RuvidaMente
(26/31) With the help of Eleazar the priest and of the heads of the ancestral houses of the community, inventory all the spoils captured, human being and beast alike; then divide the spoils between the warriors who went on the campaign and the whole community.
You will levy a tax for the LORD on the soldiers who went on the campaign: one out of every five hundred persons, oxen, donkeys, and sheep.
From their half you will take it and give it to Eleazar the priest as a contribution to the LORD.
From the Israelites’ half you will take one captive from every fifty human beings, oxen, donkeys, and sheep—all the animals—and give them to the Levites, who perform the duties of the LORD’s tabernacle.
So Moses and Eleazar the priest did this, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Amount of the Plunder
(32/47) This plunder, what was left of the loot which the troops had taken, amounted to six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, seventy-two thousand oxen, sixty-one thousand donkeys, and thirty-two thousand women who had not had sexual relations.
The half-share that fell to those who had gone out on the campaign was in number: three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, of which six hundred and seventy-five fell as tax to the LORD; thirty-six thousand oxen, of which seventy-two fell as tax to the LORD; thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, of which sixty-one fell as tax to the LORD; and sixteen thousand persons, of whom thirty-two persons fell as tax to the LORD.
Moses gave the taxes contributed to the LORD to Eleazar the priest, exactly as the LORD had commanded Moses.
As for the Israelites’ half, which Moses had taken from the men who had fought— the community’s half was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep, thirty-six thousand oxen, thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, and sixteen thousand persons.
From the Israelites’ half, Moses took one captive from every fifty, from human being and beast alike, and gave them to the Levites, who performed the duties of the LORD’s tabernacle, exactly as the LORD had commanded Moses.
(48/54) Then those who were officers over the contingents of the army, commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, came up to Moses and said to him, “Your servants have counted the soldiers under our command, and not one of us is missing.
So, we have brought as an offering to the LORD articles of gold that each of us has picked up—anklets, bracelets, rings, earrings, or pendants—to make atonement for ourselves before the LORD.”
Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from them, all fashioned pieces.
The gold that was given as a contribution to the LORD—from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds—amounted in all to sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.
What the common soldiers had looted each one kept for himself.
So Moses and Eleazar the priest accepted the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and put it in the tent of meeting as a reminder on behalf of the Israelites before the LORD.
Old Testament: Numbers, Chapter 31, 25-54
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