על חיי משה, ספר א נ״חOn the Life of Moses, Book I 58
א׳
1[315] However, after a short time, he went on to distribute the spoil, giving half to the campaigners, who were a small number compared with those who had remained inactive, while the other half he gave to those who had stayed in the camp. For he considered that it was just to give them a part of the prizes, seeing that their souls at least, if not their bodies, had taken part in the conflict. For reserve troops are not inferior in spirit to the actual fighters, but take a second place only in time and because the first place is preoccupied by others.
ב׳
2[316] And, now that the few had taken more, because they were in the forefront of danger, and the many less, because they had remained in the camp, he thought it necessary to dedicate the firstfruits of all the spoil. So the reserves contributed a fiftieth, and those who had led the advance a five-hundredth. The offerings of the latter class he ordered to be given to the high priest, and those of the former class to the temple servants, who were called Levites.
ג׳
3[317] But the commanders of hundreds and thousands, and the rest of the company of officers who led the various divisions, voluntarily made a special offering of firstfruits in acknowledgement of the preservation of themselves and their fellow-combatants, and of the victory whose glory no words could describe. These offerings were all the golden ornaments which each of them obtained from the spoil, and very costly vessels also made of gold; all of which Moses took, and, honouring the piety of the donors, laid them up in the consecrated tabernacle as a memorial of their thankfulness. Admirable indeed was the system of distributing the firstfruits.
ד׳
4[318] The tribute of the non-combatants, who had shewn a half-excellence by a zeal unaccompanied by action, he assigned to the temple servants; that of the fighters, who had hasarded bodies and souls, and thus displayed a complete measure of manly worth, he gave to the high priest, the president of the temple servants, that of the commanders of divisions, being the gift of captains, to the captain all, even God.