Numbers 31:15-17

31:15 Moses said to them, “Have you allowed all the women to live? ¹  31:16 Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord! 31:17 Now therefore kill every boy, ²  and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man. ³ 

¹ tn The verb is the Piel perfect of the word חָיָה (khayah, “to live”). In the Piel stem it must here mean “preserve alive,” or “allow to live,” rather than make alive.

² tn Heb “every male among the little ones.”

³ tn Heb “every woman who has known [a] man by lying with a man.”