“Have ye saved all the women alive?”
The full verse · Numbers 31:15 · KJV
And unto them, Have ye all the ?
Asked by
Asked to
"The officers of the host," the captains over thousands and over hundreds (Numbers 31:14)
The Scene
The army of twelve thousand returns from the war against Midian with captives and spoil, and Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the princes go out to meet them outside the camp in the plains of Moab (Numbers 31:5, 12-13).
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionMoses saw the captive women, and "Moses was wroth with the officers of the host" (Numbers 31:14). His question was not a request for information. Gill says it was put "not for information, but by way of reproof," and Keil & Delitzsch call it "an expression of dissatisfaction, and reproof for their having done this." Moses gives his reason right away: these women had caused Israel "to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor" (Numbers 31:16).
Why was he so displeased with the officers? Gill suggests they may have received orders from Moses to put the women to death when he sent them out, or that Moses expected them to do it on their own, "knowing what instruments of mischief these women had been to Israel." Matthew Henry writes, "It is very probable that Moses had commanded them to kill the women, at least this was implied in the general order to avenge Israel of the Midianites." The text itself records only God's command, "Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites" (Numbers 31:2).
The Response
What Scripture recordsMoses answered his own question: "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" (Numbers 31:16). He then ordered that every male among the little ones and every woman "that hath known man by lying with him" be killed, and that the young girls be kept alive (Numbers 31:17-18). The soldiers were to "abide without the camp seven days" and purify themselves and their captives (Numbers 31:19). No reply from the officers is recorded.
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyThis was not an ordinary war. God called it vengeance for His people, and Moses called it vengeance for the LORD: "avenge the LORD of Midian" (Numbers 31:2-3). Keil & Delitzsch explain that it is called the revenge of Jehovah "because the seduction had violated the divinity and honour of Jehovah." Phinehas the priest went with the army carrying "the trumpets to blow" (Numbers 31:6), the trumpets God had given for war so that Israel would "be remembered before the LORD your God" (Numbers 10:9). Midian's sin had been deliberate: they had beguiled Israel "with their wiles" (Numbers 25:18). Moses' question shows how seriously God takes those who lead His people into unfaithfulness. Matthew Henry sees in the whole history "the hatefulness of sin, and the guilt of tempting others."
This is a hard passage, and the commentators do not pass over it lightly. Matthew Henry writes, "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," and he treats this war as "the execution of a righteous sentence upon a guilty nation." Even so, the killing left the soldiers unclean, and they had to stay outside the camp seven days (Numbers 31:19; Numbers 19:11). Henry comments that by this "God would preserve in their minds a dread and detestation of murder."
The Commentaries
Voices from across the centuriesGenerations of believers have studied this verse. See what they noticed.
Look Closer
According to Moses, why should the women not have been spared?
Carry the question into prayer and conversation.
Lord, is there something that once drew my heart away from You that I am still keeping close, and what would You have me do with it?
A prayer to carry into the day.
- Why do you think it can be easier to win a battle than to deal with what caused the trouble in the first place?
- Can you share a time when someone's honest question helped you see a danger you had missed?
For you, a small group, a friend, or the dinner table.
The officers won the battle, yet they brought home the very ones who had led Israel into sin (Numbers 31:16). Matthew Henry draws the lesson that this history "teaches us to avoid all occasions of evil, and to give no quarter to inward lusts." Think about what has drawn your heart away from God before. Henry voices Moses' concern this way: "your captives will be your conquerors and a second time your destroyers."
The New Testament uses Peor as a warning for believers. Paul writes, "these things were our examples," and "Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed" (1 Corinthians 10:6, 8). The church at Pergamos was rebuked for having among them "them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel" (Revelation 2:14).
This doesn't mean the command in Numbers 31:17 is a pattern for how you treat anyone. It was a specific judgment God ordered against Midian (Numbers 31:1-3). Henry turns the lesson inward, toward our own desires, not outward against people. Scripture's own application: 1 Corinthians 10:6-8
Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources
Keep questioning
“Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?”
“And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD hath given them?”
“Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them?”
“What is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?”