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CHAPTER 31
1 And the Lord spake to Moses, and said,
2 Avenge thou first the sons of Israel of Midianites, and so thou shalt be gathered to thy people.
3 And anon Moses said, Arm ye men of you to battle, that be able to take of the Midianites the vengeance of the Lord.
4 Of each lineage be chosen a thousand men of Israel, that shall be sent to battle.
5 And of each lineage they gave a thousand, that is, twelve thousand of men, ready to battle;
6 which Moses sent forth with Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the priest. And Moses betook to them [the] holy vessels, and trumps to make sound.
7 And when they had fought against Midianites, and had overcome them, Israel killed all the males,
8 and the kings of them, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five princes of the folk of them. Also Israel killed with sword Balaam, the son of Beor.
9 And Israel took the women of them, and their little children, and all their beasts, and all the appurtenance of their household; whatever they might have, they spoiled, that is, destroyed;
10 the flame burnt as well the cities, as little towns, and castles.
11 And they took prey, and all things which they had taken, as well of men as of beasts,
12 and they brought to Moses, and to Eleazar, the priest, and to all the multitude of the sons of Israel. Soothly they bare other useable things to their tents, standing in the field places of Moab, beside Jordan, against Jericho.
13 [And] Moses and Eleazar, the priest, and all the princes of the synagogue, went out into the coming of them, without the tents.
14 And Moses was wroth to the princes of the host, to the tribunes, and the centurions, [or leaders of thousands, and governors of hundreds], that came from the battle;
15 and he said to them, Why kept ye [the] women?
16 whether it be not these that deceived the sons of Israel, at the suggestion of Balaam, and made you to do trespass against the Lord, upon the sin of Peor, wherefore also the people was slain?
17 And therefore slay ye all the men, whatever is of male kind, and the little children; and strangle ye the women that have known men fleshly;
18 soothly keep ye to you the young damsels, and all women virgins,
19 and dwell ye without the tents seven days. He that slayeth a man, or toucheth a slain man, shall be cleansed in the third [day], and the seventh day;
20 and of all the prey, whether it is cloth, or vessel, and anything made ready to things pertaining to use, of the skins and hairs of goats, and wood, it shall be cleansed.
21 And Eleazar, the priest, spake thus to the men of the host that fought, This is the commandment of the law, which the Lord commanded to Moses,
22 The gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and tin, and lead,
23 and all thing that may pass by flame, shall be purged by fire; soothly whatever thing may not suffer fire, shall be hallowed with the water of cleansing.
24 And ye shall wash your clothes in the seventh day, and ye shall be cleansed; and afterward ye shall enter into the tents.
25 And the Lord said to Moses,
26 Take ye the sum or the number of those things that be taken, from man till to beast, thou, and Eleazar, [the] priest, and all the princes of the common people.
27 And thou shalt part evenly the prey betwixt them that fought and went out to battle, and betwixt all the other multitude.
28 And thou shalt separate a part to the Lord, of them that have fought, and were in battle, one soul of five hundred, as well of men, as of oxen, and of asses, and of sheep.
29 And thou shalt give that part to Eleazar, the priest, for those [or they] be the first fruits of the Lord.
30 Also of the half part of the sons of Israel, thou shalt take the fiftieth head of men, and of oxen, and of asses, and of sheep, and of all living beasts; and thou shalt give those [or them] to the deacons [or Levites], that wake in the keepings of the tabernacle of the Lord.
31 And Moses and Eleazar did, as the Lord commanded.
32 Forsooth the prey which the host had taken, was six hundred and five and seventy thousand of sheep,
33 of oxen, two and seventy thousand,
34 of asses, sixty thousand and a thousand;
35 the souls of the persons of women-kind, that knew not men, were two and thirty thousand.
36 And the half part was given to them that were in the battle, of sheep three hundred seven and thirty thousand, and five hundred;
37 of which six hundred five and seventy sheep were numbered into the part of the Lord;
38 and of six and thirty thousand oxen, two and seventy oxen;
39 and of thirty thousand asses and five hundred, one and sixty asses;
40 of [the] sixteen thousand persons of men, two and thirty persons befelled into the part of the Lord.
41 And Moses betook the number of the first fruits of the Lord to Eleazar, the priest, as it was commanded to him,
42 of the half part of the sons of Israel, which he parted to them that were in battle.
43 And of the half part that befelled to the tother multitude, that is, of three hundred seven and thirty thousand sheep and five hundred,
44 and of six and thirty thousand oxen,
45 and of thirty thousand asses and five hundred,
46 and of sixteen thousand women,
47 Moses took the fiftieth head, and he gave them to the deacons [or Levites], that wake or watch in the tabernacle of the Lord, as the Lord commanded.
48 And when the princes of the host, and the tribunes [or the leaders of thousands], and the centurions [or rulers of hundreds] had nighed to Moses,
49 they said, We thy servants have told or totalled the number of fighters, which we had under our hand, or power, and soothly not one failed;
50 for which cause we offer, or bring, to thee free gifts of the Lord, all by ourselves, that that we might find of gold in the prey, girdles for the women’s middles, and bies of the arms, and rings, and ornaments of the arm nigh the hand, and bies of the necks of women, that thou pray the Lord for us.
51 And Moses and Eleazar, the priest, took all the gold in diverse kinds,
52 by the weight of the saintuary, sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, of the tribunes [or the leaders of thousands], and the centurions [or rulers of hundreds].
53 For that that each man ravished in the prey, was his own;
54 and they bare the gold taken into the tabernacle of witnessing, into mind of the sons of Israel, before the Lord.

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© 2001,2010,2011,2012,2013,2015 Terry Noble