March 9: Numbers 30:1 – Numbers 31:54

Men and Vows – Numbers 30

• Moses tells the heads of the tribes of Israel that the Lord has commanded that if a man makes a vow or swears an oath, he must not break his word. He is to do according to what he says.

Women and Vows

• Moses tells the heads of the tribe that if a woman makes a vow or swears an oath while she is a youth in her father's house and he hears her vow and says nothing, then her vow will stand. But if her father hears her and on that day opposes the vow, the vow will not stand and the Lord will forgive her because her father opposed her.
• The same is true of a woman in the house of her husband (for widowed or divorced wives, their vows will stand). If a woman who has made a vow gets married, her new husband can cancel that vow. If a man hears his wife make a vow and says nothing, but later objects to it, he will suffer the penalty for breaking them.

Vengeance on Midian – Numbers 31

• God tells Moses that the people of Israel should avenge the people of Midian. Moses tells the tribes that each one is to send one thousand men, twelve thousand men total. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, goes with them bearing the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets.
• The Israelites kill every man of Midian, including their five kings and Balaam. They take captive the women and children and plunder their livestock and belongings. They burn their cities and then bring the captives and spoils to Moses and Eleazar the priest at Jericho.
• Moses is angry that they have let the women live, since these women were the ones who seduced Israelite men. He instructs the soldiers to kill all the boys and all the women who have had sexual relations with a man, but to allow the girls to live. He then instructs the soldiers to camp outside the camp for seven days, and that those who have killed a person or touched a dead body are to purify themselves.
• Eleazar instructs that plundered metals are to be passed through the fire to be purified and that objects that cannot be passed through the fire are to be washed.
• God instructs Moses how to divide the plunder among the people. Half goes to the soldiers and half goes to the rest of the people. The soldiers are to give from their share one-five-hundredth to the priests, and the people are to give one-fiftieth of their share to the Levites.
• The plunder is counted (675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys, and 32,000 girls and women) and distributed as instructed.
• The officers of the Israelite army go to Moses and Eleazar, state that none of their men were lost, and present all the jewelry they each plundered to make atonement for themselves. Moses and Eleazar take all the items and bring them into the tent of meeting as a memorial for the people before the Lord.