15. Moses said to them, “Have you allowed all the women to live?
16. Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord!
17. Now therefore kill every boy, and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man.
18. But all the young women who have not had sexual intercourse with a man will be yours.
19. “Any of you who has killed anyone or touched any of the dead, remain outside the camp for seven days; purify yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.
20. You must purify each garment and everything that is made of skin, everything made of goat’s hair, and everything made of wood.”
21. Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone into the battle, “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded Moses:
22. ‘Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
23. everything that may stand the fire, you are to pass through the fire, and it will be ceremonially clean, but it must still be purified with the water of purification. Anything that cannot withstand the fire you must pass through the water.
24. You must wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you will be ceremonially clean, and afterward you may enter the camp.’”
25. Then the Lord spoke to Moses:
26. “You and Eleazar the priest, and all the family leaders of the community, take the sum of the plunder that was captured, both people and animals.
27. Divide the plunder into two parts, one for those who took part in the war – who went out to battle – and the other for all the community.