Numbers 22:19

22:19 Now therefore, please stay ¹  the night here also, that I may know what more the Lord might say to me.” ² 

Numbers 31:17

31:17 Now therefore kill every boy, ³  and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man. ⁴ 

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¹ tn In this case “lodge” is not used, but “remain, reside” (שְׁבוּ, shÿvu).

² tn This clause is also a verbal hendiadys: “what the Lord might add to speak,” meaning, “what more the Lord might say.”

³ tn Heb “every male among the little ones.”

sn The command in holy war to kill women and children seems in modern times a terrible thing to do (and it was), and something they ought not to have done. But this criticism fails to understand the situation in the ancient world. The entire life of the ancient world was tribal warfare. God’s judgment is poured out on whole groups of people who act with moral abandonment and in sinful pursuits. See E. J. Young, My Servants, the Prophets, 24; and J. W. Wenham, The Enigma of Evil.

⁴ tn Heb “every woman who has known [a] man by lying with a man.”