“Have you spared all the women?” he asked them.
Parallel translations
- WEB Moses said to them, “Have you saved all the women alive?
- KJV And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
- NKJV And Moses said to them: “Have you kept all the women alive?
- NASB And Moses said to them, “Have you spared all the women?
- NLT “Why have you let all the women live?” he demanded.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses confronted the officers, asking why they had kept all the women alive.
Overview
Moses challenged the soldiers for sparing the very women who had led Israel into the sin at Peor. His question exposed the danger of leaving the corrupting influence intact. This reflects the consistent biblical principle that sin's snares must be removed, not preserved, among God's people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Sam 15:3Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
- Deut 2:34At that time we captured all his cities and devoted to destruction the people of every city, including women and children. We left no survivors.
- Jer 48:10Cursed is the one who is remiss in doing the work of the LORD, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed.
- Josh 8:25A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.
- Josh 11:14The Israelites took for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but they put all the people to the sword until they had completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone who breathed.
- Ps 137:8–9O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
- Deut 20:13When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword.
- Josh 10:40So Joshua conquered the whole region—the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, and the slopes, together with all their kings—leaving no survivors. He devoted to destruction everything that breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.
- Josh 6:21At the edge of the sword they devoted to destruction everything in the city—man and woman, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.
- Ezek 9:6Slaughter the old men, the young men and maidens, the women and children; but do not go near anyone who has the mark. Now begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the temple.
- Deut 20:16–18However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 31:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.