Numbers 31:2
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shall you be gathered to your people.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shall you be gathered to your people.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Give the Midianites punishment for the wrong they did to the children of Israel: and after that you will go to rest with your people.
Webster's Revision
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered to thy people.
World English Bible
"Avenge the children of Israel for the Midianites. Afterward you shall be gathered to your people."
English Revised Version (ERV)
Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.
Clarke's Numbers 31:2 Bible Commentary
Gathered unto thy people - Where? Not in the grave surely. Moses was gathered with none of them, his burial-place no man ever knew. "But being gathered unto one's people means dying." It does imply dying, but it does not mean this only. The truth is, God considers all those who are dead to men in a state of conscious existence in another world. Therefore he calls himself the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob; now God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; because all Live to Him, whether dead to men or not. Moses therefore was to be gathered to his people - to enter into that republic of Israel which, having died in the faith, fear, and love of God, were now living in a state of conscious blessedness beyond the confines of the grave. See the note on Genesis 25:8, and Genesis 49:33 (note).
Barnes's Numbers 31:2 Bible Commentary
The Midianites - The Moabites are not included. It would thus seem that it was the Midianites, and they only, who deliberately set themselves to work the corruption of Israel.
