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 – 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 and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord’s people.
17. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,
18. but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
19. ‘Anyone who has killed someone or touched someone who was killed must stay outside the camp seven days. On the third and seventh days you must purify yourselves and your captives.
20. Purify every garment as well as everything made of leather, goat hair or wood.’