Bible Strands
Numbers 31:15
“Have you spared all the women?” he asked them.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses confronts the returning army commanders after the battle against Midian. He directly questions their actions regarding the captured women.
The words — הַֽ/חִיִּיתֶ֖ם (ha./chi.yi.Tem) translates literally to "have you let live," framing Moses' inquiry as a demand for accountability. נְקֵבָֽה (ne.ke.Vah) means "female," precisely identifying the group under scrutiny.
The thread — The tension between sparing captives and executing divine judgment recurs in 1 Samuel 15:3 and Deuteronomy 2:34, where conquest narratives repeatedly address whether mercy or total destruction applies to enemy populations.
Why it lands — The verse requires readers to track how leadership handles mercy versus obedience in wartime. It demands an honest assessment of whether human discretion aligns with stated divine directives.
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 said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 15:3 Now 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.’”
- Deuteronomy 2:34 At that time we captured all his cities and devoted to destruction the people of every city, including women and children. We left no survivors.
- Jeremiah 48:10 Cursed is the one who is remiss in doing the work of the LORD, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed.
- Deuteronomy 20:13 When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword.
- Deuteronomy 20:16 However, 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.
- Joshua 6:21 With the edge of the sword they devoted to destruction everything in the city—man and woman, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.
- Joshua 8:25 A total of twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai.
- Joshua 10:40 So 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.
- Joshua 11:14 The 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.
- Psalms 137:8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.