1Jehovah said to Moses: 2»Get even with the Midianites for what they did to the Israelites. After that you will join your ancestors in death.« 3Moses said to the people: »Your men must get ready to go to war against the Midianites. Jehovah will use them to get even with Midian. 4»Send one thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel.« 5Thus one thousand men from each tribe were supplied from the divisions of Israel, twelve thousand men ready for war. 6Moses sent them off to war. There were one thousand men from each tribe along with Phinehas, son of the priest Eleazar. Phinehas took with him the holy articles and the trumpets for the fanfare. 7They went to war against Midian, as Jehovah commanded Moses, and killed every man. 8Included in those killed were the five kings of Midian-Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba. They also killed Balaam, son of Beor, in battle. 9The Israelites took the Midianite women and children as prisoners of war. They also took all their animals, their livestock, and their valuables as loot. 10They burned the cities where the Midianites lived and all their settlements. 11They took everything as loot including all the people and animals, 12and brought the prisoners of war, the loot, and everything to Moses, the priest Eleazar, and the congregation of Israel at the camp on the plains of Moab near the Jordan River across from Jericho. 13Moses, the priest Eleazar, and all the leaders of the congregation went outside the camp to meet them. 14Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of the companies and battalions, who were returning from battle. 15Moses asked them: »Have you spared all the women? 16»Look, these women caused the Israelites, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against Jehovah in the matter of Peor. Thus the congregation of Jehovah experienced the plague. 17»So kill all the Midianite boys and every Midianite woman who has gone to bed with a man. 18»But keep alive for yourselves every girl who has never gone to bed with a man. 19»Everyone who killed a person or touched a dead body must stay outside the camp seven days. You and your prisoners of war must use the ritual water on the third and seventh days in order to take away your sin. 20»You must do the same for all the clothes and everything made of leather, goats’ hair, or wood.« 21Eleazar the priest said to the soldiers who had gone into battle: »This is what Jehovah’s Law told Moses to do: 22»Only the gold and the silver, the copper, the iron, the tin and the lead, 23everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it will be clean. It must be purified with water for impurity. Anything that cannot stand the fire you shall pass through the water. 24»You must wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean. After that you may enter the camp.« 25Jehovah spoke to Moses: 26»You and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the families of the congregation take a count of the booty that was captured, both of man and of animal. 27»Divide the booty between the warriors who went out to battle and the entire congregation. 28»Levy a tax for Jehovah from the men of war who went out to battle, one in five hundred of the persons and of the cattle and of the donkeys and of the sheep. 29»Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest, as an offering to Jehovah. 30»From the sons of Israel’s half, you shall take one drawn out of every fifty of the persons, of the cattle, of the donkeys and of the sheep, from all the animals, and give them to the Levites who keep charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah.« 31Moses and Eleazar the priest did just as Jehovah commanded Moses. 32The booty that remained from the spoil the men of war had plundered was six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, 33and seventy-two thousand cattle, 34and sixty-one thousand donkeys, 35and of human beings, of the women who had not known man intimately, all the persons were thirty-two thousand. 36The half, the portion of those who went out to war, was as follows: the number of sheep was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred. 37Jehovah’s levy of the sheep was six hundred and seventy-five. 38There were thirty-six thousand cattle, from which Jehovah’s levy was seventy-two. 39There were thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, from which Jehovah’s levy was sixty-one. 40There were sixteen thousand human beings, from whom Jehovah’s levy was thirty-two persons. 41Moses gave the levy that was Jehovah’s offering to Eleazar the priest, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses. 42And from the Israelites half, which Moses separated from the men who had gone to war. 43The congregation’s half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, 44and thirty-six thousand cattle, 45and thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, 46and the human beings were sixteen thousand. 47Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of animals from the Israelite’s half. He gave them to the Levites, who kept charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah, just as Jehovah commanded Moses. 48Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, approached Moses. 49They said to Moses: »Your servants have taken a census of men of war who are in our charge, and no man of us is missing. 50»So we brought as an offering to Jehovah what each man found, articles of gold, armlets and ankle bracelets, signet rings, earrings and necklaces, to make atonement for ourselves before Jehovah.« 51Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all kinds of molded articles. 52All the gold of the offering they gave to Jehovah, from the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels. 53Each of the men of war had taken booty. 54So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it to the tent of meeting as a memorial for the Israelites before Jehovah.