Chronological Plan

¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the sons of Israel; afterward you will be gathered to your people.”

³So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, so that they may go against Midian to execute the LORD’S vengeance on Midian.

⁴You shall send a thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel to the war.”

⁵So there were selected from the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

⁶And Moses sent them, a thousand from each tribe, to the war, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war with them, and the holy implements and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.

⁷So they made war against Midian, just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed every male.

⁸They killed the kings of Midian along with the rest of those killed: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword.

⁹And the sons of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones; and they plundered all their cattle, all their flocks, and all their property.

¹⁰Then they burned all their cities where they lived and all their encampments.

¹¹And they took all the plunder and all the spoils, both of people and of livestock.

¹²They brought the captives and the spoils and the plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the sons of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab which are by the Jordan, opposite Jericho.

¹³And Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp.

¹⁴But Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.

¹⁵And Moses said to them, “Have you spared all the women?

¹⁶Behold, they caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to be unfaithful to the LORD in the matter of Peor, so that the plague took place among the congregation of the LORD!

¹⁷Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately.

¹⁸However, all the girls who have not known a man intimately, keep alive for yourselves.

¹⁹And as for you, camp outside the camp for seven days; whoever has killed a person and whoever has touched anyone killed, purify yourselves, you and your captives, on the third day and on the seventh day.

²⁰And you shall purify for yourselves every garment, every article of leather, every work of goats’ hair, and every article of wood.”

²¹Then 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:

²²only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

²³everything that can withstand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it will be clean, only it shall be purified with water for impurity. But whatever cannot withstand the fire you shall pass through the water.

²⁴And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and you will be clean; and afterward you may enter the camp.”

²⁵Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁶“You and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers’ households of the congregation take a count of the spoils that were captured, both of people and of livestock;

²⁷and divide the spoils between the warriors who went to battle and all the congregation.

²⁸Also, collect a tribute tax for the LORD from the men of war who went to battle, one in five hundred of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys, and of the sheep;

²⁹take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest, as an offering to the LORD.

³⁰And from the sons of Israel’s half, you shall take one drawn from 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 perform the duty of the tabernacle of the LORD.”

³¹Moses and Eleazar the priest did just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³²Now the spoils that remained from the plunder which the men of war had plundered was 675,000 sheep,

³³seventy-two thousand cattle,

³⁴sixty-one thousand donkeys,

³⁵and of captive people, of the women who had not known a man intimately, in all were thirty-two thousand people.

³⁶The half, the share of those who went to war, was as follows: the number of sheep was 337,500,

³⁷the LORD’S tribute tax of the sheep was 675;

³⁸the cattle were thirty-six thousand, from which the LORD’S tribute tax was seventy-two;

³⁹the donkeys were 30,500, from which the LORD’S tribute tax was sixty-one;

⁴⁰and the captive people were sixteen thousand, from whom the LORD’S tribute tax was thirty-two persons.

⁴¹And Moses gave the tribute tax, which was the LORD’S offering, to Eleazar the priest, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁴²As for the sons of Israel’s half, which Moses separated from the men who had gone to war—

⁴³now the congregation’s half was 337,500 sheep,

⁴⁴thirty-six thousand cattle,

⁴⁵30,500 donkeys,

⁴⁶and the captive people were sixteen thousand—

⁴⁷from the sons of Israel’s half Moses took one drawn from every fifty, both of people and of animals, and gave them to the Levites, who performed the duty of the tabernacle of the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁴⁸Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, approached Moses,

⁴⁹and they said to Moses, “Your servants have taken a census of the men of war who are under our authority, and no man of us is missing.

⁵⁰So we have brought as an offering to the LORD what each man found, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for ourselves before the LORD.”

⁵¹Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all kinds of crafted articles.

⁵²All the gold of the offering which they offered up to the LORD, from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, was 16,750 shekels.

⁵³The men of war had taken plunder, every man for himself.

⁵⁴So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it to the tent of meeting as a memorial for the sons of Israel before the LORD.

¹Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had a very large number of livestock. So when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that it was indeed a place suitable for livestock,

²the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying,

³“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon,

⁴the land which the LORD conquered before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

⁵And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as our property; do not take us across the Jordan.”

⁶But Moses said to the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, “Should your brothers go to war while you remain here?

⁷And why are you discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land which the LORD has given them?

⁸This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.

⁹For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the sons of Israel so that they did not go into the land which the LORD had given them.

¹⁰So the LORD’S anger burned on that day, and He swore, saying,

¹¹‘None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully,

¹²except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun; for they have followed the LORD fully.’

¹³So the LORD’S anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the LORD came to an end.

¹⁴Now behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, born of sinful men, to add still more to the burning anger of the LORD against Israel.

¹⁵For if you turn away from following Him, He will once more leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.”

¹⁶Then they approached him and said, “We will build sheepfolds for our livestock here and cities for our little ones;

¹⁷but we ourselves will be armed, hurrying ahead of the sons of Israel, until we have brought them to their place, while our little ones live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁸We will not return to our homes until every one of the sons of Israel has gained possession of his inheritance.

¹⁹But we will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan toward the east.”

²⁰So Moses said to them, “If you will do this, if you will arm yourselves before the LORD for the war,

²¹and all of you armed men cross over the Jordan before the LORD until He has driven His enemies out from Him,

²²and the land is subdued before the LORD, then afterward you may return and be free of obligation toward the LORD and toward Israel, and this land shall be yours as property before the LORD.

²³But if you do not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure that your sin will find you out.

²⁴Build yourselves cities for your little ones, and sheepfolds for your sheep, and do what you have promised.”

²⁵Then the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, “Your servants will do just as my lord commands.

²⁶Our little ones, our wives, our livestock, and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead,

²⁷while your servants, that is, everyone who is armed for war, cross over in the presence of the LORD to battle, just as my lord says.”

²⁸So Moses gave the command regarding them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the sons of Israel.

²⁹And Moses said to them, “If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, everyone who is armed for battle, cross with you over the Jordan in the presence of the LORD, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead as their property;

³⁰but if they do not cross over with you armed, they shall instead be settled among you in the land of Canaan.”

³¹And the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered, saying, “As the LORD has said to your servants, so we will do.

³²We ourselves will cross over armed in the presence of the LORD into the land of Canaan, and the property of our inheritance shall remain with us across the Jordan.”

³³So Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad, the sons of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Joseph’s son Manasseh, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og, the king of Bashan, the land with its cities with their territories, the cities of the surrounding land.

³⁴And the sons of Gad built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,

³⁵Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah,

³⁶Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran as fortified cities, and sheepfolds for sheep.

³⁷The sons of Reuben built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,

³⁸Nebo, and Baal-meon—their names being changed—and Sibmah, and they gave other names to the cities which they built.

³⁹The sons of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it.

⁴⁰So Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he lived in it.

⁴¹Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its towns, and called them Havvoth-jair.

⁴²Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and named it Nobah, after his own name.