Chapter 31
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The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
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Avenge the vengeance of the sons of Israel from the Midianites; afterward you will be gathered to your people.
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Moses spoke to the people, saying, "Arm men from among yourselves for the army, so they will go against Midian to execute the vengeance of the LORD on Midian."
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A thousand per tribe, a thousand per tribe, for all the tribes of Israel; you shall send them to the army.
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So there were supplied from the thousands of Israel a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
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And Moses sent them—a thousand per tribe—to the army, them and Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the army, and the holy objects and the priestly trumpets for the blast in his hand.
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And they mustered for battle against Midian just as the LORD commanded Moses, and they killed every male.
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And they killed the kings of Midian along with their slain: Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.
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And the sons of Israel took captive the wives of Midian and their little ones and all their livestock and all their acquisitions and all their wealth; they plundered.
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And they burned all their cities in their dwelling places and all their towers in the fire.
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And they took all the spoil and all the captured booty in man and in beast.
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They came to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the congregation of the sons of Israel with the captivity and the taken spoil and the plunder, to the camp, to the plains of Moab which are on the Jordan at Jericho.
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Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp.
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Moses was furious with the officers of the army, the chiefs of the thousands and the chiefs of the hundreds, who came from the host of the warfare.
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Moses said to them, "Have you let all the women live?"
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These women were to the sons of Israel, through the word of Balaam, the reason they committed a trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague upon the congregation of the LORD.
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And now kill every male among the little ones and every woman who has known a man by lying with him.
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And all the little ones among the women who have not known a man by lying with him—keep them alive for yourselves.
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You, encamp outside the camp seven days, every killer of a nephesh and every toucher of a slain one—you shall de-sin on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.
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And every garment and every vessel of skin and every work of goats' hair and every vessel of wood you shall purify.
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Eleazar the priest said to the men of the army, the ones coming to the war, "This is the statute of the Torah which the LORD commanded Moses."
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Only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead.
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Everything that can go into the fire, you shall make pass through the fire, and it shall be pure; but you shall de-sin it with the waters of impurity. And everything that cannot go into the fire you shall make pass through the water.
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You shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you shall be pure. Afterward, you shall come into the camp.