“Bring trouble to the Midianites, and destroy them,

and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy!

So the assembly sent 12,000 capable warriors against Jabesh Gilead. They commanded them, “Go and kill with your swords the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, including the women and little children.

You will defeat every fortified city and every important city. You must chop down every productive tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.”