Bible Strands
Numbers 31:2
“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses Moses, commanding a military response against the Midianites following the plague at Peor. This directive occurs immediately after the divine announcement in Numbers 31:1 and directly precedes Moses's mobilization order in Numbers 31:3.
The words — The command hinges on נְקֹם (ne.Kom), literally "avenge," and תֵּאָסֵף (te.'a.Sef), literally "you will be gathered." These terms establish the immediate order of judgment and the subsequent termination of the speaker's earthly life.
The thread — The expression "gathered to your people" aligns with the death formula in Numbers 27:13 and Judges 2:10, marking the conclusion of a leader's tenure. The Midianite conflict directly references the earlier idolatrous and sexual corruption detailed in Numbers 25:14.
Why it lands — The verse requires immediate execution of divine judgment while simultaneously bounding the commander's lifespan by the same decree. It asks a reader to accept that military obedience and personal mortality are governed by a single authoritative word.
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
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.
Cross-references
- Numbers 27:13 After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was;
- Numbers 25:14 The name of the Israelite who was slain with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family.
- Judges 2:10 After that whole generation had also been gathered to their fathers, another generation rose up who did not know the LORD or the works that He had done for Israel.
- Revelation 6:10 And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge those who dwell upon the earth and avenge our blood?”
- Genesis 15:15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.
- Genesis 25:1 Now Abraham had taken another wife, named Keturah,
- Genesis 25:8 And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.
- Genesis 25:17 Ishmael lived a total of 137 years. Then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.
- Exodus 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.
- Numbers 20:24 “Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will not enter the land that I have given the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah.