Комментарий к Бамидбар 31:27

וחצית את המלקוח בין תפשי המלחמה וגו׳ AND THOU SHALT DIVIDE THE PREY INTO TWO PARTS: BETWEEN THEM THAT TOOK THE WAR UPON THEMSELVES, etc. — half of it for these and half of it for those.

וחצית את המלקוח, seeing that this war was a war of revenge for something the enemy had done against the people as a whole, the Torah wanted that the principle of ואכלת את אויביך, “you will consume your enemies,” (Deuteronomy 20,14) be fulfilled. Something similar occurred with David and the loot taken from Amalek (Samuel I 30,26) when he distributed loot he personally had captured from the Amalekites.

וחצית את המלקוח, “and divide in half the spoils of beasts and humans.” In this verse the word מלקוח includes humans as well as beasts. G’d commanded that the loot be divided between the soldiers who had captured it and the people who had remained behind. Also, the captors were to give a tithe to the Levites of 1/50th of the loot, seeing that 1/50th of Israel’s fighting men had taken part in this campaign. The priests, i.e. Eleazar received תרומה i.e. one tenth of the amount the people gave to the Levites. The 12,000 fighting men shared the one half of the spoils, the people on the home front shared the other half between them.