And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the LORD of Midian.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moses | מֹשֶׁה֙ mo.Sheh | H4872 | Mosheh · proper noun, a man's name |
| spake | וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר vay.da.Ber | H1696 | perhaps properly · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| people | הָעָ֣ם ha.'Am | H5971 | a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| saying | לֵאמֹ֔ר le.Mor | H559 | to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct |
| Arm | הֵחָלְצ֧וּ he.chal.Tzu | H2502 | to pull off · verb, niphal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural |
| some | אֲנָשִׁ֖ים 'a.na.Shim | H582 | a man in general (singly or collectively) · noun, common masculine plural absolute |
| war | לַצָּבָ֑א la.tza.Va' | H6635 | a mass of persons (or figuratively · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| Midianites | מִדְיָ֔ן mid.Yan | H4080 | Midjan · proper noun, a place name |
| avenge | לָתֵ֥ת la.Tet | H5414 | to give · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct |
| LORD | יְהוָ֖ה Yah.weh | H3068 | Jehovah · proper noun, a title |
| Midian | בְּמִדְיָֽן be.mid.Yan | H4080 | Midjan · preposition + proper noun, a place 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 from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
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 [Num 31:2] seems to have accelerated, rather than retarded, his warlike preparations.
And Moses spake unto the people, saying,.... In obedience to the divine command; this must be supposed to be spoken to the heads or princes of the tribes: arm some of yourselves unto the war: not the whole body of the militia, 600,000 men and upwards, only some of them, and these choice and select men; and, according to the Jewish writers, good men, who, detesting the sins of lewdness and idolatry, would more strictly and severely avenge themselves on the Midianites for drawing their brethren into those sins, whereby they fell; and so Jarchi calls them righteous men: and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the Lord of Midian: what the Lord calls the vengeance of the Israelites,…
Read the whole note in the consoleAnd Moses spake unto the people. There is no doubt but that Moses delivered the commands which he had received from God; although, therefore, it is stated [205] that only ten thousand went forth to the war, yet the facts themselves demonstrate that the number, as well as the mode of warfare, was prescribed by God. And assuredly it would have been inconsiderate of Moses to attack so great a people with so small a band; and thus he would have deservedly incurred the penalty of his rashness, if he had attempted it of his own accord; still, when God's command had preceded, he happily concluded the matter, which had been properly and rightly undertaken. Nor can it be questioned but that God desir…
Read the whole note in the consoleTo carry out this revenge, Moses had 1000 men of each tribe delivered (ימּסרוּ, see at Num 31:16) from the families (alaphim, see Num 1:16) of the tribes, and equipped for war; and these he sent to the army (into the war) along with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the high priest, who carried the holy vessels, viz., the alarm-trumpets, in his hand. Phinehas was attached to the army, not as the leader of the soldiers, but as the high priest with the holy trumpets (Num 10:9), because the war was a holy war of the congregation against the enemies of themselves and their God. Phinehas had so distinguished himself by the zeal which he had displayed against the idolaters (Num 25:7), that it was imposs…
After these things Moses spoke to the people, saying: "Arm men of yourselves and make war against Midian, to render vengeance from the Lord upon Midian; a thousand from a tribe and a thousand from a tribe; from all the tribes of Israel send men to make war." Attend to the reading; for the mind must be directed not only to the hearing of words, but to the consideration of the realities. Recall the things past, hear the things present, mark the things that follow. Compare the earlier things with the later, and contemplate the magnificence of the divine powers. The sons of Israel some time ago had been six hundred thousand armed men who had gone forth against Midian, and all these were conquered, because sin was in them. But now the Midianites, the victors, who had put to flight six hundred thousand, are conquered by twelve thousand, that you may know that Israel conquers not in a multitude nor in the number of soldiers, but there is righteousness and piety in those who conquer. Therefore, finally, it is also said in their blessings that, if they keep the law of the Lord, one of them shall pursue a thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight. You see, then, that one holy man praying avails much more than innumerable sinners doing battle. The prayer of a holy man penetrates heaven: how should it not also conquer the enemy on earth? And therefore we must strive in every way to seek first and to keep the righteousness of God. And if you obtain and keep it, it will subject all your enemies to you; if you are clothed, as the Apostle says, in the breastplate of righteousness and girded with truth, if you have taken the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit and above all the shield of faith, in which you can quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. For, equipped with such arms, you will put to flight all the camps of the devil and all his army, and with confidence you will sing: "If camps stand against me, my heart shall not fear; if battle rise up against me, in this will I hope."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
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).
Each tribe contributed 1,000 men for the battle, which enabled all of them to gain experience in combat and share in the victory.
וידבר משה וגו׳ AND MOSES SPAKE etc. — Although he had heard (v. 2) that his death was associated with this matter, he did it gladly and did not delay (Sifrei Bamidbar 157:2). החלצו — Understand this as the Targum does in the sense of “equipped (חלוצי) for war”, armed. אנשים MEN — righteous men, and similar is, (Exodus 17:9) “Choose men for us”, and so, too, (Deuteronomy 1:13) “men wise and well-known” (Midrash Tanchuma, Matot 3). 'נקמת ה “THE VENGEANCE OF THE LORD” — [This is really equivalent to the expression God had employed (v.2), “the vengeance of the children of Israel”], because whoever attacks Israel is as though he attacks the Holy One blessed be He.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
