February 22

Numbers 31:1 — 33:23

31 Jehovah then spoke to Moses, saying: 2 “Take vengeance for the sons of Israel upon the Midianites. Afterward you will be gathered to your people.”

3 So Moses spoke to the people, saying: “Equip men from among YOU for the army, that they may serve against Midian to execute Jehovah’s vengeance upon Midian. 4 A thousand of each tribe of all the tribes of Israel YOU will send into the army.” 5 Accordingly from the thousands of Israel a thousand were assigned of a tribe, twelve thousand equipped for the army.

6 Then Moses sent them out, a thousand of each tribe, to the army, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest to the army, and the holy utensils and the trumpets for blowing calls were in his hand. 7 And they went waging war against Midian, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses, and they proceeded to kill every male. 8 And they killed the kings of Midian along with the others slain, namely, Evi and Rekem and Zur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian; and they killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. 9 But the sons of Israel carried off the women of Midian and their little ones captive; and all their domestic animals and all their livestock and all their means of maintenance they plundered. 10 And all their cities in which they had settled and all their walled camps they burned with fire. 11 And they went taking all the spoil and all the booty in the way of humans and domestic animals. 12 And they came bringing to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the assembly of the sons of Israel the captives and the booty and the spoil, to the camp, to the desert plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho.

13 Then Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the chieftains of the assembly went out to meet them outside the camp. 14 And Moses grew indignant at the appointed men of the combat forces, the chiefs of the thousands and the chiefs of the hundreds who were coming in from the military expedition. 15 So Moses said to them: “Have YOU preserved alive every female? 16 Look! They are the ones who, by Balaam’s word, served to induce the sons of Israel to commit unfaithfulness toward Jehovah over the affair of Peor, so that the scourge came upon the assembly of Jehovah. 17 And now kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has had intercourse with man by lying with a male. 18 And preserve alive for yourselves all the little ones among the women who have not known the act of lying with a male. 19 As for YOU yourselves, camp outside the camp seven days. Everyone who has killed a soul and everyone who has touched someone slain, YOU should purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, YOU and YOUR captives. 20 And every garment and every article of skin and everything made of goat’s hair and every article of wood YOU should purify for yourselves from sin.”

21 Eleazar the priest then said to the men of the army who had gone into the battle: “This is the statute of the law that Jehovah commanded Moses, 22 ‘Only the gold and the silver, the copper, the iron, the tin and the lead, 23 everything that is processed with fire, YOU should pass through the fire, and it must be clean. Only it should be purified by the water for cleansing. And everything that is not processed with fire YOU should pass through the water. 24 And YOU must wash YOUR garments on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward YOU may come into the camp.’”

25 And Jehovah proceeded to say this to Moses: 26 “Take the sum of the booty, the captives both of humankind and of domestic animals, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers of the assembly. 27 And you must divide the booty in two between those taking part in the battle who went out on the expedition and all the rest of the assembly. 28 And as a tax for Jehovah you must take away from the men of war who went out on the expedition one soul out of five hundred, of humankind and of the herd and of the asses and of the flock. 29 From their half YOU should take it and you must give it to Eleazar the priest as Jehovah’s contribution. 30 And from the half of the sons of Israel you should take one out of fifty, of humankind, of the herd, of the asses and of the flock, of every sort of domestic animal, and you must give them to the Levites, the keepers of the obligation of Jehovah’s tabernacle.”

31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest went doing just as Jehovah had commanded Moses. 32 And the booty, the rest of the plunder that the people of the expedition had taken as plunder, amounted to six hundred and seventy-five thousand of the flock, 33 and seventy-two thousand of the herd, 34 and sixty-one thousand asses. 35 As for human souls from the women who had not known the act of lying with a male, all the souls were thirty-two thousand. 36 And the half that was the share of those who went out on the expedition amounted in number to three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred of the flock. 37 And the tax for Jehovah from the flock amounted to six hundred and seventy-five. 38 And of the herd there were thirty-six thousand, and the tax on them for Jehovah was seventy-two. 39 And the asses were thirty thousand five hundred, and the tax on them for Jehovah was sixty-one. 40 And the human souls were sixteen thousand, and the tax on them for Jehovah was thirty-two souls. 41 Then Moses gave the tax as Jehovah’s contribution to Eleazar the priest, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

42 And from the half belonging to the sons of Israel, which Moses divided from that belonging to the men who waged war: 43 Now the half of the assembly from the flock amounted to three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred, 44 and of the herd, thirty-six thousand, 45 and the asses, thirty thousand five hundred, 46 and human souls, sixteen thousand. 47 Then Moses took from the half belonging to the sons of Israel the one to be taken out of fifty, of humankind and of domestic animals, and gave them to the Levites, the keepers of the obligation of Jehovah’s tabernacle, just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.

48 And the appointed men who were of the thousands of the army, the chiefs of the thousands and the chiefs of the hundreds, proceeded to approach Moses, 49 and to say to Moses: “Your servants have taken the sum of the men of war who are in our charge and not one has been reported missing from us. 50 So let us present each one what he has found as Jehovah’s offering, articles of gold, ankle chainlets, and bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and female ornaments, in order to make atonement for our souls before Jehovah.”

51 Accordingly Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from them, all the jewelry. 52 And all the gold of the contribution that they contributed to Jehovah amounted to sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels, from the chiefs of the thousands and the chiefs of the hundreds. 53 The men of the army had taken plunder each for himself. 54 So Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from the chiefs of the thousands and of the hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial for the sons of Israel before Jehovah.


32 Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had come to have numerous livestock, very many, in fact. And they began to see the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and, look! the place was a place for livestock. 2 Hence the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and said this to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the chieftains of the assembly: 3 “Ataroth and Dibon and Jazer and Nimrah and Heshbon and Elealeh and Sebam and Nebo and Beon, 4 the land that Jehovah defeated before the assembly of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.” 5 And they went on to say: “If we have found favor in your eyes, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan.”

6 Then Moses said to the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben: “Are YOUR brothers to go to war while YOU yourselves keep dwelling here? 7 And why should YOU dishearten the sons of Israel from crossing into the land that Jehovah will certainly give them? 8 That is the way YOUR fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. 9 When they went up to the torrent valley of Eshcol and saw the land, then they disheartened the sons of Israel, so as not to go into the land that Jehovah was certain to give them. 10 Consequently Jehovah’s anger blazed on that day so that he swore, saying, 11 ‘The men who came up out of Egypt from twenty years old upward will not see the soil of which I have sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because they have not followed me wholly, 12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, because they have followed Jehovah wholly.’ 13 So Jehovah’s anger blazed against Israel and he made them wander about in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that was doing evil in the eyes of Jehovah came to their end. 14 And here YOU have risen in the place of YOUR fathers as the brood of sinful men in order to add further to the burning anger of Jehovah against Israel. 15 In case YOU should turn back from following him, he also would certainly once again let them stay longer in the wilderness, and YOU would have acted ruinously toward all this people.”

16 Later they approached him and said: “Let us build here stone flock pens for our livestock and cities for our little ones. 17 But we ourselves shall go equipped in battle formation before the sons of Israel until whenever we have brought them to their place, while our little ones must dwell in the cities with fortifications away from the face of the inhabitants of the land. 18 We shall not return to our houses until the sons of Israel have provided themselves with landed property, each with his own inheritance. 19 For we shall not get an inheritance with them from the side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us from the side of the Jordan toward the sunrising.”

20 At this Moses said to them: “If YOU will do this thing, if YOU will equip yourselves before Jehovah for the war, 21 and every equipped one of YOURS will actually pass over the Jordan before Jehovah, until he drives away his enemies from before him, 22 and the land is actually subdued before Jehovah, and afterward YOU return, YOU also will indeed prove yourselves free from guilt against Jehovah and against Israel; and this land must become YOURS as a possession before Jehovah. 23 But if YOU will not do this way, YOU will also certainly sin against Jehovah. In that case know that YOUR sin will catch up with YOU. 24 Build for yourselves cities for YOUR little ones and stone pens for YOUR flocks, and what has gone forth from YOUR mouth YOU should do.”

25 Then the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben said this to Moses: “Your servants will do just as my lord is commanding. 26 Our little ones, our wives, our livestock and all our domestic animals will stay there in the cities of Gilead, 27 but your servants will pass over, everyone equipped for the army, before Jehovah for the war, just as my lord is speaking.”

28 Accordingly Moses gave a command respecting them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the sons of Israel. 29 So Moses said to them: “If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben pass with YOU over the Jordan, everyone equipped for the war, before Jehovah, and the land is actually subdued before YOU, YOU must then give them the land of Gilead as a possession. 30 But if they do not pass over equipped with YOU, they must then be settled in YOUR midst in the land of Canaan.”

31 To this the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered, saying: “What Jehovah has spoken to your servants is the way we shall do. 32 We ourselves will pass over equipped before Jehovah to the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance will be with us on this side of the Jordan.” 33 At this Moses gave to them, that is, to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Reuben and to half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon the king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og the king of Bashan, the land belonging to its cities in the territories, and the cities of the land round about.

34 And the sons of Gad proceeded to build Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer, 35 and Atroth-shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah, 36 and Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran, cities with fortifications, and stone flock pens. 37 And the sons of Reuben built Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim, 38 and Nebo and Baal-meon—their names being changed—and Sibmah; and they began to call by their own names the names of the cities that they built.

39 And the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh proceeded to march to Gilead and to capture it and to drive away the Amorites who were in it. 40 So Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he took up dwelling in it. 41 And Jair the son of Manasseh marched and went capturing their tent villages, and he began to call them Havvoth-jair. 42 And Nobah marched and went capturing Kenath and its dependent towns; and he began to call it Nobah by his own name.

33 These were the stages of the sons of Israel who went out of the land of Egypt in their armies by the hand of Moses and Aaron. 2 And Moses kept recording the departure places by their stages at the order of Jehovah; and these were their stages from one departure place to another: 3 And they proceeded to pull away from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. Directly the day after the passover the sons of Israel went out with uplifted hand before the eyes of all the Egyptians. 4 All the while the Egyptians were burying those whom Jehovah had struck among them, that is, all the firstborn; and upon their gods Jehovah had executed judgments.

5 So the sons of Israel pulled away from Rameses and went camping in Succoth. 6 Then they pulled away from Succoth and went camping in Etham, which is on the edge of the wilderness. 7 Next they pulled away from Etham and turned back toward Pihahiroth, which is in view of Baal-zephon; and they went camping before Migdol. 8 After that they pulled away from Pihahiroth and went passing through the midst of the sea to the wilderness and kept marching a three-day journey in the wilderness of Etham and took up camping at Marah.

9 Then they pulled away from Marah and came to Elim. Now in Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. So they camped there. 10 Next they pulled away from Elim and went camping by the Red Sea. 11 After that they pulled away from the Red Sea and took up camping in the wilderness of Sin. 12 Then they pulled away from the wilderness of Sin and went camping at Dophkah. 13 Later they pulled away from Dophkah and went camping at Alush. 14 They next pulled away from Alush and went camping in Rephidim. And there proved to be no water there for the people to drink. 15 After that they pulled away from Rephidim and went camping in the wilderness of Sinai.

16 Subsequently they pulled away from the wilderness of Sinai and went camping at Kibroth-hattaavah. 17 Then they pulled away from Kibroth-hattaavah and went camping in Hazeroth. 18 After that they pulled away from Hazeroth and went camping in Rithmah. 19 Next they pulled away from Rithmah and took up camping in Rimmon-perez. 20 Then they pulled away from Rimmon-perez and went camping in Libnah. 21 Later they pulled away from Libnah and went camping in Rissah. 22 Next they pulled away from Rissah and went camping in Kehelathah. 23 Then they pulled away from Kehelathah and went camping in Mount Shepher.