¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses,^{(A) 17} “Treat the Midianites^(B) as enemies^(C) and kill them.^{(D) 18} They treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the Peor incident^(E) involving their sister Kozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of that incident.”

Vengeance on the Midianites

31 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Take vengeance on the Midianites^(A) for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.^(B)”

³ So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites so that they may carry out the Lord’s vengeance^(C) on them. ⁴ Send into battle a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel.” ⁵ So twelve thousand men armed for battle,^(D) a thousand from each tribe, were supplied from the clans of Israel. ⁶ Moses sent them into battle,^(E) a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas^(F) son of Eleazar, the priest, who took with him articles from the sanctuary^(G) and the trumpets^(H) for signaling.

⁷ They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses,^(I) and killed every man.^{(J) 8} Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba^(K)—the five kings of Midian.^(L) They also killed Balaam son of Beor^(M) with the sword.^{(N) 9} The Israelites captured the Midianite women^(O) and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder.^{(P) 10} They burned^(Q) all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps.^{(R) 11} They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals,^{(S) 12} and brought the captives, spoils^(T) and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly^(U) at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.^(V)