Sforno on Numbers 31/ספורנו על במדבר ל״א

1וימסרו, to Moses by the representatives of each tribe.

1וישלח אותם משה אלף אלף למטה לצבא, he sent one thousand men of each tribe.

2אותם ואת פינחס, after the 12.000 men had all been assembled he sent Pinchas to accompany them.

3לצבא וכלי הקודש וחצוצרות התרועה בידו, he sent him to the army, as head, i.e. as the priest especially appointed in every war involving invasion of foreign territory. The various holy vessels, including the trumpets would be at his disposal during that period.

1?!החיים כל נקבה. Although it was a rule that in all wars not involving the seven Canaanite nations women, children, and livestock would be spared as we know from Deuteronomy 20,14, these soldiers should have at least killed the women whom they personally knew, seeing it had been the women who had caused the death of 24.000 Israelites by seducing them. [we have no evidence that any Midianite women seduced the Israelites with the exception of Cosbi, a Midianite princess. Numbers 25,1 reports only about sexual misconduct with the Moabite women. Ed.]

1זאת חקת התורה, the instructions you have received from Moses concerning your own purification rites, including being sprinkled with water containing ash from the red heifer, is a decree by the Torah. The institution known as פרה אדומה has as its purpose the purification of people afflicted with ritual impurity due to direct or indirect contact with the dead.

1אך את הזהב, however, metal objects require an additional procedure before they are ritually clean, namely immersion in a ritual bath, (or rinsing in boiling water, or even making it red-hot, depending on how these utensils had been used.)

1וטהר, it will have become decontaminated from the negative vibes attached to it as residue of idolaters.

2אך במי נדה יתחטא, even making it red hot does not automatically remove its impurity, even if it looks as if new. It requires the waters and ash of the red heifer, i.e. מי נדה

1וחצית את המלקוח, seeing that this war was a war of revenge for something the enemy had done against the people as a whole, the Torah wanted that the principle of ואכלת את אויביך, “you will consume your enemies,” (Deuteronomy 20,14) be fulfilled. Something similar occurred with David and the loot taken from Amalek (Samuel I 30,26) when he distributed loot he personally had captured from the Amalekites.

1יתר הבז אשר בזזו, for the property which was part of the houses, i.e. chattels the soldiers had taken for themselves.

1לכפר על נפשותינו, for the sin at Baal Peor, as an act of gratitude for not having died in the plague that broke out then.

1ויקח משה, he accepted it from them and weighed it.

2כל כלי מעשה, every kind of jewelry and decorative art employed by the women at Baal Peor.

1ויקח משה, after having weighed it he brought it to the Tabernacle,

2as a remembrance for the Jewish people, to serve as expiation of the sin committed at Baal Peor.