The Campaign Against Midian
The Lord tells Moses: "Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people" (Numbers 31:2). The framing is significant. This is the last task Moses will complete before his death. It is presented as divine justice — the Lord's own vengeance, not Israel's aggression — for what Midian did at Peor. The campaign is described as the LORD's war in the sense that its moral basis is God's covenant, not Israel's self-interest.
Twelve thousand soldiers go to war, a thousand from each tribe. The Midianite kings — including Balaam — are killed. The text explicitly names Balaam's death in Numbers 31:8, linking it directly to his role in Numbers 25: "They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And Balaam the son of Beor they also killed with the sword." Numbers 31:16 explains: "Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD."
This is the verse that closes the loop on Balaam's character. He couldn't curse Israel with his mouth, so he used his counsel to engineer their corruption instead. He is later named in Revelation 2:14 as a type of false teacher who leads God's people into compromise. The oracles were genuine. The man behind them was for sale. That's a sobering combination, and we find ourselves sitting with that tension — the truth of the words was never in question; the faithfulness of the speaker was.
After the battle, Moses is angry that the Israelite commanders have kept alive the Midianite women — specifically the ones "who had caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor" (Numbers 31:16). The connection between the women and the seduction of Numbers 25 is the reason for Moses' anger. This is not random severity; it is a judgment that tracks back precisely to the act that nearly destroyed the covenant community.
The remainder of Numbers 31 deals with the purification of the soldiers, the division of the spoil, and the offering of a portion to the Lord. Matthew Henry observed that the careful structure of the spoil division — with portions set apart for the Levites and for the Lord — demonstrates that war under God's command does not suspend the covenant's ethical demands. Even in the aftermath of battle, Israel is held to the standards of holiness that govern their life at the tabernacle.
Purification After Battle
Numbers 31:19–24 gives instructions for the purification of the warriors after the campaign: "Encamp outside the camp seven days. Whoever of you has killed any person and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day" (Numbers 31:19). Contact with death — even death inflicted in war — still required purification. The red heifer ritual of Numbers 19 governs the process.
The requirement is theologically important. Israel is not permitted to treat participation in combat as suspending their covenant obligations. The soldiers who returned from a campaign against Midian — conducted at the Lord's command — still had to stand outside the camp, still had to be cleansed, still had to be treated as those who had come into contact with the realm of death. The Pulpit Commentary noted that this requirement prevented Israel from developing the dangerous theology that victory in holy war was itself a form of holiness. War, even justified war, is not clean. It leaves stains that require the Lord's provision to address.
We keep coming back to that. The soldiers fought at God's explicit command, and they still needed purification. Holiness is not paused by conflict, and zeal in the Lord's cause does not wash you clean on its own. There is something deeply human and important in that acknowledgment — God provides a way to return from the necessary darkness of war into the light of the camp. The purification is not shame. It is grace.
Reuben and Gad's Request
The tribes of Reuben and Gad have large herds of livestock. They look at the land east of the Jordan — the region of Jazer and Gilead, already taken from the Amorites — and it is excellent grazing land. They come to Moses and Eleazar and the leaders with a proposal: let them settle here, east of the Jordan, rather than crossing into Canaan. "The country that the LORD struck down before the congregation of Israel is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock" (Numbers 32:4).
Moses' response is immediate and sharp: "Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here? Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the LORD has given them? This is what your fathers did, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land" (Numbers 32:6–8). Moses names the parallel directly. The generation of the spies had looked at the difficulty of the land and shrunk back. What the tribes of Reuben and Gad are proposing — settling early, staying comfortable, opting out of the shared mission — is, in Moses' eyes, the same spirit.
The tribes respond with a counter-proposal. "We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, but we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance" (Numbers 32:16–18). The offer is accepted. Half the tribe of Manasseh joins them in requesting the eastern territory.
The Cambridge Bible commentary noted that the episode establishes a principle that runs throughout the covenant community's life: no tribe, no family, no individual who belongs to the covenant people is free to opt out of the community's shared mission simply because their personal circumstances have been addressed. Reuben and Gad have found land that suits their livestock. That is not sufficient reason to leave their brothers to fight alone. They must secure the community's mission before they enjoy their private settlement.
What strikes us here is how Moses handles it. He doesn't simply deny the request. When Reuben and Gad come back with a real commitment — we will fight, we will stay until everyone has their inheritance — Moses accepts it. The issue was never really about the land. It was about the spirit of the request. The promise the eastern tribes make here will be recorded and evaluated by Joshua in Joshua 22 when the mission is complete. Private benefit must not become communal abandonment — but honest commitment, freely given, is something Moses can work with.
Last updated: March 3, 2026.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.