And now slay every male among the little ones, and slay every woman that hath known man by lying with him,
Numbers 31 closes Moses' public service with an order that still shocks readers: the captives Israel's army brought home from Midian were not to be spared. The reason lies behind the battle, not in it — commentators trace it to Balaam's advice and to what the women of Midian had already done inside Israel's camp.
The soldiers thought they had won. Moses looked at the prisoners and saw the people who had ruined Israel.
Moses' anger flared at once, and he rebuked them sharply for sparing the women. He reminded them that it was the women of Midian who had seduced the men of Israel, following Balaam's advice (vs.14-16). Phinehas should have seen what this meant, for he had already killed the woman of Midian, and the man of Israel with her, for their corrupt relationship.
The command was not blind slaughter. It divided the captives, and it had a stated purpose.
Moses commanded them to kill the young boys and all the women who had been intimate with a man. The other girls could stay alive and be brought into Israel (vs.17-18). Only in this way could Israel guard against contamination. How different is the truth of Christianity, which deals in grace to lead the ungodly to judge themselves and be saved!
One writer ties the sentence on the males to how completely the evil itself had to be dealt with.
But the evil had to be judged thoroughly. "Every male" had to be put to death — everyone in whom the energy of the evil was at work had to be completely wiped out.
This campaign was not one of the battles for Canaan. Writers point out that Joshua, already appointed to lead, is absent from it entirely.
This war was, we might say, out of the ordinary. By rights, the people should never have had to fight it at all. It was not one of the wars of Canaan. It was simply the result of their own unfaithfulness — the fruit of their own unholy dealings with the nations outside Israel. So although Joshua, the son of Nun, had been appointed to succeed Moses as leader of the congregation, we find no mention of him at all in this war. Instead, the command of the expedition goes to Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and he sets out "with the holy instruments and the trumpets."
God and Moses each described the campaign — and each named the other party as the one wronged.
When Jehovah spoke, He told His servant to avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites; but when Moses spoke, he told them to avenge the LORD on Midian. How exactly Jehovah secures His own glory, and in grace to His people! Jehovah thought of the children of Israel, and the children of Israel would think of Jehovah. It was one common interest — Jehovah and Israel had at heart one and the same thing.
The same thoroughness reaches the metal, cloth and cattle in the verses that follow.
The women of Midian had trapped the people by their schemes, under the evil influence of Balaam the son of Peor. Now the people are called to clear themselves completely of all the defilement they had picked up by failing to keep watch. The sword must fall on the Midianites. All the spoil must pass either through the fire of judgement or through the water of purification. Not the smallest scrap of the evil thing may go unjudged.
Critics have long used the severity of this chapter as an argument against Scripture. One writer replied to a critic who objected to this very campaign.
Midian had been the means of corrupting Israel and leading them into idolatry, so that twenty-five thousand Israelites fell in the plague God sent. And it came about through the unspeakable wickedness of Balaam. When he could not curse Israel, he advised Balak to lead them into sin, and then God could not bless them. God punished them for this, and destroyed them as a settled nation there… The question is not one of history, but of the whole ways and dealings of God in judgment.
A second answer asks who passed the sentence, and who only carried it out.
It was righteous vengeance on earth. It was not wrath from heaven, and still less was it grace reigning through righteousness as in the gospel… The vengeance was not Israel's but God's, and He chose to make His people the ones who carried out His judgment.
One writer turns this chapter into a warning about alliance with the world.
Our proper business is to pass through the world as pilgrims and strangers… But we fail to keep this clear separation. We let ourselves be drawn into alliance with the world, and so we get caught up in trouble and conflict that never belonged to us at all. War with Midian formed no part of Israel's proper work. They had to thank themselves for it. But God is gracious… God, in His infinite goodness, brings good out of evil.
- Cause. The order goes back to Balaam's advice and to the women of Midian who seduced Israel. It punished a named crime.
- Purpose. Contamination drew the line among the captives. This was the only way to keep the source of Israel's ruin out of the camp.
- Authority. Israel swung the sword, but the sentence was God's. The vengeance was His, not the nation's.
- Thoroughness. Nothing the evil had touched escaped. Captives, metal and cloth all had to pass through judgement or purification first.
- Warning. The war was avoidable. It grew out of Israel's alliance with the world around them, and that alliance still brings trouble today.
but all the children among the women that have not known lying with a man, keep alive for yourselves.
Numbers 31 records the last campaign of Moses' life: a war of vengeance on Midian, whose women had drawn Israel into idolatry and immorality at Peor. Verse 18 sits inside Moses' angry rebuke of the returning army, and it raises the chapter's hardest question: why spare these girls and no one else?
God ordered this war as a settling of accounts before Moses died. One writer notices that God and Moses each word the same command with the other in view.
"Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites," says the LORD. "Afterward you shall be gathered to your people." … And Moses said to the people, "Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the LORD's vengeance on Midian." Is this not perfection? When the LORD spoke, He told His servant to avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. But when Moses spoke, he told them to execute the LORD's vengeance on the Midianites.
God named Midian, not Moab, though women of both nations shared in the sin. One writer traces the restraint to a promise God had already made:
But the daughters of Moab were also in the sin (Num. 25:1). Again, we hear the command, "Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites." Why not of the Moabites? Then the destruction of Moab would, as that of Midian, have been complete. But God had said that Israel should not trouble Moab (Deut. 2:9). So judgment here does not fall on Moab proper, but it falls without mercy on Midian. Is this not an instance of the discriminating judgment of God, Who will have mercy on whom He will?
Moses gives this order because the soldiers had already made a mistake. They came home victorious and loaded with plunder, and Moses met them with rebuke instead of praise.
As they returned with the spoil, Moses and Eleazar went out to meet them, along with other leaders of the people (v.13). But at once Moses' anger burned, and he rebuked them sharply for sparing the women. He reminded them that it was the women of Midian who had seduced the men of Israel through the counsel of Balaam (vs.14-16). Phinehas ought to have realised what this meant, for he had already killed the woman of Midian as well as the man of Israel for their corrupt relationship.
Moses divides the captives by whether they had shared in the corruption. Those who had not would live inside Israel itself.
Moses commanded them to kill the young boys and all the women who had been intimate with a man. The other girls could remain alive and become part of Israel (vs.17-18). Only in this way could they guard against any contamination. How different is the truth of Christianity, which deals in grace to lead the ungodly to judge themselves and be saved!
Commentators do not soften these orders. They answer that the society had gone past recovery, and that death was not the worst thing that could happen to a child there.
The terrible, indiscriminate slaughter of a whole culture may naturally strike us as wrong. But God is wiser than we are. He knows what He is doing. … Idolatry and demon worship had risen so high that there was no hope of recovery. Little children would be better dead than exposed to the evil their parents indulged in. Parents would be better dead than left to go on in the abominations that filled their whole society.
One writer reads Midian as a picture of something Christians still meet. The danger is the pull of the world on the heart.
The Midianites are a type of the special influence the world has over the hearts of the people of God. It is the fascinating, ensnaring power of the world, used by Satan to keep us from entering our proper heavenly portion. Israel should have had nothing to do with these Midianites. But in an evil hour, an unguarded moment, they were betrayed into association with them. Now nothing remains but war and complete destruction.
The same writer points out that this war was extra work, caused by Israel's own failure. God still turned it to their profit.
War with Midian formed no part of Israel's proper work. They had to thank themselves for it. But God is gracious. So, through a special work of priestly ministry, they were able not only to conquer the Midianites but also to carry away much spoil. God, in His infinite goodness, brings good out of evil. … But the evil had to be judged completely.
- Seduction. Midian beat Israel by attraction, not by arms — Balaam's counsel, working through the women at Peor.
- Vengeance. God called it avenging Israel. Moses called it avenging the LORD. One act, one shared interest.
- Rebuke. The army spared the very people who had caused the fall. Moses' anger, not mercy, set the terms of verse 18.
- Contamination. Israel kept only the girls untouched by the corruption, and brought them into the nation. The aim was to stop the evil spreading.
- Contrast. That was judgment. The gospel works the other way: grace leads the ungodly to judge themselves and be saved.