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Numbers 31 · a question people ask

If the LORD commanded the war, why did the soldiers have to be purified?

In the text

Because the law for the dead in Numbers 19 covered anyone who touched a dead body. It says, "He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days" (19:11), and it names the battlefield: "Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword… shall be unclean seven days" (19:16). So Moses says, "Encamp outside of the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives" (31:19), the same two days as Numbers 19 (19:12). Eleazar calls it "the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded Moses" (31:21). The chapter doesn't say the soldiers sinned; it says they were unclean until the seventh day, and then, "Afterward you shall come into the camp" (31:24).

The verses

““He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he doesn’t purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.”
Numbers 19:11-12 · World English Bible
““Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.”
Numbers 19:16 · World English Bible
““Encamp outside of the camp for seven days. Whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.”
Numbers 31:19 · World English Bible
“Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who went to the battle, “This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded Moses.”
Numbers 31:21 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Numbers 31

Numbers 31: The war against Midian

Moses called the war "the LORD’s vengeance on Midian" (31:3), and named what lay behind Peor: "the counsel of Balaam" (31:16). Whoever had killed or touched the slain was purified (31:19). And when the officers found "there lacks not one man of us" (31:49), their gold went in "for a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD" (31:54), the words of the census law (Exodus 30:16).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions