Numbers 31:43
(Now the half that pertained unto the congregation was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep, (Now the half that pertained unto the congregation was three hundred thousand and thirty thousand and seven thousand and five hundred sheep,
Numbers 31:43 belongs to the account of Israel's battle against Midian and the division of its spoils, recording the congregation's half as 337,500 sheep. It stands in Israel's first taking of captives from the heathen. In the campaign Israel marched into Midian, slew all the males, and seized the women, children, flocks and herds.
On their return Moses reprimanded them for disobeying God's command by preserving the grown women, after which all but the virgins and children were killed and the virgins and children were reserved for adoption into the families of the nation. The women who had helped lead Israel into the worship of Peor were not spared, while the female children could be kept as servants and the male children were killed to prevent future rebellion, combining justice and compassion. The command to destroy Midian's women was given not only because of their corruption but because they could and intended to corrupt others.
The verse functions as part of the record of the judgment against Midian rather than as a separately explained sheep count. The word soul applies in the same way to human beings and to lower animals, since the sheep counted in the congregation's half are called souls. In the disposition of the spoils one soul out of every five hundred, both of the persons and of the beeves and of the asses and of the sheep, was set apart, so the word is used indiscriminately for people and animals captured in war.
The account proves that God prohibited rather than sanctioned the most productive mode of slave-making, the enslavement of prisoners of war. Slaveholding tribes aim to obtain strong vigorous men while Israel slew the men and was commanded to let a captive woman go free and not sell her at all for money nor make merchandise of her, so God did not intend and positively prohibited Israel from becoming a slaveholding nation. The judgment on Midian stands as a warning of judgment on nations that reject God. Joined to Numbers 31 to 33, it teaches that no secret sin can be hidden from God.