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Moab Seduces Israel
Numbers 25:1–5 — Moab Seduces Israel. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yiś·rā·’êl way·yê·šeḇ baš·šiṭ·ṭîm hā·‘ām way·yā·ḥel liz·nō·wṯ ’el- bə·nō·wṯ mō·w·’āḇ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-Israel dwelt in-the-Shittim, and-the-people began to-go-whoring unto the-daughters of-Moab.”
Where the English smooths the original
The friendship of the wicked is more dangerous than their enmity; for none can prevail against God's people if they are not overcome by their inbred lusts; nor can any enchantment hurt them, but the enticements of worldly interests and pleasures.
Israel abode in Shittim — And this was their last station, from whence they passed immediately into Canaan. This is noted as a great aggravation of their sin, that they committed it when God was going to put them into the possession of their long-expected land.
The records of the neighboring cities of the plain, and the circumstances of the origin of Moab ( Genesis 19:30 ff) suggest that the people among whom Israel was now thrown were more than ordinarily licentious.
זנה, construed with אל, as in Ezekiel 16:28 , signifies to incline to a person, to attach one's self to him, so as to commit fornication. The word applies to carnal and spiritual whoredom.K&D's note on the grammar of zānāh + ’el — the basis for reading bodily and spiritual harlotry as one.
2who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wat·tiq·re·nā lā·‘ām lə·ziḇ·ḥê ’ĕ·lō·hê·hen hā·‘ām way·yō·ḵal way·yiš·ta·ḥăw·wū lê·lō·hê·hen
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-they-called the-people to-the-sacrifices of-their-gods; and-the-people ate and-bowed-down to-their-gods.”
Where the English smooths the original
Unto the sacrifices, i.e. unto the feasts which were made of their parts of their sacrifices, after the manner of the Jews and Gentiles too, the participation whereof was reckoned a participation in the worship of that god to whom the sacrifices were offered, 1 Corinthians 10:18 , and therefore was forbidden to the Israelites when such feasts and sacrifices belonged to a false god, Exodus 34:15 .
And they called - i. e., "the daughters of Moab called."Barnes pins the feminine-plural verb: the women are the grammatical agents.
The writer relates that the Israelites first came into immoral relations with the women, and then that the women, very naturally, invited them to join in their local religious festivities.
And the people did eat. Gluttony added its seductions to lust. No doubt this generation were as weary of the manna and as eager for other and heavier food as their fathers had been (see on Numbers 11:4; 21:5).
3So Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD burned against them.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yiś·rā·’êl lə·ḇa·‘al way·yiṣ·ṣā·meḏ pə·‘ō·wr ’ap̄ Yah·weh way·yi·ḥar- bə·yiś·rā·’êl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-Israel yoked-himself to-Baal-of-Peor; and-the-anger of-YHWH burned against-Israel.”
Where the English smooths the original
Joined himself; the word implies a forsaking of God, to whom they were and should have been joined, and a turning to, embracing of, strict conjunction with, and fervent affection after, this false god. Compare Hosea 9:10 2 Corinthians 6:14 .Poole on tsāmad — the yoke-verb as covenant-betrayal.
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.
Israel joined himself unto Baal-Peor. This is a technical phrase, repeated in verse 5, and quoted in Psalm 106:28 , expressing the quasi-sacramental union into which they entered with the heathen deity by partaking of his sacrificial meats and by sharing in his impure rites (cf. Hosea 9:10 and the argument of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 ).
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", Psalm 106:28 .Gill ties Peor to the cult of a deified dead man — and so to Psalm 106:28's verdict that Israel ate 'the sacrifices of the dead.'
4Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that His fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
Yah·weh way·yō·mer ’el- mō·šeh qaḥ ’eṯ- kāl- rā·šê hā·‘ām wə·hō·w·qa‘ ’ō·w·ṯām ne·ḡeḏ haš·šā·meš Yah·weh Yah·weh ḥă·rō·wn ’ap̄- wə·yā·šōḇ mî·yiś·rā·’êl
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-YHWH said to Moses: Take all the-heads-of the-people, and-hang-them-up to-YHWH before the-sun, that may-turn-back the-burning-of (the)-anger-of YHWH from-Israel.”
Where the English smooths the original
It is obvious from Numbers 25:5 that the punishment of impaling or crucifying was not to be inflicted until after death. The LXX. renders the Hebrew verb which is here used (and which is found also in 2Samuel 21:6 ; 2Samuel 21:9 ) by the same word which occurs in Hebrews 6:6 , and is there translated “to put to an open shame.”Ellicott traces the rare verb hôqîa‘ to the LXX wording behind Hebrews 6:6.
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.
The hanging up was not ordered on account of its cruelty, nor merely for the sake of publicity ("against the sun ), but in order to show that the victims were devoted to the wrath of God against sin (cf. Deuteronomy 21:23 ; 2 Samuel 21:2-6 ).
The form of execution denoted by the Heb. word is uncertain. It is the causative (Hiphil) form of the verb used of the dislocation of Jacob’s thigh ( Genesis 32:25 ). Aquila understood it to mean ‘impale,’ Targ. ‘crucify’; others, from the analogy of an Arabic word, explain it as ‘to throw down,’ as from a high rock. It occurs elsewhere only of the execution of Saul’s sons ( 2 Samuel 21:6 ).
5So Moses told the judges of Israel, “Each of you must kill all of his men who have joined in worshiping Baal of Peor.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mō·šeh ’el- way·yō·mer šō·p̄ə·ṭê yiś·rā·’êl hir·ḡū ’îš ’ă·nā·šāw han·niṣ·mā·ḏîm lə·ḇa·‘al pə·‘ō·wr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-Moses said to the-judges of-Israel: Slay each-man his-men who-are-yoked to-Baal-of-Peor.”
Where the English smooths the original
judges of Israel—the seventy elders, who were commanded not only to superintend the execution within their respective jurisdictions, but to inflict the punishment with their own hands.
It seems probable that the judges were dilatory in executing this order, since God himself thought fit to visit the heads of the idolaters with exemplary punishment, Numbers 25:8 .
This command of Moses to the judges was not carried out, however, because the matter took a different turn.
Ringleaders in sin ought to be made examples of justice.
Let him execute those that are under his charge.Geneva's marginal gloss on 'every one his men' — justice parcelled out judge by judge, each over his own jurisdiction.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens not with a march but with a stop: Israel way·yê·šeḇ — “settled, sat down” — in Shittim, the last and longest camp before the Jordan. Joseph Benson reads the geography as indictment: “this was their last station, from whence they passed immediately into Canaan… a great aggravation of their sin, that they committed it when God was going to put them into the possession of their long-expected land.” What the curse of Balaam could not accomplish across three failed oracles (chs. 22–24), the daughters of Moab accomplished over a meal. Matthew Henry draws the lasting moral from the very first verse: “The friendship of the wicked is more dangerous than their enmity; for none can prevail against God’s people if they are not overcome by their inbred lusts.” Albert Barnes adds the grim pedigree of the place — given Moab’s origin (Genesis 19:30ff), Israel “was now thrown” among a people “more than ordinarily licentious.” The verb for the sin, liz·nō·wṯ (“to whore”), is no euphemism; and K&D notes its construction with ’el means “to incline to a person, to attach one’s self to him” — bodily and spiritual harlotry in one word.
The descent is precisely staged, and the Hebrew grammar tells it. The verb in v. 2 is feminine plural — Albert Barnes: “the daughters of Moab called” — and the Cambridge Bible sets the sequence: “the Israelites first came into immoral relations with the women, and then the women, very naturally, invited them to join in their local religious festivities.” Lust opened the door; idolatry walked through. Matthew Poole names the hinge that the eating turned: partaking of the sacrificial feast “was reckoned a participation in the worship of that god to whom the sacrifices were offered” (citing 1 Corinthians 10:18; Exodus 34:15). So the people ate, then bowed down (way·yiš·ta·ḥăw·wū, a whole-body prostration), and in v. 3 the fatal verb falls: Israel way·yiṣ·ṣā·meḏ — was yoked — to Baal of Peor. Poole presses the word: it “implies a forsaking of God… and a turning to, embracing of, strict conjunction with, and fervent affection after, this false god.” The Pulpit Commentary calls it “a technical phrase… expressing the quasi-sacramental union into which they entered with the heathen deity.” And then the counter-stroke: ’ap̄ Yhwh — the nostril of the LORD — burned. Henry: Israel’s sin “did that which all Balaam’s enchantments could not do; it set God against them.”
God breaks His silence and commands a public execution “before the sun,” la·Yhwh — “for the LORD.” K&D reads that little preposition as the heart of the matter: the hanging is “for Jehovah, as satisfaction for Him, i.e., to appease His wrath.” The purpose clause names the engine of the whole passage: wə·yā·šōḇ, “that the burning anger may turn back” from Israel. Two honest difficulties stand in the open. First, the verb wə·hō·w·qa‘ is rare and uncertain — the Cambridge Bible: “Aquila understood it ‘impale,’ Targ. ‘crucify’… It occurs elsewhere only of the execution of Saul’s sons (2 Samuel 21:6).” Ellicott notes the LXX rendered it with the very word behind Hebrews 6:6, “to put to an open shame.” Second, the grammar of qaḥ (“take”) genuinely allows two readings — seize the guilty heads, or assemble the chiefs as executioners — and the commentators divide. Moses relays the order to “the judges of Israel” (v. 5), each to slay han·niṣ·mā·ḏîm, “the ones yoked” — the sentence named by the same verb as the crime. Yet K&D observes the command “was not carried out… because the matter took a different turn”: the plague and Phinehas (vv. 6–9) overtake the slow machinery of human justice.
Read under the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, this hard little passage offers three things to be tested, not trusted. First, sin has a single first step that is already profanation. The narrator marks the moment with way·yā·ḥel, “began” — a Hifil whose root also means “to profane, make common.” There is no neutral beginning; to begin this was to defile. The friendship of Moab was deadlier than the war of Moab, exactly as Henry says. Second, idolatry is fundamentally a yoking, and the body is its liturgy. The chain runs from zānāh (whoring) to eating to prostration to tsāmad (being yoked): worship is never merely mental, and the appetites are the road in. Paul will read this very episode as a standing warning to the church (1 Corinthians 10:8) — “these things happened as examples.” Third, wrath is real, and it must be turned back, not merely waited out. The text will not let us soften the burning of God’s anger; but neither does it leave it burning. Judgment is executed la·Yhwh, “for the LORD,” so that His anger may return (šûḇ). The passage thus raises, without answering, the question the whole canon answers: how can the nostril of the LORD be made to turn back from a guilty people? Numbers itself gives the first installment three verses later — Phinehas, whose atoning zeal “turned away My wrath” (25:11) — and the New Testament gives the last.
The verb that names Israel’s sin — to be <em>yoked</em> — is the verb that names the condemned; the cure can only be a stronger yoke to a better Lord.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The Psalmist’s confession of national history retells this exact scene in this exact language: “They yoked themselves (tsāmad) to Baal of Peor and ate the sacrifices offered to lifeless gods” (Psalm 106:28). The Pulpit Commentary already noted that the Numbers phrase is “quoted in Psalm 106:28.” The verbal link is strong because the bond rests on two rare lexemes: tsāmad (“to yoke,” in only 5 verses) and the proper name Baal-Peor (in only 5 verses). The Psalm carries the episode one step further — the dead sacrifices and the plague — and so functions as Scripture’s own inspired commentary on these verses.
Numbers 25:3 · Psalm 106:28
basis: shared rare lexemes H6775 tsâmad (in 5 vv) + H1187 Baʻal Pᵉʻôwr (in 5 vv) — both low-frequency; Verifier confirms 'verbal / quotation — confirmed'
Within Moses’ lifetime the event becomes a sermon. In Deuteronomy 4:3 he points the next generation back: “Your eyes have seen what the LORD did at Baal-Peor, for the LORD your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor” — and v. 4 names the survivors as those who “held fast (dāḇaq) to the LORD,” the deliberate antonym of those who were yoked to Baal. The link rides the rare proper name Baal-Peor (H1187, in only 5 verses). This is the same divine name-of-shame, recalled as covenant warning.
Numbers 25:3 · Deuteronomy 4:3
basis: shared rare lexeme H1187 Baʻal Pᵉʻôwr (in 5 vv) — low-frequency proper name; Verifier confirms 'verbal / quotation — confirmed'
The rare execution-verb of v. 4, hôqîa‘ (root yāqa‘, “to impale/expose,” found in only 8 verses), surfaces in a narrative again only at 2 Samuel 21, where Saul’s sons are “hung up before the LORD” to turn away a famine sent for bloodguilt. The Cambridge Bible flags the connection precisely: the verb “occurs elsewhere only of the execution of Saul’s sons.” Both scenes share a startling theology — a public, Godward execution offered so that a divine judgment (plague, then famine) may be turned back from the land. This is a verbal link on a rare shared lexeme, not a citation: 2 Samuel does not quote Numbers, but it reaches for the very same uncommon verb, and the conceptual parallel is exact.
Numbers 25:4 · 2 Samuel 21:6 · 2 Samuel 21:9
basis: shared rare lexeme H3363 yâqaʻ (in 8 vv) — the impale/expose verb occurs in OT narrative only here and 2 Samuel 21; low-frequency, Verifier confirms verbal. A verbal-lexical link, not a quotation
The place of Israel’s deepest disgrace becomes the place of its forward march. The proper noun Shittim (H7851, in only 5 verses) ties this scene to Joshua 2:1, where “Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim,” and 3:1, where Israel “set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan.” This is structural, not a quotation: the same ground that hosted the apostasy stages the crossing — a quiet testimony that God’s purpose runs on past the people’s sin. (Joshua 2:1 also shares the harlotry-verb zānāh, but there it describes Rahab the Canaanite, who is saved — a reversal worth noting, not a verbal quotation of this scene.)
Numbers 25:1 · Joshua 2:1 · Joshua 3:1
basis: shared rare place-name H7851 Shiṭṭîym (in 5 vv) (Joshua 2:1 also shares the common H2181 zânâh, of Rahab). Verifier computes 'verbal' on the rare lexeme; deliberately down-tiered to structural because the link is a shared campsite, not a quotation of this scene
Centuries later Hosea reaches back to this very scene as the type-case of Israel’s apostasy: “they came to Baal-Peor and consecrated themselves to shame, and became as detestable as the thing they loved” (Hosea 9:10). Both Poole and Gill cross-reference Hosea here on the word tsāmad (“joined himself”), reading the prophet as expounding Numbers’ verb. The Verifier confirms a genuine verbal anchor: the two verses share the rare proper name Baal-Peor (H1187, in only 5 verses). Hosea adds the theological sting Numbers leaves implicit — Israel “became as detestable as the thing they loved”: the worshipper takes the moral shape of his idol.
Numbers 25:3 · Hosea 9:10
basis: shared rare lexeme H1187 Baʻal Pᵉʻôwr (in 5 vv) — low-frequency proper name; Verifier returns 'verbal / quotation — confirmed'. Hosea is recalling, not quoting, the episode, but the shared rare divine name is a true verbal link
Micah folds this campsite into his summons to covenant memory: “remember… what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may acknowledge the righteous acts of the LORD” (Micah 6:5). The link rides the rare place-name Shittim (H7851, in only 5 verses; the shared Moab and people are common and carry no weight). This is structural rather than a quotation: Micah names Shittim not to retell the apostasy but to mark the span of the LORD’s saving acts that ran on past the people’s sin — the same forward-running purpose seen in the Joshua thread. The Verifier scores the rare place-name as verbal, but with no citation claimed, the link is rightly held structural.
Numbers 25:1 · Micah 6:5
basis: shared rare place-name H7851 Shiṭṭîym (in 5 vv); Verifier computes verbal on the rare lexeme, down-tiered to structural here because Micah recalls the place, not a quotation of this scene
Paul makes this episode a direct, named warning to the church: “We must not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died” (1 Corinthians 10:8) — drawing on the plague that follows in Numbers 25:9. Because this is a cross-Testament link (Greek New Testament to Hebrew Old Testament), it cannot be scored on shared Strong’s numbers, and the Verifier accordingly finds none; it is tiered structural/thematic, never verbal. But the citation is explicit and undisputed: Paul is consciously expounding this chapter as a pattern for believers, exactly the use the older commentators (Poole, Pulpit) already saw in the sacrificial-meal language of v. 2.
Numbers 25:1 · 1 Corinthians 10:8
basis: explicit NT use of this episode (Paul names the immorality + the plague's death-toll from Num 25:9); cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew) so NO shared Strong's possible — Verifier returns 'flagged' for lack of a lexical match, but the citation is explicit and undisputed; tiered structural by rule (never verbal cross-Testament)
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The theological pulse of vv. 3–5 is the burning anger of the LORD and the command to act “so that His fierce anger may turn away (šûḇ) from Israel” (v. 4). Numbers answers its own question three verses on, in Phinehas, of whom God says, “he has turned back My wrath… in that he was zealous for My honor; so I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal” (25:11). One man’s righteous, atoning act stands between the guilty and the consuming anger — and is rewarded with “a covenant of a perpetual priesthood” (25:13). The New Testament names the One this priest-figure foreshadows: the better Priest whose own zeal and self-offering “turns away wrath,” the hilastērion set forth so that God might be just and the justifier (Romans 3:25; cf. Hebrews 7:23–25). The pattern — wrath justly turned aside by an appointed mediator — is the gospel in shadow.
Numbers 25:4 · Numbers 25:11-13 · Romans 3:25 · Hebrews 7:24-25
The rare verb of v. 4, hôqîa‘ — to hang up / expose a body “before the LORD” — sets the guilty publicly under God’s judgment so that wrath may turn back. Ellicott observes that the LXX rendered it with the very word Hebrews 6:6 uses for crucifixion’s shame, “to put to an open shame.” Deuteronomy 21:23, invoked by the commentators here, declares “cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” — the text Paul lifts to Calvary: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13). At Baal-Peor guilty men were hung up so the curse might pass from Israel; at the cross the sinless One was hung up so the curse might pass from sinners. Held as typology, not as a verbal prediction — but the figural line, drawn by the shared image of the hanged body bearing wrath, is a long-standing one.
Numbers 25:4 · Deuteronomy 21:23 · Galatians 3:13
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain commentaries on Numbers 25 as gathered at BibleHub: Matthew Henry (Concise Commentary, 1706), Joseph Benson (1810s), Albert Barnes (1834), Matthew Poole (1685), John Gill (Exposition, 1746–63), the Geneva Study Bible (1599), Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871), the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (1880s), the Pulpit Commentary (1880s), Charles Ellicott (1878), and Keil & Delitzsch (1860s). Each excerpt is a contiguous, unaltered substring of its source.
The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; transliterations, parsings, literal renderings, and the “where the English smooths the Hebrew” notes are this tool’s own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check them against BDB/HALOT and a standard grammar.
Two honest cruxes in this unit are left open rather than resolved: (1) the rare execution-verb hôqîa‘ (v. 4) is of uncertain precise force — “impale,” “crucify,” or “throw down” are all defended (Cambridge); and (2) the imperative qaḥ, “take” (v. 4), grammatically allows either “seize the guilty heads for hanging” (K&D, Targums) or “assemble the chiefs as executioners” (Barnes, Benson), and the commentators genuinely divide. We report the division; we do not adjudicate it.
On the cross-references: the Psalm 106:28, Deuteronomy 4:3, Hosea 9:10, and 2 Samuel 21 links rest on rare shared Hebrew lexemes (tsāmad, Baal-Peor, yāqa‘, each in 5–8 verses) and are marked verbal, though only Psalm 106:28 is a true retelling-quotation; the others recall the rare name rather than cite the scene. The Shittim links (Joshua 2:1; 3:1; Micah 6:5) also share the rare place-name Shittim — the Verifier scores these verbal too, but because they name a shared campsite rather than quote this episode, we deliberately under-claim them as structural. The 1 Corinthians 10:8 link is an explicit New-Testament use of this episode but, being cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew), returns no shared Strong’s number — the Verifier flags it for source-checking — so it is tiered structural by rule, never verbal, and rests on Paul’s plain naming of the immorality and the plague’s death-toll, not on a lexical match. The Christ-readings are figural typology, ancient and widely held; weigh them against the text. ✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)