1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,2Avenge the vengeance of the sons of Israel against the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people.3Moses spoke to the people, saying, "Arm men from among you for the army, and let them go against Midian to execute the LORD's vengeance on Midian."4Send to the army a thousand from each tribe, a thousand from each tribe, for every tribe of Israel.5From the thousands of Israel there were committed a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for the army.6Moses sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the army, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the army, and the articles of holiness and the trumpets of the shout were in his hand.7They served against Midian just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed every male.8They killed the kings of Midian upon their slain: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian; and they killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.9The sons of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their children and all their animals and all their livestock and all their goods; they plundered them.10They burned with fire all their cities in their settlements and all their encampments.11They took all the spoil and all the prey, both of men and of animals.12They brought the captives, the prey, and the spoil to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the sons of Israel at the camp in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.13Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went out from the camp to meet them.14Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds who had come from the battle.15Moses said to them, Have you kept every female alive?16Look! They became for the sons of Israel a cause of unfaithfulness against the LORD through the word of Balaam concerning the matter of Peor, and the plague came upon the congregation of the LORD.17Now kill every male among the children, and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with a male.18But keep alive for yourselves every child among the women who has not known lying with a male.19You shall camp outside the camp for seven days. Everyone who has killed a person and everyone who has touched a slain body shall purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, both you and your captives.20You shall purify every garment, every article of skin, every work of goats, and every article of wood.21Eleazar the priest said to the men of the army who had come from the battle, This is the statute of the instruction that the LORD commanded Moses.22Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,23Every object that comes in fire you shall pass through fire, and it shall be pure; but everything that does not come in fire you shall pass through water of impurity, and it shall be purified.24You shall wash your garments on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may enter the camp.