Numbers 31:2-3 ESV

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Numbers 31:2

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 . read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Numbers 31:3

avenge the LORD of Midian = render the vengeance of Jehovah upon Midian. Compare Ch. Numbers 25:17 . read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Numbers 31:1-2

Numbers 31:1-2. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying— After Moses had repeated to the people the laws in the foregoing chapters, 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... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Numbers 31:3

Numbers 31:3. Avenge the LORD of Midian— What is called avenging the children of Israel, in Num 31:2 is here called avenging the LORD; because the war was with idolaters, the enemies of the true religion, and for the sake of God's peculiar people. Besides, the Midianites were particularly displeasing to God for having seduced the Israelites to the worship of idols; so that to avenge the one was to avenge the other. Onkelos renders this, to avenge the people of the Lord of Midian. See Ainsworth... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Numbers 31:3

3. Arm some of yourselves—This order was issued but a short time before the death of Moses. The announcement to him of that approaching event [ :-] seems to have accelerated, rather than retarded, his warlike preparations. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Numbers 31:1-24

The "vengeance" Israel was to take (Numbers 31:2) was for the spiritual and sexual seduction the Midianites had led the Moabites to practice with them. This had resulted in the defeat of God’s people (ch. 25). Her enemies had lured Israel away from her true husband, Yahweh.Moses did not give us the name of Israel’s military leader in this battle. However Phinehas, the high priest’s son, is the prominent person in the record (Numbers 31:6). This phenomenon points to the nature of the battle as... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Numbers 31:1-54

3. Reprisal against the Midianites and the settlement of the Transjordanian tribes chs. 31-32Moses’ last campaign ch. 31The writer now recorded the fulfillment of God’s instructions to Moses that Israel should destroy the Midianites (Numbers 25:16-18). In this account, the aftermath of the battle receives more attention than the battle itself. Evidently God included this chapter here for two reasons at least. It records Israel’s victory over one of her enemies, and it explains the way she... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Numbers 31:1-54

War against MidianThis 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 25:16-18.6. The holy instruments and the trumpets] On the use of the silver trumpets in time of war see on Numbers 10:9. It is not clear whether the ark was taken into battle on this occasion. It is possible to translate ’the holy instruments, even the trumpets.’ On other occasions,... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Numbers 31:3

(3) Arm some of yourselves . . . —Better, Arm from among you (or, from those with you) men for the war. The details of the selection are contained in the next verse. read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Numbers 31:1-54

WAR AND SETTLEMENT1. THE WAR WITH MIDIANNumbers 31:1-54THE command to vex and smite the Midianites {; Numbers 25:16-17} has already been considered. Israel had not the spiritual power which would have justified any attempt to convert that people. Degrading idolatry was to be held in abhorrence, and those who clung to it suppressed. Now the time comes for an exterminating war. While hordes of Bedawin occupy the hills and the neighbouring desert, there can be no security either for morals,... read more