19 " And you, camp outside e the camp seven days ; whoever has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain , purify yourselves, you and your captives , on the third day and on the seventh day . 20 "You shall purify for yourselves every garment and every article of leather and all the work of goats' hair, and all articles of wood ."
21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle , "This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded Moses : 22 only the gold and the silver , the bronze , the iron , the tin and the lead , 23 everything that can stand the fire , you shall pass through the fire , and it shall be clean , but it shall be purified with water for impurity . But whatever e cannot stand the fire you shall pass through the water . 24 "And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean , and afterward you may enter the camp ."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 31:19-24
Commentary on Numbers 31:19-24
(Read Numbers 31:19-24)
The Israelites had to purify themselves according to the law, and to abide without the camp seven days, though they had not contracted any moral guilt, the war being just and lawful, and commanded by God. Thus God would preserve in their minds a dread and detestation of shedding blood. The spoil had been used by Midianites, and being now come into the possession of Israelites, it was fit that it should be purified.