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.”

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^(A) on them. ⁴ Send into battle a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel.” ⁵ So twelve thousand men armed for battle,^(B) a thousand from each tribe, were supplied from the clans of Israel. ⁶ Moses sent them into battle,^(C) a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas^(D) son of Eleazar, the priest, who took with him articles from the sanctuary^(E) and the trumpets^(F) for signaling.

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

¹³ Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴ Moses was angry with the officers of the army^(U)—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.

¹⁵ “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. ¹⁶ “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice^(V) and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident,^(W) so that a plague^(X) struck the Lord’s people.