9/29/2024

Parashat 42 Portion 138 ‘’Mattot’’ Num 31:1-24 Ezekiel 25:14-26:1-6

Blessed are You, YHVH our Elohim, You have set us apart by Your commandments and have commanded us to actively study Your Torah. Please YHVH, our Elohim, sweeten the words of Your Torah in our mouths and in the mouths of all Your people Israel. May You open our eyes to see marvellous truths from Your Torah. Thank You for calling us who were once gentiles excluded from the citizenship of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no expectation and without Elohim- but now through the blood of Messiah we have gained access into the covenant and have obtained citizenship into the commonwealth of Israel.  Blessed are You, YHVH, Who teaches Torah to His people Israel.  Amein

נקם נקמת – '’take vengeance Moshe, vengeance of (for) the sons of Israel!’’

Vengeance on Midian

Num 31:1  And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying, 

Num 31:2  “Take vengeance (2x) for the children of Yisra’ěl on the Miyanites. After that you are to be gathered to your people.” (we see that this command was only partially obeyed – vs 14)

Rom 12:19  Beloved, do not revenge yourselves, but give place to the wrath, for it has been written, ”Vengeance is Mine, I shall repay,” says יהוה. Deu_32:35

Deu 32:35  Vengeance is Mine, and repayment, At the time their foot slips; For near is the day of their calamity, And the matters prepared are hastening to them.’ 

Why does YHVH give this command to the man Moshe? Could YHVH not do this Himself?

It is precisely man’s disobedience that brings chaos in this life. YHVH calls Israel here to take responsibility for their actions by taking vengeance on those who tried to destroy them. Killing women and children is a most unpleasant task, but must be done under YHVH’s guidance in certain circumstances to avoid greater disasters in the future.

Num 31:3  And Mosheh spoke to the people, saying, “Arm (*חלץ)(remove from your understanding how YHVH will destroy your enemies) some of yourselves for the campaign, and let them go against the Miyanites to take vengeance for יהוה on Miyan. (Judges 7)

Num 31:4  “Send a thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Yisra’ěl for the campaign.” 

Num 31:5  So there were supplied (‘’set apart’’ מסר) from the tribes of Yisra’ěl one thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed ones for the campaign. 

Num 31:6  And Mosheh sent them on the campaign, one thousand from each tribe, them and Pineas son of El‛azar the priest on the campaign, with the set-apart utensils and the trumpets for sounding in his hand. 

Num 31:7  And they fought against the Miyanites, as יהוה commanded Mosheh, and killed all the males. Deut 20:13

Num 31:8  And they killed the sovereigns of Miyan with the rest of those who were pierced: Ewi, and Reqem, and Tsur, and ur, and Rea, the five sovereigns of Miyan. And they killed Bil‛am son of Be‛or with the sword.

Num 31:9  And the sons of Yisra’ěl took all the women of Miyan captive, with their little ones, and took as spoil all their livestock, and all their possessions. 

Num 31:10  And they burned with fire all the cities where they dwelt, and all their settlements. 

Num 31:11  And they took all the spoil and all the booty, both of man and beast. 

Num 31:12  And they brought the captives, and the booty, and the spoil to Mosheh, and to El‛azar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Yisra’ěl, to the camp in the desert plains of Mo’a by the Yarděn of Yerio. 

Num 31:13  And Mosheh, and El‛azar the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation, went to meet them outside the camp. 

Num 31:14  But Mosheh was wroth with the officers of the army, with the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, who had come from the campaign. 

Num 31:15  And Mosheh said to them, “Have you kept all the women alive? 

Num 31:16  “Look, they are the ones who caused the children of Yisra’ěl, through the word of Bil‛am, to trespass against יהוה in the matter of Pe‛or, and there was a plague among the congregation of יהוה

Num 31:17  “And now, kill every male among the little ones. And every woman who has known a man by lying with a man you shall kill. 

Num 31:18  “But keep alive for yourselves all the female children who have not known a man by lying with a man. (was this a kind of compromise to appease the masses?)

Partial obedience is disobedience. Unlike the 144 000 end time witnesses these 12 000 were disobedient.  Rev 7 and 14

Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of all the tribes of the children of Yisra’ěl:


Rev 14:3  And they sang a renewed song before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and the elders. And no one was able to learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. 

Rev 14:4  They are those who were not defiled with women, for they are maidens. They are those following the Lamb wherever He leads them on. They were redeemed from among men, being first-fruits to Elohim and to the Lamb. 2 Cor 11:2

Rev 14:5  And in their mouth was found no falsehood, for they are blameless before the throne of Elohim. 

An end time generation will follow in the footsteps of Moshe.

1Co 10:11  And all these came upon them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come, 1Co 10:12  so that he who thinks he stands, let him take heed lest he fall. 

Num 31:19  “And you, camp outside the camp seven days. Whoever has killed any being, and whoever has touched any slain, cleanse yourselves and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day. 

Num 31:20  “And cleanse every garment, and every object of leather and all the work of goats’ hair, and every object of wood.” 

Num 31:21  And El‛azar the priest said to the men of the campaign who went to the battle, “This is the law of the Torah which יהוה commanded Mosheh: (a pattern to be followed even in the future?) זאת חקת  התורה

Num 31:22  “Only the gold, and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, 

Num 31:23  every object that passes through fire, you put through the fire, and it shall be clean; only, let it be cleansed with the water for uncleanness. And whatever does not pass through fire you pass through water. 

Num 31:24  “And you shall wash your garments on the seventh day and be clean, and afterwards come into the camp.”  See Para Aduma – Num 19 -

Ezekiel 25:14-26:1-6

Eze 25:14  “And I shall lay My vengeance (נקמתי) on Eom by the hand of My people Yisra’ěl. And they shall do in Eom according to My displeasure and according to My wrath. So they shall know My vengeance,” (נקמתי) declares the Master יהוה

Prophecy Against Philistia

Eze 25:15  Thus said the Master יהוה, “Because the Philistines have acted in vengeance, (נקם) (repeated 3x in succession) and took vengeance with scorn in their being, to destroy with lasting enmity,” (Heb - hatred forever)

Eze 25:16  therefore thus said the Master יהוה, “See, I am stretching out My hand against the Philistines, and I shall cut off the Kerěthites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast, 

Eze 25:17  and execute great vengeance on them with raging reproofs. And they shall know that I am יהוה, when I lay My vengeance upon them.” ’ ” 

Judgment on Yahuda’s (Judah's) Enemies

Zep 2:1  Gather together, gather together, O nation without shame, 

Zep 2:2  before the law gives birth – the day shall pass on like chaff – before the burning wrath of יהוה comes upon you, before the day of wrath of יהוה comes upon you! 

Zep 2:3  Seek יהוה, all you meek ones of the earth, who have done His right-ruling. Seek righteousness, seek meekness, if so be that you are hidden in the day of wrath of יהוה

Zep 2:4  For Azzah is abandoned and Ashqelon laid waste, Ashdo is driven out at noonday and Eqron is uprooted. 

Zep 2:5  Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Kerěthites! The word of יהוה is against you, O Kena‛an, land of the Philistines, “And I shall destroy you, so that there is no inhabitant.” 

Zep 2:6  And the seacoast shall be pastures, shepherds’ meadows and enclosures for flocks. 

Zep 2:7  And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Yehuah. They shall feed their flocks on it, at evening they lie down in the houses of Ashqelon. For יהוה their Elohim shall visit them and turn back their captivity. 

Zep 2:8  “I have heard the reproach of Mo’a, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached My people, and exalted themselves against their borders. 

Zep 2:9  “Therefore, as I live,” declares יהוה of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ěl, “Mo’a shall be like Seom, and the children of Ammon like Amorah – a possession for weeds and a pit of salt, and a waste forever, the remnant of My people plunder them, and the rest of My nation possess them.” 

Zep 2:10  This is what they get for their pride, because they have reproached and exalted themselves against the people of יהוה of hosts. 

Zep 2:11  יהוה shall be awesome to them, for He shall make all the mighty ones of the earth to shrivel, while all the coastlands of the nations bow down to Him, each one from his place. 

Prophecy Against Tyre

Eze 26:1  And it came to be in the eleventh year, on the first of the new moon, the word of יהוה came to me, saying, 

Eze 26:2  “Son of man, because Tsor has spoken against Yerushalayim, ‘Aha! She, the gateway of the peoples, has been broken, she has been turned over to me. Let me be filled, she has been ruined.’ 

Eze 26:3  “Therefore thus said the Master יהוה, ‘See, I am against you, O Tsor, and shall cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up. 

Eze 26:4  And they shall destroy the walls of Tsor, and they shall break down her towers. And I shall scrape her dust from her, and shall make her like a shining rock. 

Eze 26:5  She shall be a place for spreading nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ declares the Master יהוה. ‘And she shall become plunder for the nations, 

Eze 26:6  while her daughter villages which are in the fields are killed by the sword. And they shall know that I am יהוה.’ 


Rom 8:6  For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. 

Rom 8:7  Because the mind of the flesh is enmity towards Elohim, for it does not subject itself to the Torah of Elohim, neither indeed is it able, 

Rom 8:8  and those who are in the flesh are unable to please Elohim. 

Rom 8:9  But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of Elohim dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Messiah, this one is not His. 

The Spirit of Messiah will always seeks to establish YHVH's Torah.

Blessed are you YHVH, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have given us your Torah of truth, and have planted everlasting life within our midst. Blessed are you, YHVH giver of the Torah – Amein.