Part 104 (2/2)

31:13. And Moses and Eleazar the priest and all the princes of the synagogue went forth to meet them without the camp.

31:14. And Moses being angry with the chief officers of the army, the tribunes, and the centurions that were come from the battle,

31:15. Said: Why have you saved the women?

31:16. Are not these they, that deceived the children of Israel by the counsel of Balaam, and made you transgress against the Lord by the sin of Phogor, for which also the people was punished?

The sin of Phogor... The sin committed in the wors.h.i.+p of Beelphegor.

31:17. Therefore kill all that are of the male s.e.x, even of the children: and put to death the women, that have carnally known men.

Of children... Women and children, ordinarilly speaking, were not to be killed in war, Deut. 20.14. But the great Lord of life and death was pleased to order it otherwise in the present case, in detestation of the wickedness of this people, who by the counsel of Balaam, had sent their women among the Israelites on purpose to draw them from G.o.d.

31:18. But the girls, and all the women that are virgins save for yourselves:

31:19. And stay without the camp seven days. He that hath killed a man, or touched one that is killed, shall be purified the third day and the seventh day.

31:20. And of all the spoil, every garment, or vessel, or any thing made for use, of the skins, or hair of goats, or of wood, shall be purified.

31:21. Eleazar also the priest spoke to the men of the army, that had fought, in this manner: This is the ordinance of the law, which the Lord hath commanded Moses:

31:22. Gold, and silver, and bra.s.s, and iron, and lead, and tin,

31:23. And all that may pa.s.s through the fire, shall be purified by fire, but whatsoever cannot abide the fire, shall be sanctified with the water of expiation:

31:24. And you shall wash your garments the seventh day, and being purified, you shall afterwards enter into the camp.

31:25. And the Lord said to Moses:

31:26. Take the sum of the things that were taken both of man and beast, thou and Eleazar the priest and the princes of the mult.i.tude:

31:27. And thou shalt divide the spoil equally, between them that fought and went out to the war, and between the rest of the mult.i.tude.

31:28. And thou shalt separate a portion to the Lord from them that fought and were in the battle, one soul of five hundred as well of persons as of oxen and a.s.ses and sheep.

31:29. And thou shalt give it to Eleazar the priest, because they are the firstfruits of the Lord.

31:30. Out of the moiety also of the children of Israel thou shalt take the fiftieth head of persons, and of oxen, and a.s.ses, and sheep, and of all beasts, and thou shalt give them to the Levites that watch in the charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.

31:31. And Moses and Eleazar did as the Lord had commanded.

31:32. And the spoil which the army had taken, was six hundred seventy- five thousand sheep,

31:33. Seventy-two thousand oxen,

31:34. Sixty-one thousand a.s.ses:

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