The War Against Midian

"Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people." Twelve thousand men go with Phinehas the priest and the holy vessels and trumpets. They kill the kings of Midian, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba, "Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword."

They bring back women, children and livestock. Moses is angry: "Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor." He orders the boys and the women who had been with men killed, and the young girls kept alive.

The soldiers stay outside the camp seven days to be purified, and metal objects are passed through fire. The spoil is divided half to the soldiers, half to the congregation, with a share to the priests and Levites. The officers report that not one Israelite soldier was lost and bring their gold as an offering "to make an atonement for our souls."

How readers have faced it

• As a unique judgment tied to Peor: the Midianite leaders deliberately used their women to lead Israel into apostasy, on Balaam's advice (31:16), and the command is not a general rule of war (compare Deuteronomy 20:10–14).
• As ancient war rhetoric: ancient Near Eastern victory accounts, like the Mesha Stele ("I killed all the people… seven thousand men, boys, women, girls"), often exaggerated totality. Later texts show Midian very much alive.
• As a moral problem to be acknowledged: many Jewish and Christian interpreters hold that the text describes what happened, not an example to follow, and read it in light of later revelation of God's mercy to the nations (Jonah 4:11).

Midian

Midian was centered in northwestern Arabia, east of the Gulf of Aqaba, where Qurayyah, a fortified oasis with distinctive painted pottery of the 13th–12th centuries BC, has been excavated. "Qurayyah Painted Ware" is found at Timna and elsewhere in the Arabah, showing Midianite presence along Israel's route.

The spoil, counted

The officers also bring 16,750 shekels of gold jewelry as an offering, "to make an atonement for our souls" (31:50, 52). The careful arithmetic is the same as in the census and gift lists: the half-shares and tributes add up exactly.

Purifying metal through fire

Eleazar gives the rule: gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin and lead must pass through fire, and everything else through water (31:21–24). In the Samaritan Pentateuch, verse 20 adds that Moses first told Eleazar to give this instruction, so the law comes through Moses as everywhere else. Later Jewish law used these verses for purifying cooking vessels bought from non-Jews (kashering).