Numbers 31 commentary

NUMBERS 31 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Vengeance on the Midianites
1 The Lord said to Moses,
BARNES, "And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After the plague upon Israel for
their fornication and idolatry, into which they were drawn by the daughters of Moab and
Midian, and after the sum of the people was taken in the plains of Moab, and various
laws given or repeated, and a little before the death of Moses:
GILL, "And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After the plague upon Israel for their
fornication and idolatry, into which they were drawn by the daughters of Moab and
Midian, and after the sum of the people was taken in the plains of Moab, and various
laws given or repeated, and a little before the death of Moses:
HENRY 1-6, "Here, I. The Lord of hosts gives orders to Moses to make war upon the
Midianites, and his commission no doubt justified this war, though it will not serve to
justify the like without such commission. The Midianites were the posterity of Abraham
by Ketuarah, Gen_25:2. Some of them settled south of Canaan, among whom Jethro
lived, and they retained the worship of the true God; but these were settled east of
Canaan, and had fallen into idolatry, neighbours to, and in confederacy with, the
Moabites. Their land was not designed to be given to Israel, nor would Israel have
meddled with them if they had not made themselves obnoxious to their resentment by
sending their bad women among them to draw them to whoredom and idolatry. This
was the provocation, this was the quarrel. For this (says God) avenge Israel of the
Midianites, Num_31:2. 1. God would have the Midianites chastised, an inroad made
upon that part of their country which lay next to the camp of Israel, and which was
probably more concerned in that mischief than the Moabites, who therefore were let
alone. God will have us to reckon those our worst enemies that draw us to sin, and to
avoid them; and since every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lusts,
and these are the Midianites which ensnare us with their wiles, on them we should
avenge ourselves, not only make no league with them, but make war upon them by living
a life of mortification. God had taken vengeance on his own people for yielding to the
Midianites' temptations; now the Midianites, that gave the temptation, must be
reckoned with, for the deceived and the deceiver are his (Job_12:16), both accountable
to his tribunal; and, though judgment begin at the house of God, it shall not end there,
1Pe_4:17. There is a day coming when vengeance will be taken on those that have
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introduced errors and corruptions into the church, and the devil that deceived men will
be cast into the lake of fire. Israel's quarrel with Amalek, that fought against them, was
not avenged till long after: but their quarrel with Midian, that debauched them, was
speedily avenged, for they were looked upon as much more the dangerous and malicious
enemies. 2. God would have it done by Moses, in his life-time, that he who had so deeply
resented that injury might have the satisfaction of seeing it avenged. “See this execution
done upon the enemies of God and Israel, and afterwards thou shalt be gathered to thy
people.” This was the only piece of service of this kind that Moses must further do, and
then he has accomplished, as a hireling, his day, and shall have his quietus - enter into
rest: hitherto his usefulness must come, and no further; the wars of Canaan must be
carried on by another hand. Note, God sometimes removes useful men when we think
they can be ill spared; but this ought to satisfy us, that they are never removed till they
have done the work which was appointed them.
JAMISON, "Num_31:1-54. The Midianites spoiled and Balaam slain.
the Lord spake unto Moses, Avenge the children of Israel of the
Midianites — a semi-nomad people, descended from Abraham and Keturah, occupying
a tract of country east and southeast of Moab, which lay on the eastern coast of the Dead
Sea. They seem to have been the principal instigators of the infamous scheme of
seduction, planned to entrap the Israelites into the double crime of idolatry and
licentiousness [Num_25:1-3, Num_25:17, Num_25:18] by which, it was hoped, the Lord
would withdraw from that people the benefit of His protection and favor. Moreover, the
Midianites had rendered themselves particularly obnoxious by entering into a hostile
league with the Amorites (Jos_13:21). The Moabites were at this time spared in
consideration of Lot (Deu_2:9) and because the measure of their iniquities was not yet
full. God spoke of avenging “the children of Israel” [Num_31:2]; Moses spoke of
avenging the Lord [Num_31:3], as dishonor had been done to God and an injury
inflicted on His people. The interests were identical. God and His people have the same
cause, the same friends, and the same assailants. This, in fact, was a religious war,
undertaken by the express command of God against idolaters, who had seduced the
Israelites to practise their abominations.
K&D, "The Campaign. - After the people of Israel had been mustered as the army of
Jehovah, and their future relation to the Lord had been firmly established by the order
of sacrifice that was given to them immediately afterwards, the Lord commanded Moses
to carry out that hostility to the Midianites which had already been commanded in
Num_25:16-18. Moses was to revenge (i.e., to execute) the revenge of the children of
Israel upon the Midianites, and then to be gathered to his people, i.e., to die, as had
already been revealed to him (Num_27:13). “The revenge of the children of Israel” was
revenge for the wickedness which the tribes of the Midianites who dwelt on the east of
Moab (see at Num_22:4) had practised upon the Israelites, by seducing them to the
idolatrous worship of Baal Peor. This revenge is called the “revenge of Jehovah” in
Num_31:3, because the seduction had violated the divinity and honour of Jehovah. The
daughters of Moab had also taken part in the seduction (Num_25:1-2); but they had
done so at the instigation of the Midianites, and not of their own accord, and therefore
the Midianites only were to atone for the wickedness.
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CALVIN, "1.And the Lord spake unto Moses. Amongst the other prerogatives
which God conferred upon His Church, this one is celebrated, that He armed the
godly “to execute vengeance upon the heathen, — to execute upon them the
judgment that is written,” (Psalms 149:7) and although the Spirit declares that this
should happen under the kingdom of Christ, still He refers to ancient examples, one
of which, well worthy of remembrance, is here recorded. The Midianites had
organized a wicked conspiracy for the destruction of God’s people: and God, in
undertaking to punish this cruel act of theirs, gave a striking proof of His paternal
favor towards the Israelites; whilst this grace is doubled by His constituting them
the ministers of his judgment. This passage, therefore, shews us how anxious God
was for the welfare of His elect people, when He so set Himself against their
enemies, as if He would make common cause in all respects with them. At the same
time we must observe this additional favor towards them, that although the
Israelites themselves were not without blame, He still deigned to appoint them as
judges of the Midianites. Inasmuch, however, as He everywhere prohibits His
people from indulging the lust of vengeance, we must not forget the distinction
between men’s vengeance and His own. He would have His servants, by patiently
bearing injuries, overcome evil with good; while, at the same time, He by no means
abdicates His own power, but still reserves to Himself the right of inflicting
punishment. Nay, Paul, desiring to exhort believers to long-suffering, recalls them to
the principle, that God takes upon Himself the office of avenging. (203) Since, then,
God is at liberty to execute vengeance, not only by Himself, but also by His
ministers, as we have already seen, these two things are not inconsistent with each
other, that the passions of the godly are laid under restraint by the Word, that they
should not, when injured, seek for vengeance, or retaliate the evils they have
received, and still that they are the just and legitimate executioners of God’s
vengeance, when the sword is put into their hands. It remains, that whosoever is
called to this office, should punish crime with honest zeal, as the minister of God,
and not as acting in his own private cause. God here intrusted the office of
vengeance upon His people, but by no means in order that they might indulge the
lust of their nature: for their feeling ought to have been this, that they should have
been ready to pardon the Midianites, (204) and still that they should heartily bestir
themselves to inflict punishment upon them.
That, whilst God so severely judged the Midianites, he spared the Moabites, was for
the sake of Lot, who was the founder of their race. But I have already frequently
reminded my readers that, when God’s judgments surpass our understanding, we
should, in sober humility, give glory to His secret, and to us incomprehensible,
wisdom: for those who, in this respect, seek to know more than is fitting, elevate
themselves too high, in order to plunge with head-long audacity into a profound
abyss, in which, at length, all their senses must be overwhelmed. Why was He not at
liberty to remit the punishment of the Moabites, and at the same time to repay to the
Midianites the recompense which was their due? Besides, it was only for a time that
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he pardoned the Moabites, until their obstinacy should render them inexcusable,
after they had not only abused his forbearance, but tyrannically afflicted their
brethren, by whom they had been treated with kindness.
Moreover, God desired, whilst Moses was still alive, again to testify by this final act
His love towards His people, in order that they might more cheerfully advance to the
possession of the promised land: for this was no feeble encouragement, when they
saw that God spontaneously put Himself forward to avenge them. At the same time
it was expedient for Moses that, at the very moment of his death, he should feel, by a
fresh instance, what care God took for the welfare of the people. For he was able
joyfully to leave them in God’s keeping, whose hand he had so recently seen put
forth to fulfill to the utmost His gracious purposes towards them. To the same effect
were the words, “Thou shalt be gathered unto thy people,” which were undoubtedly
spoken as a consolation in death. It was also a reason for making haste; for if the
dearth of the holy Prophet had been waited for, perhaps the Israelites would not
have dared to attack, with arms in their hands, a peaceful nation, from whom there
was no peril or inconvenience impending. But so great was the authority of Moses
over them, that they were more ready to obey his bidding than that of any other
person.
Although it is said indifferently of the reprobate as well as believers, that they are
gathered or congregated to their fathers by death, still this expression shews that
men are born for immortality; for it would not be appropriate to say this of the
brute animals, whose death is their final destruction, inasmuch as they are without
the hope of another life.
COFFMAN 1- 12 "chapter records the war of extermination commanded by God
against Midian. It was not a war of personal vengeance, but a war of execution of
the wrath of a just God against a people who deliberately became God's enemies
and sought by every device they knew to frustrate the Divine purpose with regard to
Israel.
The Christian student will encounter a great freight of anti-Biblical and even anti-
Christian comment in the books which allegedly "learned men" have written on
Numbers. Here are random samples of such false comments from several authors
throughout the current century:
This is not a history, but Midrash.[1] The account is more ideal than historical.[2]
This tale ... is commonly thought to be unhistorical. It may perhaps be a pious
invention of later times.[3] The report of the Midianite war contains little that is
factual.[4]
These comments dated from 1903,1929, and 1968, respectively indicate that the
critical scholars have learned absolutely nothing at all during the present century,
but are still parroting the worn-out denials which first became prevalent in the
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infamous International Critical Commentary at the turn of the current century.
What is the alleged evidence to support such denials? If we rule out the subjective
opinions of unbelievers, there isn't any! There is absolutely nothing in the text of
Numbers that can be logically opposed to the acceptance of every word in the book
as the truth of God! Great scholars, indeed the greatest scholars, have not ceased to
shout this:
"There is no good ground for calling in question the correctness of the
narrative ... there is nothing in the statements (about the numbers of the animals
taken, etc.) to astonish any one who has formed correct notions about the wealth of
such nomad tribes in cattle, etc.[5] The unique names of the five kings of Midian,
etc ... are details that run counter to the view of some that the chapter is late
Midrash.[6]
Another kind of objection to this chapter is found in the adverse judgment of
wicked men who brazenly question the morality of God Himself in ordering the
extermination of the Midianites. This type of objection has been parlayed by evil
men into a general rejection not merely of the Bible, but of Christianity itself, man
in his sinful arrogance supposing that "modern man" has improved upon the
morality of the God of the Bible. This excerpt from the daily news (Houston Post,
Christmas Day, 1985) is an excellent example:
"The Bible depicts God's ruthlessness when He tells His chosen people to go into
war and to save "nothing alive that breatheth" (Deuteronomy 20:16) and to `kill
suckling babies' (1 Samuel 15:3).
To a great extent, present-day wars stem from religious fanaticism. God has never
intervened to stop a war! Contrary Biblical quotations offered will not erase those
above, but will be an admission that the Bible is contradictory."[7]
Significantly, this article appeared without comment by Lynn Ashby, Editor of the
Post. It is a type of the so-called "popular wisdom" with regard to the Holy Bible,
frequently found in columns like Ashby's, or Ann Landers', or of some other self-
appointed custodian of the public morality. A believer hardly needs to be told that
such views are the ultimate in Biblical ignorance!
Yes, indeed! God did, in fact, order the Midianites exterminated. So what?
If God, instead of sending an earthquake, or a flood, or a pestilence, or a famine,
was pleased to order His people to avenge his cause, such a commission was surely
just and right ... Unless it can be proved that the wicked Canaanites did not deserve
their doom, objectors only prove their dislike of God and their love of God's
enemies.[8] Other objections will also disappear in a more detailed examination of
the sacred text.
"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of Israel of the
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Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. And Moses spake
unto the people, saying, Arm ye men from among you for the war, that they may go
against Midian, to execute Jehovah's vengeance on Midian. Of every tribe a
thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. So there were
delivered, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand
armed for war. And Moses sent them, a thousand of every tribe, to the war, them
and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the
sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand. And they warred against
Midian, as Jehovah commanded Moses; and they slew every male. And they slew the
kings of Midian with the rest of their slain: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and
Reba, the five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the
sword. And the children of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little
ones; and all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods, they took for a
prey. And all their cities in the places wherein they dwelt, and all their
encampments, they burnt with fire. And they took all the spoil, and all the prey,
both of man and of beast. And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the
spoil, unto Moses, and unto Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the
children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at
Jericho."
Unbelievers usually begin their analysis here by shouting that the size of the victory
makes it impossible that such a great triumph was achieved by only 12,000 men.
First, it was God's triumph, not that of the 12,000! Their status was exactly the same
as that of the 300 helpers of Gideon to whom God also gave a great victory.
Secondly, the word rendered "thousand" here is actually [~'eleph]; "This word is
here and elsewhere translated `a thousand,' but more likely means contingent or
unit."[9] If this recent light (1979) on the meaning of the ancient word [~'eleph] is
received, there is envisioned here not the triumph of a mere 12,000 men, but of
twelve divisions, a far different thing. Also, the fact that the soldiers actually
participating in the struggle received exactly half of all the booty seems much more
consistent with this understanding of the word.
Another "alleged difficulty" occurs in the fact that God spoke of "avenging Israel"
(Numbers 31:2) and of "the vengeance of Jehovah" (Numbers 31:3). The Jewish
writer Yakar pointed out that, of course, "It was both."[10] These Midianites had
sinned against God in that they had tricked and deceived God's people into apostasy
and immorality, but this was also a sin against God's people, for as a result of their
actions at Baal-Peor, 24,000 of them died in a plague.
Another quibble often encountered here is that "it was the women of Moab" who
took the lead in Israel's seduction, but Divine execution fell upon Midian. Yes, "The
daughters of Moab had also taken part in the seduction (Numbers 25:1,2), but they
had done so at the instigation of the Midianites, and not of their own accord. And,
therefore, the Midianites only were to atone for the wickedness."[11] Also, in this
connection, it is good to remember that, "However hateful the sins of licentiousness
and idolatry may be, they have never by themselves alone aroused the exterminating
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wrath of God. Midian Was smitten because he had deliberately used those sins as
weapons wherewith to take the life of Israel."[12]
"The vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm ..." (Numbers 31:6). It
is ambiguous as to just what articles were carried by Phinehas, but the only thing
certain is that the silver trumpets (Numbers 10) were carried. In fact, it may be that
they alone accompanied the army. T. Carson read the coordinate conjunction "and"
in this passage as also having an explanatory meaning, thus identifying the trumpets
as which vessels of the sanctuary were taken.[13]
It should always be remembered that in this terrible act of vengeance, Israel did not
act upon their own behalf at all, but as instruments of God, and upon his express
command to do so. As Henry pointed out, they had authority for their actions which
no man or nation on earth today can claim. They had Moses to relate to them,
"what God commanded." People today have no such authority.
The failure of some people today to understand what happened here is due to their
failure to take into account God's total abhorrence of sin, and of his eternal anger
against arrogant and wicked men who rebel against God's authority. The record of
the deluge is a record of God's destruction of the whole human race (except for a
remnant), because of their incurable wickedness, so great that the family of Adam at
that point had become a cancer upon the earth itself. God's destructions of nations
and cities as extensively revealed in the Bible are but other facets of this same
characteristic of the Eternal Justice, and our evil world has by no means seen the
last of it. Is it right, just, or moral, for God to do this? Certainly! Because of its
application in this very chapter, we are impelled to repeat again our illustration of
the derail switches near Moffatt Tunnel, Colorado, where once the intercontinental
railroad climbed the mighty switchbacks over the continental divide. A traveler
asked the old station master at the village lying at the base of the great divide, what
the derail switches were for at the apex of each switchback. He said, "In case a train
got out of control, it would have been thrown into a canyon, for it could not have
been saved. The loss of the train would have spared the ruination of the whole
switchback complex and the village also." If people can understand that, they
should have no trouble with God's throwing the derail switch on any city, nation, or
civilization, hopelessly given over to wickedness and violence.
Before leaving these twelve verses, we should note another thing. "Midian" as used
in these lines evidently does not mean the whole extensive race of the Midianites,
but, as indicated by the names of the kings slain, and especially the limited number
of them, they were that portion of the Midianites who "dwelt in the country,"
namely, that part of the country about to be occupied by Israel, as related in Joshua
13:20. This understanding harmonizes with the fact that, "The Midianites appeared
again some two centuries later as a very formidable power."[14] Whitelaw was also
of the opinion, based upon the context, and the separate mention of the five kings,
and Zur, and Balaam, that, "They were slain, not in battle, but as the context
implies, by way of judicial execution. (See Numbers 25 and also Joshua 13:22."[15]
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In Numbers 31:11, the mention of the prey and the spoil refers to two different
portions of the total booty. "Prey refers to the captives and livestock; the spoil refers
to the ornaments and other effects."[16]
For some, the most difficult part of this narrative comes next.
COKE, "Numbers 31:1-2. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying— After Moses
had repeated to the people the laws in the foregoing chapters, God determined,
before he took this great lawgiver to himself, to use his ministration for the
punishment of the Midianites, who had so abominably seduced the Israelites to
wickedness. The Moabites, though guilty also, were now spared; some
circumstances which the sacred history has suppressed, no doubt, occasioned this
distinction. Probably, the Midianites contributed more than the Moabites to the
seduction of the Hebrews. See Parker's occasional Annotation on the chapter.
BENSON, "Numbers 31:1. Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites — For
their malicious designs and practices against Israel, both by hiring Balaam to curse
them, and by sending their women to insnare them. The Moabites also were guilty,
but God was pleased to spare them, because the measure of their iniquity was not
yet full.
ELLICOTT, "(1) Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites.—The time had
now come for the fulfilment of the command which had already been given (see
Numbers 25:16-18), after which Moses was to be gathered unto his people, as it had
been revealed to him (Numbers 27:13). After Balaam had been dismissed by Balak,
he appears to have gone, not to the Moabites, but to the Midianites; and it was in
consequence of the counsel which he gave to the Midianites (Numbers 5:16) that the
Israelites were reduced into the idolatrous and lascivious worship of Baal Peor. It is
possible, also, that the Midianites, as the descendants of Abraham, may have
possessed clearer light and greater privileges than the Moabites. They may have had
many men as enlightened as Jethro amongst them, and consequently they may have
incurred the greater guilt, and rendered themselves obnoxious to the severer
punishment of those who, “after they have known the way of righteousness, turn
from the holy commandment delivered unto them” (2 Peter 2:21). But whether
satisfactory reasons can or cannot be assigned why a more exemplary judgment
should have been inflicted upon the Midianites than upon the Moabites, who were
not left unpunished (see Deuteronomy 23:3-4), those only can maintain that the
destruction of the Midianites is inconsistent with the justice or the goodness of God
who deny that He has absolute control over the destinies of all the creatures of His
hands, and that when it is His pleasure to recall the life which He has bestowed, it is
for Him to determine what agents or what instruments it is best to employ.
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EBC, "WAR AND SETTLEMENT
1. THE WAR WITH MIDIAN
Numbers 31:1-54
THE command to vex and smite the Midianites {Numbers 25:16-17} has already
been considered. Israel had not the spiritual power which would have justified any
attempt to convert that people. Degrading idolatry was to be held in abhorrence,
and those who clung to it suppressed. Now the time comes for an exterminating war.
While hordes of Bedawin occupy the hills and the neighbouring desert, there can be
no security either for morals, property, or life. Balaam is among them plotting
against Israel: and his restless energy, we may suppose, precipitates the conflict.
Moses conveys the command of God that the attack on Midian shall be immediately
made, and himself directs the campaign.
The details of the enterprise are given somewhat fully. A thousand fighting men are
called from each tribe. The religious purpose of the war is signified by the presence
in the host of Phinehas, whose zeal has given him a name among the warriors. He is
allowed to carry with him the "vessels of the sanctuary"; and the silver trumpets
are to be sounded on the march and in the attack. The Midianitish clan apparently
gives way at once before the Hebrews, and either makes no stand or is totally
defeated in a single battle. All the men are put to the sword, including Balaam and
five chiefs, whose names are preserved. The women and children are taken; the
whole of the cattle and goods becomes the prey of the victors; the cities and
encampments are burned with fire. On the return of the army with the large band
of captives, Moses is greatly displeased. He demands of the officers why the women
have been spared, -the very women who caused the children of Israel to trespass
against the Lord. Then he orders all above a certain age, and the male children, to
be put to death. The young girls alone are to be kept alive.
The purification of those who have been engaged in the war is next commanded. For
seven days the army must remain outside the camp. Those who have touched any
dead body and all the captives are to be ceremonially cleansed on the third and
seventh days. Every article of raiment, everything made of skins and goats’ hair,
and all woollen articles, are to be purified by means of the water of expiation.
Whatever is made of metal is to be passed through the fire.
Details of the quantity and division of the prey, and the voluntary oblations made as
an "atonement for their souls" by the officers and soldiers out of their booty, occupy
the rest of the chapter. The numbers of oxen, sheep, and asses are great-six hundred
and seventy-five thousand sheep, seventy-two thousand beeves, sixty-one thousand
asses. No mention is made of horses or camels. The girls saved alive are thirty-two
thousand. The army takes one half, and those who remained in the camp receive the
other. But of the soldiers’ portion, one in five hundred both of the persons and of
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the animals is given to the priests, and of the people’s portion one in fifty to the
Levites. The jewels of gold, ankle-chains, bracelets, signet-rings, earrings and
armlets offered by the men of war as their "atonement," not one of them having
fallen in the battle, amount in weight to sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty
shekels, the value of which may be estimated at some thirty thousand of our pounds.
The gold is brought into the tent of meeting for a memorial before the Lord.
Now here we have to deal with an accumulation of statements, every one of which
raises some question or other. The war of national and moral antipathy is itself
easily understood. But the slaughter of so many in battle and so many others in cold
blood, the statement that not a single Israelite fell. the number and kinds of the
animals captured, the order given by Moses to put all the women to death, the
quantity of gold taken, of which the offering appears only to have been a part-all of
these points have been criticised in a more or less incredulous spirit. In apology it
has been said, with regard to the slaughter of the women, that when brought as
captives by the soldiers they could not be received into the camp, and there was only
this way of dealing with them, unless indeed they had been sent back to their ruined
encampments, where they would have slowly died. Again, it has been explained that
the Midianites were so debased and enfeebled as to have no power to, withstand the
onset of the Hebrews. The droves of oxen, sheep, and asses are held to be not greater
than a wealthy nomadic clan, numbering perhaps two hundred thousand, would be
likely to own; and the quantity of gold is likewise accounted for by the well-known
fact that among Orientals the wealth represented by precious metals is fashioned
into ornaments for the women.
In detail the difficulties may thus be partly overcome; yet the whole account remains
so singular, both in its spirit and incidents, that Wellhausen has roundly declared it
to be fictitious, and others have had no resource but to fall back, even for the
slaughter of the women, on the Divine command. It is true there were other peoples,
the Moabites, for instance, as idolatrous, and almost as degraded. But a terror of
Jehovah’s name had to be created for the moral good of the whole region, and the
Midianites, it is said, who had so grossly assailed the purity of Israel, were fitly
selected for Divine chastisement. The opinion that the whole account is an invention
of the "Priests’ Code" may be at once dismissed. The ideas of national purity that
prevailed after the exile and are insisted upon in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah
would not have countenanced the dedication of any spared from the slaughter, even
young girls, as a tribute to Jehovah. The attack and the issue of it were, no doubt,
recorded in the ancient documents of which the compilers of the Book of Numbers
made use. And the fact must be held to stand, that there was a grim slaughter
relentlessly carried out at the command of Moses in accordance with the moral and
theocratic ideas that ruled his mind.
But it remains doubtful whether the numbers can be trusted, even although they
appear to be in the substance of the narrative. The disproportion is enormous
between the twelve thousand Israelites sent against Midian and the number of men
who, if we accept the figures given, must have fallen without ‘striking one effective
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blow for their lives. Of these there would have been some forty thousand at least.
Assuming that somehow the numbers are exaggerated, we find the story a good deal
cleared. It was entirely in harmony with the spirit of the age that a war an outrance
should have been commanded in the circumstances. If, then, an adequate force of
Hebrews marched against the Midianites and took them at unawares, perhaps by
night, or when they were engaged in some idolatrous orgy, their defeat and
slaughter would be comparatively easy. The Hebrews with Phinehas among them
were, we may believe, filled with patriotic and religious ardour, assured that they
were commissioned to execute Divine justice and must not shrink from any work
that lay in their way, however dreadful. Does the thing they did still seem
incredible? Perhaps the recollection of what took place after the Indian Mutiny,
when Great Britain was in the same temper, may throw light upon the question. The
soldiers then, bent on punishing the cruelty and lust of the rebels, partly in
patriotism, partly in revenge, set mercy altogether aside. If we had the whole history
of the war with Midiah, instead of the mere outlines preserved in Numbers, we
might find that, apart from figures, the statements are by no means over-coloured.
Moses had the entire responsibility of ordering the women to be put to death. When
he saw the train of female captives, some of them possibly using their arts of
blandishment not without success, he might well be afraid that the very end for
which the war had been undertaken was to be frustrated. He was a man who did not
scruple to shed blood when the law of God and the purity of morals and religion
seemed to be endangered. He knew Jehovah to be gracious-gracious to those who
loved Him and kept His commandments. But was He not also a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of
them that hated Him? It was this God Moses sought to serve when in the heat of his
indignation, and not without reason, he gave the terrible order.
The appropriation of some of the captive girls to the priests and Levites as
"Jehovah’s tribute," the offering by the soldiers of part of their booty as an
"atonement" for their souls, the presence of Phinehas with the "vessels of the
sanctuary," and the sacred trumpets in the ranks-these manifestly belong to the
time to which the history refers. And it may be said in closing that circumstances
might be well known to Moses on account of which the attack had to be made
promptly and the dispersion of the Midianites had to be complete. We cannot tell
what Balaam may have been plotting; but we may be pretty sure there was nothing
too base for him to scheme and the Midianites to carry into effect. They knew
themselves to be under suspicion, perhaps in danger. With what craft and
vehemence the Bedawin can act we are well aware. Life even yet is of no account
among them. Another day, perhaps, and the ark might have been carried off or
Moses put to death in his tent. But the nature of the wrong done to Israel is a
sufficient explanation of the war. And we can also see that the Hebrews themselves
had a lesson in moral severity when their soldiers went forth to the massacre and
returned red with blood. They learned that the sin of Midian was abominable in the
sight of God and should be abominable in theirs. They were taught, whether they
received the teaching or not, that they were to be enemies for ever of those who
practised idolatry so vile. A deep gulf was made between them and all who
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sympathised with the worship and customs of the tribe they destroyed.
And the whole circumstances, remote as they are from our own time, may bring
home even to Christians the duty of moral decision and relentless war against the
vices and lusts with which too many are inclined to make terms. We wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against the "wiles of error," the "lusts of deceit,"
against "ornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths,
factions, divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings and such like,"-the
works of the flesh. These Midianites are with us, would draw our hearts away from
religion and destroy our souls. Not only are we to assail the grosser forms of sin and
exterminate them, but we are with equal severity to strike down the fair-seeming
vices that come with blandishment and insidious appeal. This is our holy war. The
old form of it required the suppression or extermination of those identified with
vice, men and women, all in whom the impurity was rooted. Young girls alone could
be spared, whose character might still be shaped by a higher morality. Even yet, to a
certain extent, that way of dealing with evil has to be followed. We imprison felons
and put murderers to death; but the new power that has come with Christianity
enables us to deal with many transgressors as capable of reformation and a new life.
And this power is far as yet from being fully developed.
It is the fault of our age to be on one side too lenient, on another wanting in
patience, charity, and hope. Excuses are found for sin on the ground that it is useless
to fight against nature that we must not be hypocritical nor puritanical.
Temptations that come with mincing gait, cajolery, and smiles, are allowed to
disport themselves untouched. Why, it is asked, should life be made sombre? A stern
religion that would banish gaiety is declared to be no friend of the race. Under cover
of art-pictorial, dramatic, literary - the customs of Midian are not only admitted but
allowed to have authority. And religion even is invoked. Are not all things pure to
the pure? Should not life be as free and joyous as the Maker clearly intends in
giving us the capacity for those gratifications to which art of every kind ministers?
Is not full freedom indispensable to the highest religion? Ought not genius, in every
department, to have complete liberty in guiding and developing the race?
Without hypocrisy, without banishing the sunshine of life or denying the freedom
which is necessary to progress and vigour, we are to be jealous for morality, severe
against all that threatens it. And here our age is impatient of direction. The
tendency is to a civilisation without morality, that is, a new barbarism. The
strenuous mind of the old theocratic leaders is required anew, with a difference. Life
and thought have so far advanced under Christianity that liberty is good in things
which once had to be sternly reprobated; but only the same guidance will carry us
higher. To those who lead in arts and literature the appeal has to be made in the
name of God and men to regard the fitness of things The old ideas of Puritanism are
not to be the standard? True. Neither are the tastes of Greece nor the manners of
Pompeii. Every artist must, it appears, be his own censor. Let each, then, use his
right under a sense of responsibility to the God who would have all to be pure and
free. There are pictures exhibited, and poems sent out from the press, and novels
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published, which, for all the skill and charm that are in them, ought to have been
cast into the fire. In private life, too, the Midianitish talk, the jest, the anecdote, the
innuendo, all but indecent, the hint, the laugh that breaks down the barriers of
integrity and sobriety, show the license of a barbarism which is bent on conquest.
Every Christian is called to wage against these immoralities an exterminating war.
On the other hand, charity and patience are needed. It is difficult to forbear with
those who seem to find their pleasure in what is evil, more difficult to continue the
efforts necessary to win them to religion, purity, and honour. We feel it a hard task
to track our own unholy desires to their retreats and slay them there. Proteus-like
they elude us; when we think they have been destroyed, a passing word or thought
revives them. And if in the task of our own purification we need long patience, it is
not wonderful that even more should be required in the attempt to set others free
from their besetting sins. Much of our philanthropy, again, is useless because we try
to cover too large a field. Few are engaged in comparison with the enormous region
over which effort has to extend, and we treat the hurt slightly, with too much haste.
Then we grow despondent. Impatience, hopelessness, should never be known among
those who undertake the Divine work of saving men and women from their sins. But
to cure this, new ideas on the whole subject of Christian endeavour and new
methods of work are required. The evil forces, a host arrayed against true life, must
be followed into the desert places where they lurk, and there, with the sword of the
Spirit, which is the bright strong word of God, attacked and slain. When Christians
are brave and loving enough, when they have patience enough, the gospel of purity
will begin to have its power.
PETT, "Verses 1-24
(i) The Sentence Passed and Carried Out on the Local Midianites (Numbers
31:1-24).
Analysis.
a The command to avenge Yahweh on Midian (Numbers 31:1-6).
b The judgment of Yahweh in the defeat of Midian (Numbers 31:7-8).
c The sparing of the women who had caused them to sin at Baal-peor (Numbers
31:9-12).
c The judgment on the sparing of the women who had made them sin (Numbers
31:13-18).
b Purification before returning to the camp to avoid judgment (Numbers 31:19-20).
a Retention and purification of the spoils (Numbers 31:21-24).
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Numbers 31:1
‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,’
Once again it is emphasised that we have here the words of Yahweh to Moses.
WHEDON, " MIDIAN CONQUERED AND BALAAM SLAIN, Numbers 31:1-12.
2. Avenge the children of Israel — This is stronger than an ordinary declaration of
war. It is the execution of the righteous sentence of Jehovah. Midian had
deliberately plotted the moral and national ruin of Israel, clearly demonstrated to be
the people of God by the favours shown them. The means employed by the
Midianites to compass the downfall of Israel reveals a moral obliquity so marked
and contagious as to call for the seven punitive measures ordered.
Gathered unto thy people — Numbers 27:13, note.
BI 1-12, "They warred against the Midianites.
The vengeance of Jehovah on Midian
I. That in the administration of the Divine government the punishment of sin is certain.
1. The sin which the Midianites had committed.
2. The Author of the punishment of the Midianites.
3. The executioners of the punishment.
4. The severity of the punishment.
(1) It fell upon an immense number.
(2) It tell upon persons of every rank.
(3) It involved the destruction of their towns and villages, and the loss of their
property.
II. That God can work by many, or by few, in the execution of His purposes. The
accomplishments of the purpose of God by this small force was fitted to answer three
ends.
1. To teach them that this expedition was, in a special manner, the Lord’s.
2. To teach them that He can effect His purposes “by many or by few” (1Sa_14:6;
Jdg_7:1-25.).
3. To check any temptation or tendency to self-glorification on the part of the
soldiers.
III. That God honours the holy zeal of His servants by employing them as leaders in the
execution of His purposes.
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IV. That God enriches His people with the spoils of their enemies. (W. Jones.)
The Midianites reckoned with
1. God would have the Midianites chastised, an inroad made upon that part of their
country which lay next to the camp of Israel, and which was concerned in that
mischief, probably more than the Moabites, who, therefore, were let alone. God will
have us to reckon those our worst enemies that draw us to sin, and since every man
is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lusts, and those are the Midianites
which ensnare us with their wiles, on them we should avenge ourselves; not only
make no league with them, but make war upon them by living a life of mortification.
God hath taken vengeance on His own people for yielding to the Midianite’s
temptations; now the Midianites must be reckoned with that gave temptation ; for
the deceived and the deceiver are His (Job_12:16), both accountable to His tribunal;
and though judgment begin at the house of God, it shall not end there (1Pe_4:17).
There is a day coming when vengeance will be taken on those that have introduced
errors and corruptions into the Church, and the devil that deceived men will be cast
into the lake of fire. Israels quarrel with Amalek that fought against them was not
avenged till long after, but their quarrel with Midian that debauched them was
speedily avenged, for they were looked upon as much the more dangerous and
malicious enemies.
2. God would have it done by Moses in his life-time, that he who had so deeply
resented that injury might have the satisfaction of seeing it avenged. See this
execution done upon the enemies of God and Israel, and afterwards thou shall be
gathered to thy people. This was the only piece of service of this kind that Moses
must farther do, and then he has accomplished, as a hireling, his day, and shall have
his quietus. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
Vengeance executed on Midian
This is a very remarkable passage. The Lord says to Moses, “Avenge the children of
Israel of the Midianites.” And Moses says to Israel, “Avenge the Lord of Midian.” The
people had been ensnared by the wiles of the daughters of Midian, through the evil
influence of Balaam the son of Peer; and they are now called upon to clear themselves
thoroughly from all the defilement which, through want of watchfulness, they had
contracted. The sword is to be brought upon the Midianites; and all the spoil is to be
made to pass either through the fire of judgment or through the water of purification.
Not one jot or tittle of the evil thing is to be suffered to pass unjudged. Now, this war was
what we may call abnormal. By right the people ought not to have had any occasion to
encounter it at all. It was not one of the wars of Canaan. It was simply the result of their
own unfaithfulness—the fruit of their own unhallowed commerce with the
uncircumcised. Hence, although Joshua, the son of Nun, had been duly appointed to
succeed Moses as leader of the congregation, we find no mention whatever of him in
connection with this war. On the contrary, it is to Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest,
that the conduct of this expedition is committed; and he enters upon it “with the holy
instruments and the trumpets.” All this is strongly marked. The priest is the prominent
person; and the holy instruments, the prominent instrumentality. It is a question of
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wiping away the stain caused by their unholy association with the enemy; and, therefore,
instead of a general officer with sword and spear, it is a priest with holy instruments that
appears in the foreground. True, the sword is here; but it is not the prominent thing. It is
the priest with the vessels of the sanctuary; and that priest the selfsame man who first
executed judgment upon that very evil which has here to be avenged. The moral of all
this is, at once, plain and practical. The Midianites furnish a type of that peculiar kind of
influence which the world exerts over the hearts of the people of God—the fascinating
and ensnaring power of the world used by Satan to hinder our entrance upon our proper
heavenly portion. Israel should have had nothing to do with these Midianites; but
having, in an evil hour, been betrayed into association with them, nothing remains but
war and utter extermination. So with us, as Christians. Our proper business is to pass
through the world as pilgrims and strangers; having nothing to do with it save to be the
patient witnesses of the grace of Christ, and thus shine as lights in the midst of the
surrounding moral gloom. But, alas! we fail to maintain this rigid separation; we suffer
ourselves to be betrayed into alliance with the world, and, in consequence, we get
involved in trouble and conflict which does not properly belong to us at all. War with
Midian formed no part of Israel’s proper work. They had to thank themselves for it. But
God is gracious; and hence, through a special application of priestly ministry, they were
enabled, not only to conquer the Midianites, but to carry away much spoil. God, in His
infinite goodness, brings good out of evil. (C. H. Mackintosh.)
Israel’s progress
It is instructive to compare this warfare of the children of Israel with their earlier battles.
There are many points of difference between them. In Egypt, when surrounded by their
enemies, they were not called to fight. They were quite unprepared for war; but God
fought for them, and they were still, and held their peace. Then again, subsequently they
were attacked by the Amalekites. They did not begin the encounter, but only repelled the
attacks; whereas on this occasion Moses said unto the people (Num_31:3). Their earlier
encounters were all in self-defence—their later ones were aggressive. Here, then, we
cannot but discern a mark of progress in Israel’s history. At first, when they were weak,
and without experience of God’s power and unchanging love, they were more passive.
Now that they had been formed into a more compact body, and trained to arms, and still
more, had experienced the power and faithfulness of God, they were called to be
aggressive, to attack and destroy the enemies of God. Now, we think, that this progress
in Israel’s history is typical in the Christian life. In the first beginnings of the spiritual life
the young Christian’s mind is chiefly passive. God’s work is to show him his own needs
and what are his enemies. The very spirit of the gospel is aggressive, not in a worldly
sense, nor indeed in the sense in which it was true of Israel, but in a higher and holier
sense; for it is a spirit of faith in God-a spirit of holy jealousy for God’s glory—a spirit of
deep compassion for perishing souls. Do you ever ask yourselves, What progress is my
soul making? There are many signs; and it is safer not to try ourselves by one only. If you
are living near to God you will be growing more and more dead to the world. But note
another mark. When Moses sent them into the battle, a thousand of every tribe, he sent
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, with them, and the holy instruments, and the
trumpets to blow in his hand. What these holy instruments were we are not informed,
but doubtless they were meant to be symbols of God’s presence with His people. The
priest, and holy instruments, and silver trumpets, were as needful as their weapons of
war. These were a practical warning against a spirit of revenge, and an encouragement to
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depend wholly on God. They must have served to impress most powerfully on the minds
of the Israelites that this war was a great moral act, and that in engaging in it they should
depend wholly on God. And these accompaniments of war showed also progress in
Israel’s history. Their earlier battles were always acts of faith; but then no priest went
forth with their army, no holy instruments were carried forth, or trumpets blown; for it
was subsequently that they were brought into covenant with God at Sinai, and had still
brighter tokens of His presence—subsequently, that the two silver trumpets were
appointed to carry terror into the hearts of their enemies, and to make them realise that
they were remembered before Jehovah. And this may suggest to us one point of
difference between the earlier and later conflicts of a Christian. When he is young and
inexperienced in conflict, there is generally too much confidence in self. But when God
has taught him deeper lessons in the work of war, he has lees confidence in self and
more in God. Then it is not his own courage or skill, not his own strength or
perseverance, but Christ his eternal and ever-present Priest, the holy instruments of the
sanctuary, and the silver trumpet of the gospel, which are his great and only hope of
victory. But there is still another point of progress discernible in this part of Israel’s
history, and that is in the use that was made of the spoils of the Midianites. Jehovah gave
them this victory. They all felt it. It was in His name that they went forth, and in His
name that they triumphed. Here we find that they “brought the captives, and the prey,
and the spoil, to Moses and Eleazar, the priest, and unto the congregation of the children
of Israel” (Num_31:12). And then a division of the booty took place. It was divided into
two equal parts, one of which was given to those who went into the battle, and the other
belonged to those who remained in the camp. Those who encountered the Midianites
being but a small part of Israel, only twelve thousand men, had in reality the largest
share; and this was but right, as they had been exposed to the dangers of war. But this
was not the whole of the arrangement. The most important part remains to be
mentioned. After this division had taken place, a part was to be consecrated to God. Of
that which belonged to the warriors themselves one five-hundredth part was offered
unto the Lord as a heave-offering, as we are expressly told, “And Moses gave the tribute
which was the Lord’s heave-offering unto Eleazar the priest” (Num_31:4). This portion,
then, came to the priests. Of the other part, which belonged to those who did not go into
battle, one-fiftieth part was consecrated to God, “And of the children of Israel’s half,
thou shalt take one portion of fifty of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the
flocks, and of all manner of beasts” (Num_31:30). This portion belonged to the Levites.
And so, if we compare together the portion of the priests with that of the Levites, we find
that was as one to ten. But even this is not all. When those who went into battle were
numbered, it was found that there “lacked not one man,” not one was lost. This was a
wonderful proof of God’s care and protection. No less than twenty-four thousand fell by
the plague, and not even one in the war with a powerful people. This produced a strong
impression on the minds of the officers. They were thankful, as well they might be, for
God’s goodness; and they showed their gratitude by making an additional freewill-
offering to God. “We have, therefore,” they say, “brought an oblation for the Lord, what
every man hath gotten, of jewels, of gold, chains and bracelets, rings, ear-rings, and
tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the Lord” (Num_31:50); and this
offering was brought by Moses and Eleazar the priest into the tabernacle of the
congregation, for a “ memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord.” Now in all this
we can discern progress in Israel’s history. In the earlier part of it we do not meet with
any such arrangement, but when brought into immediate covenant union with God, He
taught them practically that they themselves, and all that they had, belonged to Himself.
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He trained them to a spirit of self-denial. This is an important lesson which this history
impresses upon us. If we were asked, “What are the two graces in which Christians are
most wanting?” we should answer, “charity” and “self-denial”; that charity which bears
long, which covers a multitude of sins, and that spirit of self-denial which leads us
habitually to crucify the old man, and to place God’s glory before our own comfort, ease,
and pleasure. There are many Christians who are sound in doctrine, and who seem to
glory that they are free from this and that error, but there is much self-indulgence in
their lives. (G. Wagner.)
Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.—
The fate of Balaam
Who shall describe the terrors of this recreant prophet, during that brief moment that
ensued between the lifting up and the letting down of that fatal weapon? We know how
Balaam regarded death. We know that he regarded it with dread. “Let me die the death
of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.” And now he was about to die the death
of the wicked! As in a moment, we may be sure, the whole panorama of his life, and its
true significance, flashed before him.
I. Death the testing time of life. We may exaggerate the importance of death. We may
treat it as more important than life; whereas its chief importance is in relation to life. But
in its relation to life its importance is scarcely to be exaggerated. And its chief
significance, in this respect, undoubtedly consists in its bearing on the future.
II. The awfulness of death to one who has lived a sinful and unholy life. There can be no
doubt that God did His utmost to save this man. Nothing that was likely to be helpful to
his salvation was withheld from him; and all this Balaam must have felt and realised,
when at last his course of crime had brought him to that life-revealing spot, the shadow
of death. And if such was his retrospect in the hour of death, what must have been the
prospect that opened up to his imagination and his fears? And what makes the fate of
Balaam so terrible to think of, is the apparently minute point of departure from the
course of rectitude in which his wrong-doing commenced. Balaam only, at first, desired
to have the pecuniary recompense which the service of Balak promised him. He had no
desire to do wrong. He did not love unrighteousness; he only loved the “wages” of
unrighteousness. And yet that little germ of evil in his breast at last overcame all right
feeling and all right principle; and reduced the famous prophet of Pethor to the level of
the lowest schemer and the basest plotter. The smallest angle at the juncture of two lines
will, if these lines be continually produced, lead them wider and wider at every stage.
And so if there be the least departure from the path of Fight at the beginning there will
be infinitely divergeness in the end. (W. Roberts.)
The doom of the double-hearted
I. He wanted to serve two masters. These were the same as the Lord in after days
designated God and mammon. He wanted not to offend either; to please both. He was
like Issachar crouching between two burdens. Such is the certain failure of all who make
the like attempt.
II. He wanted to earn two kinds of wages. The wages of righteousness and the wages of
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unrighteousness (2Pe_2:15), were both in his eyes; he would fain have the pay both of
God and of the devil. He was unwilling to do or say anything which would deprive him of
either. He was as cautious and cunning as he was covetous.
III. He wanted to do two opposite things at the same time. He wished both to bless and
to curse. He was willing to do either according as it might serve his interests. The only
question with him was, “Would it pay?”
IV. He wanted two kinds of friendship.
V. He wanted to have two religions. He saw religion to be a paying concern, a profitable
trade, and he was willing to accept it from anybody or everybody, to adopt it from any
quarter if it would but raise him in the world, and make his fortune. But this double
service, and double friendship, and double religion, would not do. He would make
nothing by them. They profited him nothing either in this life or that to come. His end
was with the ungodly, his portion with the enemies of Israel. And his soul, where could it
be? Not with Israel’s God, or Israel’s Christ, or in Israel’s heaven. He reaped what he
sowed. He was a good specimen of multitudes in these last days. They want as much
religion as will save them from hell ; not an atom more. The world is their real god; gold
is their idol; it is in mammon’s temple that they worship. Look to thy latter end. What it
is to be? Where is it to be? With whom is it to be? Anticipate thy eternity. Is it to be
darkness or light, shame or glory? (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Balaam’s death
What a death was this to die for one who had been a prophet of the Lord—one who had
been privileged to hold converse with Deity, and to foretell the purposes of the supreme
mind! How little could he ever have imagined that he should come to this! What I he,
with his great gifts and high official position—he stoop down from the eminence on
which he stood to take up the sword of a rebel against Jehovah—to identify himself with
a nation of debased idolators, and then end his life amid the wild tumult of battle in a
vain effort to defend their cause! He degrade himself to such an extent as that?
Impossible; yet so it happened. How this death contrasts with that which be had so
ardently desired! Death in sanguinary conflict, surrounded by dying thousands of the
enemies of God, with the din of arms and the fierce war-cry of opposing forces sounding
in his ears; how different from “the death of the righteous,” calmly commending his soul
into the hands of a faithful Creator, antedating heavenly joys, catching a smile from the
Divine countenance, and then peacefully “dropping into eternity”! A death in a state of
apostasy from God, in open rebellion against His will, in impious defiance of His power,
the death of Balaam was a death without hope. Not a ray of light is there to irradiate or
relieve the gloom that gathers in thick and portentous blackness over the spot where he
fell. (C. Merry.)
2 “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the
Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your
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people.”
BARNES, "The Midianites - The Moabites are not included. It would thus seem
that it was the Midianites, and they only, who deliberately set themselves to work the
corruption of Israel.
CLARKE, "Gathered unto thy people - Where? Not in the grave surely. Moses
was gathered with none of them, his burial-place no man ever knew. “But being gathered
unto one’s people means dying.” It does imply dying, but it does not mean this only. The
truth is, God considers all those who are dead to men in a state of conscious existence in
another world. Therefore he calls himself the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of
Jacob; now God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; because all Live to Him,
whether dead to men or not. Moses therefore was to be gathered to his people - to enter
into that republic of Israel which, having died in the faith, fear, and love of God, were
now living in a state of conscious blessedness beyond the confines of the grave. See the
note on Gen_25:8, and Gen_49:33 (note).
GILL, "Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites,.... For the injury they
had done them, by sending their daughters among them, who enticed them to commit
uncleanness with them, and then drew them into the worship of their idols, which
brought the wrath of God upon them, and for which 24,000 persons were slain. Now,
though the Moabites had a concern in this affair as well as the Midianites, yet they were
spared; which some think was for the sake of Lot, from whom they descended; but why
not the Midianites for the sake of Abraham, whose offspring they were by Keturah?
Jarchi says, they were spared because of Ruth, who was to spring from them; and so she
might, and yet vengeance be taken on great numbers of them: but the truer reason seems
to be, either because the sin of the Moabites was not yet full, and they were reserved for a
later punishment; or rather because they were not the principal actors in the above
affair; but the Midianites, who seem to have advised Balak at first to send for Balaam to
curse Israel, and who harboured that soothsayer after he had been dismissed by Balak,
and to whom he gave his wicked counsel, and which they readily followed, and
industriously pursued:
afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people; or die, see Num_27:13, it
being some satisfaction to him to see the good land, as he did from Abarim, and the
Israelites avenged on their enemies before his death.
PETT, "Numbers 31:2
‘Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterwards you shall be gathered
20

unto your people.’
The avenging of the people of Israel on the Midianites was to be Moses’ final act.
After that he was to be ‘gathered to his people’. He was to die, but it was the death
of the righteous. He would join those who had been faithful to Yahweh. The
avenging was on the basis of ‘a life for a life’, on the basis of ‘whoever sheds man’s
blood, by man shall his blood be shed’ (Genesis 9:6). For while Midian had not done
the actual killing, it was as a result of their deliberate manoeuvrings that so many
had died
POOLE, "Of the Midianites, for their malicious designs and practices against
Israel, both by hiring Balaam to curse them, and by sending their women to enslave
them. The Moabites also were guilty, but God out of his own good pleasure, and in
kindness to Lot, was pleased to spare them, the rather, because the measure of their
iniquity was not yet full.
TRAPP, "Numbers 31:2 Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward
shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.
Ver. 2. Avenge the children of Israel.] This is called the vengeance of Jehovah.
[Numbers 31:3] The righteous Judge will not fail to avenge our unrighteous
vexations, if we "commit ourselves to him in well doing." [1 Peter 4:19]
3 So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your
men to go to war against the Midianites so that
they may carry out the Lord’s vengeance on them.
BARNES, "Avenge the Lord of Midian - The war against the Midianites was no
ordinary war. It was indeed less a war than the execution of a divine sentence against a
most guilty people.
Doubtless there were many among the Midianites who were personally guiltless as
regards Israel. But the rulers deliberately adopted the counsel of Balaam against Israel,
and their behests had been but too readily obeyed by their subjects. The sin therefore
was national, and the retribution could be no less so.
But the commission of the Israelites in the text must not be conceived as a general
21

license to slay. They had no discretion to kill or to spare. They were bidden to
exterminate without mercy, and brought back to their task Num_31:14 when they
showed signs of flinching from it. They had no alternarive in this and similar matters
except to fulfill the commands of God; an awful but doubtless salutary manifestation, as
was afterward the slaughter of the Canaanites, of God’s wrath against sin; and a type of
the future extermination of sin and sinners from His kingdom.
CLARKE, "Avenge the Lord of Midian - It was God’s quarrel, not their own, that
they were now to take up. These people were idolaters; idolatry is an offense against
God; the civil power has no authority to meddle with what belongs to Him, without
especial directions, certified in the most unequivocal way. Private revenge, extension of
territory, love of plunder, were to have no place in this business; the Lord is to be
avenged; and through Him the children of Israel, (Num_31:2), because their souls as
well as their bodies had been well nigh ruined by their idolatry.
GILL, "And Moses spake unto the people, saying,.... In obedience to the divine
command; this must be supposed to be spoken to the heads or princes of the tribes:
arm some of yourselves unto the war: not the whole body of the militia, 600,000
men and upwards, only some of them, and these choice and select men; and, according
to the Jewish writers, good men, who, detesting the sins of lewdness and idolatry, would
more strictly and severely avenge themselves on the Midianites for drawing their
brethren into those sins, whereby they fell; and so Jarchi calls them righteous men:
and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian: what
the Lord calls the vengeance of the Israelites, Moses calls the vengeance of the Lord,
because they were the Lord's people, and his cause and theirs the same: and because the
sins they were drawn into by the Midianites were not only against themselves, and to
their prejudice, but against the Lord and to the dishonour of his name.
HENRY, "II. Moses gives orders to the people to prepare for this expedition, Num_
31:3. He would not have the whole body of the camp to stir, but they must arm some of
themselves to the war, such as were either most fit or most forward, and avenge the
Lord of Midian. God said, Avenge Israel; Moses says, Avenge the Lord; for the interests
of God and Israel are united, and the cause of both is one and the same. And if God, in
what he does, shows himself jealous for the honour of Israel, surely Israel, in what they
do, ought to show themselves jealous for the glory of God. Then only we can justify the
avenging of ourselves when it is the vengeance of the Lord that we engage in. Nay, for
this reason we are forbidden to avenge ourselves, because God has said, Vengeance is
mine, I will repay.
III. A detachment is drawn out accordingly for this service, 1000 out of every tribe,
12,000 in all, a small number in comparison with what they could have sent, and it is
probable small in comparison with the number of the enemies they were sent against.
But God would teach them that it is all one to him to save by many or by few, 1Sa_14:6.
22

JAMISON, "Arm some of yourselves — This order was issued but a short time
before the death of Moses. The announcement to him of that approaching event [Num_
31:2] seems to have accelerated, rather than retarded, his warlike preparations.
K&D 3-6, "To carry out this revenge, Moses had 1000 men of each tribe delivered
(‫רוּ‬ ְ‫ס‬ ָ‫מּ‬ִ‫,י‬ see at Num_31:16) from the families (alaphim, see Num_1:16) of the tribes, and
equipped for war; and these he sent to the army (into the war) along with Phinehas the
son of Eleazar the high priest, who carried the holy vessels, viz., the alarm-trumpets, in
his hand. Phinehas was attached to the army, not as the leader of the soldiers, but as the
high priest with the holy trumpets (Num_10:9), because the war was a holy war of the
congregation against the enemies of themselves and their God. Phinehas had so
distinguished himself by the zeal which he had displayed against the idolaters (Num_
25:7), that it was impossible to find any other man in all the priesthood to attach to the
army, who would equal him in holy zeal, or be equally qualified to inspire the army with
zeal for the holy conflict. “The holy vessels” cannot mean the ark of the covenant on
account of the plural, which would be inapplicable to it; nor the Urim and Thummim,
because Phinehas was not yet high priest, and the expression ‫י‬ֵ‫ל‬ ְ‫כּ‬ would also be
unsuitable to these. The allusion can only be to the trumpets mentioned immediately
afterwards, the ַ‫ו‬ before ‫ת‬ ‫ר‬ ְ‫צֹצ‬ֲ‫ח‬ being the ‫ו‬ explic., “and in fact.” Phinehas took these in
his hand, because the Lord had assigned them to His congregation, to bring them into
remembrance before Him in time of war, and to ensure His aid (Num_10:9).
CALVIN, "3.And Moses spake unto the people. There is no doubt but that Moses
delivered the commands which he had received from God; although, therefore, it is
stated (205) that only ten thousand went forth to the war, yet the facts themselves
demonstrate that the number, as well as the mode of warfare, was prescribed by
God. And assuredly it would have been inconsiderate of Moses to attack so great a
people with so small a band; and thus he would have deservedly incurred the
penalty of his rashness, if he had attempted it of his own accord; still, when God’s
command had preceded, he happily concluded the matter, which had been properly
and rightly undertaken. Nor can it be questioned but that God desired by this test to
prove the faith of His people. For, according to human apprehension, it was folly to
endanger themselves without cause; and the objection was obvious that it was by no
means advisable, when six hundred thousand men were at hand, to restrict to so few
the office of waging such a perilous war. Just, therefore, as God afterwards
destroyed the great army of the Midianites by only four hundred men under the
guidance of Gideon, so also under the hand of Moses He sent forth only a single
thousand from every tribe for the destruction of that nation. The tribe of Zebulon
alone could have furnished five times as many soldiers as God took from the whole
people. Thus, then, they proved their faith, when in reliance on the aid of God alone,
they did not hesitate boldly to rush forward against their enemies. And the event
itself more fully illustrated God’s grace than as if they had fought with all their
forces, for then it would have been believed that the Midianites were overwhelmed
23

by the infinite multitude of men. As, therefore, the people testified their obedience
by prompt compliance, so they experienced in the result that there is nothing better
than to submit ourselves to God, and to leave the prospect of success so completely
in His hand, as that our confidence may depend solely upon him.
Lest either of the tribes should boast itself against the others, they were each of them
commanded to give the same number of soldiers. Moreover, Phinehas was sent with
them, not so much that he might engage personally with the enemy, or be their
General, as that he might rule and control their minds as God’s m "Numbers 31:3.
Avenge the LORD of Midian— What is called avenging the children of Israel, in
Numbers 31:2 is here called avenging the LORD because the war was with idolaters,
the enemies of the true religion, and for the sake of God's peculiar people. Besides,
the Midianites were particularly displeasing to God for having seduced the Israelites
to the worship of idols; so that to avenge the one was to avenge the other. Onkelos
renders this, to avenge the people of the Lord of Midian. See Ainsworth and Poole.
senger and interpreter. They were to be kept in the fear of God, and to be elevated
to the expectation of victory, and therefore God’s priest was their leader, so that the
war might be a holy one; and the same was the object of the silver trumpets, with
which, in obedience to the Lw, as we have elsewhere seen, (206) the Levites were
accustomed to sound, that it might be manifest that their battles were not fought
without the will and authority of heaven. Amongst “the holy instruments,” some
commentators, in my opinion rightly, include the Ark of the Covenant.
COKE, "Numbers 31:3. Avenge the LORD of Midian— What is called avenging the
children of Israel, in Numbers 31:2 is here called avenging the LORD because the
war was with idolaters, the enemies of the true religion, and for the sake of God's
peculiar people. Besides, the Midianites were particularly displeasing to God for
having seduced the Israelites to the worship of idols; so that to avenge the one was to
avenge the other. Onkelos renders this, to avenge the people of the Lord of Midian.
See Ainsworth and Poole.
BENSON, "Numbers 31:3. Avenge the Lord — What in the preceding verse is
termed avenging Israel, is here called avenging the Lord, because by their idolatry
and lewdness, and by seducing God’s people into rebellion against him, they had
offered a high affront to him. God’s great care was to avenge the Israelites, and
Moses’s chief desire was to avenge God, rather than himself or the people.
PETT, "Numbers 31:3
‘And Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm you men from among you for the
war, that they may go against Midian, to execute Yahweh’s vengeance on Midian.”
So Moses was called on to arrange for the arming of a sufficient task force to
24

destroy Midian, that is, the Midianites who were still encamped either in a part of
the former kingdom of Sihon (Joshua 13:21), or over the border in Moab, having
escaped there from the slaughter of the Amorites. They were to ‘execute Yahweh’s
vengeance’ on Midian. These Midianites had sought to woo His people from Him,
and He was a jealous God, and was concerned for the purity of the worship of His
people. So His concern was such that Midian must be blotted out because of what
they had done. Indeed had they not been blotted they would probably have called in
their roving Midianite and Amalekite allies for a major attack on Israel (such as
would come later in Judges 6), taking them in the rear as they invaded the land. It
was therefore essential that they be wiped out before they could stir up further
trouble.
POOLE, " For the affront and injury which they offered to God, partly by their
own idolatry and lewdness, and partly by seducing God’s people into rebellion
against him. God’s great care was to
avenge the Israelites, Numbers 31:2, and Moses’s chief desire was to avenge God
rather than himself or the people. Withal he doth hereby insinuate, that God and his
people have the same cause, the same friends and enemies.
TRAPP, "Numbers 31:3 And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of
yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the
LORD of Midian.
Ver. 3. Arm some of yourselves unto the war.] Lactantius (a) being, according to his
name, a mild and gentle man, abhorred bloodshed, thought it not lawful for a just
man to be a warrior, whose justice was his warfare. But this was his error; Patres
legendi sunt cum venia; God bids here, Arm yourselves, &c. Indeed it is utterly
unlawful for men wilfully to thrust themselves into unnecessary wars: and it is
reported in the life of Augustine, that he would never pray for such. But when God
sounds the alarm, as here, "Cursed is he that doeth this work of the Lord
negligently: Cursed is he that keepeth back his sword from blood." [Jeremiah
48:10]
WHEDON, " 3. Arm some of yourselves — The strong faith of Moses that Jehovah
would signally interpose in behalf of Israel is seen in the order to call out but one
fiftieth of the army, though Midian, judging from the five kings slain, and the
greatness of the spoils, was a mighty foe.
Avenge the Lord — It was pre-eminently Jehovah’s war in vindication of his own
honour, for he who touches his people touches the apple of his eye.
25

4 Send into battle a thousand men from each of
the tribes of Israel.”
GILL, "Of every tribe a thousand,.... So that the whole number of those that were
armed were 12,000 as after given:
throughout all the tribes of Israel; this is observed, as Jarchi thinks, to
comprehend the tribe of Levi, which in some cases was left out of the account:
shall ye send to the war; to fight with Midian.
HENRY, "IV. Phinehas the son of Eleazar is sent along with them. It is strange that
no mention is made of Joshua in this great action. If he was general of these forces, who
do we not find him leading them out? If he tarried at home, why do we not find him
meeting them with Moses at their return? It is probable, each tribe having a captain of
its own thousand, there was no general, but they proceeded in the order of their march
through the wilderness, Judah first, and the rest in their posts, under the command of
their respective captains, spoken of Num_31:48. But, the war being a holy war, Phinehas
was their common head, not to supply the place of a general, but, by the oracle of God, to
determine the resolves of their counsels of war, in which the captains of thousands
would all acquiesce, and according to which they would act in conjunction. He therefore
took with him the holy instruments or vessels, probably the breast-plate of judgment, by
which God might he consulted in any emergency. Though he was not yet the high priest,
yet he might be delegated pro hac vice - for this particular occasion, to bear the urim
and thummim, as 1Sa_23:6. And there was a particular reason for sending Phinehas to
preside in this expedition; he has already signalized himself for his zeal against the
Midianites and their cursed arts to ensnare Israel when he slew Cozbi, a daughter of a
chief house in Midian, for her impudence in the matter of Peor, 1Sa_25:15. He that had
so well used the sword of justice against a particular criminal was best qualified to guide
the sword of war against the whole nation. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I
will make thee ruler over many things.
COKE, "Verses 4-6
Numbers 31:4-6. Of every tribe a thousand— Six thousand of the Midianites taken
prisoners in the war (see the following verses) give us a sufficient proof of the
strength of that nation, and that the laws of prudence required a numerous army to
attack them; but a people favoured by heaven, and led on by the God of hosts, had a
method of fighting superior to all human prudence. It pleased God, that Moses
26

should command but a small army in this expedition, that the victory might appear
owing to him, and not to man. A body of twelve thousand men was sent against
Midian, (Numbers 31:5.) being a detachment of one thousand out of every tribe.
Phinehas (Numbers 31:6.) was probably their general; at least, the words of Moses
seem to suggest this opinion. Besides, the commission of revenging the injury done
to the Israelites could not be entrusted to a more proper hand than his, who had
begun to do it with so much zeal. However, the text is ambiguous, which has made it
a question, Whether Phinehas was sent to command the troops, or whether only to
inspire them with courage at the sight of the holy instruments, and with the sound of
the trumpets? Those who espouse the first of these opinions, found it upon the
silence of the Scripture in relation to the general who was to have commanded the
army. Now, where is the historian, say they, who, in giving an account of any army,
would forget to make mention of the general? Those who are of the other opinion
affirm, that there is no instance of priests being put at the head of armies: there
were, indeed, always some who went along with them; but it was only for
performing their religious functions, and for summoning the enemy to implore the
mercy of the Israelites. To this objection others reply, that the ministry of Phinehas
was altogether extraordinary; that we are not to judge of this holy person by the
ordinary custom; and that, as the zeal he testified in the matter of Zimri was not the
less worthy of praise for having exceeded the usual laws; so he might have been
appointed commander of an army upon so extraordinary an occasion, contrary to
the common custom. It is also alledged, in opposition to the first of these opinions,
that the commission of Phinehas seems to have been restrained to the bearing of the
holy instruments, and to the sounding of the trumpet; but as, on the other hand, it
cannot be denied that this commission was given him, so neither can it be proved
that it was opposite to the other.
Nor is it more certainly determined, what were these holy instruments. Perhaps the
historian meant nothing more thereby than the sacred trumpets, which, he says,
were in the hands of Phinehas; the holy instruments, even the sacred trumpets. See
Le Clerc. Some think that the ark is meant, in which case Phinehas would have been
attended by several of the Levites: the Chaldee paraphrase thus explains the text;
and Spencer adopts the same opinion. He says, that Eleazar, being loaded with years
and infirmities, was no longer able to discharge the function annexed to his
ministry, of carrying the Urim and Thummim; and that Phinehas was ordered to go
in his father's stead. Though this should be but conjecture, yet it is certain, that the
high-priests had their deputies to supply their inability. In case the high-priest
should happen to be defiled, says Maimonides, the practice was to substitute a vicar
to him, who officiated in his stead; this vicar was called his second, and used to
succeed him; and he likewise had his vicars, who used to act with respect to him as
he did to the high-priest. See Saurin's 66th Dissertation.
REFLECTIONS.—The Midianites had been, with the Moabites, greatly
instrumental in drawing Israel aside from God; they are therefore to be punished
among the first; for they are our worst enemies who draw us into sin. Note; Our
lusts are those Midianites, and on them we must wage unrelenting war. 1. God
27

orders Moses to avenge the people on their enemies, that though he may not see all
their victories, he may behold the first-fruits of them before he dies. It is a comfort
in death to leave the church of God in a state of growing prosperity. 2. Moses obeys,
and draws out a detachment of a thousand men from each tribe; enough, if God was
with them, to consume the more numerous hosts of Midian. God will thus teach
them, that it is not so much the arm of flesh, as his favour, that ensures them
victory. 3. Phinehas, who had distinguished himself by his zeal against the
Midianites, is sent with them. Note; Where the battle is the Lord's, and to avenge his
quarrel in so good a cause, we may boldly advance.
PETT, "Numbers 31:4
“Of every tribe an ’eleph, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall you send to the
war.”
That the Midianite numbers were fairly small comes out in that it was not the whole
army that was to be involved. A military unit (and eleph) taken from each tribe was
considered to be sufficient for the task
5 So twelve thousand men armed for battle, a
thousand from each tribe, were supplied from the
clans of Israel.
GILL, "So they were delivered out of the thousands of Israel,.... Several
thousands very probably offered themselves voluntarily to go to the war, or however
were summoned together on this account, and out of them the following number was
delivered of picked and chosen men:
a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war; which was but a
small number to go against so considerable a nation and people; but this was done to
show that the war was of the Lord, he would fight the battle, and give them victory, it
being the same to him to do it with few as with many; and to encourage the people of
Israel to believe the Lord would give them success against their many and powerful
enemies in the land of Canaan, on the borders of which they now were.
JAMISON, "there were delivered — that is, drafted, chosen, an equal amount
from each tribe, to prevent the outbreak of mutual jealousy or strife. Considering the
numerical force of the enemy, this was a small quota to furnish. But the design was to
exercise their faith and animate them to the approaching invasion of Canaan.
28

BENSON, "Numbers 31:5. Twelve thousand — God would send no more, though it
is apparent the Midianites were numerous and strong, because he would exercise
their trust in him, and give them an earnest of their conquests in Canaan.
PETT, "Numbers 31:5
‘So there were delivered, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe,
twelve thousand armed for war.’
So out of the many fighting units of Israel, twelve units, one from each tribe, were
armed for the purpose of taking out Midian.
POOLE, "A thousand of every tribe, to prevent emulations or divisions. God would
send no more, though it is apparent that the Midianites were numerous and strong,
because he would try and exercise their trust in him, and because he would hereby
give them an earnest of their Canaanitish conquests.
TRAPP, "Numbers 31:5 So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a
thousand of [every] tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
Ver. 5. Twelve thousand.] This was no great army, but they were Deo armati, with
whom "there is no restraint to save by many or by few." [1 Samuel 14:6] How
wondrously did God work by that handful of Hussites in Bohemia, when all
Germany was up in arms against them by the Pope’s instigation! And may it not be
said of that small remnant, that now fighteth the Lord’s battles in Ireland, "The
Lord hath done great things for them, whereof we are glad?" Have they not been
"helped with a little help indeed?" [Daniel 11:34] The more is our shame, that send
them no more.
WHEDON, "Verses 5-7
5-7. Twelve thousand — The conscription of so small a number against the hosts of
Midian; the appointment, as commander, of Phinehas, who had recently so greatly
signalized himself by his zeal against the sin to which Midian had decoyed Israel;
the holy instruments, the trumpets, and other furniture of the tabernacle borne with
the army — all indicate that the arm of Jehovah is to be made bare in victory; and
the indication is strikingly confirmed by the miraculous preservation from death of
every Israelite sent to the war.
The trumpets — These were for the double purpose of giving an alarm blast and of
a memorial or pledge that Israel should be remembered by Jehovah in the day of
battle. Numbers 10:9, note.
29

And they warred — There is no record of the decisive battles and brave deeds of
this campaign; only the results are noted. Since Jehovah signally fought on this
occasion, it is fitting that little or no mention should be made of his humble human
allies.
Slew all the males — The adults were slain on the field of battle and in the sacking
of cities, since it was a war of vengeance.
6 Moses sent them into battle, a thousand from
each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the
priest, who took with him articles from the
sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling.
BARNES, "Phinehas - He was marked out as the fitting director of the expedition
by his conduct (compare Num_25:7-13) in the matter of Zimri and Cozbi.
With the holy instruments, and the trumpets - Or rather, “with the holy
instruments, to wit, the trumpets,” for the trumpets themselves seem to be the
instruments intended.
CLARKE, "A thousand of every tribe - Twelve thousand men in the whole. And
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar; some think he was made general in this expedition, but this
is not likely. The ark and its contents must proceed to this battle, because the battle was
the Lord’s, and he dwelt between the cherubim over the ark; and Phinehas, who had
before got a grant in the eternal priesthood, was chosen to accompany the ark in place of
his father Eleazar, who was probably now too far advanced in years to undergo the
fatigue. Who then was general? Joshua, without doubt, though not here mentioned,
because the battle being the Lord’s, he alone is to have the supreme direction, and all the
glory. Besides, it was an extraordinary war, and not conducted on the common principle,
for we do not find that peace was offered to the Midianites, and that they refused it; see
Deu_20:10, etc. In such a case only hostilities could lawfully commence; but they were
sinners against God; the cup of their iniquity was full, and God thought proper to
destroy them. Though a leader there certainly was, and Joshua was probably that leader,
yet because God, for the above reason, was considered as commander-in-chief, therefore
no one else is mentioned; for it is evident that the sole business of Phinehas was to take
30

care of the holy instruments and to blow with the trumpet.
GILL, "And Moses sent them to the war,.... Being mustered and armed:
a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest
to the war; which looks as if Phinehas was the general of this army; for Moses went not
to the war, and no mention is made of Joshua, nor might it be proper for him, he being
the successor of Moses, who was quickly to die; but it seems rather that there was no one
person that had the command of the whole, but every captain commanded his own
company; since, when Moses met them, and was angry with them for sparing the
women, he does not address anyone as the chief commander, but all the officers, Num_
31:14, however, it was very proper and prudent to send Phinehas with them, both on
account of his office as a priest, to encourage the people, and because of his
extraordinary zeal against the Midianites for what they had done, as appears by his
slaying a prince of Simeon and a Midianitish princess in their uncleanness:
and he went with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his
hand; by "the holy instruments", Aben Ezra understands the ark with what appertained
to it, which in later times used to be carried out when the Israelites went to war, Jos_
6:4, and Jarchi interprets them of the ark and plate of gold (z) which was upon the
forehead of the high priest; but what had Phinehas to do with this, who was but a
common priest? though the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,"with the Urim and
Thummim of holiness, to inquire by them;''and it appears, that sometimes a son of an
high priest was intrusted with the ephod, to which the breastplate was fastened, which
had the Urim and Thummim on it, and made use thereof to inquire by, as in the times of
David, 1Sa_23:6, but it is the opinion of some learned men, and they may be in the right,
that these instruments are no other than the trumpets, and who suppose the "vau" is not
copulative, but explanative, so Ben Gersom, and read the words thus, "with the holy
instruments, even", or, "that is, the trumpets" (a), the silver trumpets ordered to be
made, Num_10:2 one of which was far the journey of the camps, and also to blow an
alarm for war, and which was done by the priests; and so the Targum of Jonathan adds
here,"to cause the camp of Israel to rest, and to cause it to go;''that is, to direct it when it
should stop, and when it should move.
JAMISON, "Moses sent ... Eleazar the priest, to the war — Although it is not
expressly mentioned, it is highly probable that Joshua was the general who conducted
this war. The presence of the priest, who was always with the army (Deu_20:2), was
necessary to preside over the Levites, who accompanied the expedition, and to inflame
the courage of the combatants by his sacred services and counsels.
holy instruments — As neither the ark nor the Urim and Thummim were carried to
the battlefield till a later period in the history of Israel, the “holy instruments” must
mean the “trumpets” (Num_10:9). And this view is agreeable to the text, by simply
changing “and” into “even,” as the Hebrew particle is frequently rendered.
BENSON, "Numbers 31:6. Them and Phinehas — Who had the charge, not of the
army, as general, (an office never committed to a priest in all the Old Testament,)
but of the holy instruments, and was sent to encourage and quicken them in their
31

enterprise. The holy instruments — The holy breast plate, wherein was the Urim
and Thummim, which was easily carried, and was very useful in war, upon many
emergent occasions.
ELLICOTT, "(6) With the holy instruments, and . . . —Or, with the holy
instruments, even, &c. It does not appear whether the ark did or did not accompany
the expedition. It has been inferred from Numbers 14:44 that the reference may be
to the ark, but it does not appear probable that the ark would be so described.
Moreover, Phinehas was not the high priest, and therefore would not have the
ephod with the breastplate, which was worn at this time by-Eleazar. The reference
may be only to the silver trumpets (see Numbers 10:9), or it may include other
sacred instruments. This was emphatically a holy war; and we may learn, from the
command given to the Israelites to take with them “the holy instruments,” that they
who would engage in the war against sin and Satan must “take to them the whole
armour of God” (Ephesians 6:13).
PETT, "Numbers 31:6
‘And Moses sent them, a thousand of every tribe, to the war, them and Phinehas the
son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the
trumpets for the alarm in his hand.’
With them went Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the Priest, who would have
responsibility for the Ark of the covenant of Yahweh and the trumpets which would
sound so as to convey the commander’s messages to his troops. His presence and
possibly that of the Ark and some holy vessels would be the assurance that this was
holy war and that Yahweh was with them. The High Priest himself would not want
to become ‘unclean, by the contact with death, for that would interfere with his
daily ministry.
“With the vessels of the Sanctuary.” This could actually indicate the priestly
garments (the word means ‘garments’ in Deuteronomy 22:5), but the Ark does seem
to have been intended to lead the way for Israel (Numbers 3-36), and its presence
along with some holy vessels used for some special purpose, would be a huge
encouragement as it would be in Joshua 6:3-4 where it was assumed that the Ark
would go with the army. Alternately we may read, ‘with the vessels of the
Sanctuary, even the trumpets for the alarm’, seeing the trumpets as being the
‘accoutrements of the Sanctuary’.
POOLE, " Phinehas had the charge not of the army, as general, (an office never
committed to any priest in all the Old Testament,) but of
the holy instruments, & c. as is here expressed, and was also sent to encourage, and
32

quicken, and confirm them in their good enterprise. It is not here mentioned who
was the general, whether Joshua, as some think, because he is not named amongst
those who went out to meet the returning host, though that might be for other
reasons, or some other prince, nor is it worth while to determine. The holy
instruments; either,
1. The ark, with the things belonging to it, which before the building of the temple
they did sometimes carry into the war for the encouragement of their army. See
Numbers 14:44 Joshua 6:9 1 Samuel 4:4 14:18. But why then is it thus ambiguously
expressed, seeing in all the other places it is called by its proper name? Nor is the
ark ever so called in Scripture. Or,
2. The trumpets, as it here follows, the words being thus to be read, the holy
instruments that is, the trumpets; for and is ofttimes put exegetically for that is, or
to wit, as Genesis 13:15 1 Chronicles 21:12, compared with 2 Samuel 24:13
Zechariah 1:4 9:9, &c. Or rather,
3. The holy breastplate, wherein was the Urim and Thummim, which was easily
carried and used, and very useful in war upon many emergent occasions. See 1
Samuel 23:9 30:7.
And the trumpets, which were to be used in war as well as in the service of the
tabernacle. See Numbers 10:9 2 Chronicles 13:12.
TRAPP, "Numbers 31:6 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of [every]
tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy
instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand.
Ver. 6. Them and Phinehas.] Not without Joshua, the general (though not here
mentioned), the mighty conqueror of all Israel’s enemies that rose up and resisted
them: famous is he for his faithfulness and fortitude, In cognoscendis rebus bellicis
perspicax, in agendo solers: noverat optime insidias facere, proelium committere,
victoria uti, &c., as Dio saith (a) of Decebalus, king of the Daci, in Domitian’s days:
i.e., Well skilled in warlike businesses, and diligent in despatching them; He knew
well how to lay an ambush, worst an enemy, use a victory, &c.
7 They fought against Midian, as the Lord
commanded Moses, and killed every man.
33

Numbers 31 commentary

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Numbers 31 commentary