Numbers 31:2

_AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING,_ The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge ... of the Midianites - a semi-nomadic people, descended from Abraham and Keturah, occupying a tract of country east and southeast of Moab, which lay on the eastern coast of the Dead Sea. They seem to have been the principal instigators of the infamous scheme of seduction planned to entrap the Israelites into the double crime of idolatry and licentiousness, by which it was hoped the Lord would withdraw from that people the benefit of His protection and favour. Moreover, the Midianites had rendered themselves particularly obnoxious by entering into a hostile league with the Amorites (Joshua 13:21). The Moabites were at this time spared in consideration of Lot (Deuteronomy 2:9), and because the measur

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....

Verse Numbers 31:2. _GATHERED UNTO THY PEOPLE._] Where? Not in the _grave_ surely. Moses was gathered with _none of them_, his burial-place no man ever knew. "But being gathered unto one's people means dying." It does _imply_ dying, but it does not _mean_ this only. The truth is, God considers all those who are _dead_ to _men_ in a state of _conscious existence_ in another world. Therefore he calls himself the _God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob; now God is_ _not the God of the dead, but of the living_; because all LIVE to HIM, whether _dead_ to _men_ or not. Moses therefore was to _be_ _gathered to his people_-to enter into that _republic of Israel_ which, having died in the faith, fear, and love of God, were now living in a state of conscious blessedness beyond the confines of the grave....

THE MIDIANITES - The Moabites are not included. It would thus seem that it was the Midianites, and they only, who deliberately set themselves to work the corruption of Israel....

AVENGE THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL OF THE MIDIANITES,.... For the injury they had done them, by sending their daughters among them, who enticed them to commit uncleanness with them, and then drew them into the worship of their idols, which brought the wrath of God upon them, and for which 24,000 persons were slain. Now, though the Moabites had a concern in this affair as well as the Midianites, yet they were spared; which some think was for the sake of Lot, from whom they descended; but why not the Midianites for the sake of Abraham, whose offspring they were by Keturah? Jarchi says, they were spared because of Ruth, who was to spring from them; and so she might, and yet vengeance be taken on great numbers of them: but the truer reason seems to be, either because the sin of the Moabites was not yet full, and they were reserved for a later punishment; or rather because they were not the princi...

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 EXTERMINATION OF THE MIDIANITES. This story of a war of extermination, waged to avenge the wiles practised on Israel by Midian (as described in Numbers 25:6) is marked by various fanciful elements, such as (_a)_ the huge number massacred (for if the girls and unmarried women amounted to 32,000, the married women and the males of all ages must have been three times as many); (_b)_ the vast quantity of spoil taken; (_c_) the complete immunity of the Israelite force from all loss of life. If any war with Midian occurred at this time, it certainly did not result in the extermination of the people, who were a powerful tribe in the period of the Judges (Judges 6). The real object of the story (whether it has any basis in fact or not) is to illustrate by means of an ostensibly historical occurrence the laws relating to purification, and the division of booty taken in war....

AVENGE. Hebrew revenge the revengement. Figure of speech _Polyptoton_ (App-6).. execute due vengeance. CHILDREN. sons. AFTERWARD. Samaritan Pentateuch, The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulg, read "and afterward". BE GATHERED, &C. Compare Numbers 27:13....

_The utter destruction of every Midianite_, with the exception of the virgins who are to be kept as spoil....

AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING— After Moses had repeated to the people the laws in the foregoing Chapter s, God determined, before he took this great lawgiver to himself, to use his ministration for the punishment of the Midianites, who had so abominably seduced the Israelites to wickedness. The Moabites, though guilty also, were now spared; some circumstances which the sacred history has suppressed, no doubt, occasioned this distinction. Probably, the Midianites contributed more than the Moabites to the seduction of the Hebrews. See Parker's occasional Annotation on the chapter....