Numbers 31:34

Study note

Setting — The narrator continues the inventory of captured livestock from the Midianite campaign, following the cattle count in Numbers 31:33 and preceding the virgin women tally in Numbers 31:35.

The words — חֲמֹרִים (cha.morim) means “donkeys,” combined with אֶחָד וְשִׁשִּׁים אֶלֶף (echad ve-shishim elef) to form “sixty-one thousand.”

The thread — This exact donkey count occurs only in Numbers 31:34, while the broader pattern of listing war spoils and census totals appears in Exodus 12:37 and 1 Chronicles 5:18.

Why it lands — The text requires a strict accounting of material acquisition, asking the reader to observe how conquered resources are quantified before they are allocated.

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.