Bird's-eye view
This passage presents us with a detailed, almost bureaucratic, accounting of the spoils of a holy war. At first glance, it might seem like a dry ledger, out of place in the grand narrative of redemption. But God does not waste words, and the sheer specificity here is instructive. This is not just a story about a successful military raid; it is the meticulous record of a divine judgment executed and the subsequent distribution of the proceeds of that judgment. The war against Midian was not a freelance operation; it was a direct command from God to avenge the high-handed sin at Baal Peor, where the Midianites, through the counsel of Balaam, seduced Israel into idolatry and sexual immorality, bringing a plague that killed twenty-four thousand. This accounting, therefore, is the final paperwork of a capital sentence carried out by the magistrate, which in this case was the nation of Israel acting under direct divine orders. The numbers are staggering, revealing both the totality of the victory and the wealth of the pagan nation that set itself against God's people. This detailed inventory demonstrates God's ownership over all things and His right to dispose of the wealth of the wicked as He sees fit, giving it as an inheritance to His people.
Moreover, the careful division of this plunder, which is detailed in the surrounding verses, shows us a God of order, justice, and holiness. The spoils are not a free-for-all. They are to be purified, divided equitably between the soldiers and the congregation, and a portion of each is to be tithed to the Lord, given to the priests and Levites. This is not raw conquest; it is sanctified justice. The wealth of Midian is being repurposed for the covenant community and the worship of Yahweh. The passage stands as a stark reminder of the seriousness of corporate sin, the reality of God's temporal judgments, and the principle that the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the just.
Outline
- 1. The Accounting of Divine Judgment (Num 31:32-35)
- a. The Total Plunder Accounted (Num 31:32a)
- b. The Livestock Inventoried (Num 31:32b-34)
- i. Sheep (Num 31:32b)
- ii. Cattle (Num 31:33)
- iii. Donkeys (Num 31:34)
- c. The Human Captives Counted (Num 31:35)
Context In Numbers
Numbers 31 is one of the final significant events before the death of Moses and Israel's entry into the Promised Land. It is a direct and climactic response to the crisis of Numbers 25, the apostasy at Peor. There, Israelite men were enticed by Moabite and Midianite women into sexual immorality and the worship of Baal, a sin so grievous that it provoked a devastating plague. Phinehas's zeal stayed the plague, and God immediately commanded Moses to treat the Midianites as enemies for their insidious spiritual warfare (Num 25:16-18). This chapter is the fulfillment of that command. It is a holy war, a work of covenantal vengeance, not for personal gain but for the honor of God. The chapter details the mustering of the army, the utter defeat of Midian, the execution of its five kings and Balaam, and the controversial command from Moses to execute the women who were not virgins, as they were the agents of the seduction. The passage in view, the accounting of the plunder, comes after the battle and Moses' correction of his commanders. It sets the stage for the divinely mandated division of the spoils (31:25-54), which reinforces principles of equity, holiness, and the support of the priesthood.
Key Issues
- The Nature of Holy War (Herem)
- God's Judgment on Corporate Sin
- The Justice of Plunder
- The Distinction Between Old Covenant Theocracy and the New Covenant Church
- The Principle of Sanctified Wealth
- The Status of Captives in Ancient Warfare
The Spoils of Holy War
We moderns, steeped as we are in a sentimental therapeutic soup, tend to get the vapors when we run into passages like this. We must resist the temptation to apologize for God or to try and fit Him into our tidy, respectable categories. This was a war of divine judgment. The Midianites were not innocent bystanders; they were spiritual aggressors who had launched a calculated attack on the covenant integrity of Israel. Their weapon was not the sword, but the seduction of the cultic prostitute, a far more insidious and deadly threat. God, as the sovereign King and Judge of all the earth, has the absolute right to execute judgment upon rebellious nations, and He has the right to appoint the executioner. In the Old Covenant, He at times appointed Israel to be that executioner.
The plunder, then, is not simple looting. It is the confiscation of the assets of a condemned entity. This is a principle of justice we still recognize. When a criminal enterprise is brought down, the government seizes its assets. Here, the entire Midianite society that participated in this treachery was the criminal enterprise, and God, the supreme Governor, ordered the seizure of their assets. This is distinct from the total ban (herem) placed on the inhabitants of Canaan, where everything was to be utterly destroyed (Deut 20:16-18). For nations outside the land, the law made provision for taking spoils (Deut 20:14). This was God's provision for His people, the wages for the soldiers, and a transfer of wealth from a culture of death to the people of life.
Verse by Verse Commentary
32 Now the loot that remained from the plunder which the men of war had plundered was 675,000 sheep,
The verse begins by making a distinction. This is the loot that remained. The prior verses note that the soldiers had already taken some personal plunder (Num 31:53), but this is the great mass of corporate plunder to be officially divided. The Hebrew words here pile up to emphasize the nature of the event: loot, plunder, plundered. This is the fruit of a military victory. And the first item on the ledger is an enormous number of sheep. Six hundred and seventy-five thousand. This is not a small nomadic tribe; this was a wealthy and substantial people. Sheep represented a primary form of wealth in the ancient world, providing wool, milk, and meat. This massive transfer of wealth was a crippling blow to Midian and a staggering endowment for Israel as they prepared to enter a new land.
33 and 72,000 cattle,
Next in the accounting are the cattle, or beeves. Seventy-two thousand head. Cattle were another key indicator of wealth, essential for agriculture (as beasts of burden), for food, and for leather. Again, the number is huge. This is not just subsistence living; this is the inventory of a prosperous society. God is not just judging their sin; He is stripping them of the very prosperity they likely attributed to their false gods. The Baal worship they promoted was, at its heart, a fertility cult. The irony is potent: the God they defied demonstrates His true lordship over all fertility and wealth by giving their livestock to His own people.
34 and 61,000 donkeys,
The inventory continues with sixty-one thousand donkeys. In a world without mechanized transport, donkeys were the equivalent of the modern truck fleet. They were essential for trade, travel, and carrying burdens. This confiscation would have paralyzed the Midianite economy and provided Israel with a massive logistical advantage. God is thorough. His judgment is not a glancing blow; it is a systematic dismantling of the enemy's power structure, right down to their transportation network.
35 and of human beings, of the women who had not known man intimately, all the persons were 32,000.
Finally, and for us most jarringly, the inventory lists the human captives. This is specified carefully. It is not all the women, but only the virgins. In the preceding verses (Num 31:15-18), Moses had commanded the execution of the non-virgin women because they were the ones complicit in the seduction at Peor. The male children were also to be executed. We must face this head-on. This was a judicial sentence to prevent the cancer of their idolatrous rebellion from metastasizing within Israel again. The thirty-two thousand virgin girls who were spared were incorporated into the nation of Israel as servants or wives. In the brutal context of ancient warfare, where the victors often slaughtered everyone, this was, believe it or not, a form of qualified mercy. These captives were now part of the total plunder to be divided, with a portion given, remarkably, to the Lord. This demonstrates that God claims ownership even over the lives of the pagans, and He disposes of them according to His perfect, albeit severe, justice.
Application
So what are we, as New Covenant believers, to do with a text like this? First, we must refuse to be embarrassed by our own Scriptures. God is holy, and His hatred of sin is a white-hot fire. The sin of Peor was not a minor slip-up; it was high treason against the King of Heaven, a spiritual adultery that threatened to corrupt the entire redemptive line. This passage reminds us that sin has corporate consequences and that God's justice is real and terrible. We worship the same God who ordered this, and He has not become more tolerant of sin; He has simply provided the final sacrifice for it in His Son.
Second, we must recognize the vast difference between Israel's commission and ours. The church is not a geo-political nation with a sword. Our battle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers (Eph 6:12). Our commission is not to kill the Midianites, but to preach the gospel to them. The sword we wield is the word of God. But the principle of plundering the enemy remains. When Christ ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men (Eph 4:8). He plundered the house of the strong man, Satan, and He is still doing it. Every time a sinner is converted, it is an act of holy plunder. We are taking what belonged to the kingdom of darkness and dedicating it to the service of the kingdom of God. The wealth, talents, and energies of the redeemed are the spoils of Christ's victory, to be inventoried and deployed for the glory of His name and the building of His church.
Finally, this passage teaches us about sanctified wealth. The plunder of Midian was not to be hoarded selfishly. It was brought under the authority of God's law, purified, and a portion given to the Lord for the work of the ministry. All that we have is plunder from the hand of a gracious God. Our paychecks, our homes, our abilities, all of it is spoil from the victory Christ won for us. Therefore, it must not be used for self-indulgence, but must be dedicated to Him, with the firstfruits given joyfully and generously to support the work of His kingdom. We are stewards of the spoils of a war we did not win, and we are called to manage them with justice, order, and a deep sense of gratitude to our conquering King.