Numbers 25

Israel stayed at a place called Shittim. While they were there, the men began having sex with the women of Moab.

1And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.

NoteShittim (the name means "acacias") was Israel's last camp before crossing the Jordan, on the plains east of the river. Moab was the kingdom lying east of the Dead Sea, in whose territory the camp now sat. Where the King James says "commit whoredom," the Hebrew verb covers sexual unfaithfulness and is also the standard word for abandoning one's own God for other gods; both senses run together through this chapter.

2Those women invited the men to the sacrifices offered to their gods. The people ate the food and bowed down to those gods.

2And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.

NoteAt most ancient sacrifices only part of the animal was burned; the rest was cooked and eaten by the worshipers as a shared meal. Accepting the invitation and eating the food was not a social courtesy but an act of joining in that god's worship, which is why the eating and the bowing down are named in the same breath.

3So Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and the LORD became burning angry with Israel.

3And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.

Note"Baal" is a title, not a personal name: it means "lord" or "owner," and was applied to various local Canaanite gods, chiefly a storm and fertility god. "Baal of Peor" means the Baal worshiped at Peor, a mountain in Moab. The King James "joined himself" translates a Hebrew verb meaning to be yoked or harnessed to something.

4The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and put them to death out in the open daylight, in front of the LORD. Then my fierce anger will turn away from Israel."

4And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.

Note"Take all the heads of the people" means the leaders or chiefs. The Hebrew is genuinely ambiguous about what follows: it can be read as ordering the leaders themselves executed for failing to stop what was happening, or as ordering them to carry out the executions of the guilty, which is how Moses appears to take it in the next verse. The verb translated "hang up" is rare and its exact sense is uncertain; it describes some form of public execution or public display of the bodies, perhaps impaling. "Against the sun" means facing the sun, out in full daylight where everyone could see.

5So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you must kill the men under you who joined in worshiping Baal of Peor."

5And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor.

NoteThe judges were officials appointed over fixed units of the people (thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens) to settle disputes and enforce decisions. Each was responsible for the men under his own authority, which is what "every one his men" means.

6Just then one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman to his family, right where Moses could see it and where the whole gathered community of Israel could see it. They were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

6And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

NoteThe Midianites were a loose group of desert clans east and south of Moab. They were not simple foreigners to Israel: Moses' own wife and father-in-law were Midianite, which makes this incident and the order at the end of the chapter especially pointed. The tent of meeting was the portable tent-shrine at the center of the camp, the place where God was understood to meet with Israel. Weeping at its entrance was a public act of mourning and appeal, not private grief. The Hebrew says the man brought the woman "to his brothers," which may mean his own kin group or the assembled men of Israel.

7When Phinehas saw this, he got up from the crowd and took a spear in his hand. Phinehas was the son of Eleazar, who was the son of Aaron the priest.

7And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;

NotePhinehas' descent is spelled out because the priesthood ran strictly within Aaron's family, and the promise made later in the chapter turns on which branch of that family he belonged to. The weapon is a hand-held thrusting spear or lance.

8He followed the Israelite man into the tent and drove the spear through both of them, through the man and through the woman's stomach. And the plague on the people of Israel stopped.

8And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

NoteThe word translated "tent" here appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. It may mean an inner chamber, a curtained alcove, or possibly a small shrine-tent. The word for the woman's "belly", the abdomen, closely echoes it in sound, an effect the Hebrew seems to intend. Note that this is the first mention of a plague; the Hebrew tells the reader that one was already under way only at the moment it stops.

9The number who had died in that plague was twenty-four thousand.

9And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.

NoteThe Hebrew word for "thousand" can also mean a clan or a military unit of unspecified size, so the figure is sometimes read as twenty-four units rather than twenty-four thousand individuals. The plain sense of the text as written is the larger number.

10The LORD spoke to Moses. He said:

10And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

11"Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the people of Israel. He was as fiercely loyal to me as I am, so I did not wipe out the people of Israel while I burned with that jealous anger.

11Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

Note"Zealous" and "jealousy" here translate the same Hebrew root. It describes fierce, protective loyalty within an exclusive relationship (the word used of a husband or wife who will not share their partner), rather than mere enthusiasm on one side or petty envy on the other.

12So tell him this: I am giving him my covenant of peace, a binding promise from me.

12Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "peace" means wholeness, security and well-being, not simply the absence of fighting. A covenant of peace is a guarantee of settled standing and safety.

13It will belong to him and to his descendants after him. It is a promise of priesthood that lasts forever, because he was fiercely loyal to his God and made things right for the people of Israel."

13And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

Note"Made an atonement" is a technical ritual term. The Hebrew verb means to wipe away or cover over an offense so that a broken relationship can be restored, normally the work of a priest performing a sacrifice, which is part of why the act is answered with a priestly promise.

14The Israelite who was killed along with the Midianite woman was named Zimri. He was the son of Salu, a leader of one of the main families of the tribe of Simeon.

14Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites.

Note"A chief house" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning literally "father's house", an extended family or clan forming one of the main subdivisions of a tribe. Simeon was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The detail matters because it marks Zimri as a high-ranking man, not an anonymous offender.

15The Midianite woman who was killed was named Cozbi. She was the daughter of Zur, who was the head of a people and of one of the main families in Midian.

15And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian.

NoteMidian was not a single kingdom but a confederation of clans, each under its own chief. Naming Cozbi's father as a head of one of them marks her, like Zimri, as a person of rank.

16The LORD spoke to Moses. He said:

16And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

17"Treat the Midianites as enemies and strike them down.

17Vex the Midianites, and smite them:

NoteIn 1611 English "vex" was far stronger than it is now. It meant to harass, attack or treat as an enemy, not to annoy or irritate.

18They keep treating you as enemies, tricking you with their schemes in what happened at Peor, and in what happened with Cozbi. She was the daughter of a Midianite leader and one of their own people, and she was killed on the day the plague came because of Peor."

18For they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague for Peor’s sake.

Note"Wiles" and "beguiled" both point to deliberate deception and seduction. "Their sister" does not mean the sister of the men being addressed; it identifies Cozbi as a woman of the Midianites' own people. "Peor" refers both to the mountain and to the god worshiped there.