless there were many among the Midianites who were personally guiltless as regards Israel. But the rulers deliberately adopted the counsel of Balaam against Israel, and their behests had been but too readily obeyed by their subjects. The sin therefore was national, and the retribution could be no less so.

But the commission of the Israelites in the text must not be conceived as a general license to slay. They had no discretion to kill or to spare. They were bidden to exterminate without mercy, and brought back to their task Numbers 31:14 when they showed signs of flinching from it. They had no alternarive in this and similar matters except to fulfill the commands of God; an awful but doubtless salutary manifestation, as was afterward the slaughter of the Canaanites, of God’s wrath against sin; and a type of the future extermination of sin and sinners from His kingdom.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 31:3. Avenge the Lord of Midian. — It was God's quarrel, not their own, that they were now to take up. These people were idolaters; idolatry is an offence against GOD; the civil power has no authority to meddle with what belongs to Him, without especial directions, certified in the most unequivocal way. Private revenge, extension of territory, love of plunder, were to have no place in this business; the Lord is to be avenged; and through HIM the children of Israel, (Numbers 31:2), because their souls as well as their bodies had been well nigh ruined by their idolatry.