Numbers 31

¹And our Lord spake to Moyses, saying:

²Revenge first the children of Israel on the Madianites, and so thou shalt be gathered to thy people.

³And Moyses forthwith said: Arm of you men to fight, which may take the revenge of our Lord on the Madianites.

⁴Let a thousand men of every tribe be chosen of Israel to be sent to the war.

⁵And they gave a thousand of every tribe, that is to say, twelve thousand well appointed to fight:

⁶whom Moyses sent with Phinees the son of Eleazar the Priest, and the holy vessels, and the trumpets to sound he delivered to him.

⁷And when they had fought against the Madianites and had overcome, all the men they slew,

⁸and their kings Evi, and Recem, and Sur, and Hur, and Rebe, five Princes of the Nation: Balaam also the son of Beor they killed with the sword.

⁹And they took their wives, and little ones, and all their goods: whatsoever they had been able to make, they spoiled:

¹⁰as well cities as towns and castles the fire did consume.

¹¹And they took the prey, and all things that they had taken as well of men as of beasts,

¹²and they brought them to Moyses, and Eleazar the Priest, and to all the multitude of the children of Israel. But the rest of the implements they carried to the camp in the champion countries of Moab, beside Jordan against Jericho.

¹³And Moyses and Eleazar the Priest went forth, & all the Princes of the synagogue to meet them without the camp.

¹⁴And Moyses being angry with the Princes of the host, the tribunes, and the centurions that were come from the battle,

¹⁵said: Why have you reserved the women?

¹⁶Are not these they, that deceived the children of Israel at the suggestion of Balaam, and made you prevaricate against our Lord upon the sin of Phogor, whereupon also the people was strucken?

¹⁷Therefore kill all whatsoever is of the male sex, among the little ones also: & the women, that have known men in carnal copulation, slay ye:

¹⁸but the girls and all the women that are virgins reserve to you:

¹⁹and tarry without the camp seven days. He that hath killed a man, or touched him that is killed, shall be expiated the third day and the seventh.

²⁰And of all the prey, whether it be garment, or vessel, and something prepared for implements, of goats' skins, and hair, and wood shall be expiated.

²¹Eleazar also the Priest spake to the host, that had fought in this manner: This is the precept of the law, which our Lord hath commanded Moyses:

²²Gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin,

²³and all that may pass through the fire, shall be purged by fire, but whatsoever cannot abide the fire, shall be sanctified with the water of expiation:

²⁴and you shall wash your garments the seventh day, and being purified, afterward you shall enter into the camp.

²⁵And our Lord said to Moyses:

²⁶Take the sum of those things that were taken, from man unto beast, thou and Eleazar the Priest and the Princes of the multitude:

²⁷and thou shalt divide the prey equally between them, that fought & went forth to the war, and between the rest of the multitude:

²⁸and thou shalt separate a portion to the Lord from them that fought and were in battle, one soul of five hundred as well of mankind as of oxen and asses and sheep,

²⁹and thou shalt give it to Eleazar the Priest, because they are the first fruits of the Lord.

³⁰Out of the half part also of the children of Israel thou shalt take the fiftieth head of mankind, and of oxen, and asses, and sheep, and of all beasts, and thou shalt give them to the Levites, that watch in the custodies of the tabernacle of the Lord.

³¹And Moyses and Eleazar did, as our Lord commanded.

³²And the prey which the host had taken, was of sheep six hundred seventy five thousand,

³³of oxen seventy two thousand,

³⁴of asses sixty one thousand.

³⁵The souls of the folks of the female sex, that had not known men, thirty two thousand.

³⁶And the half part was given to them, that had been in the battle, of sheep three hundred thirty seven thousand five hundred:

³⁷of the which for the portion of our Lord where reckoned sheep six hundred seventy five.

³⁸And of the thirty six thousand oxen, oxen seventy and two:

³⁹of the thirty thousand five hundred asses, asses sixty one:

⁴⁰of the souls of mankind sixteen thousand, there fell to the portion of our Lord thirty two souls.

⁴¹And Moyses delivered the number of the first fruits of our Lord to Eleazar the Priest, as it had been commanded him,

⁴²of the half part of the children of Israel, which he had separated to them, that had been in the battle.

⁴³But of the half part that had chanced to the rest of the multitude, that is to say, of the three hundred thirty seven thousand five hundred sheep,

⁴⁴and of the thirty six thousand oxen,

⁴⁵and of the thirty thousand five hundred asses,

⁴⁶and of the sixteen thousand of mankind,

⁴⁷Moyses took the fiftieth head, and gave it to the Levites, that watched in the tabernacle of our Lord, as our Lord had commanded.

⁴⁸And when the Princes of the host were come to Moyses, and the tribunes, and centurions, they said:

⁴⁹We thy servants have reckoned the number of the warriors, which we had under our hand: and not so much as one verily was lacking.

⁵⁰For this cause we offer in the donaries of our Lord every one that which we could find in the prey of gold, garters and tablets, rings and bracelets, and chains, that thou mayest pray to our Lord for us.

⁵¹And Moyses and Eleazar the Priest received all the gold in diverse forms

⁵²in weight sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty sicles of the tribunes and of the centurions.

⁵³For that which every one had spoiled in the prey, was his own.

⁵⁴And that which was received they brought into the tabernacle of testimony, for a monument of the children of Israel before our Lord.