Numbers 31:33

Study note

Setting — Moses addresses the military commanders and the Israelite camp following the campaign against Midian. He is listing the remaining spoils of war that the soldiers have brought back to the community.

The words — The Hebrew phrase וּבָקָר שְׁנַ֥יִם וְ/שִׁבְעִ֖ים אָֽלֶף (u./va.Qar she.Na.yim ve./shiv.'Im 'A.lef) literally reads "and cattle two and seventy thousand." The term בָּקָר (ba.Qar) denotes cattle or oxen, distinguishing this category from the sheep and donkeys listed in the surrounding tally.

The thread — Numbers 31:33 continues the chapter's systematic accounting of plunder, directly following the sheep count in Numbers 31:32 and preceding the donkey count in Numbers 31:34. This precise enumeration of war gains establishes a procedural pattern for resource distribution that recurs in later conquest and post-exilic inventory records.

Why it lands — It requires the reader to track the exact scale of material acquisition and recognize the administrative framework for allocating war spoils. The text demands attention to how community resources are quantified, divided, and prepared for subsequent allocation.

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.