311 God spoke to Moses: 2 "Avenge the People of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you will go to be with your dead ancestors." 3 Moses addressed the people: "Recruit men for a campaign against Midian, to exact God's vengeance on Midian, 4 a thousand from each tribe of Israel to go to war." 5 A fighting force of a thousand from each tribe of Israel - twelve thousand in all - was recruited. 6 Moses sent them off to war, a thousand from each tribe, and also Phinehas son of Eleazar, who went as priest to the army, in charge of holy vessels and the signaling bugles.
7 They attacked Midian, just as God had commanded Moses, and killed every last man. 8 Among the fallen were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba - the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. 9 The People of Israel took the Midianite women and children captive and took all their animals and herds and goods as plunder. 10 They burned to the ground all the towns in which Midianites lived and also their tent camps. 11 They looted and plundered everything and everyone - stuff and people and animals. 12 They took it all - captives and booty and plunder - back to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the company of Israel where they were camped on the Plains of Moab, at Jordan-Jericho.
13 Moses, Eleazar, and all the leaders of the congregation went to meet the returning army outside the camp. 14 Moses was furious with the army officers - the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds - as they came back from the battlefield: 15 "What's this! You've let these women live! 16 They're the ones who, under Balaam's direction, seduced the People of Israel away from God in that mess at Peor, causing the plague that hit God's people. 17 Finish your job: kill all the boys. Kill every woman who has slept with a man.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 31:1-17
Commentary on Numbers 31:1-6
(Read Numbers 31:1-6)
All who, without commission from God, dare to execute private revenge, and who, from ambition, covetousness, or resentment, wage war and desolate kingdoms, must one day answer for it. But if God, instead of sending an earthquake, a pestilence, or a famine, be pleased to authorize and command any people to avenge his cause, such a commission surely is just and right. The Israelites could show such a commission, though no persons now can do so. Their wars were begun and carried on expressly by Divine direction, and they were enabled to conquer by miracles. Unless it can be proved that the wicked Canaanites did not deserve their doom, objectors only prove their dislike to God, and their love to his enemies. Man makes light of the evil of sin, but God abhors it. This explains the terrible executions of the nations which had filled the measure of their sins.
Commentary on Numbers 31:7-12
(Read Numbers 31:7-12)
The Israelites slew the Kings of Midian. They slew Balaam. God's overruling providence brought him thither, and their just vengeance found him. Had he himself rightly believed what he had said of the happy state of Israel, he would not have thus herded with the enemies of Israel. The Midianites' wicked wiles were Balaam's projects: it was just that he should perish with them, Hosea 4:5. They took the women and children captives. They burnt their cities and castles, and returned to the camp.
Commentary on Numbers 31:13-18
(Read Numbers 31:13-18)
The sword of war should spare women and children; but the sword of justice should know no distinction, but that of guilty or not guilty. This war was the execution of a righteous sentence upon a guilty nation, in which the women were the worst criminals. The female children were spared, who, being brought up among the Israelites, would not tempt them to idolatry. The whole history shows the hatefulness of sin, and the guilt of tempting others; it teaches us to avoid all occasions of evil, and to give no quarter to inward lusts. The women and children were not kept for sinful purposes, but for slaves, a custom every where practised in former times, as to captives. In the course of providence, when famine and plagues visit a nation for sin, children suffer in the common calamity. In this case parents are punished in their children; and for children dying before actual sin, full provision is made as to their eternal happiness, by the mercy of God in Christ.