Day 54 Numbers 31-32

            The Israelites take revenge on the Midianites for that stunt with Balaam and trying to curse them.  God tells them to go and kill all the Midianites, which they do, sort of.  The Israelite army gets back to camp with the spoils, but Moses and Eleazer are cross with them for only killing all the men and not the women, who were the cause of that plague before.  Moses tells them they can keep all the virginal girls, but they have to kill all the older women.  Also, anyone who kills somebody or has been near a dead body is ritualistically unclean and has to wait outside the camp for a week doing cleansing things.  This is also true for all the spoils which have to be passed through fire if they’re made out of metal and cleaned with cleansing water.

            This cleansing ritual of separating things from the population centers, passing through fire and washing with cleansing water is very cool.  The brewing of the cleansing water probably has a little more pageantry involved than is strictly necessary, but the basic concept is sound.  Ashes, specifically the rendered fat of animals, make a primitive soap.  The whole process actually sounds very effective.

            Balaam is killed in the battle.  That kind of makes me sad.  I find that I like these characters who talk to God but are not Israelites.  Balaam was obedient to God by and large, but he wasn’t an Israelite so I guess that trumps his faithfulness.  I suppose without access to the tabernacles though, he couldn’t possibly be completely right with God.  Everyone had sins to be cleansed.

            Surveying the land just east of the Jordan River before they crossed over, the Ruebenites and Gadites decided that they would prefer to set up their lands over here, just outside the land promised them by God.  Moses chews them out pretty good for that at first, because the last time people started talking about not going into the promised land God sent them back out into the desert for forty years.  The Rubenites and the Gadites tell Moses that they just like this land for grazing though and they will still come help conquer Canaan, but afterwards, they would like to please come back here.  Moses says that’s fine, but if they don’t keep their word and fight with the rest of them, then they’re all going to be killed.  Once it gets all trendy, the half-tribe of Menassah also decides to return to the eastern bank of the Jordan after their done in Canaan.