literally one officiating · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
said
וַיֹּ֨אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
men
אַנְשֵׁ֣י'an.Shei
H582
a man in general (singly or collectively) · noun, common masculine plural construct
war
הַצָּבָ֔אha.tza.Va'
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
went
הַבָּאִ֖יםha.ba.'Im
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
battle
לַמִּלְחָמָ֑הla.mil.cha.Mah
H4421
a battle (i.e. the engagement) · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
ordinance
חֻקַּ֣תchu.Kat
H2708
an enactment · noun, common feminine singular construct
law
הַתּוֹרָ֔הha.to.Rah
H8451
a precept or statute · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
commanded
צִוָּ֥הtzi.Vah
H6680
(intensively) to constitute · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Moses
מֹשֶֽׁהmo.Sheh
H4872
Mosheh · proper noun, a man's name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Numbers 30:16 These are the statutes, which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, being yet in her yo…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 31:19
abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person . . . purify both yourselves and your captives--Though the Israelites had taken the field in obedience to the command of God, they had become defiled by contact with the dead. A process of purification was to be undergone, as the law required (Lev 15:13; Num 19:9-12), and this purifying ceremony was extended to dress, houses, tents, to everything on which a dead body had lain, which had been touched by the blood-stained hands of the Israelitish warriors, or which had been the property of idolaters. This became a standing ordinance in all time coming (Lev 6:28; Lev 11:33; Lev 15:12).
John Gill on Numbers 31:21
And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war, which went to the battle,.... To all the soldiers, officers, and common men:
this is the ordinance of the law, which the Lord commanded Moses; concerning the purification of unclean persons and things, hereby confirming what Moses had said.
John Calvin on Numbers 31:19-24
And do ye abide without the camp seven days. We have elsewhere seen, [209] that, if any one had touched a dead body, he was accounted unclean. Moses, by now extending the ceremony of expiation to lawful homicide, intimates how carefully we ought to abstain from shedding human blood. It was required of the Israelites that they should strenuously advance through the midst of carnage; but, inasmuch as it is in a manner contrary to the order of nature that men should be killed by men, as if they were raging against their own bowels, God would have some vestiges of humanity preserved even in just punishments, so as to put a restraint upon all cruelty in the abstract. Nor is it without cause that…
To this end Eleazar, whose duty it was as high priest to see that the laws of purification were properly observed, issued fuller instructions with reference to the purification of the different articles, in accordance with the law in ch. 19. למּלחמה הבּאים, those who came to the war, i.e., who went into the battle (see at Num 10:9). "The ordinance of the law:" as in Num 19:2. The metal (gold, silver, copper, tin, lead), all that usually comes into the fire, i.e., that will bear the fire, was to be drawn through the fire, that it might become clean, and was then to be sprinkled with water of purification (Num 19:9); but everything that would not bear the fire was to be drawn through water. -…
The Church Fathers
Finally, in the present reading, Eleazar the priest is not written as speaking to all the people, but only to those who return from the battle. For it says: "and Eleazar the priest said to the men of valor, who were returning from the battle." You see, then, how the word of God speaks to the men of valor. For men of valor are they who go forth to war. But if anyone is unwilling to fight and to be a soldier, if anyone is unwilling to have the contest of divine studies and of abstinence, this man is unwilling to fulfill that which the Apostle said: "but he who contends in the contest is continent from all things." He, then, who does not contend in the contest and is not continent from all things, nor wishes to be exercised in the word of God and to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night, this man, even if he be called a man, cannot nevertheless be called a man of valor. But this one, of whom now the divine Scripture speaks, who brings back spoils from the enemy, is called a man of valor; for this is the mark of his praise, that Scripture says: "Eleazar the priest spoke to the men of valor, who were returning from the battle." Which of us is so prepared that he may go forth to war and fight against the adversaries, so that he too may be able to be called a man of valor? But as a continent life and the labor of abstinence and the struggles of contests make each one to be called a man of valor, so on the contrary a life relaxed and negligent and slothful makes a man to be called a man of sloth. If, then, you wish to be called a man of valor, clothe yourself with Christ the Lord, who is the power (virtus) of God and the wisdom of God, and in all things join yourself to the Lord so that you become one spirit with Him, and then you will be made a man of valor. For the time of war is for us in this world; the fight is against the Midianites, whether against the vices of our flesh, or against the contrary powers. The choir of angels and of the heavenly powers watches us; a devout expectation, therefore, hangs upon us as to when or how we may return from this battle, what each one of us may bring back of the spoils, and they look on more curiously and search more anxiously as to which of us bears from here more of gold, which also displays there a weight of silver, which too carries down precious stones. They inquire also, whether anyone bears down bronze or…
Therefore it says: "This is the justification of the law which the Lord established for Moses: besides gold and silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin, every thing that passes through fire, pass it through fire and it shall be cleansed, but it shall also be purified in the water of purification; all things whatsoever that do not pass through fire shall pass through water. And you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and after these things you shall enter into the camps." You see how everyone who has gone out of the battle of this life needs purification. And if this is so, that I may dare to say something according to the authority of Scripture, everyone who goes out of this life cannot be clean. For consider diligently what the text of the history indicates. These men went out to fight for the sons of Israel, they slew the Midianites; and in slaying them, as far as concerns the order of the history and the letter of the law, they pleased God — for they fulfilled the will of God. Yet by this very fact, that they slew the adversaries, they are said to have been made unclean, and therefore it is said to them: "and you shall wash your garments on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and after these things you shall enter into the camps." Therefore those who fight, for this very reason that they touched the unclean enemies and that they engaged against them and had a contest with them, are polluted. And I too, therefore, even if I shall have been able to conquer the devil, even if the unclean and evil thoughts which he suggests to my heart I either repel as they come or slay them within me once they have entered, lest they come to effect — nay, even if I shall have been able to trample on the head of the dragon, yet by this very fact it is necessary that I be polluted and defiled, in that I strove to trample on him who is polluted and defiled. And I shall indeed be blessed that I was able to overcome him, yet I am unclean and polluted, who touched the polluted one, and on this account I need purification. Therefore, no doubt, Scripture also says that: "no one is clean from filth." All of us, then, need purification — nay, purifications; for many and diverse purifications await us. But these things are mystical and ineffable. For who will be able to narrate to us what are the purifications that are prepared for Paul or…
Dictionary and topics
Wars of the Lord, The Book of the — (Num. 21:14, 15), some unknown book so called (comp. Gen. 14:14-16; Ex. 17:8-16; Num. 14:40-45; 21:1-3, 21-25, 33-35; 31. The wars here recorded might be thus designated).
Armies Of Israel, The · Purified on returning from war — Purified on returning from war
Brass, Or Copper · Taken in war: Cleansed by fire — Taken in war: Cleansed by fire
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Midianites destroyed and Balaam slain — Midianites destroyed and Balaam slain
Iron · Mode of purifying, taken in war — Mode of purifying, taken in war
Metals · Ceremonially cleansed by fire — Ceremonially cleansed by fire
Purification · For those who had recently killed — For those who had recently killed
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Israelite warriors who had contact with corpses subjected themselves and their equipment to routine, but important, purification rituals (see 5:1-4; 19:1-22).
Rashi on Numbers 31:21
ויאמר אלעזר הכהן וגו׳ AND ELEAZAR THE PRIEST SAID etc. — Because Moses fell into anger (Numbers 31:14) he fell into error: there escaped him the laws concerning the removal of uncleanness absorbed by vessels which have contained the food of heathens. This, too, do you find was the case on the eighth day of the installing of the priests, as it is said, (Leviticus 10:16) “And Moses was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar”, — he fell into anger, he fell into error (cf. 10:16 that he made an error regarding the שעיר החטאת which Aaron refused to eat). Similarly, also, when he said, (Numbers 20:10, Numbers 20:11) “Hear, now, ye rebels”, … “he smote the rock”; it was through his anger that he made the m…
