Numbers 31:25

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the congregation; and divide the prey into two parts: between the men skilled in war, that went out to battle, and all the congregation. And levy a tribute unto Jehovah of the men of war that went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the oxen, and of the asses, and of the flocks: take it of their half, and give it unto Eleazar the priest, for Jehovah's heave-offering. And of the children of Israel's half, thou shalt take one drawn out of every fifty, of the persons, of the oxen, of the asses, and of the flocks, even of all the cattle, and give them unto the Levites, that keep the charge of the tabernacle of Jehovah. And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as Jehovah commanded Moses."

Whitelaw believed the division of the booty enjoined here was equitable because "only twelve thousand" suffered the exposure and dangers of war, and it was therefore fitting that they should receive half of the loot.[24] Our own opinion inclines toward the possibility that there were a great many more soldiers who participated in that struggle than a mere "twelve thousand." (See under Numbers 31:21.)

Gray's summary of the instructions in this paragraph is this: "Of the half that fell to the warriors, one five hundredth was to be paid as a tax to the priests; of the other half, one fiftieth went to the Levites."[25]