From the Rejection of That Generation to the Death of Moses - Flavius Josephus

men of another tribe, they shall leave their inheritance in their father's tribe.
And then it was that Moses ordained, that every one's inheritance should
continue in his own tribe.
Footnote:
1. The slaughter of all the Midianite women that had prostituted
themselves to the lewd Israelites, and the preservation of those that had
not been guilty therein; the last of which were no fewer than thirty-two
thousand, both here and Numbers 31:15-17, 35, 40, 46, and both by the
particular command of God; are highly remarkable, and show that, even
in nations otherwise for their wickedness doomed to destruction, the
innocent were sometimes particularly and providentially taken care of,
and delivered from that destruction; which directly implies, that it was
the wickedness of the nations of Canaan, and nothing else, that
occasioned their excision. See Genesis 15;16; 1 Samuel 15:18, 33;
Apost. Constit. B. VIII. ch. 12. p. 402. In the first of which places, the
reason of the delay of the punishment of the Amorites is given, because
"their iniquity was not yet full." In the secured, Saul is ordered to go and
"destroy the sinners, the Amalekites;" plainly implying that they were
therefore to be destroyed, because they were sinners, and not otherwise.
In the third, the reason is given why king Agag was not to be spared, viz.
because of his former cruelty: "As thy sword hath made the (Hebrew)
women childless, so shall thy mother be made childless among women
by the Hebrews." In the last place, the apostles, or their amanuensis
Clement, gave this reason for the necessity of the coming of Christ, that
"men had formerly perverted both the positive law, and that of nature;
and had cast out of their mind the memory of the Flood, the burning of
Sodom, the plagues of the Egyptians, and the slaughter of the inhabitants
of Palestine," as signs of the most amazing impenitence and
insensibility, under the punishments of horrid wickedness.
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