The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Division of the Spoils
Numbers 31:25–47 — Division of the Spoils. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
25The LORD said to Moses,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh way·yō·mer ’el- mō·šeh lê·mōr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And YHWH spoke unto Moses, saying” —
Where the English smooths the original
After the purification of the soldiers, their captives, and spoil
God directed Moses, with Eleazar and the heads of the fathers' houses ("fathers" for "fathers' houses:" see at Exodus 6:14 ) of the congregation, to take the whole of the booty in men and cattle, and divide it into two halves
Whatever we have, God justly claims a part. Out of the people's share God required one in fifty, but out of the soldiers' share only one in five hundred.
26“You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the congregation are to take a count of what was captured, both of man and beast.
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’at·tāh wə·’el·‘ā·zār hak·kō·hên ’ă·ḇō·wṯ wə·rā·šê hā·‘ê·ḏāh śā ’êṯ rōš mal·qō·w·aḥ haš·šə·ḇî bā·’ā·ḏām ū·ḇab·bə·hê·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Take the head-count of the captured-prey, of man and of beast — you, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers of the congregation.”
Where the English smooths the original
27Then divide the captives between the troops who went out to battle and the rest of the congregation.
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wə·ḥā·ṣî·ṯā ’eṯ- ham·mal·qō·w·aḥ bên tō·p̄ə·śê ham·mil·ḥā·māh hay·yō·ṣə·’îm laṣ·ṣā·ḇā ū·ḇên kāl- hā·‘ê·ḏāh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-you-shall-halve the captured-prey between the graspers of war, those going out to the host, and between all the congregation.”
Where the English smooths the original
The congregation was to have some share, because the warriors went in the name of all, and because all having been injured by the Midianites, all were to have some share in the reparations: but the warriors, who were but twelve thousand, were to have a far greater share than their brethren, because they underwent greater pains and dangers.
It was reasonable that those who had encountered the perils and hardships of the war should receive a larger share of the spoil than those who had remained in the camp. It was equally reasonable that the latter should not be left without some substantial benefit
and by this it appears that they went voluntarily and cheerfully
28Set aside a tribute for the LORD from what belongs to the soldiers who went into battle: one out of every five hundred, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, or sheep.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wa·hă·rê·mō·ṯā me·ḵes Yah·weh mê·’êṯ ham·mil·ḥā·māh ’an·šê hay·yō·ṣə·’îm laṣ·ṣā·ḇā ’e·ḥāḏ ne·p̄eš ū·min- mê·ḥă·mêš ham·mê·’ō·wṯ min- hā·’ā·ḏām hab·bā·qār ū·min- ha·ḥă·mō·rîm ū·min- haṣ·ṣōn
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-you-shall-lift a tribute for YHWH from the men of war who went out to the host: one soul out of every five hundred — of man, of cattle, of donkeys, and of sheep.”
Where the English smooths the original
Literally, and thou shalt lift up (or, heave ) , &c.
The word nephesh (‘soul’) denotes the life or animating principle of every living creature, man or beast, and here stands for an ‘individual’ person or a ‘head’ of cattle.
From both parts, however, a certain deduction was taken for the sanctuary, as a thank offering to God for preservation and for victory.
The less opportunity we have of honouring God with personal services, the more should we give in money or value.
29Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar the priest as an offering to the LORD.
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tiq·qā·ḥū mim·ma·ḥă·ṣî·ṯām wə·nā·ṯat·tāh lə·’el·‘ā·zār hak·kō·hên tə·rū·maṯ Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“From their half you shall take it, and you-shall-give it to Eleazar the priest as a heave-offering of YHWH.”
Where the English smooths the original
The Hebrew word רוּם (to lift) from which terumah is derived, had practically lost its literal significance, just as the English word has in the phrase "to lift cattle;" hence terumah often means simply that which is set aside as an offering.
by way of thanksgiving for the success and victory, God had given them, by means of which so much booty had fallen into their hands
In thankfulness to God for their preservation and good success.
30From the Israelites’ half, take one out of every fifty, whether persons, cattle, donkeys, sheep, or other animals, and give them to the Levites who keep charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.”
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min- bə·nê- yiś·rā·’êl ū·mim·ma·ḥă·ṣiṯ tiq·qaḥ ’e·ḥāḏ ’ā·ḥuz min- ha·ḥă·miš·šîm hā·’ā·ḏām min- hab·bā·qār min- ha·ḥă·mō·rîm ū·min- haṣ·ṣōn mik·kāl hab·bə·hê·māh wə·nā·ṯat·tāh ’ō·ṯām lal·wî·yim šō·mə·rê miš·me·reṯ miš·kan Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And from the sons-of-Israel’s half you shall take one, seized out of every fifty — of man, of cattle, of donkeys, of sheep, of all the beasts — and you-shall-give them to the Levites, the keepers of the charge of the tabernacle of YHWH.”
Where the English smooths the original
whereas the former part was one of five hundred: the reason of the difference is, partly because this was taken out of the people’s portion, whose hazards being less than the others, their gains also in all reason were to be less; partly because this was to be distributed into more hands, the Levites being now numerous, when the priests were but few.
This probably corresponded very closely to the number of Levites as compared with the twelve tribes, and would tend to show that God intended the Levites to be neither better nor worse off than their neighbours.
The Levites were much more numerous than the priests, and consequently it was ordered that they should have two per cent. of the spoil which fell to the congregation, whereas the priests had only one-fifth percent, of a like amount.
31So Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD had commanded Moses,
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mō·šeh wə·’el·‘ā·zār hak·kō·hên way·ya·‘aś ka·’ă·šer Yah·weh ’eṯ- ṣiw·wāh mō·šeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-Moses did, and Eleazar the priest, as YHWH had commanded Moses.”
Where the English smooths the original
Took an account of the booty, divided it equally between the soldiers and the congregation of Israel, and levied a part out of each as a tribute for the Lord, which was given to the priests and Levites.
Of the one half the priests received 675 head of small cattle, 72 oxen, 61 asses, and 32 maidens for Jehovah; and these Moses handed over to Eleazar
32and this plunder remained from the spoils the soldiers had taken: 675,000 sheep,
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way·hî ham·mal·qō·w·aḥ ye·ṯer hab·bāz ’ă·šer ‘am haṣ·ṣā·ḇā bā·zə·zū šêš- mê·’ō·wṯ ’e·lep̄ wə·šiḇ·‘îm ’e·lep̄ wa·ḥă·mê·šeṯ- ’ă·lā·p̄îm ṣōn
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And the captured-prey was — the remainder of the spoil which the people of the host had plundered — six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand sheep,”
Where the English smooths the original
The numbers given are obviously round numbers, such as the Israelites seem always to have employed in enumeration.
all which was now left of the prey. It is so expressed because they took more, but some of the persons were since killed, Numbers 31:17 , and some of the cattle was spent for the necessary provisions of the army.
The number of sheep, beeves, asses, and persons taken is given in this and following verses in round thousands.
3372,000 cattle,
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šə·na·yim wə·šiḇ·‘îm ’ā·lep̄ ū·ḇā·qār
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“and cattle: two and seventy thousand,”
Where the English smooths the original
3461,000 donkeys,
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’e·ḥāḏ wə·šiš·šîm ’ā·lep̄ wa·ḥă·mō·rîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“and donkeys: one and sixty thousand,”
Where the English smooths the original
35and 32,000 women who had not slept with a man.
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wə·ne·p̄eš ’ā·ḏām min- šə·na·yim ū·šə·lō·šîm ’ā·lep̄ kāl- ne·p̄eš han·nā·šîm ’ă·šer lō- yā·ḏə·‘ū miš·kaḇ zā·ḵār
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“and souls of man, of the women who had not known the lying of a male: all the souls — two and thirty thousand.”
Where the English smooths the original
36This was the half portion for those who had gone to war: 337,500 sheep,
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wat·tə·hî ham·me·ḥĕ·ṣāh ḥê·leq hay·yō·ṣə·’îm baṣ·ṣā·ḇā mis·par šə·lōš- mê·’ō·wṯ ’e·lep̄ ū·šə·lō·šîm ’e·lep̄ wə·šiḇ·‘aṯ ’ă·lā·p̄îm wa·ḥă·mêš mê·’ō·wṯ haṣ·ṣōn
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And the half — the portion of those who went out to the host — was in number: three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep,”
Where the English smooths the original
37including a tribute to the LORD of 675,
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way·hî ham·me·ḵes Yah·weh šêš mê·’ō·wṯ ḥā·mêš wə·šiḇ·‘îm min- haṣ·ṣōn
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And the tribute for YHWH of the sheep was six hundred, five and seventy.”
Where the English smooths the original
3836,000 cattle, including a tribute to the LORD of 72,
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šiš·šāh ū·šə·lō·šîm ’ā·lep̄ wə·hab·bā·qār ū·miḵ·sām Yah·weh šə·na·yim wə·šiḇ·‘îm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And the cattle: six and thirty thousand; and their tribute for YHWH: two and seventy.”
Where the English smooths the original
3930,500 donkeys, including a tribute to the LORD of 61,
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šə·lō·šîm ’e·lep̄ wa·ḥă·mêš mê·’ō·wṯ wa·ḥă·mō·rîm ū·miḵ·sām Yah·weh ’e·ḥāḏ wə·šiš·šîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And donkeys: thirty thousand and five hundred; and their tribute for YHWH: one and sixty.”
Where the English smooths the original
40and 16,000 people, including a tribute to the LORD of 32.
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šiš·šāh ‘ā·śār ’ā·lep̄ wə·ne·p̄eš ’ā·ḏām ū·miḵ·sām Yah·weh šə·na·yim ū·šə·lō·šîm nā·p̄eš
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And the souls of man: sixteen thousand; and their tribute for YHWH: two and thirty souls.”
Where the English smooths the original
41Moses gave the tribute to Eleazar the priest as an offering for the LORD, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
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mō·šeh ’eṯ- way·yit·tên me·ḵes lə·’el·‘ā·zār hak·kō·hên tə·rū·maṯ Yah·weh ka·’ă·šer Yah·weh ’eṯ- ṣiw·wāh mō·šeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-Moses gave the tribute — the heave-offering of YHWH — to Eleazar the priest, as YHWH had commanded Moses.”
Where the English smooths the original
42From the Israelites’ half, which Moses had set apart from the men who had gone to war,
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min- bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl ū·mim·ma·ḥă·ṣîṯ ’ă·šer mō·šeh ḥā·ṣāh hā·’ă·nā·šîm haṣ·ṣō·ḇə·’îm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And from the sons-of-Israel’s half, which Moses halved from the men of the host” —
Where the English smooths the original
43this half belonged to the congregation: 337,500 sheep,
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me·ḥĕ·ṣaṯ wat·tə·hî hā·‘ê·ḏāh min- šə·lōš- mê·’ō·wṯ ’e·lep̄ ū·šə·lō·šîm ’e·lep̄ šiḇ·‘aṯ ’ă·lā·p̄îm wa·ḥă·mêš mê·’ō·wṯ haṣ·ṣōn
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“and the congregation’s half was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep,”
Where the English smooths the original
4436,000 cattle,
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šiš·šāh ū·šə·lō·šîm ’ā·lep̄ ū·ḇā·qār
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“and cattle: six and thirty thousand,”
Where the English smooths the original
4530,500 donkeys,
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šə·lō·šîm ’e·lep̄ wa·ḥă·mêš mê·’ō·wṯ wa·ḥă·mō·rîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“and donkeys: thirty thousand and five hundred,”
Where the English smooths the original
46and 16,000 people.
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šiš·šāh ‘ā·śār ’ā·lep̄ wə·ne·p̄eš ’ā·ḏām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“and souls of man: sixteen thousand.”
Where the English smooths the original
47From the Israelites’ half, Moses took one out of every fifty persons and animals and gave them to the Levites who kept charge of the tabernacle of the LORD, as the LORD had commanded him.
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way·yiq·qaḥ bə·nê- yiś·rā·’êl ’eṯ- mim·ma·ḥă·ṣiṯ mō·šeh hā·’ā·ḥuz ’e·ḥāḏ min- ha·ḥă·miš·šîm min- hā·’ā·ḏām ū·min- hab·bə·hê·māh way·yit·tên ’ō·ṯām lal·wî·yim šō·mə·rê miš·me·reṯ miš·kan Yah·weh ka·’ă·šer Yah·weh ’eṯ- ṣiw·wāh mō·šeh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“and-Moses took from the sons-of-Israel’s half the one seized out of every fifty, of man and of beast, and-he-gave them to the Levites, the keepers of the charge of the tabernacle of YHWH, as YHWH had commanded Moses.”
Where the English smooths the original
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens not with a soldier but with a sentence: “And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying” (v. 25). Gill marks the timing — the command falls “after the purification of the soldiers, their captives, and spoil” — so that holiness precedes accounting. The reckoning itself is delegated and witnessed: Moses, Eleazar, and “the heads of the fathers” (v. 26), whom Gill calls “all men of authority and character… of whose capacity and fidelity there could be no doubt.” The verb of v. 26 is the census idiom śāʼ rōʼš — literally “lift the head of” — applied to the malqôwach, the living prey.
The division (v. 27) is built into a single verb, chātsâh, “to cut in two.” Benson states the equity plainly: the congregation shares “because the warriors went in the name of all,” yet the twelve thousand receive far more per head “because they underwent greater pains and dangers.” Out of each half a portion is lifted to God (the Hiphil of rûm, v. 28) — one in five hundred from the soldiers, one in fifty from the people. Poole and Ellicott give the reason for the tenfold gap: the people’s hazards were less, so their gains were less, and the larger Levitical order needed more than the few priests. The Pulpit Commentary adds that the 2-percent rate “probably corresponded very closely to the number of Levites… God intended the Levites to be neither better nor worse off than their neighbours.”
Then the text does something rare in Torah: it shows its work. Verse 31 records exact compliance — “Moses and Eleazar… did as the LORD commanded” — and vv. 32–47 lay out the full ledger. The Pulpit Commentary parses the opening of v. 32 against the grain of the smoothed English: “the prey (הַמַּלְקוֹחַ), to wit, the rest of the booty (הַבָּז).” Poole explains why it is only the rest: “some of the persons were since killed… and some of the cattle was spent for the necessary provisions of the army.” The totals are round — Barnes notes they are “given… in round thousands,” which is precisely why the 500th-part tithe also “comes out… in round numbers.”
What follows is an audit in four columns — sheep, cattle, donkeys, persons — halved, then tithed, with every figure reconciling. JFB sets the whole thing in a single grid (675,000 sheep → 337,500 each half → 675 to God → 6,750 to the Levites), and K&D confirms the priests’ take (675 small cattle, 72 oxen, 61 asses, 32 maidens) against the Levites’ (6,750, 720, 610, 320). The arithmetic is exact and the categories are unflinching: captive women are counted in the same word, nephesh, as the herds (vv. 35, 40, 46). Three times the refrain falls — “as the LORD commanded Moses” (vv. 31, 41, 47) — bracketing the ledger so that the columns are not bookkeeping but obedience. K&D is careful to limit the precedent: “the arrangement… was only made for this particular case, and not as a law for all times,” though the principle that those who stay home still share the spoil recurs at Joshua 22:8 and becomes statute under David (1 Sam 30:24–25).
Read under Sola Scriptura, this passage is the Bible auditing itself. A spoil seized in a war of judgment is not waved through as plunder; it is counted, halved, and taxed by the same God who commanded the battle, and the first claim on it is His. The honest difficulty must be named, not smoothed: the surviving women are tallied in the identical word, nephesh, as the donkeys and oxen, and 32 of them are “lifted” to the sanctuary. The text neither hides this nor celebrates it — it records it with the same flat precision it gives the sheep. My fallible reading is that the chapter’s relentless arithmetic is itself a restraint: by binding even the victors’ gain to a fixed levy “for the LORD,” it denies the soldier the unbounded appetite of the conqueror, and by mirroring the stay-at-home’s half exactly to the warrior’s, it denies the strong man his contempt for the weak. The greater burden falls on those who risked least; the lighter on those who bled. That is not the ethic of plunder. Whether the underlying war can be vindicated is a question this unit does not answer and I will not pretend it does — weigh that against the whole counsel of Scripture and the cross, where the only spoil God ultimately claims is the captives themselves, set free (Isa 49:24–25; Eph 4:8).
The God who commands the sword also audits the spoil — and takes His tenth in mercy, that no victor may take all.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The rare noun malqôwach (only eight occurrences in the Hebrew Bible) frames the whole transaction: the prey is first gathered (v. 11), then counted (v. 26), then inventoried as the remainder (v. 32). The same word stitches the command to its fulfilment within the chapter — a genuine verbal seam, not a thematic guess.
Numbers 31:11 · Numbers 31:26 · Numbers 31:32
basis: Verifier: shared rare lexeme H4455 malqôwach (in 8 vv) across 31:11 / 31:26 / 31:32; low frequency makes the verbal link secure.
The dividing verb chātsâh (“to cut in two,” 14 occurrences) governs v. 27 and recurs as Moses ‘halves’ the share in v. 42. It also stands behind Jacob’s prudent splitting of his company into two camps (Gen 32:7), and the equity it enacts — stay-at-home and combatant sharing alike — is the same principle later applied at Joshua 22:8 and made statute under David (1 Sam 30:24, sharing milchâmâh, “the battle”).
Numbers 31:27 · Genesis 32:7 · 1 Samuel 30:24
basis: Verifier: 31:27↔Gen 32:7 share H2673 châtsâh (in 14 vv); 31:27↔1 Sam 30:24 share H4421 milchâmâh — shared motif of dividing, no quotation claimed.
The levy is named a tᵉrûmâh, “heave-offering” (v. 29, v. 41), and is carved from the machătsîyth, the “half” (vv. 29, 30, 42). Both terms belong to the tabernacle vocabulary: the half-shekel atonement-money and its tᵉrûmâh in Exodus 30:13–15, the census-half of Exodus 38:26. The war-spoil is thus folded into the same grammar of dedication that funds the sanctuary — a structural echo of cultic language, not a citation.
Numbers 31:29 · Numbers 31:30 · Exodus 30:13 · Exodus 38:26
basis: Verifier: 31:29↔Ex 30:13 share H4276 machătsîyth + H8641 tᵉrûwmâh; 31:30↔Ex 38:26 share H4276 machătsîyth + H2572 chămishshîym — shared sanctuary-levy vocabulary, no quotation.
The same rare Hebrew pair that governs Numbers 31:26 — malqôwach (“prey”) and shᵉbîy (“captives”) — recurs in Isaiah 49:24–25, but with the lens turned around. Where Numbers tallies the captives of the mighty as spoil, Isaiah asks whether the prey can be taken from the mighty and answers that even “the prey of the terrible shall be delivered”: the LORD will contend with the captor and rescue the captives. The lexical link (both Hebrew, both low-frequency) is secure and rare; the reading of it as a deliberate reversal of the war-spoil motif is interpretive on our part, not a claim that Isaiah is quoting Numbers.
Numbers 31:26 · Isaiah 49:24 · Isaiah 49:25
basis: Verifier: 31:26↔Isa 49:25 share rare H4455 malqôwach (in 8 vv) + H7628 shᵉbîy (in 47 vv); both Hebrew, low-frequency — verbal link secure. The reading of it as reversal is interpretive, not lexical.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Numbers 31 binds the warrior to surrender a fixed portion of his prey to the LORD. Isaiah, with the same rare Hebrew words (malqôwach, shᵉbîy), turns the picture inside out: the LORD himself becomes the mightier warrior who wrests the captives from the captor — “even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered” (Isa 49:25). The motif carries forward to the victory-procession of Ephesians 4:8: “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive.” Two cautions, honestly: Paul there is quoting Psalm 68:18, not Numbers or Isaiah, and the link from this unit to Ephesians is thematic (the captivity-taken-captive motif), not a shared-lexeme chain — a Hebrew text and a Greek one cannot be tied by Strong’s number. What is genuinely traceable is the inner-Hebrew reversal Isaiah works on the war-spoil vocabulary; the figural application to Christ’s ascension-triumph is the church’s long-held reading, offered as such. The trajectory: the only spoil God finally claims is the prisoners — set free.
Numbers 31:26 · Isaiah 49:24 · Isaiah 49:25 · Ephesians 4:8
Twice the dedicated portion is delivered into a priest’s hand — “give it to Eleazar the priest as a heave-offering of the LORD” (v. 29), “Moses gave the tribute… to Eleazar the priest” (v. 41). The tᵉrûmâh does not stay with the one who won it; it passes through the mediating priesthood to God. Read forward, the pattern anticipates the one High Priest who both presents and is the offering (Heb 7:27; 9:11–12) — though here the type is faint, carried by the office of Eleazar rather than by any explicit promise. Held loosely, it points to Christ receiving and perfecting what fallible hands could only hand on.
Numbers 31:29 · Numbers 31:41 · Hebrews 7:27
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
A lexical caution worth flagging: the Verifier surfaces Psalm 22:15 as sharing Strong’s H4455 with this unit. That is a homonym collision, not a real link — in Numbers 31 malqôwach means “prey/booty,” while in Psalm 22:15 the same consonants carry the root’s other sense, “jaws/gums” (“my tongue cleaveth to my jaws”). Strong’s own gloss flags the double meaning (“transitively, in dual, the jaws”). We have therefore not built a thread on it; shared numbers are not shared meaning.
On the custom behind the law: the Cambridge Bible observes that the equal division between fighters and stay-at-homes was “an ancient custom, which was traced to the action of David ( 1 Samuel 30:24 f.),” and that the religious tax “is not mentioned elsewhere in the O.T., but perhaps, like the foregoing regulation, it had an ancient custom behind it.” The same note flags a comparative parallel — Mohammed “enjoined a similar tax of 1/5th ( Koran viii. 42, cited by Gray).” We record this as the commentator’s historical observation, not as a claim of dependence; the text itself grounds the levy in YHWH’s command (v. 25), and K&D is careful that “the arrangement… was only made for this particular case, and not as a law for all times.”
On provenance: the bulk-quoted blocks from Matthew Henry (the single 31:25–47 note), JFB (the 25–39 / 32–47 summaries), and Keil & Delitzsch (one running paragraph) repeat across many verses in the source feed; we have excerpted each only where it bears on the verse at hand, and named the work each time. Albert Barnes’ verse-25/26/27 entry in the feed is a mis-attached note on “brass/copper” that belongs to v. 22; we did not use it, drawing instead on his genuine note from v. 32 onward.
On the figures: every number here is the Masoretic round total; the priests’ 1-in-500 and the Levites’ 1-in-50 reconcile exactly (JFB’s and K&D’s tables agree). The translation choices flagged in the divergences (heave/lift for rûm, “soul” for nephesh, “halve” for chātsâh) follow the Hebrew lexicon and the public-domain commentators; the theological weighing of the war itself is deliberately left to the whole counsel of Scripture and is not asserted here.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)