1. The Lord said to Moses:
2. Avenge the Israelites on the Midianites, and then you will be gathered to your people.
3. So Moses told the people, “Arm some men among you for the campaign, to attack Midian and to execute the Lord’s vengeance on Midian.
4. From each of the tribes of Israel you will send a thousand men to the campaign.”
5. From the contingents of Israel, therefore, a thousand men of each tribe were levied, so that there were twelve thousand men armed for war.
6. Moses sent them out on the campaign, a thousand from each tribe, with Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest for the campaign, who had with him the sacred vessels and the trumpets for sounding the alarm.
7. They waged war against the Midianites, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and killed every male.
8. Besides those slain in battle, they killed the kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian; and they also killed Balaam, son of Beor, with the sword.
9. But the Israelites took captive the women of the Midianites with their children, and all their herds and flocks and wealth as loot,
10. while they set on fire all the towns where they had settled and all their encampments.