Numbers 31:19

_AND DO YE ABIDE WITHOUT THE CAMP SEVEN DAYS: WHOSOEVER HATH KILLED ANY PERSON, AND WHOSOEVER HATH TOUCHED ANY SLAIN, PURIFY BOTH YOURSELVES AND YOUR CAPTIVES ON THE THIRD DAY, AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY._ Abide without the camp seven days. Though the Israelites had taken the field in obedience to the command of God, they had become defiled by contact with the dead. A process of purification was to be undergone, as the law required (Leviticus 15:13; Numbers 19:9); and this purifying ceremony was extended to dress, houses, tents-to everything on which a dead body had lain, which had been touched by the blood-stained hands of the Israelite warriors, or which had been the property of idolaters. This became a standing ordinance in all time coming ...

19._And do ye abide without the camp seven days. _We have elsewhere seen, (209) that, if any one had touched a dead body, he was accounted unclean. Moses, by now extending the ceremony of expiation to lawful homicide, intimates how carefully we ought to abstain from shedding human blood. It was required of the Israelites that they should strenuously advance through the midst of carnage; but, inasmuch as it is in a manner contrary to the order of nature that men should be killed by men, as if they were raging against their own bowels, God would have some vestiges of humanity preserved even in just punishments, so as to put a restraint upon all cruelty in the abstract. Nor is it without cause that Scripture, even in commending heroic bravery, uses this form of expression, that “they have polluted their hands with blood,” who have slain any of their enemies, _i.e., _in order that we may abh...

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....

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 they must to strip them of their garments, and take their spoil from them: PURIFY BOTH YOURSELVES AND YOUR CAPTIVES, ON THE THIRD AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY; which were the days appointed for the purification of such that were polluted by touching dead bodies, Numbers 19:11 and their captives, which were the female little ones; (for as for the women, and males among the little ones, they were or

7. THE WAR AGAINST THE MIDIANITES CHAPTER 31 _ 1. The command to fight Midian (Numbers 31:1)_ 2. The war (Numbers 31:7) 3. The cleansing (Numbers 31:13) 4. The spoil taken (Numbers 31:25) 5. The oblation of the officers (Numbers 31:48) War is commanded next by the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, “Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites; afterward shalt thou be gathered to thy people.” This is, therefore, the last thing in the official life of Moses. This war against Midian had been com

THE PURIFICATION OF THE ISRAELITE ARMY AFTER THE SLAUGHTER. The purification of warriors after a battle, practised in antiquity as by savage peoples to-day, was due, not to any desire for physical cleanliness, but to the dread of the mystery involved in spilt blood and in dead bodies: those who had been in contact with such were sources of danger to the community until ritually purified. The rules observed are those prescribed in Numbers 19:11 f.; but in addition it is here enjoined that everything that can stand fire shall be purified by fire and by the water of separation (Numbers 19:9), whereas for everything likely to suffer from fire ordinary washing shall suffice....

PERSON. soul. Hebrew. _nephesh_ (App-13)....

_purify yourselves_ The same word as in Numbers 8:21, - _unsin_yourselves." Purification after battle is a custom found among various primitive tribes. The Hebrews had not yet received the higher teaching that only -the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man" (Mark 7:15)....

AND DO YE ABIDE WITHOUT THE CAMP SEVEN DAYS— The whole army were to stay without the camp seven days; and such of them as had stained their hands in blood, or touched a dead body, were to purify themselves by the water of separation, ch. Numbers 19:9. For, though it was lawful to kill men in a just war; yet, because of the common affinity which subsists between all mankind, and to preserve sentiments of humanity, it was thought fit and decent to oblige all who had shed blood, as well as those who had touched the slain, to undergo a purification, before they were admitted to free conversation and public worship. It appears to have been a very ancient custom among most nations, to appoint certain purifications in all such cases; in order, no doubt, to inspire an uncommon dread and horror of bloodshed. On these occasions, it was usual, particularly, to wash their hands in water, for the pur...

B. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THEIR DISPOSAL vv. 13-20 TEXT Numbers 31:13. And Moses and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp. 14. And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. 15. And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? 16. Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the Counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. 17. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. 18. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. 19. And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person,