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Numbers 31:19

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And do ye abide without the camp seven days..... Which was the time that anyone that touched a dead body remained unclean, Numbers 19:11, whosoever hath killed any person; as most of them if not all must have done; all the males of Midian that fell into their hands being slain by them, that were men grown: and whosoever hath touched any slain; as...

Numbers 31:20

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And purify all your raiment,.... By washing them; and this may intend not so much their own wearing apparel, as the raiment they took off of the dead bodies of the Midianites, since the person that touched a dead body was not obliged to wash his clothes, but the clean person that sprinkled the water of purification on him, Numbers 19:19, some...

Numbers 31:21

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war, which went to the battle,.... To all the soldiers, officers, and common men: this is the ordinance of the law, which the Lord commanded Moses; concerning the purification of unclean persons and things, hereby confirming what Moses had said.

Numbers 31:22

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead. These are excepted, and, though unclean, are not to be purified by washing, but in another way, by fire, as follows; all these metals were well known in those early times, and were made use of for instruments and vessels of various sorts.

Numbers 31:23

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire,.... Either through the smoke of the fire, and so be purified by suffumigation; or be put into the fire itself, where though they might be melted as the above things, yet not consumed as raiment, and vessels of skins, goats' hair, and wood, would be: and it shall be clean;...

Numbers 31:24

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day,.... As the leper did, Leviticus 14:9: and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp; into the camp of Israel, into the camp of the Levites, and into the camp of God, the tabernacle.

Numbers 31:26

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and beast,.... The number of the females that were taken captive and spared, and of the cattle, the sheep, oxen, and asses: thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the chief fathers of the congregation; who were all men of authority and character, and fit to be employed in such service, and of whose...

Numbers 31:27

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And divide the prey into two parts,.... Into two equal parts, both the number of the people and of the cattle, when taken: between them that took the war upon them, and went out to battle; the soldiers; and by this it appears that they went voluntarily and cheerfully: and between all the congregation; so that the part of them that went to battle,...

Numbers 31:28

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And levy a tribute unto the Lord of the men of war, which went out to battle,.... That is, out of the part of the prey which was divided to them: one soul of five hundred, both "of the persons"; or one woman of five hundred, as the Targum of Jonathan: and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep; that is, one out of five hundred, of each...

Numbers 31:29

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And take it of their half,.... Of the half part of the prey divided to the soldiers: and give it unto Eleazar the priest for an heave offering of the Lord; by way of thanksgiving for the success and victory, God had given them, by means of which so much booty had fallen into their hands.

Numbers 31:30

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And of the children of Israel's half, thou shall take one portion of fifty,.... Which was abundantly more than what was taken out of the part of the soldiers; and the reason of it is plain and easy to be discerned; the soldiers had taken much pains, and gone through much fatigue, as well as had hazarded their lives, and therefore less was to be...

Numbers 31:31

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses. Took an account of the booty, divided it equally between the soldiers and the congregation of Israel, and levied a part out of each as a tribute for the Lord, which was given to the priests and Levites.

Numbers 31:32

John Gill - Exposition - John Gill

Ver. 32-47. And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught,.... The remainder of it, besides what they had eaten in their return from the war, and during their seven days' stay without the camp: from hence to the end of Nu 31:47 is only an account of the prey or booty taken, which in general were 675,000 sheep, 72,000...

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