Moses said to them, “Have you saved all the women alive?
Parallel Translations
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Moses said to them, “Have you saved all the women alive?
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And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
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And Moses said unto them: 'Have ye saved all the women alive?
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Numbers 31:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing baby, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
- Deuteronomy 2:34 We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones. We left no one remaining.
- Jeremiah 48:10 “Cursed is he who does the work of Yahweh negligently; and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.
- Deuteronomy 20:13 When Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword;
- Deuteronomy 20:16-18 But of the cities of these peoples that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes; but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as Yahweh your God has commanded you; that they not teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done for their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God.
- Joshua 6:21 They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
- Joshua 8:25 All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the people of Ai.
- Joshua 10:40 So Joshua struck all the land, the hill country, the South, the lowland, the slopes, and all their kings. He left no one remaining, but he utterly destroyed all that breathed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded.
- Joshua 11:14 The children of Israel took all the plunder of these cities, with the livestock, as plunder for themselves; but every man they struck with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They didn’t leave any who breathed.
- Psalms 137:8-9 Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who repays you, as you have done to us. Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock.
- Ezekiel 9:6 Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” Then they began at the old men who were before the house.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (7 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain As though he said, ye ought to have spared…
As though he said, ye ought to have spared none.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Num 31:15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye…
Num 31:15 And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
Ver. 15. Have ye saved all the women alive.] By whom ye have so lately sinned, and so lately suffered! "Keep thee far from an evil matter," {Exo 23:7} Circa serpentis antrum positus, non eris diu illaesus, saith Isidore. We should take heed how we play about the hole of the asp, or near the den of the cockatrice. {Isa 11:8} Sin and temptation come both under one name in the Lord’s Prayer. To pray, "Lead us not into temptation," and yet to run upon the occasion of sin, is to thrust a finger into the fire, and then pray not to be burnt. These Israelites should have said to those Midianitish housewives, as those in Isaiah did to their idols, "Get you hence," Avaunt; they should have here been as cautous as they were in other cases. For being forbidden to make covenants with the Gentiles, they also abstained from drinking with them, because that was a ceremony used in striking of covenants, and so it might have drawn them on thereunto. Our dallying with the occasions of sin, doth usually tempt the devil to tempt us.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Now therefore kill every male among the little ones,....…
Now therefore kill every male among the little ones,.... Which they had taken and brought captives, Num 31:9.
and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him; who might be such, at least many of them, who had lain with Israelitish men; and as the adulterers had been put to death, so now the adulteresses; or they were ordered to, be slain, even all of them, lest they should entice the children of Israel to uncleanness, and so to idolatry again: now these were known to be such, either by conjecture at their age, or rather, through the examination of matrons, unless it can be thought, as it is by some, that it was by divine revelation.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Women. They had received no positive orders respecting them,…
Women. They had received no positive orders respecting them, and it was customary to spare their lives. But these dissolute women had rendered themselves unworthy of such indulgence, (Calmet) and the sight of them raised the just indignation of Moses, who was afraid lest their manners should corrupt the victors. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15. All the women — In the gradation of…
15. All the women — In the gradation of guilt Balaam, Balak, and the princes were first as contrivers of the nefarious scheme to draw Israel into crime, and the women of Midian were second as the agents in its execution. Hence the indignant surprise of Moses that the latter had been spared when punishment for the past and security for the future demanded their death.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15–18. Commands to complete the destruction of the enemy.…
15–18. Commands to complete the destruction of the enemy. All male children and all women who are not virgins are to be killed in cold blood. This cruel command ascribed to Moses dates from an age when the Jews were approaching their narrowest and hardest state of exclusiveness, when piety consisted in rigid separateness from everything foreign. It need cause no difficulty to Christians who have received the command ‘Love your enemies.’
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) Have ye saved all the women alive?—It was…
(15) Have ye saved all the women alive?—It was the women, as is expressed in the following verse, who had been the cause, at the instigation of Balaam, of the apostacy of the Israelites; and consequently the command to “avenge the Lord of Midiani” implied the punishment of those who had been the instruments employed in the seduction of the Israelites.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.