Numbers 31

Chap. XXXI. Ver. 1—54. The Midianites slain, and the spoil divided.—‘‘Vengeance is mine; and I will repay, saith the Lord.” ((Romans 12:19).) He only who gave the law to man is able, in all cases, to enforce its penalties; and he only who reads the heart is qualified to apportion them accurately to the demerits of his rational creatures. In national judgments, God deals with the nation as a political body; and if among them there should be individuals who “fear God and work righteousness,” there is another judgment and another world, in which all temporal calamities may be abundantly compensated; a circumstance which has a very favourable bearing in the case of suffering infants, as well as to the class just mentioned, of whom we can barely hope to find any among a nation generally devoted to idolatry, and that of the most corrupting nature.

Living in a Christian land, we can hardly conceive the profligacy of the heathen world; and yet there still exist countries, where acts of prostitution are acts of devotion; and suicide, and infant murder, rank among the sublimest virtues. Such, probably, was the case with this people, of whom the women are said to have been most licentious, and their idolatry most [corrupting]. Balak, their king, used all his art and all his influence to bring a curse on Israel; and when he found there was no other way, he (no doubt) readily fell in with the wicked advice of Balaam; and by their seduction to pagan vices and idolatries, he brought on them a curse, which causelessly lights not on man. The people were depraved, and through their depravity many of them were destroyed.

As they were the Lord’s people, their seduction he considered as a crime against himself; and denounced that vengeance, which he also executed in a signal manner, by an extirpation of the nation; the adults being all slain, together with the male children, and the female children doomed to a state of slavery for life. As to Balaam, who had “caused Israel to sin,” he was found among the slain. His death was not “the death of the righteous;” nor was his “last end like his.” He was an awful instance of the baneful influence of covetousness, and this fatal error of his heart, for it was not in his judgment, sealed his doom on earth, and, we fear, for ever; for he “loved the wages of unrighteousness.”

The following part of the chapter contains the details of war and of victory and of plunder, but, in the close, we have an instance of pious gratitude on the part of the officers of the war who, discerning the Lord’s hand in their victory, and especially in the miraculous sparing of their lives, brought the richest of the spoil into the tabernacle of the Lord, and devoted it to his service. ‘Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!’ (Psalm 107:8.)

Notes on the verses

Ver. 17. Kill every male, &c.—[The sword of war should spare women and children, as incapable of resisting; but the sword of justice knows no distinction, except that of guilty or not guilty, or more or less guilty. This was the execution of a righteous sentence upon a guilty nation, in which the women were the greatest criminals; and it may safely be said, that their lives were forfeited by their personal transgressions. With respect to the execution of the male infants, who cannot be supposed to have been guilty, God, the author and supporter of life, who has a right to dispose of it when and how he thinks proper, commanded it: and “shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”—Bagster.]

Ver. 18. All the women children…. keep alive for yourselves.—{It has been groundlessly asserted, that Moses here authorized the Israelites to make concubines of the whole number of female children; and a formidable objection against his writings has been grounded upon this monstrous supposition. But the whole tenor of the law, and especially a statute recorded in (Deuteronomy 21:10-14), proves most decisively to the contrary. They were merely permitted to possess them as female slaves, educating them in their families, and employing them as domestics; for the laws concerning fornication, concubinage, and marriage, were in full force, and prohibited an Israelite even from marrying a captive, without delays and previous formalities; and if he afterwards divorced her, he was to set her at liberty, “because he had humbled her.”}—Bagster.

Ver. 23. With the water of separation.—See (Numbers 19:2), &c. Metals were to pass through the fire, and, as a great part of these was probably in the form of penates, or domestic idols, these were undoubtedly to be melted.

Ver. 29. A heave-offering unto the Lord.—From hence it has been perversely inferred that the Lord’s share of the captives was offered on the altar. But, 1. The heave-offering was never sacrificed on the altar, but after being heaved toward the altar, was given to the priest and his family, for their support; if this prove any thing, therefore, it would prove that the priest and his family lived on human flesh, which cannot be pretended. Compare (Exodus 29:27) with (Numbers 18:19). 2. A thing being devoted to the Lord by no means implied its being sacrificed, otherwise we must suppose that houses and fields were offered on the altar, (Leviticus 27:14-23). 3. Even animals that were unclean, i.e. not fit for sacrifice, were to be redeemed, (Exodus 13:13). (Leviticus 27:11-12). 4. Human sacrifices were, in all cases, positively forbidden, (Deuteronomy 12:31). (Isaiah 63:3).

Ver. 32. Booty, &c.—{It appears from the enumeration here, that the Israelites in this war with the Midianites, took 32,000 female prisoners, 61,000 asses, 72,000 beeves, 675,000 sheep and small cattle; besides the immense number of males who fell in battle, and the women and children who were slain by the divine command, (ver. 17.) This booty was divided into equal parts, (ver. 22.) by which partition a far larger share was justly given to the warriors employed on the expedition, who were only 12,000, than to those who, being equally willing to go, were ordered to stay in the camp. Each party was to give a certain proportion to Jehovah, as their sovereign, in grateful acknowledgment that to him they owed their success. The soldiers to give to the Lord one out of every five hundred persons, beeves, asses, and sheep, (ver. 28.) and the people, who stayed at home, risked none, and had no fatigue, were to give one out of fifty of each of the above to the Levites, who were far more numerous than the priests (ver. 30.) The booty, its division among the soldiers and people, and the proportion given by each to the Lord and to the Levites, will be seen at one view by the following table:

To soldiers, - - - 337,500
To soldiers, - - 30,500
To God, - - 675
To God, - - 61
To people, - - 337,500
To people, - - 30,500
To Levites, - - 6,770
To Levites, - - 610
To soldiers, - - 36,000
To soldiers, - - 16,000
To God, - - 72
To God, - - 32
To people, - - 36,000
To people, - - 16,000
To Levites, - - 720
To Levites, - - 320

It does not appear that a single ox, sheep, or ass, was required by Moses as his portion; or that there was any given to him by the people; although he had a family as well as others, yet no provision was made for them above the common lot of Levites!—Bagster.