Numbers 31:17

31:17 Now therefore kill every boy, ¹  and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man. ² 

Numbers 31:35

31:35 and 32,000 young women who had never had sexual intercourse with a man. ³ 

¹ tn Heb “every male among the little ones.”

² tn Heb “every woman who has known [a] man by lying with a man.”

³ sn Here again we encounter one of the difficulties of the book, the use of the large numbers. Only twelve thousand soldiers fought the Midianites, but they brought back this amount of plunder, including 32,000 girls. Until a solution for numbers in the book can be found, or the current translation confirmed, one must remain cautious in interpretation.