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When Israel took vengeance on Midian they sent 12,000 troops (Numbers 31:4) and prevailed. We aren't told how numerous Midian was, only that the spoils includes 32,000 virgin women (31:35). This isn't enough information to go on, but it sounds like either Israel was outnumbered or Midian has some unusual proportions of virgins to non-virgins and women to men.

How numerous was the Midianite army? If large, why didn't Moshe send more soldiers (he had them, per the recent census)? Was there reason to believe that they would be an easy conquest (and maybe that's why Midian sent seducers first)? A commander usually doesn't want to send unnecessary troops (they get tired and become tamei), but he wants to send enough. What's going on in this case?

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One possibility that occurred to me is that this fight demonstrated a victory of the few against the many (so to speak), which might boost morale for the conquest to come. (That would require Moshe to be confident of the outcome, of course.) I don't see support for that in the text, though that doesn't mean it's not there. – Monica Cellio♦ Jul 18 '12 at 15:38
+1 It's odd that they only plundered the virgin women and didn't take any men for slave labor. – Double AA♦ Jul 18 '12 at 15:46
Did Midian even have an army? Numbers 31:7 using the language "va-Itzbe'u Al Midyan"( "ויצבאו על מדין") rather than "va-Yilachamu be-Midyan"( "וילחמו במדין"), suggest to me they weren't up against an army of any real sort. – Tamir Evan Mar 31 at 8:18
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@DoubleAA Considering the war being God's vengeance of Midian( 31:3), I'm actually surprise that they were even allowed to keep the young female virgins!( Or any of the loot, for that matter.) – Tamir Evan Mar 31 at 8:29
My understanding is that the war against Midian was God's vengeance( 31:3), and the number of soldiers sent was symbolic( 1000 from each tribe; 31:4-5), and the victory was meant to be miraculous( i.e. divine) in nature( for all the Midianites that were killed or taken captive, no Israelite died; 31:49). So applying rationality( size of Midianite army, ease of victory) to the question won't work. – Tamir Evan Mar 31 at 8:55
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