Study Desk

And Moses said to them, "Have you ^[c]spared ^(k)all the women?

^(l)Behold, these ^[d]caused the sons of Israel, through the ^[e]counsel of ^(m)Balaam, to ^[f]trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the Lord .

⁽ⁿ⁾Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man ^[g]intimately.

But all the ^[h]girls who have not known man ^[i]intimately, ^[j]spare for yourselves.

^(o)And you, camp outside the camp seven days; whoever has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves, you and your captives, on the third day and on the seventh day.

You shall purify for yourselves every garment and every article of ^[k]leather and all the work of goats' hair, and all articles of wood."

Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, "This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded Moses:

only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin and the lead,

everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean, but it shall be purified with ^(p)water for impurity. But whatever cannot stand the fire you shall pass through the water.

And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may enter the camp."

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

"You and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers' households of the congregation take a count of the booty ^[l]that was captured, both of man and of animal;

and ^(q)divide the booty between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation.

^(r)Levy a tax for the Lord from the men of war who went out to battle, one ^[m]in five hundred of the persons and of the cattle and of the donkeys and of the sheep;

take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest, as an ^[n]offering to the Lord .

From the sons of Israel's half, you shall take one drawn out of every fifty of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys and of the sheep, from all the animals, and give them to the Levites who ^(s)keep charge of the tabernacle of the Lord ."

Moses and Eleazar the priest did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Now the booty that remained from the spoil which the ^[o]men of war had plundered was 675,000 sheep,

and 72,000 cattle,

and 61,000 donkeys,

and of human beings, of the women who had not known man ^[p]intimately, all the persons were 32,000.

The half, the portion of those who went out to war, was as follows: the number of sheep was 337,500,

and the Lord's levy of the sheep was 675;

and the cattle were 36,000, from which the Lord's levy was 72;

and the donkeys were 30,500, from which the Lord's levy was 61;

and the human beings were 16,000, from whom the Lord's levy was 32 persons.