14. Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of the companies and battalions, who were returning from battle.
15. “Why did you let all the women live?” he asked them.
16. “Remember, they were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and caused the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the incident that took place at Peor. The Lord’s community experienced a plague at that time.
17. So kill all the Midianite boys and every Midianite woman who has gone to bed with a man.
18. But save for yourselves every girl who has never gone to bed with a man.
19. “Everyone who killed a person or touched a dead body must stay outside the camp seven days. You and your prisoners of war must use the ritual water on the third and seventh days in order to take away your sin.
20. Do the same for all the clothes and everything made of leather, goats’ hair, or wood.”
21. Then the priest Eleazar said to the soldiers who had gone into battle, “This is what the Lord’s teachings told Moses to do:
22. Any gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead—
23. anything that won’t burn—must be put through fire in order to make it clean. Then it must also be put through the ritual water in order to take away its sin. Whatever might burn must ⌊only⌋ be put through the ritual water.
24. On the seventh day wash your clothes, and you will be clean. Then you may come into the camp.”
25. The Lord said to Moses,
26. “You, the priest Eleazar, and the heads of the families of the community need to count all the loot, including the people and animals you captured.
27. Divide the loot between the soldiers who served in the war and the rest of the community.
28. Collect a tax for the Lord. From the soldiers who served in the war collect one out of every 500 things. This includes people, cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats.
29. Collect all these things from the soldiers’ half of the loot, and give them to the priest Eleazar as a contribution to the Lord.