Numbers 25:3 Kommentar

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, I. The sin of Israel; they were enticed by the daughters of Moab both to whoredom and to idolatry (Num 25:1-3). II. The punishment of this sin by the hand of the magistrate (Num 25:4, Num 25:5) and by the immediate hand of God (Num 25:9). III. The pious zeal of Phinehas in slaying Zimri and Cozbi, two impudent sinners (Num 25:6, Num 25:8, Num 25:14, Num 25:15). IV. God's commendation of the zeal of Phinehas (Num 25:10-13). V. Enmity put between the Israelites and the Midianites, their tempters, as at first between the woman and the serpent (Num 25:16, etc.).

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 25 The contents of this chapter are, the sin of the people of Israel, their whoredom and idolatry, Num 25:1, their punishment for it, multitudes being slain, Num 25:4, whose number is given, Num 25:9, the zeal of Phinehas in slaying two notorious offenders, Num 25:6, whose names are observed, Num 25:14 for which he is commended, and the covenant of priesthood was given and confirmed unto him, Num 25:10, and the chapter is concluded with an order to vex the Midianites, for vexing Israel with their wiles, Num 25:16.

And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor,.... The name of an idol; one of the Baals, Baal being a general name for an idol; and, to distinguish this from other Baals or idols, it was called Peor, either from its opening its mouth in prophecy, as Ainsworth; or from some obscene posture and action used in the worship of it, being, as it is by many thought to be, the same with Priapus; or rather from the mountain Peor, where it was worshipped, as Jupiter is called Jupiter Olympius, Capitolinus, &c. from the mountains where he had a temple, or was worshipped; or from the name of some great personage, called Lord Peor, who was deified after his death; hence these Israelites are said to "eat the sacrifices of the dead", Psa 106:28. Mr. Bedford (t) takes him to be Mizraim the son of Ham, the Osiris of the Egyptians, and the Priapus of other Heathens: and Father Calmet (u) is of opinion that he is the same with Orus, Osiris, and Adonis; and that Pe is only a prepositive article, and that Or is the name, and no other than Orus; but such a criticism the word will not bear: this idol, the chief god of the Moabites, was, in all probability, the same with Chemosh, who is expressly called the abomination of Moab, Kg1 11:7 of whom See Gill on Jer 48:7 so Chemosh and Peor are thought to be the same by our English poet (w): to him the Israelites joined themselves, forsook the true God in a great measure, and were initiated into the rites of this deity, and constantly attended the worship of it, and cleaved unto it with their hearts and directions, and joined with their harlots in all parts of service performed unto it; See Gill on Hos 9:10, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel; for no sin is more provoking to God than idolatry, that being so directly opposite to his nature, honour, and glory, as well as to his will and worship; and hereby the end of Balaam and Balak was, in a great measure, answered, and Balaam obtained that by his evil counsel which he could not by all his conjuring; this was seen by the plague sent among them; See Gill on Num 24:14. (t) Scripture Chronology, p. 267. (u) Dictionary, on word "Baal". (w) "Next Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, Peor his other name, -----" Milton, B. 1. l. 406, 412.

Punishment by whipping not to exceed forty stripes, Deu 25:1-3. The ox that treads out the corn is not to be muzzled, Deu 25:4. The ordinance concerning marrying the wife of that brother who has died childless, Deu 25:5-10. Of the woman who acts indecently in succouring her husband, Deu 25:11, Deu 25:12. Of false weights and measures, Deu 25:13-16. Amalek is to be destroyed, Deu 25:17-19.

Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor - The same as the Priapus of the Romans, and worshipped with the same obscene rites as we have frequently had occasion to remark. The joining to Baal-peor, mentioned here, was probably what St. Paul had in view when he said, Co2 6:14 : Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And this joining, though done even in a matrimonial way, was nevertheless fornication, (see Rev 2:14), as no marriage between an Israelite and a Midianite could be legitimate, according to the law of God. See the propositions at the close of the preceding chapter Num 24:25 (note).

THE ISRAELITES' WHOREDOM AND IDOLATRY WITH MOAB. (Num. 25:1-18) Israel abode in Shittim--a verdant meadow, so called from a grove of acacia trees which lined the eastern side of the Jordan. (See Num 33:49).

Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor--Baal was a general name for "lord," and Peor for a "mount" in Moab. The real name of the idol was Chemosh, and his rites of worship were celebrated by the grossest obscenity. In participating in this festival, then, the Israelites committed the double offense of idolatry and licentiousness.

And the anger of the Lord burned against the people, so that Jehovah commanded Moses to fetch the heads of the people, i.e., to assemble them together, and to "hang up" the men who had joined themselves to Baal-Peor "before the Lord against the sun," that the anger of God might turn away from Israel. The burning of the wrath of God, which was to be turned away from the people by the punishment of the guilty, as enjoined upon Moses, consisted, as we may see from Num 25:8, Num 25:9, in a plague inflicted upon the nation, which carried off a great number of the people, a sudden death, as in Num 14:37; Num 17:11. הוקיע, from יקע, to be torn apart or torn away (Ges., Winer), refers to the punishment of crucifixion, a mode of capital punishment which was adopted by most of the nations of antiquity (see Winer, bibl. R. W. i. p. 680), and was carried out sometimes by driving a stake into the body, and so impaling them (ἀνασκολοπίζειν), the mode practised by the Assyrians and Persians (Herod. iii. 159, and Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 374, and plate on p. 369), at other times by fastening them to a stake or nailing them to a cross (ἀνασταυροῦν). In the instance before us, however, the idolaters were not impaled or crucified alive, but, as we may see from the word הרגּוּ in Num 25:5, and in accordance with the custom frequently adopted by other nations (see Herzog's Encyclopaedia), they were first of all put to death, and then impaled upon a stake or fastened upon a cross, so that the impaling or crucifixion was only an aggravation of the capital punishment, like the burning in Lev 20:14, and the hanging (תּלה) in Deu 21:22. The rendering adopted by the lxx and Vulgate is παραδειγματίζειν, suspendere, in this passage, and in Sa2 21:6, Sa2 21:9, ἐξηλιάζειν (to expose to the sun), and crucifigere. ליהוה, for Jehovah, as satisfaction for Him, i.e., to appease His wrath. אותם (them) does not refer to the heads of the nation, but to the guilty persons, upon whom the heads of the nation were to pronounce sentence.