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Numbers 31

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1 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,

2 Avenging, avenge the sons of Israel of the Midianites; after this shalt thou be gathered to thy people.

3 And Moses spoke to the people, saying, Arm from among yourselves the men for an army, and let them be against Midian, and put the vengeance of Jehovah on Midian.

4 A thousand for a tribe, a thousand for a tribe, for all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the army.

5 And there were committed from the thousands of Israel, a thousand for every tribe, twelve thousand armed for the army.

6 And Moses sent them, a thousand for every tribe, for an army, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, for an army, and the holy vessels, and the trumpets to blast in his hand.

7 And they were·​·an·​·army against Midian, as Jehovah commanded Moses; and they killed all the males.

8 And they killed the kings of Midian, over their slain: Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, five kings of Midian; and Balaam, the son of Beor, they killed with the sword.

9 And the sons of Israel took·​·captive the women of Midian, and their infants, and plundered all their beasts, and all their livestock, and all their belongings.

10 And all their cities, with their dwellingplaces, and all their castles, they burnt·​·up with fire.

11 And they took all the spoil, and all the booty, among man and among beast.

12 And they brought the captives, and the booty, and the spoil, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the sons of Israel, into the camp toward the desert of Moab, which was by Jordan near Jericho.

13 And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the chiefs of the congregation, went·​·forth to meet them to outside the camp.

14 And Moses was·​·enraged on·​·account·​·of the overseers of the forces, the princes of the thousands, and princes of the hundreds, who came from the army of war.

15 And Moses said to them, Have you kept·​·alive all the females?

16 Behold, these women were the cause for the sons of Israel, by the word* of Balaam, to commit the trespass against Jehovah on·​·account·​·of the matter of Peor; and there was a striking among the congregation of Jehovah.

17 And now kill every male among the infants, and kill every woman who has known a man by lying with a male.

18 But every infant among the women, who have· not ·known a male by lying with him, keep·​·alive for yourselves.

19 And encamp you outside the camp seven days; whoever has killed a soul, and whoever has touched any slain, purge yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.

20 And purge every garment, and every vessel of skins, and all works of the hair of goats, and all vessels of wood.

21 And Eleazar the priest said to the men of the army who came to the battle, This is the statute of the law which Jehovah commanded Moses:

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

23 every thing that may come into the fire, you shall make it pass·​·through the fire, and it shall be·​·clean; surely it shall be purged with the water of isolation; and all that comes not into the fire you shall make pass·​·through the water.

24 And you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you shall be·​·clean, and afterwards you shall come to the camp.

25 And Jehovah said to Moses, saying,

26 Bear·​·up the sum of the booty of the captivity, among man and among beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers of the congregation;

27 and halve the booty, between those who were occupied in the battle, going·​·out with the army, and all the congregation;

28 and lift·​·up a share to Jehovah from the men of the battle going·​·out with the army: one soul from five hundred, from man, and from the herd, and from the donkeys, and from the flock;

29 take it from their half, and give it to Eleazar the priest, for an uplifting of Jehovah.

30 And from the half of the sons of Israel, thou shalt take one possession of fifty, of man, of the herd, of the donkeys, and of the flock, of every beast, and give them to the Levites, keeping the charge of the Habitation of Jehovah.

31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as Jehovah commanded Moses.

32 And the booty, the remainder of the plunder which the people of the army plundered, was a flock of six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand,

33 and two and seventy thousand cattle,

34 and one and sixty thousand donkeys,

35 and the soul of man, of the women who knew not a male by lying with him, all the souls, two and thirty thousand.

36 And the half, the part for those who went·​·out into the army, from the number of the flock was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred;

37 and the share for Jehovah from the flock was six hundred five and seventy.

38 And the cattle were six and thirty thousand; and the share for Jehovah was two and seventy.

39 And the donkeys were thirty thousand and five hundred; and the share for Jehovah was one and sixty.

40 And the souls of man were sixteen thousand; and the share of Jehovah was two and thirty souls.

41 And Moses gave the share, the uplifting of Jehovah, to Eleazar the priest, as Jehovah commanded Moses.

42 And from the half of the sons of Israel, which Moses halved from the men of the army,

43 and the half which was for the congregation from the flock was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred,

44 and six and thirty thousand cattle,

45 and thirty thousand and five hundred donkeys,

46 and the soul of man sixteen thousand;

47 and Moses took from the half of the sons of Israel one possession of fifty, from man and from beast, and gave them to the Levites, who kept the charge of the Habitation of Jehovah, as Jehovah commanded Moses.

48 And the overseers who were over thousands of the army, the princes of thousands, and princes of hundreds, came·​·near to Moses,

49 and they said to Moses, Thy servants have taken·​·up the sum of the men of war which are in our hand, and not one man of us is·​·missing.

50 And we have offered an offering to Jehovah, each·​·man what he found, of vessels of gold, an armband, and a bracelet, a ring, an earring, and a band, to make·​·atonement for our souls before Jehovah.

51 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all the vessels made.

52 And all the gold of the uplifting, that they lifted·​·up to Jehovah, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, from the princes of the thousands, and from the princes of the hundreds.

53 For the men of the army had plundered, each man for himself.

54 And Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the princes of the thousands and of the hundreds, and brought it into the Tabernacle of the congregation, for a memorial for the sons of Israel before Jehovah.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Moses

  

At the inmost level, the story of Moses -- like all of the Bible -- is about the Lord and his spiritual development during his human life as Jesus. Moses's role represents establishing forms of worship and to make the people obedient. As such, his primary representation is "the Law of God," the rules God gave the people of Israel to follow in order to represent spiritual things. This can be interpreted narrowly as the Ten Commandments, more broadly as the books of Moses, or most broadly as the entire Bible. Fittingly, his spiritual meaning is complex and important, and evolves throughout the course of his life. To understand it, it helps to understand the meaning of the events in which he was involved. At a more basic level, Moses's story deals with the establishment of the third church to serve as a container of knowledge of the Lord. The first such church -- the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam and centered on love of the Lord -- had fallen prey to human pride and was destroyed. The second -- the Ancient Church, represented by Noah and the generations that followed him -- was centered on love of the neighbor, wisdom from the Lord and knowledge of the correspondences between natural and spiritual things. It fell prey to the pride of intelligence, however -- represented by the Tower of Babel -- and at the time of Moses was in scattered pockets that were sliding into idolatry. On an external level, of course, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt through 40 years in the wilderness to the border of the homeland God had promised them. Along the way, he established and codified their religious system, and oversaw the creation of its most holy objects. Those rules and the forms of worship they created were given as containers for deeper ideas about the Lord, deeper truth, and at some points -- especially when he was first leading his people away from Egypt, a time before the rules had been written down -- Moses takes on the deeper representation of Divine Truth itself, truth from the Lord. At other times -- especially after Mount Sinai -- he has a less exalted meaning, representing the people of Israel themselves due to his position as their leader. Through Moses the Lord established a third church, one more external than its predecessors but one that could preserve knowledge of the Lord and could, through worship that represented spiritual things, make it possible for the Bible to be written and passed to future generations.