2024-05-06

Numbers 31:25-31:41


The Lord said to Moses: "You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the community take an inventory of the booty that was captured, man and beast, and divide the booty equally between the combatants who engaged in the campaign and the rest of the community. You shall exact a levy for the Lord: in the case of the warriors who engaged in the campaign, one item in five hundred, of persons, oxen, asses, and sheep, shall be taken from their half-share and given to Eleazar the priest as a contribution to the Lord; and from the half-share of the other Israelites you shall withhold one in every fifty human beings as well as cattle, asses, and sheep--all the animals--and give them to the Levites, who attend to the duties of the Lord's Tabernacle." Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses. The amount of booty, other than the spoil that the troops had plundered, came to 675,000 sheep, 72,000 head of cattle, 61,000 asses, and a total of 32,000 human beings, namely, the women who had not had carnal relations. Thus, the half-share of those who had engaged in the campaign [was as follows]: The number of sheep was 337,500, and the Lord's levy from the sheep was 675; the cattle came to 36,000, from which the Lord's levy was 72; the asses came to 30,500, from which the Lord's levy was 61. And the number of human beings was 16,000, from which the Lord's levy was 32. Moses gave the contributions levied for the Lord to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
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