Numbers 31:17

Now therefore kill every boy, ¹  and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man. ² 

Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,

"Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately.

Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man.

Finish your job: kill all the boys. Kill every woman who has slept with a man.

So now put every male child to death, and every woman who has had sex relations with a man.

Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by sleeping with him.

"Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately.

Now therefore kill every boy, ¹  and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man. ² 

¹ 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.

² tn Heb “every woman who has known [a] man by lying with a man.”