God's judgment of five clans of Midianites in Numbers 31 was a special kind of holy war, more religious ceremony than military operation. We see this, for example, in the precise manner in which the spoils of battle were distributed. The total amount was divided into two parts, half for the soldiers and half for the rest of the people in the outer camp. From the soldiers' portion, one five hundredth went to the priests; and from the people's portion, one fiftieth went to the Levites. This was a way for the people to give thanks for the gifts they had been granted. God's instructions on this matter were carried out carefully, as the "compliance formulas" in verses 31 and 47 attest.
Numbers 31 is another place where the numbers sometimes seem too large to be literal. Michael Morales comments, "The fantastical nature of the figures may be informed by a symbolism or accounting code, as yet undiscerned, likely applicable to the census figures for Israel as well." I agree with Morales that the important lessons to learn from the numbers are theological. In particular, these numbers express God's grace and goodness, showing the extent to which he blessed Israel.
This approach accords with the history of interpretation of such passages. David M. Fouts states, "It was not until the Reformation that scholars began accepting the large numbers at face value. Throughout most of early Church history, scholars in general either withheld comment on the passages containing large numbers or interpreted them in a spiritualizing manner" ["A Defense of the Hyperbolic Interpretation of Large Numbers in the Old Testament," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 40, no. 3 (1997): 379–380.]
In addition to the donations to the tabernacle prescribed by God, an offering was given by the soldiers (vv 48-54). This is another instance in which we are invited to compare the two generations of the Exodus. The adults who left Egypt committed a serious sin at Mount Sinai in the golden calf incident. After God graciously forgave the nation, they expressed their thanks in a generous offering for the building of the tabernacle (Exodus 35). Analogously, the second generation had its own golden calf incident, the apostasy at Peor. After God forgave the second generation, they too gave a generous offering.
When the soldiers found out that no one was missing, they gave their offering "to make atonement for ourselves before the LORD" (verse 50). The soldiers may have meant this in more than one sense. To discover that there were no Israelite casualties in the battle, they had to do a count of their numbers, one not prescribed by God. In such a situation an offering would be in order, as in Exodus 30:11-16). In addition, the soldiers had been miraculously delivered, and an offering was appropriate for that reason too.
This offering was "a memorial for the people of Israel before the LORD" (verse 54). It would remind everyone of the judgment of Midian, which in some sense repaired the damage done in the Baal Peor incident. It would remind them that God would be with them in the conquest of Canaan.
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