1 And Israel dwelleth in Shittim, and the people begin to go a-whoring unto daughters of Moab,
2 and they call for the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people eat, and bow themselves to their gods,
3 and Israel is joined to Baal-Peor, and the anger of Jehovah burneth against Israel.
4 And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them before Jehovah -- over-against the sun; and the fierceness of the anger of Jehovah doth turn back from Israel.'
5 And Moses saith unto the judges of Israel, `Slay ye each his men who are joined to Baal-Peor.'
6 And lo, a man of the sons of Israel hath come, and bringeth in unto his brethren the Midianitess, before the eyes of Moses, and before the eyes of all the company of the sons of Israel, who are weeping at the opening of the tent of meeting;
7 and Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the priest, seeth, and riseth from the midst of the company, and taketh a javelin in his hand,
8 and goeth in after the man of Israel unto the hollow place, and pierceth them both, the man of Israel and the woman -- unto her belly, and the plague is restrained from the sons of Israel;
9 and the dead by the plague are four and twenty thousand.
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Commentary on Numbers 25 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 25
Israel, having escaped the curse of Balaam, here sustains a great deal of damage and reproach by the counsel of Balaam, who, it seems, before he left Balak, put him into a more effectual way than that which Balak thought of to separate between the Israelites and their God. "The Lord will not be prevailed with by Balaam's charms to ruin them; try if they will not be prevailed with by the charms of the daughters of Moab to ruin themselves.' None are more fatally bewitched than those that are bewitched by their own lusts. Here is,
Num 25:1-5
Here is,
Num 25:6-15
Here is a remarkable contest between wickedness and righteousness, which shall be most bold and resolute; and righteousness carries the day, as no doubt it will at last.
Num 25:16-18
God had punished the Israelites for their sin with a plague; as a Father he corrected his own children with a rod. But we read not that any of the Midianites died of the plague; God took another course with them, and punished them with the sword of an enemy, not with the rod of a father.