⁷ They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses,^(A) and killed every man.^{(B) 8} Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba^(C)—the five kings of Midian.^(D) They also killed Balaam son of Beor^(E) with the sword.^{(F) 9} The Israelites captured the Midianite women^(G) and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder.^{(H) 10} They burned^(I) all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps.^{(J) 11} They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals,^{(K) 12} and brought the captives, spoils^(L) and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly^(M) at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.^(N)

¹³ Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. ¹⁴ Moses was angry with the officers of the army^(O)—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.

¹⁵ “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. ¹⁶ “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice^(P) and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident,^(Q) so that a plague^(R) struck the Lord’s people. ¹⁷ Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,^(S)

³³ the Lord our God delivered^(A) him over to us and we struck him down,^(B) together with his sons and his whole army.

³⁴ At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed^[a](A) them—men, women and children. We left no survivors.

⁶ We completely destroyed^[a] them, as we had done with Sihon king of Heshbon, destroying^[b](A) every city—men, women and children.

¹³ When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.^{(A) 14} As for the women, the children, the livestock^(B) and everything else in the city,^(C) you may take these as plunder^(D) for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. ¹⁵ This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance^(E) from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.

¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.^{(F) 17} Completely destroy^[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. ¹⁸ Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods,^(G) and you will sin^(H) against the Lord your God.