פירוש על במדבר 31:32

ויהי המלקוח יתר הבז AND THE PREY, OVER AND ABOVE THE BOOTY … WAS [SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND etc.] — Because they had not been commanded (v. 28) to levy a tribute from the movables but only from the מלקוח (the men and cattle; cf. Rashi on v. 11) it (Scripture) writes this expression: ויהי המלקוח, that which came under the law of being divided (v. 27) and which also came under the law of tribute — which was over and above (יתר) the booty of the movables, אשר בזזו עם הצבא איש לו WHICH THE MEN OF THE HOST HAD PLUNDERED, EACH FOR HIMSELF, and which did not come under the law of being divided, — the number of sheep was etc. (i.e. צאן at the beginning of the second half of the verse means: the number of sheep).

יתר הבז אשר בזזו, for the property which was part of the houses, i.e. chattels the soldiers had taken for themselves.

-43. ויהי המלקח, "The prey amounted to, etc." The lengthy description and the repetitive numbers in this whole sequence need analysis. Who amongst us cannot figure out what half of a total of 675.000 sheep amounts to? We can also figure out for ourselves what the מכס, the 2 pro mil tax given to the Temple-Treasury amounted to. Nachmanides wrote that the Torah wanted to inform us that not one of these animals had died since its capture until the distribution of the prey. I do not agree that the fact that the flocks did not diminish in the brief interval since the battle was something miraculous, at least not to the extent that we have to read about it every year, 3.700 years later.