1And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,
2“Execute the vengeance of the sons of Israel against the Midianites—afterward you are gathered to your people.”
3And Moses speaks to the people, saying, “Arm men from [among] you for the war, and they are against Midian, to put the vengeance of YHWH on Midian;
4one thousand for a tribe—you send one thousand for a tribe, of all the tribes of Israel, to the war.”
5And there are given out of the thousands of Israel one thousand for a tribe—twelve thousand armed ones [for] war;
6and Moses sends them, one thousand for a tribe, to the war; [he sent] them and Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the war, with the holy vessels and the trumpets of shouting in his hand.
7And they war against Midian, as YHWH has commanded Moses, and slay every male;
8and they have slain the kings of Midian besides their pierced ones: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba—five kings of Midian; and they have slain Balaam son of Beor with the sword.
9And the sons of Israel take the women of Midian and their infants captive; and they have plundered all their livestock, and all their substance, and all their wealth;
10and they have burned all their cities, with their habitations, and all their towers, with fire.
11And they take all the spoil and all the prey, among man and among beast;
12and they bring in the captives, and the prey, and the spoil to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the sons of Israel, to the camp, to the plains of Moab, which [are] by the Jordan, [near] Jericho.
13And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, go out to meet them, to the outside of the camp,
14and Moses is angry against the inspectors of the force, chiefs of the thousands, and chiefs of the hundreds, who are coming in from the warfare of battle.
15And Moses says to them, “Have you kept every female alive?
16Behold, they have been to the sons of Israel, through the word of Balaam, to cause a trespass against YHWH in the matter of Peor, and the plague is in the congregation of YHWH.
17And now, slay every male among the infants, indeed, slay every woman knowing a man by the lying of a male;
18and all the infants among the women who have not known the lying of a male you have kept alive for yourselves.
19And you, encamp at the outside of the camp [for] seven days; any who has slain a person, and any who has come against a pierced one, cleanse yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day—you and your captives;
20and every garment, and every skin vessel, and every work of goats’ [hair], and every wooden vessel, you yourselves cleanse.”
21And Eleazar the priest says to the men of war who go to battle, “This [is] the statute of the law which YHWH has commanded Moses:
22only the gold, and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
23everything which may go into fire, you cause to pass over through fire, and it has been clean; it is surely cleansed with the water of separation; and all that may not go into fire, you cause to pass over through water;
24and you have washed your garments on the seventh day and have been clean, and afterward you come into the camp.”
25And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,
26“Take up the sum of the prey of the captives, among man and among beast, you, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers of the congregation;
27and you have halved the prey between those handling the battle, who go out to the war, and all the congregation;
28and you have raised a tribute to YHWH from the men of battle, who go out to the war, one body out of five hundred, of man, and of the herd, and of the donkeys, and of the flock;
29you take from their half and have given [it] to Eleazar the priest [as] a raised-offering of YHWH.
30And from the sons of Israel’s half you take one possession out of fifty, of man, of the herd, of the donkeys, and of the flock, of all the livestock, and you have given them to the Levites keeping the charge of the Dwelling Place of YHWH.”
31And Moses does—Eleazar the priest also—as YHWH has commanded Moses.
32And the prey, the remainder of the spoil which the people of the host have spoiled, is six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand of the flock;
33and seventy-two thousand of the herd;
34and sixty-one thousand donkeys;
35and of mankind—of the women who have not known the lying of a male—all the persons [are] thirty-two thousand.
36And the half, the portion of those who go out into the war, is [in] number three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred of the flock.
37And the tribute to YHWH of the sheep is six hundred seventy-five;
38and the herd [is] thirty-six thousand, and their tribute to YHWH [is] seventy-two;
39and the donkeys [are] thirty thousand and five hundred, and their tribute to YHWH [is] sixty-one;
40and of mankind [are] sixteen thousand, and their tribute to YHWH [is] thirty-two persons.
41And Moses gives the tribute—YHWH’s raised-offering—to Eleazar the priest, as YHWH has commanded Moses.
42And of the sons of Israel’s half, which Moses halved from the men who war—
43and the congregation’s half is three hundred thousand and thirty thousand [and] seven thousand and five hundred of the flock;
44and thirty-six thousand of the herd;
45and thirty thousand and five hundred donkeys;
46and sixteen thousand of mankind—
47Moses takes from the sons of Israel’s half one possession from the fifty, of man and of beast, and gives them to the Levites keeping the charge of the Dwelling Place of YHWH, as YHWH has commanded Moses.
48And the inspectors whom the thousands of the host have (heads of the thousands and heads of the hundreds), draw near to Moses,
49and they say to Moses, “Your servants have taken up the sum of the men of war who [are] with us, and not a man of us has been missed;
50and we bring YHWH’s offering near, each of that which he has found of vessels of gold—chain, and bracelet, seal-ring, [ear]-ring, and bead—to make atonement for ourselves before YHWH.”
51And Moses receives—Eleazar the priest also—the gold from them, every vessel of workmanship;
52and all the gold of the raised-offering which they have lifted up to YHWH is sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, from heads of the thousands and from heads of the hundreds;
53(the men of the host have each taken spoil for himself);
54and Moses takes—Eleazar the priest also—the gold from the heads of the thousands and of the hundreds, and they bring it into the Tent of Meeting [as] a memorial for the sons of Israel before YHWH.