Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Remember the Midianites?

Think back to Numbers 25.

Bailem the Prophet was on the mountain with Balak, refusing to curse the Israelites.

Then immediately after this in Numbers 26, we see a scene where the Israelites men are

whoring with the Midianite women and a plague breaks out where God kills 24,000 people.

Then Thinius, Aaron's grandson, personally kills an Israelite and the Midianite chief

stutteries having a little rendezvous with, and that's what led up to where we are today.

God tells Moses that his final assignment before death is to kill the Midianites.

Moses rallies 12,000 men for the task, plus Phineas son of the high priest, who acts as a sort

of chaplain.

He takes some of the holy vessels, though he don't know which ones, and some trumpets.

They kill all the men of the land, and you may have noticed that Bailem was included

among them, because he advised Balak on how to trip up the Israelites, specifically using

the wiles of the women.

After winning the battle, the Israelite warriors bring the women and children back to the

Israelite encampment, which was what they typically did after winning a battle.

But this isn't just any battle.

This is a battle whose primary cause is these women.

So Moses ordered the death of all the women who weren't virgins, the women who initiated

the idolatry and the loss of 24,000 lives.

It's possible some of the soldiers had even brought back the very women who had led the

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