The Midianite Confederacy in the Book of Judges

The midianites were not within the promised land proper, which might make us wonder at the uncompromising character of the war against them in this chapter. Little is said about the military leadership but phineas accompanies the military along with the silver trumpets that were appointed in chapter ten. The example that phineas set, that each tribe is required to send one thousand men to the war suggests that the war against midian is not merely a miltary operation for immediate strategic ends. It's a judicial act in the execution of which each tribe in israel must be fully and equally represented. Only the virgins among the women of midian were to be spared in such a war