Lives of Scripture

Hur is named as one of "the five kings of Midian" -- along with Evi, Rekem, Zur, and Reba -- killed when Israel carried out God's command to take vengeance on Midian (Numbers 31:8). The campaign followed the events of Numbers 25, where Midianite women had drawn Israelite men into idolatry and sexual immorality at Baal of Peor, provoking a plague that killed 24,000 Israelites. God told Moses, "Take vengeance for the sons of Israel on the Midianites" (31:1-2), and Israel's army killed every Midianite male, including their kings (31:7-8). Hur died alongside Balaam son of Beor, the prophet Midian and Moab had hired earlier to curse Israel, killed in the same battle "with the sword" (31:8). Joshua 13:21 later recalls Hur and the other four as "the chiefs of Midian... the princes of Sihon," folding this conquered territory into Israel's account of the lands taken east of the Jordan. Hur's entire biblical presence is a single name in a casualty list, but that list marks a real turning point -- Israel executing God's judgment on a nation that had deliberately corrupted His people, just before Moses' death and Israel's entry into Canaan.