Numbers 31:32

And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, was six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand sheep,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(32) And the booty, being the rest of the prey . . . —The reference may be to the residue of the captives after the slaughter of all the males and of a large number of the women, and to the cattle which were brought to the camp, some, it may be, having been lost or slaughtered for food; or it may be to the booty which had been taken in captives and animals, as distinguished from the gold and silver, &c.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

31:25-47 Whatever we have, God justly claims a part. Out of the people's share God required one in fifty, but out of the soldiers' share only one in five hundred. The less opportunity we have of honouring God with personal services, the more should we give in money or value.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Compare Numbers 31:11, and render "And the prey" (i. e., the live prey) "in addition to the spoil which the men of war seized, etc." The "spoil" is described in Numbers 31:50.

The number of sheep, beeves, asses, and persons taken is given in this and following verses in round thousands. Hence, the Lord's tribute (Numbers 31:29, Numbers 31:37-38, etc.), being the 500th part of the half, comes out also in round numbers. The enormous amount both of live stock and of personal ornament was characteristic of the Midianites. When they invaded Israel in the days of the Judges, their wealth was still of the same kind (Judges 6:5; Judges 8:24 ff). The Bedouins, notwithstanding their wild nomadic life, retain their ancestral love of finery to the present day.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

32-47. the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught—Some of the captives having been killed (Nu 31:17) and part of the cattle taken for the support of the army, the total amount of the booty remaining was in the following proportions:

Prey Total Amount Half to Soldiers Deducted to God Half to Congregation Deducted to Levites Sheep 675,000 337,500 675 337,500 6,750 Beeves 72,000 36,000 72 36,000 720 Asses 61,000 30,500 61 30,500 610 Persons 32,000 16,000 32 16,000 320

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The rest of the prey; all which was now left of the prey. It is so expressed because they took more, but some of the persons were since killed, Numbers 31:17, and some of the cattle was spent for the necessary provisions of the army.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught,.... The remainder of it, besides what they had eaten in their return from the war, and during their seven days' stay without the camp: from hence to the end of Numbers 31:47 is only an account of the prey or booty taken, which in general were 675,000 sheep, 72,000 beeves or oxen, 61,000 asses, and 32,000 females who had never known man; the half out of these, which fell to the share of the soldiers, were 337,500 sheep, 36,000 beeves or oxen, 30,500 asses, and 16,000 females, out of which were given as an heave offering to the Lord six hundred and seventy five sheep, seventy two beeves or oxen, sixty one asses, and thirty two women: the half divided unto the children of Israel consisted of 337,500 sheep, 36,000 beeves or oxen, 30,500 asses, and 16,000 women, out of which one in fifty, both of women and cattle, were given to the Levites; what that amounted to is not expressed, but may be easily reckoned.

Geneva Study Bible

And the booty, being the rest of the prey which the men of war had caught, was six hundred thousand and seventy thousand and five thousand sheep,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

32. over and above the booty] the remainder of the booty. The revisers connected the words with Numbers 31:53 (see marg. there), but that is concerned only with the private looting of gold ornaments. Here ‘the booty’ is synonymous with ‘the prey,’ and the words may be paraphrased ‘the prey, or rather that which remained of it.’ That which was captured on the field of battle would be diminished from a variety of causes, e.g. the necessary slaughter of animals for food, possibly the death from hardships on the return journey of some among the prisoners who were ill or infirm; also by the slaughter commanded in Numbers 31:17.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 32. - The booty, being the rest of the prey. Rather, "the prey (הַמַּלְקוחַ, see on verse 11), to wit, the rest of the booty" (הַבָּז, as in chapter Numbers 14:3, 31). Septuagint, τὸ πλεόνασμα τῆς προνομῆς, i.e., what actually remained to be divided. The numbers given are obviously round numbers, such as the Israelites seem always to have employed in enumeration. The immense quantity of cattle captured was in accordance with the habits of the Midianites in the days of Gideon (Judges 6:5) and of their modern representatives today. Numbers 31:32

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The booty, viz., "the rest of the booty, which the men of war had taken," i.e., all the persons taken prisoners that had not been put to death, and all the cattle taken as booty that had not been consumed during the march home, amounted to 675,000 head of small cattle, 72,000 oxen, 61,000 asses, and 32,000 maidens. Each half, therefore, consisted of 337,500 head of small cattle, 36,000 oxen, 30,500 asses, and 16,000 maidens (Numbers 31:36 and Numbers 31:43-46). Of the one half the priests received 675 head of small cattle, 72 oxen, 61 asses, and 32 maidens for Jehovah; and these Moses handed over to Eleazar, in all probability for the maintenance of the priests, in the same manner as the tithes (Numbers 18:26-28, and Leviticus 27:30-33), so that they might put the cattle into their own flocks (Numbers 35:3), and slay oxen or sheep as they required them, whilst they sold the asses, and made slaves of the gifts; and not in the character of a vow, in which case the clean animals would have had to be sacrificed, and the unclean animals, as well as the human beings, to be redeemed (Leviticus 27:2-13). Of the other half, the Levites received the fiftieth part (Numbers 31:43-47), that is to say, 6750 head of small cattle, 720 oxen, 610 asses, and 320 girls. The וגו מחצית ("the half," etc.), in Numbers 31:42, is resumed in Numbers 31:47, and the enumeration of the component parts of this half in Numbers 31:43-46 is to be regarded as parenthetical.