(49) There lacketh not one man of us.--It is obvious from the smallness of the number of the Israelitish warriors, as well as from the reference to those chiefs only of the Midianites who were the vassals of Sihon, and from the strength of the Midianitish nation in the time of Gideon (Judges 6-8), that the attack was made only upon that particular portion of the nation which had been concerned in the seduction of the Israelites to the worship of Baal Peor. The Midianites were probably attacked in an unprepared and defenceless state. After due allowance, however, has been made for all these circumstances, the fact that not a single Israelitish warrior perished can be satisfactorily explained only on the supposition that God vouchsafed to grant to His people miraculous aid and protection.

Verse 49. - There lacketh not one man of us. The officers naturally regarded this as a very wonderful circumstance; and so indeed it was, whether Midian made any resistance or not. It was, however, in strict keeping with the promises of that temporal dispensation. It would have been no satisfaction to the Israelite who fell upon the threshold of the promised land to know that victory remained with his comrades. His was not the courage of modern soldiers, who fling away their lives in blind confidence that some advantage will accrue thereby to the army at large; rather, he fought under the conviction that to each, as well as to all, life and victory were pledged upon condition of obedience and courage. In this case no one was found unfaithful, and therefore no one was allowed to fall.

31:48-54 The success of the Israelites had been very remarkable, so small a company overcoming such multitudes, but it was still more wonderful that not one was slain or missing. They presented the gold they found among the spoils, as an offering to the Lord. Thus they confessed, that instead of claiming a reward for their service, they needed forgiveness of much that had been amiss, and desired to be thankful for the preservation of their lives, which might justly have been taken away.And they said unto Moses,.... Gave the following relation to him, which is a very surprising one:

thy servants have taken the sum of the men of war which are under our charge; since the war with Midian was over, they had mustered the several companies under their command, such as had thousands, and those that had hundreds:

and there lacketh not one man of us; which is a most amazing and unheard of thing, that in waging war with a whole nation, slaying all their males, sacking and burning so many cities, plundering the inhabitants of their substance, taking and carrying off such a vast number of captives, yet not one should fall by the sword of the enemy, or by any disease or accident whatever, but all to a man should return to the camp of Israel again; this is not to be paralleled in any history.