Numbers 31:52
And all the gold of the offering that they offered up to the LORD, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels. And all the gold of the offering that they offered up to the LORD, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.
Numbers 31:52 belongs to the account of Israel's battle to avenge Israel on the Midianites, in which Israel defeated the Midianites and captured many people, cattle, sheep, and other animals, and then disposed of the spoils. In that account Moses reproved the officers for sparing the women and children alive, because no express command to spare them had been given and the general order implied their destruction. The Midianite women were destroyed not only for their own corruption but because they could corrupt others. Those same women had seduced Israel into the worship of Peor, and sparing them risked renewed abomination and fresh plague or judgment.
Only the female children were spared, to become bond-women and servants, while the male children were put to death to guard the safety of the commonwealth against future rebellion to avenge their ancestors, so that the severity blends justice and compassion. In the disposal of the spoils one soul of every five hundred was taken, both of the persons and of the beeves and of the asses and of the sheep. The word soul there is applied indiscriminately to captured human beings and to lower animals.