Numbers 31:21

_AND PURIFY ALL YOUR RAIMENT, AND ALL THAT IS MADE OF SKINS, AND ALL WORK OF GOATS' HAIR, AND ALL THINGS MADE OF WOOD._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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 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....

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....

WENT. came, or had come ORDINANCE. statute....

_The purification necessary after contact with the dead_. Moses bids all who are defiled to remain outside the camp for seven days and perform the requisite ritual of purification....

AND ELEAZAR—SAID—_THIS IS THE ORDINANCE OF THE LAW_— i.e. "This is a law to be observed hereafter by all who go to war." The law before was, that he, who touched a dead body should be purified with water; but nothing had been hitherto said of him who killed a man in war; nor of the spoil, concerning which Moses here prescribes two sorts of purifications, the _fire_ for metals, and the _water_ for all combustible matters. Purifying by _water_ was a rite of the earliest antiquity, (see Genesis 35:2.) and the use of _fire_ in purification appears to have been not much less ancient. Hence Homer makes Ulysses call for _sulphur and fire,_ to fume the house wherein the riotous suitors had been killed, Odyss. b. xxii. v. 518 of Pope's translation; who, in the note upon the place, observes, that Jo

C. PURIFICATION OF THE SOLDIERS AND THE BOOTY vv. 21-24 TEXT Numbers 31:21, And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord commanded Moses; 22. Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, 23. Everything that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water. 24. And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp. PARAPHRASE Numbers 31:21. Then Eleazar the priest said to the warriors who had gone to the battle, This is the statute of the Law which th

WAR AGAINST MIDIAN This chapter contains an account of the fulfilment of the decree of extermination passed upon the Midianites as being the occasion of Israel's apostasy in the plains of Moab: see on Numbers 25:16....