Numbers 25

Numbers 25:1 While Israel stayed in Shittim, the people began to prostitute themselves with the daughters of Moab.

Numbers 25:2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

Numbers 25:3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And Yahveh’s nose was ignited against Israel.

Numbers 25:4 And Yahveh said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and hang them in the sun in the sight of Yahveh, that the fierce anger of Yahveh may turn away from Israel.”

Numbers 25:5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”

Numbers 25:6 And notice, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the conference tent.

Numbers 25:7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he stood up and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand

Numbers 25:8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her belly. This is how the plague on the people of Israel was stopped.

Numbers 25:9 Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

Numbers 25:10 And Yahveh said to Moses,

Numbers 25:11 “Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.

Numbers 25:12 Therefore say, ‘notice, I give to him my covenant of peace,

Numbers 25:13 and it will be to him and his seed after him the covenant of the permanent priesthood because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.'”

Numbers 25:14 The name of the slain man of Israel, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, leader of a father’s house belonging to the Simeonites.

Numbers 25:15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, who was the tribal head of a father’s house in Midian.

Numbers 25:16 And Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said

Numbers 25:17 “Attack the Midianites and strike them down,

Numbers 25:18 because they attacked you treacherously when they deceived you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor.”

Numbers 25 quotes:

“This story thus serves as a prologue and a warning for all that is to follow. As great as the trials and temptations of the wilderness may be, they are always and ever minor in comparison to the major temptations of “settled” life. At the beginning of this story, Israel got into major trouble when they became a little too “settled” while waiting for Moses to come down from Mount Sinai (read the story of the golden calf in Exod. 32). For the rest of Israel’s story (beginning in Joshua), sins of the “settled” will be the focus of the tirades of Israel’s prophets and the tears of Israel’s God. This is what all the testing and preparation of Leviticus and Numbers is getting Israel ready for, and here at almost the end (as at the beginning and the rest of the way through), Israel fails. This too then becomes a sharp word and a critical story for any people or congregation whose leading verb becomes “to dwell.””

Boyce Richard Nelson. Leviticus and Numbers. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 228.

“While these sordid events took place in the Moabite camp, the Lorp’s anger burned against them (3). The Israelite men had offended his holiness, ignored his word, dishonoured his name, marred his testimony and incurred his wrath. Moses was told to act in judgment towards the leaders whose clansmen had participated in this outrage, presumably because they had not used their influence to restrain them. Those who had joined in worshipping the Baal of Peor (5) were to be executed. The offence was such a public act of apostasy that it could not possibly be overlooked. Along with the golden-calf incident, with which it has many parallels,’ it went down in Israelite history as one of their worst acts of idolatrous behaviour, an ugly stain impossible to obliterate from their corporate memory.”

Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 230.

“There comes a time when the person who is obedient to God must act in judgment on that which is evil. The time when acceptance of evil is widespread is a call for someone to rise up from the ranks and openly do what God wants done.”

Gutzke, Manford George. Plain Talk on Leviticus and Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House., 1981. p. 121.

“It is a sad scene pictured in the first three verses of this chapter. Here was the nation which had been chosen of God, and destined for high purposes, though just on the border of the Promised Land, lapsed into idolatry and abominations worse than those of Egypt. No wonder the anger of the Lord was kindled, and at God’s command all the men who were joined unto Ballpeor are slain by the judges of Israel.

How God’s dealings with this nation remind us of a parent’s dealings with a child. In our last lesson we saw that when an enemy came against the people, God stepped in front of them, as it were, and would not allow a hair of their head to be touched, or a word to be spoken against them by an outsider. But He must train the nation aright, both for His own glory and their highest good ; and in this lesson we see Him chastising them severely for their faults.”

Saxe, Grace. Studies in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Grace Saxe, 1921. p. 51.