And the Lord spake unto Moses ,.... After the plague upon Israel for their fornication and idolatry, into which they were drawn by the daughters of Moab and Midian, and after the sum of the people was taken in the plains of Moab, and various laws given or repeated, and a little before the death of Moses: saying ; as follows. read more
Verse 1 1.And the Lord spake unto Moses. Amongst the other prerogatives which God conferred upon His Church, this one is celebrated, that He armed the godly “to execute vengeance upon the heathen, — to execute upon them the judgment that is written,” (Psalms 149:7) and although the Spirit declares that this should happen under the kingdom of Christ, still He refers to ancient examples, one of which, well worthy of remembrance, is here recorded. The Midianites had organized a wicked conspiracy... read more
Numbers 31:1. Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites For their malicious designs and practices against Israel, both by hiring Balaam to curse them, and by sending their women to insnare them. The Moabites also were guilty, but God was pleased to spare them, because the measure of their iniquity was not yet full. read more
Judgment on Midian (31:1-54)God now sent Israel to carry out his judgment on the Midianites (and Balaam with them) for the evil they did to Israel at Peor (see 25:1-9,14-17). Since it was a ‘holy’ war, the person who led the Israelite forces was not the army general Joshua, but the priest Phinehas (see 25:10-13). The Israelites were to destroy the Midianite fighting forces and burn their settlements. All captives and goods seized in battle were to be given to God, represented by the high... read more
spake. See note on Numbers 1:1 . read more
This chapter records the war of extermination commanded by God against Midian. It was not a war of personal vengeance, but a war of execution of the wrath of a just God against a people who deliberately became God's enemies and sought by every device they knew to frustrate the Divine purpose with regard to Israel.The Christian student will encounter a great freight of anti-Biblical and even anti-Christian comment in the books which allegedly "learned men" have written on Numbers. Here are... read more
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
1, 2. the Lord spake unto Moses, Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites—a semi-nomad people, descended from Abraham and Keturah, occupying a tract of country east and southeast of Moab, which lay on the eastern coast of the Dead Sea. They seem to have been the principal instigators of the infamous scheme of seduction, planned to entrap the Israelites into the double crime of idolatry and licentiousness [Numbers 25:1-3; Numbers 25:17; Numbers 25:18] by which, it was hoped, the Lord... read more
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
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Numbers 31:1-6
Here, I. The Lord of hosts gives orders to Moses to make war upon the Midianites, and his commission no doubt justified this war, though it will not serve to justify the like without such commission. The Midianites were the posterity of Abraham by Keturah, Gen. 25:2. Some of them settled south of Canaan, among whom Jethro lived, and they retained the worship of the true God; but these were settled east of Canaan, and had fallen into idolatry, neighbours to, and in confederacy with, the... read more