Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter the Thirty-first
By God’s command the Madianites are slain, namely all the males, and all the women who have been corrupted: the virgins alone are spared. Secondly, verse 19, God commands that both the spoil and the soldiers, as returning from slaughter and from dead bodies, be purified. Thirdly, verse 25, He commands half the spoil to be divided among the soldiers, so however that they give out of it one animal in five hundred to Eleazar and the priests: but the other half He commands to be divided among those who had remained in the camp, so however that they give out of it the fiftieth animal to the Levites. Fourthly, verse 48, each offered to God all the gold which he had taken, because none of the Hebrews had fallen in the battle.
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2. Revenge first the children of Israel on the Madianites, and so thou shalt be gathered to thy people. 3. And Moses forthwith said: Arm men from among you to fight, who may be able to execute the revenge of the Lord on the Madianites; 4. let a thousand men be chosen out of every tribe of Israel to be sent to the war. 5. And they gave a thousand of every tribe, that is, twelve thousand men ready for battle; 6. whom Moses sent with Phinees the son of Eleazar the priest, and he delivered to him also the holy vessels, and the trumpets to sound. 7. And when they had fought against the Madianites and conquered, they slew all the males, 8. and their kings, Evi and Recem, and Sur, and Hur, and Rebe, five princes of the nation: Balaam also the son of Beor they killed with the sword. 9. And they took their women, and their children, and all their cattle, and all their goods: whatsoever they could have they plundered: 10. both their cities and their villages and castles the flame consumed. 11. And they took the spoil, and all that they had taken, both of men and of beasts, 12. and brought them to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to all the multitude of the children of Israel; and the rest of the goods they carried to the camp in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, over against Jericho. 13. And Moses and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the synagogue, went out to meet them without the camp. 14. And Moses being angry with the chiefs of the army, the tribunes and centurions that came from the battle, 15. said: Why have you saved the women? 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 struck? 17. Therefore kill all that are of the male sex, even among the children: and put to death the women that have known men by lying with them; 18. but the girls and all the women that are virgins keep for yourselves; 19. and stay without the camp seven days. He that hath killed a man, or touched one that is slain, shall be purified the third and the seventh day. 20. And of all the spoil, whether it be garment, or vessel, or any thing prepared for use, of goat-skins and hair, and wood, you shall be purified. 21. Eleazar also the priest spoke thus to the men of the army that had fought: This is the ordinance of the law, which the Lord commanded Moses: 22. Gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, 23. and every thing that may abide the fire, shall be purified by fire; but whatsoever cannot abide the fire shall be sanctified with the water of expiation: 24. and you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and being purified afterwards you shall enter into the camp. 25. And the Lord said to Moses: 26. Take the sum of those things that were taken, from man to beast, thou and Eleazar the priest and the princes of the people; 27. and thou shalt divide the spoil equally between them that fought and went out to the war, and the rest of the multitude; 28. and thou shalt separate a part for the Lord from them that fought and were in the battle, one soul of five hundred, as well of men as of oxen and asses and sheep; 29. and thou shalt give it to Eleazar the priest, because they are the firstfruits of the Lord. 30. And of the half that belongs to the children of Israel thou shalt take the fiftieth head of men, and oxen, and asses, and sheep, of all living creatures, and shalt give them to the Levites, who watch in the tabernacle of the Lord. 31. And Moses and Eleazar did as the Lord had commanded. 32. And the spoil which the army had taken was six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep, 33. seventy-two thousand oxen, 34. sixty-one thousand asses: 35. and thirty-two thousand persons of the female sex, who had not known men. 36. And half was given to them that had been in the battle, of sheep three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred; 37. and of the sheep were reckoned for the portion of the Lord six hundred seventy-five. 38. And of the thirty-six thousand oxen, seventy-two oxen, 39. of the thirty thousand five hundred asses, sixty-one asses. 40. Of the sixteen thousand persons, thirty-two souls fell to the portion of the Lord. 41. And Moses delivered the number of the firstfruits of the Lord to Eleazar the priest, as had been commanded him, 42. out of the half of the children of Israel, which he had separated for them that had been in the battle. 43. But of the half that fell to the rest of the multitude, that is, of the three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, 44. and of the thirty-six thousand oxen, 45. and of the thirty thousand five hundred asses, 46. and of the sixteen thousand persons, 47. Moses took the fiftieth head, and gave it to the Levites, who watched in the tabernacle of the Lord, as the Lord had commanded him. 48. And when the princes of the army came to Moses, and the tribunes and centurions, they said: 49. We thy servants have taken the sum of the fighting men that we had under our hand; and there was not one missing. 50. For this cause we offer in the donaries of the Lord, every one what he could find of gold in the spoil, garters, and bracelets, rings and ear-rings, and little chains, that thou mayest pray for us to the Lord. 51. And Moses and Eleazar the priest received all the gold in divers kinds, 52. weighing sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty sicles, from the tribunes and centurions. 53. For that which every one had taken in the spoil was his own. 54. And having received it, they brought it into the tabernacle of the testimony, for a memorial of the children of Israel before the Lord.
2. REVENGE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ON THE MADIANITES,—because they themselves provoked the Israelites, prostituting to them their daughters, to fornication and to the idolatry of Beelphegor, and this with the mind and purpose that afterwards, as deserted by me, they might attack and slay them, as I said at the beginning of chapter xxv.
3. WHO MAY BE ABLE TO EXECUTE THE REVENGE OF THE LORD ON THE MADIANITES.—This revenge is called the Lord’s, first, because it will be made by the Lord helping you, and fighting before you, and prostrating the Madianites: so the Septuagint. Secondly, it will be the Lord’s revenge by which you will avenge the injury done by the Madianites to the people of the Lord, and consequently to the Lord Himself. So the Chaldee.
5 and 6. TWELVE THOUSAND, etc., HE SENT WITH PHINEES (because Phinees most courageously hindered this crime and scandal of Beelphegor by slaying the Madianitess, chapter xxv, verse 7), AND HE DELIVERED TO HIM ALSO THE HOLY VESSELS, AND THE TRUMPETS (of which chapter x, 2) TO SOUND.—The “holy vessels” were the ark with the tables of the law, the Cherubim and the propitiatory; for these the Jews carried with them going to war, that so they might bear with them as it were God, sitting on the propitiatory, who by His presence should scatter and trample down the camp of the enemies. These, then, with the trumpets, were delivered to Phinees the priest, that is, committed to his care. For Phinees went to this war not so much to be leader of the war as, being a priest, to preside over sacred things.
Let leaders here learn to have upright priests in the camp, who may promote piety and restrain offences against God and sins. Let soldiers also learn to revere sacred things and sacred persons, and God: for it is God who gives victory. Today it is not seldom otherwise; hence the slaughters and tears of soldiers. Hear Peter of Blois, epistle 94: “Of old,” he says, “soldiers bound themselves by oath to stand for the state of the commonwealth, not to flee in the battle-line: but even today recruits receive their swords from the altar, that they may profess themselves sons of the Church. But the matter is turned to the contrary; for from the time that they are adorned today with the military belt, they at once rise up against the Christs of the Lord, and rage against the patrimony of Christ: they despoil and plunder the poor subjects of Christ, and wretchedly and unmercifully afflict the wretched, that in sorrows they may satisfy unlawful appetites and extraordinary desires of others.” He adds secondly: “They who ought to have exerted their strength against the enemies of the cross fight in drinking-bouts and drunkenness. They give themselves to idleness, pine with surfeit, and passing a degenerate life in uncleanness, dishonour the name and office of soldiers. These praise in peace their plunderings, among arms their flights, among wines their victories, being lions in the general’s tents, hares in battles.” He adds thirdly: “The order of soldiers now is to keep no order; for he whose mouth is polluted with foul words, who swears more detestably, who fears God less, who vilifies the ministers of God, who reveres not the Church: he is today reckoned in the company of soldiers more valiant and more renowned.” These are the helmeted hares, who are strong at stealing, drinking, debauching, driving off the cattle of friends; but in whom in the battle-line there is no strength, nor in victory honour, nor in flight disgrace: an army readier with the tongue than with the hand, a plunderer of its own comrades, and itself the prey of the enemy.