What Does Numbers 31:3 Mean?
And Moses spoke to the people, saying, Gird some of yourselves for the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and give the LORD's vengeance on Midian.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the LORD of Midian.THE KEY
The Hebrew says the fighters are sent “to give the vengeance of the LORD,” turning a divine claim into human action.
THE MEANING
Now the command stands before you in its full violence: some are armed and sent against Midian to enact the LORD’s vengeance. Moshe (מֹשֶׁה, Mōšeh, “drawn out”) speaks, and the sentence places a divine claim directly into human hands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that divine vengeance stays separate from human violence: here the command joins them.
THE ROOT
נִקְמַת
niqmat
GROWS FROM
נקם
n-q-m
To avenge, exacting repayment for an offense.
“the LORD's vengeance on Midian” in this verse is niqmat. The Hebrew phrase לָתֵת נִקְמַת־יְהוָה (lātēt niqmat-YHWH, “to give the LORD’s vengeance”) uses a noun for vengeance where English uses the verb “avenge.” The fighters are assigned to enact a claim attributed to the LORD, rather than named as its source.
ALSO GROWS
nāqam: To avenge or take vengeance.
נָקַם
This verb shares the root and shows that the noun in the command carries the force of active retaliation.
neqāmāh: Vengeance or retribution.
נְקָמָה
This noun makes the claim explicit as vengeance itself, the thing the fighters are told to give.
לָתֵת
lātēt
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
“give” in this verse is lātēt. The Hebrew has a verb of giving before the noun for vengeance; the KJV’s “avenge” folds both into one English verb. This root casts the fighters as placing vengeance into action, while the claim itself remains attributed to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the root verb behind lātēt, making the transfer into human action part of the sentence’s grammar.
mattānāh: A gift or thing given.
מַתָּנָה
This noun shows the root’s sense of something given or placed; here, the object being given is vengeance.
הֵחָלְצוּ
heḥālṣû
GROWS FROM
חלץ
ḥ-l-ṣ
To draw out or rescue; in this form, to equip oneself for war.
“Gird” in this verse is heḥālṣû. The verb rendered “arm” carries the sense of becoming equipped for battle. Alongside “some of yourselves,” it presents people being selected from among the group and prepared for war, not merely handed weapons.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālaṣ: To draw out or rescue.
חָלַץ
This sense reveals a movement out of one condition or place, illuminating the call to prepare men from among the people.
ḥālûṣ: An armed or equipped person.
חָלוּץ
This related form names the battle-ready state the command requires.
THE PATTERN
Scripture locates vengeance in the LORD’s claim while giving human beings sharply different roles around it.
Now go and strike Amalek, and devote all that they have to destruction, and do not spare them; but put to death man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.To me belongs vengeance, and repayment. At its appointed time their foot slips, for the day of their falling is near, and what is readied comes hurrying upon them.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
To me belongs vengeance, and repayment. At its appointed time their foot slips, for the day of their falling is near, and what is readied comes hurrying upon them.Deuteronomy uses נקם (nāqam, vengeance), the same root behind נִקְמַת (niqmat, vengeance of) in Numbers. It says vengeance belongs to the LORD, while this verse assigns armed people to give it; the shared root brings that tension into view.
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