Bible Strands
Numbers 31:13
And Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation go outside the camp to meet the returning army officers after they have brought the captives and plunder to the camp on the plains of Moab.
The words — וַ/יֵּ֨צְא֜וּ (va/i.Ye.tze.'U) means "and they went out," recording the physical movement of the leaders away from the camp boundary. נְשִׂיאֵ֥י (ne.si.'Ei) translates to "leaders of," identifying the specific group that accompanied Moses and Eleazar.
The thread — The action of going out to meet someone parallels Abram being met by the king of Sodom after his military victory (Genesis 14:17), while the location outside the camp echoes the requirement to remove those with defiling conditions (Numbers 5:2) or those who touched a dead body (Numbers 19:11).
Why it lands — The text requires readers to observe that leadership must physically engage with the aftermath of conflict to assess its spiritual and communal consequences before proceeding with judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.
Cross-references
- Genesis 14:17 After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
- Numbers 5:2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
- Numbers 19:11 Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days.
- Numbers 31:12 They brought the captives, spoils, and plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of Israel at the camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.
- Numbers 31:22 Only the gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, and lead—
- 1 Samuel 15:12 Early in the morning Samuel got up to confront Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel, and behold, he has set up a monument for himself and has turned and gone down to Gilgal.”
- 1 Samuel 30:21 When David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and who were left behind at the Brook of Besor, they came out to meet him and the troops with him. As David approached the men, he greeted them,