Numbers 25:1

Num 25:1 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.

Ver. 1. To commit whoredom.] By the wicked counsel of Balaam, who knew well, that no one means hath more enriched hell than beautiful faces, and therefore taught Balak to lay this stumblingblock before the children of Israel; and is therein held by some to have sinned against the Holy Ghost. Howsoever he goes out in a stench, as it is usually said of his master the devil.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Num_25:1-9

The people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.

The sin of Israel at Shittim, and the judgment of God

I. The sin of the Israelites at Shittim.

1. The sin itself.

(1) Spiritual fornication, or idolatry (Hos_2:1-23.).

(2) Physical fornication.

2. The origin of their sin (Num_31:16; Rev_2:14).

3. The instruments of their sin: Moab and Midian.

4. The occasion of their sin.

(1) Their abode at Shittim. They were in the neighbourhood of sinful associations and corrupting influences. Near a fire, a serpent, and a wicked woman, no man can long be in safety.

(2) Their lack of occupation. Idleness leads to vice and mischief.

II. The judgment of God upon the Israelites on account of their sin.

1. The judgment inflicted immediately by God. In some form or other punishment ever follows closely upon the heels of sin.

2. The judgment inflicted by Moses and the judges by the command of God.

(1) Its nature : Death.

(2) Its publicity.

(3) Its executioners.

Lessons:

1. The secret of the security of the people of God: faithfulness.

2. The danger of those temptations which appeal to our self-indulgence or love of pleasure.

3. The terribleness of the Divine anger.

4. The solicitude with which we should guard against arousing this anger towards us. Sin calls it forth, therefore shun sin.

5. Tile earnestness with which we should seek the mercy and the protection of God. (W. Jones.)

Evil men proceed by degrees from worse to worse

In these words is offered unto us an example, expressing the nature of sin where once it is entertained. For behold here how they grow in sin. At the first, they departed out of the host of Israel and went to the people of Moab and Midian, with whom they coupled themselves; so that albeit they sinned, yet they had some shame of sin, and made some conscience of committing it openly amongst their brethren. But they proceed by little and little, from step to step, till they are ashamed of nothing. Therefore in the example of one man, here set before our eyes, Moses declares to what shamelessness they were come. For this man (who is afterward named), as if he had been absolute in power, as he was indeed resolute in will and dissolute in his whole life, brought his whorish woman in the sight of God, in the sight of Moses, in the sight of the congregation, and in the sight of the tabernacle, to show that he had filled up the measure of his sin.

1. The nature of sin is to draw all such as delight in it from one evil to another, until in the end they become most corrupt and abominable.

2. The wrath of Goal falleth upon such as make no conscience to fall into lesser sins, He giveth them over to a reprobate sense, and to hardness of heart.

3. Sin is fitly resembled to the fretting of a canker, and to the uncleanness of a leprosy, both which go forward until the whole body be infected and every member endangered.

Now let us handle the uses.

1. Consider from hence how dangerous it is to give entertainment unto sin at the beginning, which groweth to more perfection every day; we cannot stop this stream when we will, it goeth beyond the strength of our nature.

2. Seeing evil men wax worse and worse, we may conclude that their judgment sleepeth not, but is increased as their sin; yea, so it is not far off, but lieth at the doors.

3. Seeing men giving themselves over to sin, it is our duty to resist the beginnings, to prevent the breach, and stop the first course of it. It is as a serpent that must be trod on in the egg. Let us take heed that sin grow not into a custom and get an habit. (W. Attersoll.)

Sin deprives us of Gods protection

We have beard before that albeit that Balak and Balaam intended by their sorceries to curse the people of God, yet they could by no means do them hurt; they were guarded by the protection of God as with a sure watch. Rut so soon as they forsook the living God, and fell a whoring with the daughters of Moab and Midian, by and by God departeth from them, and His heavy judgments break in upon them. The force of sorcery could not hurt them, but the strength of sin doth weaken them. Hereby we learn that sin depriveth us of Gods protection, and layeth us open to the fierceness of His wrath, and to the fury of our enemies. The reasons being considered will make the doctrine more evident.

1. Sin maketh us execrable to the Lord and abominable in His sight. If, then, sin makes us to be had in execration it is no marvel if we be left destitute of Gods protection.

2. God departeth from them that fall from Him; they forsake Him, and therefore He forsaketh them. So, then, our lying in sin doth drive the Lord from us, that He will have no more fellowship with us to do us any good.

We are now to set down the uses of this doctrine.

1. This teacheth us to acknowledge that all judgments which fall upon us are righteous. God chastiseth us often, but always justly, never unjustly.

2. Seeing sin layeth us open to reproaches of enemies and to the judgments of God, as appeareth in this great plague upon the people, this showeth that we must not go about to hide our sin from God through hypocrisy. For all things are naked and open to His eyes, with whom we have to do; so that we must learn to confess them before His presence.

3. This serveth as a notable advantage for the servants of God when they have any dealings against wicked men; we have encouragement from hence that we shall assuredly prevail against them, because we have to do with weak men that are out of Gods protection. (W. Attersoll.)

Gods abhorrence of impurity

The Lord must have regard to two things in His own people--personal purity; and uncorrupted worship. In the very nature Of things it would be quite impossible to preserve purity of principle, clearness of understanding, and spirituality of affection, with corruption of life. It is a delusion of the worst kind, a master-device of Satan, the perfection of sins deceitfulness, and a perversion of all truth, justice, and grace, when men, in the retired indulgence of lusts within, or in open commission of crime, sit down tranquil under the defence of mercy, and fancy themselves with such interest in the robe of Christs perfection and beauty, that no spot or fault is in them. A sinner may come to Christ under every sense of imperfection, pollution, and vileness, and through faith in His mediation, may participate with appropriating joy and a well-founded confidence in all the interests of His atoning blood and justifying righteousness; nevertheless, he can never find anything in the nature and influence of evangelical truth but what has the most direct tendency and design to deliver from the power as well as to save from the desert of sin. To a gracious heart sin proves a plague and constant grief, and the cause, while it exists, of a never-ending strife. (W. Seaton.)

The valley of sensuality

In Java is a valley which is called the Valley of Poison. It is an object of veritable terror to the natives. In this renowned valley the soil is said to be covered with skeletons and carcases of tigers, of goats, and of stags, of birds, and even with human bones; for asphyxia or suffocation, it seems, strikes all living things which venture into this desolate place. It illustrates the valley of sensuality, the most horrible creation of social life. Few men who enter into its depths survive long; for it is strewn with dead reputations and the mangled remains of creatures who were once happy. (W. Seaton.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Num 25:1. 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 people — Many of them. Whoredom — Either because these women prostituted themselves to them upon condition of worshipping their god, or because their filthy god was worshipped by such filthy acts as Priapus and Venus were. The daughters of Moab — And of Midian too; for both these people being confederated in this wicked design, the one is put for the other, and the daughters of Moab may be named, either because they began the transgression, or because they were the chief persons, probably the relations, or courtiers of Balak.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Idolatry and Immorality of the Israelites at Shittim. The Zeal of Phinehas

1-5. The Israelites, who have just been exhibited as proof against enchantments, are not able to resist the temptations to idolatry, and its connected sin of immorality, arising from their proximity to the tribes of Moab and Midian. In Num_31:16 their apostasy is attributed to the counsel of Balaam (see also Rev_2:14), who is afterwards put to death for it (Num_31:8; Jos_13:22). But it is difficult without violence to reconcile this conduct on the part of Balaam with his former attitude towards Israel, and his utterances regarding them. Moreover, the last verse of the preceding chapter is evidently intended to mark his return to the Euphrates and his disappearance from the subsequent history of Israel. It seems almost beyond doubt that there was from early times a double tradition regarding this famous soothsayer. According to one, Balaam is a Mesopotamian soothsayer who becomes the instrument of God in blessing His people and foretelling their future greatness; according to the other, he is a Midianitish counsellor who sets himself to seduce the people of Jehovah and suffers the extreme penalty of his error.

1. Shittim] ('the acacias') is the name of the encampment in the plains of Moab: see Num_33:49 and cp. Jos_2:1.

3. Baal-peor] There appears to have been a sanctuary of Baal on the top of Mt. Peor: see on Num_22:41; Num_23:14.

4. The heads] the ringleaders. Hang them up] Some shameful form of execution, followed by impalement: see on Deu_21:22.

6-18. The zeal of Phinehas in slaying with his own hand an Israelite and his Midianitish concubine is rewarded with the promise of the permanence of the priesthood in his family: cp. Exo_32:26-29 and notes there.

This incident while related to the foregoing is distinct from it. Literary evidence shows that Num_25:6-18 are from a different source from Num_25:1-5. Observe that in the one case the punishment is slaughter (Num_25:5), and in the other plague (Num_25:9), and that the source of temptation in the one case is Moab and in the other Midian: see on Num_25:16-18.

6. Were weeping] on account of the plague (Num_25:8).

8. There is no previous mention of a plague having broken out, and the word can hardly apply to the slaughter in Num_25:5. We are here dealing with a separate incident.

11. Zealous for my sake] lit. 'jealous with my jealousy.' God, as the Redeemer of Israel, has a special claim upon their reverence and affection. When they turn to other gods His love is wounded, and He is jealous with a holy jealousy: see on Exo_20:5.

13. An everlasting priesthood] Phinehas succeeded to the high priesthood after his father's death (Jdg_20:28), and the succession remained in his family till the time of Eli, wheh it passed for some reason to the house of Ithamar. Solomon, however, restored the high priesthood to the descendants of Phinehas (1Ki_2:35). This action of Phinehas in defending the purity of the religion of Israel at a critical moment was rewarded, not only with this blessing from the Lord, but with the grateful admiration of succeeding generations. In Psalms 106 we read that his zeal was 'counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore,' words which St. Paul applies to Abraham himself (Rom_4:22; Gal_3:6;). In Sir_45:23-26 he is called the 'third in glory' after Moses and Aaron, and his example is quoted in 1Ma_2:26. So blessed is the memory of the just.

16-18. Commandment is given to vex the Midianites (i.e. count them as dangerous adversaries) and to smite them. For its fulfilment see Numbers 31. Injunctions like this, which were ordered to be carried out with extreme severity, were given in the interests of Israel and the purity of religion and morals. In no other way could that 'separateness' be maintained which Balaam recognised as one of the distinctions of the Israelites (see on Num_23:9). For the Christian parallel see 2Co_6:14-18 and cp. Num_5:29, Num_5:30.

The omission of any reference to the Moabites in this passage bears out what is said above as to the different sources of Num_25:1-5 and Num_25:6-18.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ISRAEL SEDUCED INTO IDOLATRY, Num_25:1-3.

1, 2. Shittim — These plains are in the El-Ghor, sixty furlongs east of the Jordan. Note, Jos_2:1. The daughters of Moab were the chief agents in the execution of this plot by forming friendly associations with the Israelites and then inviting them to the sacrifices of their gods — a licentious festival. Thus all the animal appetites are addressed at once.

Such a temptation required stronger moral principles and a loftier spirituality than many Israelites possessed. The vices of the Canaan-ites, idolatry and whoredom, had infected Midian, a branch of Abraham’s family, (Gen_25:2,) through successive intermarriages with these tribes. The prostitution of a king’s daughter, (Num_25:6, note,) doubtless given by her father as a token of hospitality, a custom still found among some African nations, shows that the shocking depravity of Sodom (Gen_19:8) had corrupted the seed of Abraham.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Num_25:1. Shittim. An abbreviation of Abel-Shittim, “the meadow of the acacias.” It was situated in the plains of Moab, at the northern extremity of the camp of Israel.

Num_25:2. And they called, &c.; “i.e., ‘the daughters of Moab called’: the verb, and the ensuing ‘their,’ being in Hebrew, feminine.”—Speaker’s Comm.

Num_25:3. Baal-Peor is the Baal of Peor, who was worshipped in the city of Beth-Peor (Deu_3:29; Deu_4:46; Num_23:28), a Moabitish Priapus, in honour of whom women and virgins prostituted themselves. As the god of war, he was called Chemosh (Num_21:29). Keil and Del.

Num_25:4. Take all the heads, &c., i.e., Assemble them together.

Hang them. The “them” does not refer to “the heads of the people,” but to the guilty persons: these were to be first put to death (Num_25:5), and then, as an aggravation of their punishment, and as a warning to others, they were to be publicly hung up, which was done by impaling the body upon a stake or fastening it upon a cross.

The fierce anger of the Lord was manifested in the plague with which he visited the camp of Israel (Num_25:9).

Num_25:6. One of the children of Israel, &c. This was Zimri (Num_25:14).

A Midianitish woman,—“Cozbi, the daughter of Zur” (Num_25:15, and Num_31:8).

Weeping, &c. On account of the wrath of God which had smitten the camp with the plague.

Num_25:8. The tent, הַקֻּבָּה, not the ordinary tent. The word is only found here in the Hebrew Scriptures; it signifies arched or dome-shaped. From the Hebrew word, through the Arabic, the Spaniards derive their alcova, and we our alcove. Here the word denotes, the inner division of the tent, which was used as the sleeping room and apartment for the women in the larger tents of the upper classes.

Num_25:9. Twenty and four thousand. In 1Co_10:8, St. Paul gives the number as “three and twenty thousand.” In this he probably follows a tradition of the scribes, according to which, of the twenty-four thousand mentioned here, one thousand were put to death by the judges, leaving twenty-three thousand as the number of those who fell victims to the plague.

Num_25:11. Zealous for My sake. Rather, as in the margin, “Zealous with My zeal.”

Num_25:13. Made an atonement. The vengeance inflicted by Phinehas upon two of the most flagrant offenders was accepted by God as a propitiation (lit., a covering) for the sin of the people.

Num_25:17. Vex the Midianites. The Midianitish women seem to have been most active in tempting the Israelites. Moreover their wickedness “culminated in the shameless wantonness of Cozbi, the Midianitish princess.”

THE SIN OF ISRAEL AT SHITTIM, AND THE JUDGMENT OF GOD

(Num_25:1-5; Num_25:9)

Consider—

I. The sin of the Israelites at Shittim.

“And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people,” &c. (Num_25:1-3).

1. The sin itself. Many of the people accepted the invitation of the daughters of Moab and Midian to a sacrificial festival, and then engaged in the worship of Baal-peor, which was associated with, and partly consisted in, the most licentious rites. Their sin was two-fold:

(1) Spiritual fornication, or idolatry (Hosea 2).

(2) Physical fornication.

2. The origin of their sin. The counsel of Balaam was the accursed root from whence it sprang (Num_31:16; Rev_2:14). Having found himself utterly powerless to curse them as a prophet or a magician, with hellish cunning he advised that others should reduce them to curse themselves by their sins (a)

3. The instruments of their sin. The daughters of Moab (Num_25:2), and the daughters of Midian (Num_25:17-18), were employed to tempt the Israelites. The Moabites and Midianites could not have vanquished the Israelites by the sword, but they speedily overcame them by the fascinations of their daughters.

4. The occasion of their sin. Two circumstances seem to us to have contributed to the success of the temptation.

(1) Their abode at Shittim. They were in the neighbourhood of sinful associations and corrupting influences. “Near a fire, a serpent, and a wicked woman, no man can long be in safety.” (b)

(2) Their lack of occupation. The Israelites were comparatively unemployed. Idleness leads to vice and mischief. (c)

II. The judgment of God upon the Israelites on account of their sin.

1. The judgment inflicted immediately by God. “Those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.” “They joined themselves unto Baal-Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus they provoked Him to anger with their inventions, and the plague brake in upon them” (Psa_106:28-29). As a punishment for their sin, the Lord sent among them this terrible pestilence. In some form or other, punishment ever follows close upon the heels of sin.

2. The judgment inflicted by Moses and the judges, by the command of God. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people,” &c. (Num_25:4-5). Concerning this punishment notice—

(1) Its nature—death. “Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-Peor.”

(2) Its publicity. “Hang them up before the Lord against the sun.” After death their bodies were to be made a public spectacle—a warning to others by indicating the evil of the sin and the severity of the wrath of God against the sinners.

(3) Its executioners. These are called “the heads of the people” (Num_25:4), and “the judges of Israel” (Num_25:5, and Exo_18:25-26). It was their duty to maintain law and order, and to punish wicked doers, each one in his own jurisdiction (comp. Rom_13:1-4).

III. The lessons which we should learn from this portion of Israel’s history.

1. The secret of the security of the people of God. While Israel was faithful to Jehovah their God, they were perfectly safe. Neither the subtlety nor the strength of their enemies, neither earth nor hell, could hurt them, while they were true to their covenant with Him. “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good.” Their sins deprived them of the Divine protection, and brought down upon them the Divine anger. “None can prevail against the servants of God, except by tempting them to sin.” “By our own sins we are overcome.” Faith in God is the great condition of our strength and safety. Cleaving to Him by faith, we are inviolably secure.

2. The danger of those temptations which appeal to our self-indulgence or love of pleasure. In most cases ease and pleasure are more perilous to the spiritual life than toil and pain. The pleasures of sense are very prone to grow into the pleasures of sin. Many have been “allured through the lusts of the flesh” into the most grievous sins. (d)

3. The terribleness of the Divine anger. Calm, righteous, constant, and intense is the wrath of God against sin. Let no one deceive himself or dishonour God by imagining that, like some weak-natured man, He is too kind and indulgent to His creatures to be angry with them. With implacable hatred He hates sin. “The wrath of the Lamb” is unspeakably, inconceivably, terrible. “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with his stroke,” &c. (e)

4. The solicitude with which we should guard against arousing this anger towards us. Sin calls it forth, therefore shun sin.

5. The earnestness with which we should seek the mercy and the protection of God. We need His mercy for the forgiveness of sins in the past, and His protection to keep us from sin in the future. “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.”

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) Among the people who knew and discussed the events which befell the Israelites since their migration from Egypt, it must have been notorious that there had been signal punishments inflicted upon them for breaches of fealty to their King. Pondering this in his mind, the infernal sagacity of Balaam led him to conclude, that if they could but be seduced from their allegiance to their Divine King, the protection which rendered them invincible would be withdrawn, and they would be easily subdued by their enemies. This discovery he made known to the King of Moab before his departure, and it illustrates the character of the man, that be could form this device, and counsel the King to act upon it, just after his mouth had poured forth, even by constraint, eloquent blessings upon the people whose ruin he now devises. And all this was purely gratuitous; for his business with Moab was ended. He could not curse Israel; and be had incurred the anger, rather than secured the honours, of the King of Moab. He seems to have retired among the neighbouring people of Midian, close allius with Moab, until he should behold the results of the course which he had thus suggested and in which he seems to have induced the Midianites to co-operate. However dissatisfied with the result of their sending for him, the Moabites were still too deeply impressed with the notion of his superhuman sagacity not to pay the most heedful attention to his advice. This was in effect that the women should be rendered instrumental in seducing the Israelites to take part in the obscene rites of Baal-Peor.—John Kitto, D.D.

(b) As the Hebrews lay encamped in the plains of Moab, unsuspicious of the bad feeling of the Moabites and Midianites towards them, an intercourse gradually, and seemingly in due course, sprang up between the kindred nations. The daughters of Moab and Midian came to visit the women of Israel, and thus fell under the notice of the men. The men of Israel, also, new to a peopled country, and strange to a friendly intercourse with strangers, amused themselves and gratified their curiosity by visiting the towns and villages in the vicinity. This intercourse was perilous for them. Dazzled and bewildered by magnificent and seductive appliances of vice, to which in their simple wandering life they had been all unused, although their fathers had seen the like things in Egypt, they were prevailed upon by the idolators of Moab and Midian to take part in the riotous and lustful orgies of their gods. It does not appear to us that they meant to abjure their faith in Jehovah, or so much as adopted a belief in Baal Peor along with it. What they did was to participate in the licentions acts by which his votaries professed to honour him.—Ibid.

Albeit we cannot at all times forsake the familiarity of the unfaithful, yet we must ever abandon and abjure their unfaithfulness and ungodliness: we cannot ever refuse their company, but we must evermore renounce their impiety. Let us take heed that we embrace none of their sins. He that standeth farthest from a raging flame, is freest and farthest off from burning; he that walketh a great distance from the bank of the river, is safest from drowning. He that cometh not near places of infection, is surest to escape the danger. And as we are to beware of all their sins, so especially it behoveth us to be suspicious and fearful of those sins, unto which we know ourselves most prone and inclined. For they do most of all delight us, and those are they which will soonest overturn us, and bring upon us destruction of soul and body.—W. Attersoll.

(c) And was idleness think you nothing? Yes, yes, assure yourself, it is ever a chief agent in this business. Had our first mother been busy, she had not tattled with the serpent; and had they not been idle in Sodom, they had never fallen to that abomination; for idleness is mentioned as a means by the prophet (Eze_16:49). Take idleness away, and Cupid’s bow casts the string: he will never do harm with all his arrows. Dost thou ask the question, how Ægistus became an adulterer? He was idle. David was idle on the top of the palace; and what followed? These Israelites are idle, and idle they tattle, and tattling they are invited to their sacrifice, invited, they go, and both spiritually and corporally they commit whoredom. A fearful fall in men so taught. But this is man’s weakness and woman’s strength.—Babington.

(d) Pleasures are of two sorts: some are simply unlawful, and not to be used at all, being directly contrary to the Word of God: such are the pleasures that carnal men take in eating till they surfeit, and in drinking till they are drunken; such are the pleasures that whoremongers take in adultery, fornication, and uncleanness. Others are of themselves indifferent, and in their own nature neither good nor evil, but according as they are used, as hunting, hawking, and other lawful recreations; and even these when they take up all our thoughts, and thrust better things out of the doors, are called thorns in the parable of the sower, as well as unlawful pleasures (Luk_8:14). There is nothing doth so much choke the Word of God as the pleasures of the flesh; nothing causeth us so soon to forget it; nothing maketh us so soon weary and loath to hear it, as the desire to follow and pursue after our delights; so that it standeth us upon to cut them up, and pull them out of the ground of our hearts.… We see many by experience, who in the days of tribulation have not given over their hold, but endured slanders, revilings, imprisonment, hunger, and thirst in a necessitous estate; yet have been overcome with peace, drowned with sensuality, and lulled asleep in carnal security … Whilst David wandered in the wilderness, was hunted out of holes by Saul, into which he was glad to escape to hide himself, and was trained up in the school of afflictions, he comforted himself in the Lord his God, he made Him his rock and refuge, he asked counsel of Him and followed His direction; but when he had rest from enemies, safety from dangers, deliverance from troubles, comfort from sorrows, and freedom from afflictions, he fell into horrible sins, both in the matter of Uriah, and in numbering of the people.—Attersoll.

(e) For illustrations on this point, see pp. 220, 221.

THE FLAGRANT WICKEDNESS OF ZIMRI, AND THE FERVENT ZEAL OF PHINEHAS

(Num_25:6-15)

Notice—

I. The flagrant wickedness of Zimri.

“And, behold, one of the children of Israel came,” &c. (Num_25:6).

1. The heinousness of his sin. Fornication in any one is a great and grievous sin, but in one of the chosen people its enormity is far greater than in others. They had a clearer revelation of God’s will; they enjoyed superior privileges; they were called to a higher and purer moral life than their heathen neighbours; hence fornication in them was far more heinous than in their neighbours (comp. 1Co_6:15-20).

2. The aggravations of his sin. His guilt was aggravated by—

(1) The position which he occupied. “The name of the Israelite that was slain with the Midianitish woman was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites.” It was incumbent upon him to set an example of order and purity and loyalty to Jehovah. His partner in guilt, too, was a princess. Her name was “Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian” (comp. Num_31:8).

(2) The effroutery with which he sinned. Not content with sinning amongst the Midianites, he brought the woman into the camp of Israel, which Jehovah had commanded to be kept pure (Num_5:1-3). And this he did “in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel.” An utter absence of shame marked his vile conduct; he seems rather to parade than to hide his wickedness.

(3) The daring and defiant character of his sin. The wrath of God had gone forth and was smiting the people with the deadly pestilence: by his conduct he bids it defiance. The judges had been commanded to put to death the sinners: by his action he dares them to deal with him. He sinned presumptuously—“with a high hand” (comp. Num_15:30-31). (a)

3. The infamy of the sinners. “Now the name of the Israelite that was slain,” &c. (Num_25:14-15). Thus the names, the families, and the rank of the evil-doers are perpetuated. An immortality of infamy is theirs.

II. The fervent zeal of Phinehas.

“And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar,” &c. (Num_25:7-8).

1. Its character. “He was zealous with My zeal” (Num_25:11); “he was zealous for his God” (Num_25:13). “He abhorred the presumptuous wickedness of Zimri, as God abhorred it.” He was filled with holy indignation against one who so flagrantly sinned and so greatly dishonoured God. His holy zeal burned to arrest the progress of the sin, and to vindicate the honour of Jehovah. (b)

2. Its expression. On seeing the conduct of Zimri, he promptly seized aspear, and following the guilty pair into the inner apartment of the tent, he “thrust both of them through.” The authority of Phinehas to execute summary vengeance on Zimri and Cozbi has been challenged. The case presents itself to us thus: the outrageous sin of Zimri imperatively demanded stern and immediate punishment; and the nature of that punishment was already declared (Num_25:5). But they who should have inflicted it seem to have been sorrow-stricken, and made no attempt to deal with the offenders. Tears of grief and shame were natural; but surely at such a time stern and decisive action was the great need. The indulgence of sorrow should have been firmly repressed until the judgment of God had been executed. With rare discernment Phinehas perceived the treatment which should be dealt out to those atrocious sinners, and with zeal and courage equally rare he at once applied that treatment. The case was of exceptional flagrancy and enormity, and demanded exceptional treatment, and Phinehas administered that treatment. The “deed was its own justification. Its merit consisted in the evidence it gave that his heart was right before God. He risked his own life by dealing according to their deserts with two influential and defiant evil-doers.” (c) If his conduct needed apology we may well give it in the words of Bishop Hall: “God pardoneth the errors of our fervency, rather than the indifferences of our lukewarmness.” Moreover this act of Phinehas cannot without extreme unfairness be said to afford any countenance to “acts of private revenge, of religious persecution, or even of irregular public vengeance.” (d)

3. Its effect. “So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.… Phinehas hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel; … and made an atonement for the children of Israel.” The act of Phinehas was accepted by God as a national “atonement,” “covering,” or “propitiation.” By this act he publicly manifested—

(1) a right estimate of the sin;

(2) right feelings in relation to it;

(3) right action in relation to it—he endeavoured to make an end of it. It appears to us probable that it was because of these qualities in the action of Phinehas that God accepted it as “an atonement for the children of Israel.” The due administration of justice by magistrates and judges tends to prevent the judgments of God. If they are lax in dealing with vice and crime, God will sternly deal with them Himself.

4. Its reward. For this zealous action Phinehas was—

(1) Divinely commended. “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar,” &c. (Num_25:10-11, and Psa_106:30-31).

(2) Divinely rewarded. “Behold, I give unto Him My covenant of peace,” &c. (Num_25:12-13). The covenant bestowed upon Phinehas was the confirmation to him and his posterity after him of the possession of the priesthood. “In accordance with this promise, the high-priesthood which passed from Eleazar to Phinehas (Jdg_20:28) continued in his family, with the exception of a brief interruption in Eli’s days, until the time of the last gradual dissolution of the Jewish state through the tyranny of Herod and his successors.” Thus for his zealous action Phinehas was himself rewarded, and his posterity was blessed for his sake.

“Brave works for God win crowns. There is no merit in them. But the grace, which gives the will, and nerves the arm, and brings success, awards a recompense. Among earth’s happiest sons and heaven’s most shining saints, devoted labourers hold foremost place.”

“It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.” (e)

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) For an illustration on this point, see pp. 280, 281.

(b) Zeal may be defined as the heat or fervour of the mind, by which its vehemence of indignation goes out against anything which it conceives to be evil, and its vehemence of desire towards anything which it conceives to be good. In itself it has no moral character at all. It is the simple instinct of energetic nature, never wholly divested of a sort of rude nobility, and never destitute of influence upon the lives and upon the characters of others.—W. M. Punshon, LL.D.

“He that is not zealous, doth not love.” Now right zeal acts, like fire, to its utmost power, yet ever keeping its place and sphere. If it be confined to the breast of a private Christian, whence it may not flame forth in punishing Truth’s enemies, then it burns inwardly the more for being pent up; and preys, like a fire in his bones, upon the Christian’s own spirits, consuming them, yea, eating him up for grief; to see Truth trodden under the feet of error and profanencs, and he not able to help it up—W. Gurnall.

(c) I think I could give my own life, if called to do so, for the cause of Christ and the welfare of men. Why, then, should I hesitate to denounce anything that is opposed to the cause of Christ? Why should I hesitate to inveigh against anything, however sacred it may be to others, which is injurious to the welfare of men? I will not fear to condemn any organisation, or any institution, that seems to me to stand in the way of God’s glory or man’s redemption. It is not personal bitterness that leads me to use severity. It is for men, and not against men, that I am inflamed and aroused. And my indignation is strong just in proportion as those for whom it is called out are weak and unable to defend themselves.—H. W. Beecher.

(d) Zeal is indeed a wonder-working grace. It scales the heavens in agonizing prayer. It wrestles with Omnipotence, and takes not denial. Who can conceive what countries, districts, cities, families, and men have sprung to life, because Zeal prayed! It also lives in energetic toil. It is the moving spring in hearts of apostles, martyrs, reformers, missionaries, and burning preachers of the Word. What hindrances it overleaps. What chains it breaks! What land it traverses! It girdles earth with efforts for the truth: and pyramids of saved souls are trophies to its praise.—H. Law, D.D.

(e) I know that the most of you are diligent in business. You never hear the ring of a guinea without being on the alert to earn it of possible. Your coats are off, and very likely your shirt sleeves are turned up when there is a chance of driving trade. That I commend; but oh! do let us have something like it in the service of Jesus Christ. Do not let us be drudging in the world, and drawling in the church; lively in the service of mammon, and then laggard in the service of Christ. Heart and soul, manliness, vigour, vehemence—let the utmost strain of all our powers be put forth in the service of Him who was never supine or dilatory in the service of our souls when they had to be redeemed.—C. H. Spurgeon.

ZEAL

(Outline of an Address.)

(Num_25:11-13)

We can lay no claim to saintship without zeal. When wickedness grows defiant, as in the case of Zimri and Cozbi, then zeal, as in the example of Phinehas, must be bold and daring.

I. The source of godly zeal.

It is from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. It draws its vital force from the constant operations of the Spirit in the soul. Zeal is holy fire kindled in the heart. Coldness is barrenness, and ends in death. Jeremiah said: “I will speak no more in His name.” But silence was impossible. He exclaims: “But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones. I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Grace in the heart must break forth. “I believed, therefore have I spoken.”

II. Godly zeal has its seat in the heart.

When David penned that beautiful Psalm relating to the majesty and grace of Christ’s kingdom, he began by saying: “My heart is inditing a good matter.” The ideas of fullness and fervour are both expressed. My heart is hot as if it had holy fire within. Zeal is not a mere thing of the brain or of intellectual power, but a reality from a sanctified heart. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit makes us like John, who was a burning and shining light.

III. Mark the object of holy zeal.

We are to be “zealous of good works.” Men are often deceived in this matter. There is a great deal of party spirit, and deadly persecution, which often goes under the name of Christian zeal. Zeal is a mixed passion of grief and anger, fervent love and holy desire, all fused together in one holy emotion of the soul, spending itself for the glory of Christ. It is the fervour of heavenly benevolence. It thirsts for Divine knowledge, seeks for fellowship with Christ, and labours with self-denial for His sake. Zeal travails in birth for the salvation of souls; is ready for every good work; creates opportunities of usefulness.

IV. True zeal is blended with knowledge.

Zeal without knowledge is like a blind man running on a narrow plank. This was the case with John (Luk_9:54-56). The zeal of Paul was wrong before his conversion. The Jews had zeal without knowledge when they rejected the righteousness of Christ in order to establish their own. Moses was rash when he broke the two tables on which the Law was written, because Israel had broken one. Minerva put a golden bridle upon Pegasus that he should not fly too fast. Blind zeal, as well as an offering without an eye, will both be rejected by God. To enlighten others we must have light ourselves.

V. Zeal is forgetful of itself.

Self-denial is an element of true greatness. Every grace must be strong for Jesus “and do exploits,” but this must be so especially with zeal. Paul in his perils, and Barnabas in the sale of his land, Bunyan in prison, and martyrs at the stake, Carey in India, Pierce in the pulpit, and Fuller in his travels for missions, are all worthy of imitation. Each of these men manifested forgetfulness of self. What more shall we say? “Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion” (Amo_6:1).—The Study.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH MOVED THE ZEAL OF PHINEHAS

(Num_25:13)

“He was zealous for his God.”

I. There was the enormity of their sin.

It included false doctrine and sinful practices, between which there is a closer connection than is always recognised.

II. There was the character of the instigator to the sin.

Balaam, “a strange mixture of a man,” whose character has been ably analyzed by Butler, Pye Smith, Arnold, and many others.

III. There was the extent to which the sin prevailed.

Among all classes. Logan on the Social Evil.

IV. There was the misery occasioned by the sin.

To the guilty, to their connections, to the community.

V. There was the dishonour done to God.

1. We should be zealous in religion.

2. Our zeal in contending against the sins of others should begin in zeal in contending against our own.—George Brooks.

THE PUNISHMENT OF THE TEMPTERS

(Num_25:16-18)

The Lord here commands Moses to avenge the wrongs which the Midianites had done to the Israelites. It is not private revenge which is here enjoined, but the avenging of a great injury inflicted by one people upon another. The carrying out of this command is given in chap. 31. In that place the subject will be more fully considered: at present it will be sufficient to notice the following observations, which the text suggests:—

I. Sin, whether in the people of God or in His enemies, cannot go unpunished.

The Israelites, who had been seduced into sin, had been severely punished by God. And now, as was surely just, the Midianites who had been most active in seducing them, are to be punished also. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Vex the Midianites,” &c. Tempter and tempted, both had sinned, and both must be punished for their sin. When the child is punished for his sins, the stranger who has also sinned cannot hope to escape. “Judgment must begin at the house of God,” &c. (1Pe_4:17). (a)

1. Here is warning to those who tempt others to sin. (b)

2. Here is warning also to those who yield to temptation. Tempters and temptations, howsoever seductive, cannot compel you to sin. If you yield to them, you will surely suffer loss, or chastisement, or judgment. (c)

(1) Avoid scenes of temptation and the society of tempters.

(2) Seek confirmation in the knowledge of the right and true, so that you be not deceived by temptations.

(3) Seek establishment in the practice of the right and true, so that you may the more successfully withstand and overcome temptations.

(4) Above all and in all look to God for help. (d)

II. Whatever tends to lead into sin should be viewed by the godly as an enemy to be contended against.

“Vex the Midianites, and smite them; for they vex you with their wiles.” Tempters and temptations often present themselves in very winning aspects; the most perilous influences are the most plausible; “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light;” but whatsoever would lead us astray must be resisted as an enemy. “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out,” &c. (Mat_5:29-30). (e)

III. Under certain circumstances war is justifiable.

It is here commanded by God. “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Vex the Midianites, and smite them;” &c.

For notes and illustrations on this point, see pp. 18–20.

ILLUSTRATIONS

(a) For illustrations on The certainty of the punishment of sin, see pp. 89, 225, 318, 374.

(b) The art of seduction from the ways of truth and holiness, discovers the man to be both the child and scholar of the devil. And as wise and painful ministers of Christ, who turn many to righteousness, shall have double glory in heaven; so these subtle and more active agents of the devil, who turn many from the ways of righteousness, will have a double portion of misery in hell.—J. Flavel.

The drunkard enkindles his neighbour’s lust “putting the bottle to him.” O! what a base work are such men employed about! By the law it is death for any to set fire to his neighbour’s house; what then do they deserve that set fire to the souls of men, and that no less than hell-fire?—W. Gurnall.

For another illustration on this point, see p. 265.

(c) For an illustration on this point, see pp. 97, 98.

(d) There are temptations in life—temptations at every turning of the street—temptations in all the evolutions of daily circumstances, temptations that come suddenly, temptations that come unexpectedly, temptations that come flatteringly. There is no true, all-conquering, all-triumphant, answer to the temptations of the devil but this—God! Be deep in your religion, have foundations that are reliable, know your calling, and God will protect you when the time of battle and storm and flood shall come. He will do it, if so be we put our trust in Him.—Joseph Parker, D.D.

(e) In carrying out his tempting designs, Satan chooses such instruments as by relation or affection have deep interest in the persons he would gain. Some will kiss the child for his nurse’s sake, and like the present for the hand that brings it. It is not likely David would have received that from Nabal which he took from Abigail, and thanked her. Satan sent the apple by Eve’s hand to Adam. Delilah doth more with Samson than all the Philistines’ bands. Job’s wife brings him the poison: “Curse God and die.” Some think Satan spared her life, when he slew his children and servants,—though she was also within his commission,—as the most likely instrument, by reason of her relation and his affection, to lead him into temptation. Satan employs Peter the disciple to tempt Christ; at another time His friends and kinfolk. Some martyrs have confessed, the hardest work they met with was to overcome the prayers and tears of their friends and relations. Paul himself could not get off this snare without heart-breaking: “What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart?”—W. Gurnall.

And now, if it shall be allowed to stand for our excusing, that temptation came to us circuitously, veiled with the mask of virtue, then history has recorded few crimes that can be condemned. The business of our moral vigilance, and the test of our moral strength, is to penetrate the delusion, to tear off the mask, to recognize Satan even through his transformations. We should know our tempters as the sure instincts of innocent hearts know hypocrites, “through the disguise they wear.” Perhaps no tyrant, traitor, debauchee, or robber ever lived, who chose depravity for its own sake, or loved sin for its ugliness. If we are to be exculpated because temptation is cunning, oblique, crafty, then Herod was innocent, and Judas has been harshly judged; Nero is an injured man; Benedict Arnold has been misrepresented; and Jeffries and Rochester were rather sinned against than sinning. All our sins creep on us under concealment, creep on us circuitously. Our first lesson of resistance is to learn that Satan is a deceiver, transforms himself, looks an angel.—F. D. Huntingdon, D.D.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord had defended His people Israel from Balaam's curse; but the Israelites themselves, instead of keeping the covenant of their God, fell into the snares of heathen seduction (Num 25:1, Num 25:2). Whilst encamped at Shittim, in the steppes of Moab, the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab: they accepted the invitations of the latter to a sacrificial festival of their gods, took part in their sacrificial meals, and even worshipped the gods of the Moabites, and indulged in the licentious worship of Baal-Peor. As the princes of Midian, who were allied to Moab, had been the advisers and assistants of the Moabitish king in the attempt to destroy the Israelites by a curse of God; so now, after the failure of that plan, they were the soul of the new undertaking to weaken Israel and render it harmless, by seducing it to idolatry, and thus leading it into apostasy from its God. But it was Balaam, as is afterwards casually observed in Num 31:16, who first of all gave this advice. This is passed over here, because the point of chief importance in relation to the object of the narrative, was not Balaam's share in the proposal, but the carrying out of the proposal itself. The daughters of Moab, however, also took part in carrying it out, by forming friendly associations with the Israelites, and then inviting them to their sacrificial festival. They only are mentioned in Num 25:1, Num 25:2, as being the daughters of the land. The participation of the Midianites appears first of all in the shameless licentiousness of Cozbi, the daughter of the Midianitish prince, from which we not only see that the princes of Midian performed their part, but obtain an explanation of the reason why the judgment upon the crafty destroyers of Israel was to be executed upon the Midianites.

(Note: Consequently there is no discrepancy between Num 25:1-5 and Num 25:6-18, to warrant the violent hypothesis of Knobel, that there are two different accounts mixed together in this chapter-An Elohistic account in Num 25:6-18, of which the commencement has been dropped, and a Jehovistic account in Num 25:1-5, of which the latter part has been cut off. The particular points adduced in proof of this fall to the ground, when the history is correctly explained; and such assertions as these, that the name Shittim and the allusion to the judges in Num 25:5, and to the wrath of Jehovah in Num 25:3 and Num 25:4, are foreign to the Elohist, are not proofs, but empty assumptions.)

Shittim, an abbreviation of Abel-Shittim (see at Num 22:1), to which the camp of the Israelites in the steppes of Moab reached (Num 33:49), is mentioned here instead of Arboth-Moab, because it was at this northern point of the camp that the Israelites came into contact with the Moabites, and that the latter invited them to take part in their sacrificial meals; and in Jos 2:1 and Jos 3:1, because it was from this spot that the Israelites commenced the journey to Canaan, as being the nearest to the place where they were to pass through the Jordan. זנה, construed with אל, as in Eze 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. The lust of the flesh induced the Israelites to approach the daughters of Moab, and form acquaintances and friendships with them, in consequence of which they were invited by them "to the slain-offerings of their gods," i.e., to the sacrificial festivals and sacrificial meals, in connection with which they also "adored their gods," i.e., took part in the idolatrous worship connected with the sacrificial festival. These sacrificial meals were celebrated in honour of the Moabitish god Baal-Peor, so that the Israelites joined themselves to him. צמד, in the Niphal, to bind one's self to a person. Baal-Peor is the Baal of Peor, who was worshipped in the city of Beth-Peor (Deu 3:29; Deu 4:46; see at Num 23:28), a Moabitish Priapus, in honour of whom women and virgins prostituted themselves. As the god of war, he was called Chemosh (see at Num 21:29).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

SECOND SECTION

The Threatening Apostasy through the Seductions of Idolatrous Feasts Arrested by the Zeal of Phinehas

Num_25:1-18

1And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 2And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 3And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against 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. 5And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor.

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

10And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 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 sake1 among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. 12Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: 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. 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 house2 among the Simeonites. 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.

16And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 17Vex the Midianites, and smite them: 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.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[Num_25:3. Yoked. צָמַד, to bind, fasten—to come under the yoke—to be subject to discipline or rule, and so to serve.—A. G.]

[Num_25:8. הַקֻבָּה. The arch—the alcove—applied here to the inner or rear part of the tent.—A. G.]

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

[Balaam had not returned to his home, although he had turned towards it. It is not necessary to suppose that after leaving Balak he went to the Israelitish camp and revealed his prophecies to Moses in the hope that he might obtain the reward which he had failed to secure from Balak. The words he returned (Num_24:25) are hardly consistent with such a supposition. And there is nothing in the mental condition of Balaam, fallen now from the heights to which he had been taken, which should have led him to seek the camp of Israel. He was evidently burning with deep hostility towards Jehovah and His people. The loss of the coveted prize inflamed his anger. Moses may have learned his prophecies through other channels, may have received them directly from God, or perhaps, as Keil supposes, Balaam may have communicated them to the Israelites or to Phinehas when he fell into their hands. On his way homewards, burning with his anger and disappointment, he falls in with the Midianites who were then dwelling upon the Moabitish highlands. And here we have the plot which his malice and cunning suggested.—A. G.]

The blessing of Balaam did not shield the people from the curse to which it exposed itself immediately afterwards without any suspicion of the protection which Jehovah had given it in that blessing. On the doctrinal side, with respect to its faith, the worldly spirit found no direct access to them; now it attempts, and with great success, to approach them on the practical side, undermining its faith by corrupting its moral character and practice. This also is a story of the most primitive antiquity, ever repeating itself anew, and too little studied in the instance before us.

It is worthy of notice in the first place that the people had just returned from their last great victory in the east of Perea, and were now, in a dangerous spiritual mood resulting from their victory, encamped with their spoil in the acacia plains, seeking repose. This encampment was their Capua.

Then begins the old story of the enticing idolatrous feasts, against which the earliest statutes had warned them, Exo_23:32-33; a story which is fatally repeated through the whole Israelitish history, comes out again in a new form in the first periods of the Christian Church (2 Peter and Jude), and in the Apocalypse casts its shadow down to the very end of time. In masked forms, especially under the guise of sensual and voluptuous delights, this temptation has often, even in the Protestant Church, wrought destructive results, e. g., in the army of Henry the IV.; among the Huguenots generally; among the Hungarian Protestants; at the court of the last of the Stuarts, and at many other times and places.

But in such cases the evil, the moral contagion, starts with the great, rather than with the humble, and this is strikingly exemplified in the present narrative. As the wrath of God broke out against Israel and revealed itself in its peculiar power and results, in impending death, in a terrible pestilence, then spake Jehovah to Moses, Take all the heads of the people (those who have been leaders in the sin) and hang them up before the Lord against the sun.—Moses intended substantially the same thing when in other terms he said to the judges: Slay ye every man his men that were joined unto Baal-Peor.—Just then occurs the most glaring example of the sin. Zimri, a prince of the tribe of Simeon, leads his paramour, a Midianitish princess, with shameless impudence, into his tent, in the presence of all the people. How much less guilty the common people were, in comparison with such effrontery, appears from the fact stated, that all the people who saw the outrage were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Moses himself seems to have been confounded.

Nothing less than the exercise of a holy burning zeal, such as came upon Phinehas, could have stayed the tide of corruption. It is useless here to attempt to trace back to a definite statute or institution the zealot right which appears here in its strongest form. It wells up from the depths of the theocratic life, as a primitive form of police, having its precedent in the judgment exercised upon the more guilty offenders at the worship of the golden calf, and its analogies in the arbitrary exercise of justice, now in the vehme courts, now in lynch-law, etc. In Israel Zealotism was the complement of the law in its practical aspect, as Urim and Thummim were the complement of prophecy. There was here also a priestly basis and support. Phinehas was the son of Eleazar, the successor of Aaron. His heroic act confirmed to him the inheritance of his priesthood. The energetic character of his deed comes out in the strongest light in the text. This act was accepted as the decisive, satisfactory atonement of the collective guilt of the people. The plague was stayed.—As the Israelites had before determined upon a later war of revenge against the king of Arad, so now Moses resolves to be avenged upon the Midianites. The breach between the easily deluded Israel, and this dangerous neighboring people, should be made sure and lasting.

There is moreover a very remarkable delicacy in the narrative, in omitting any allusion here to the instigator of the temptation. The great villain and his villanous deed, lies deeply concealed in the background, and the story leaves him in his concealment for the present, because it is concerned mainly to bring out the fact that the people, or rather the heads of the people, are chargeable for the sin. It knows nothing now of any sentimental palliation of their conscious guilt; but the demoniacal wickedness of the tempter, and the judgment which overtook him are related later, and from thence onward in all the theocratic tradition, he is the great type of such seducers. We may perhaps regard it as a consoling truth, that while retribution was so long delayed, while his godless villany lay hidden for so long a period, yet judgment overtakes him at last.

Balaam appears moreover to have reached the Moabites, through the mediation of the nomadic Midianites lying upon the borders of Moab. The Midianites accordingly form the connecting link between Israel and Moab; but the princes of Moab obviously consecrate their own daughters to the work of seduction.

Num_25:1. Shittim.—An abbreviation for Abelshittim, see Num_22:1, a part of the plains of Moab in the direction of Palestine, Jos_2:1; Jos_3:1. It does not appear from the text that the fall of the people began with carnal lewdness. It began apparently with the invitation from the daughters of Moab to attend the sacrificial feasts of their gods. [The אֵל in the text, in its position and form, intimates that the invitation came from the daughters of Moab. And this is explicitly stated in the following verse. They, the daughters of Moab, called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods, the gods of those who extended the invitation. It is the usual process in the falls of Israel.—A. G.]. Sins of the flesh and the falling away to idolatrous service were the results. But both sins are bound up in the one conception of whoredom. The prostitution, the selling as it were of human personality, follows upon the concessions of the personality of God. [The acacia and palm groves, with their shade, gave a welcome retreat after these long wanderings in the barren desert, and the sore struggles through which they had passed.—A. G.]

Num_25:3. Baal-peor.—Lascivious rites were widely spread and prevalent in Babylonia and Syria. See Knobel. [Also article Baal in Smith’s Bible Dictionary.—A. G.]. It was Baal, especially as he was worshipped at Peor, with lustful practice (hence Baal is sometimes called Peor). Beth-Peor, Deu_3:29; Deu_4:46. “He was a Moabitish Priapus, in honor of whom virgins and women prostituted themselves. As the god of war he was called Chemosh,” Keil. We distinguish in the same divinity between the god of fortune and the god of misfortune, thus: the first was worshipped with voluptuous sacrifices, the latter with human sacrifices—Moloch-sacrifices. And the anger of the LORD was kindled. See Exo_4:24; Psalms 90.

Num_25:4. After the destructive pestilence had broken out among the people, Jehovah Himself appoints the first remedy. According to Knobel, whom Keil follows here, the heads of the people are only called out in order to hang the guilty ones among them. The whole narrative will thus lose its very nerve and substance, and surely this can scarcely be the true interpretation of וִחוֹקֵע אוֹתָם. All the heads of the people must clearly refer only to the guilty: but these are to be discriminated by the judges. Hang them up before the LORD (as a curse-offering) against the sun.—There were two principal modes of Oriental hanging. The one was fatal in its operation—a literal crucifixion—which however divided itself again into two kinds; nailing and impalement. In the other the criminals were slain first, and then fastened to a pole for exhibition or atonement, “so that the impalement or crucifixion was only an aggravation of the capital punishment, like the burning in Lev_20:14, and the hanging in Deu_21:22. The rendering of the Sept. and Vulg. is πάραδειγματίζειν and suspendere.” Keil.

[Knobel: “Crucifixion was a mode of capital punishment in use among the nations of antiquity, and could not have been strange to the Hebrews; but among the older Hebrews rarely if ever, except in the suspending of the dead corpse as an aggravation of the punishment.” Against the sun, i. e., publicly not in concealment. It was a public and shameful exhibition—as if the heaven and the earth were both unwilling to receive them—and therefore added to the severity of the punishment. Before the Lord: not merely as sinners against Him, and hence in His presence, but as the preposition means to Him—as a satisfaction to Him, to appease His wrath.—A. G.].

Num_25:5. Keil says: “This command of Moses to the judges was not carried out because the matter took a different turn.” He adds, however, later, twenty-four thousand were killed by the plague. The Apostle Paul gives the number that fell as twenty-three thousand, probably from a traditional interpretation of the schools, that one thousand out of the twenty-four, perished by the judges, and only twenty-three thousand fell by the plague literally—to whom alone Paul refers.” We must make a distinction also between the execution of the guilty generally, and the hanging up against the sun, the latter sentence being inflicted only upon the criminals of higher stations, and for purposes of intimidation.

[Slay ye every one his man.—There is a reference to the local or tribal courts which existed even then. The judges were severally to execute the sentence upon the guilty belonging to his jurisdiction. Hirsch: “The Jewish court had no right to intervene unless upon a public accusation. There need not be, however, any official public accuser. The whole people virtually occupied that position. Any two men might arrest the criminal and bring him before the court, and demand a punishment according to the offence. But as in cases like this, in which there is a wide and public apostacy, these steps were not taken, perhaps could not be—therefore God Himself lets His anger flame against Israel—assumes the responsibility and exercises the functions of the judge.—A. G.].

Num_25:6-9. He leads her before the eyes of Israel into the female apartment of his tent. Phinehas pierced both of them through in the very act. The original will scarcely admit any other view, and the deviations from it among the Rabbins are untenable. [Keil: “Upon this act of Phinehas and later examples of Samuel (1Sa_15:33) and Mattathias (1Ma_2:24), the later Jews erected the so-called ‘Zealot-right,’ according to which any one, even though not qualified by his official position, possessed the right, in cases of any daring contempt of the theocratic institutions, or any daring violation of the honor of God, to execute vengeance upon the criminals. See Buddeus’ de jure zelotarum apud Heb. 1699.” Kurtz, Geschich. des A. B. reminds us however that Phinehas as an actual priest and designated successor to the High Priest, had an official position, that Moses’ command to slay the transgressors had already been issued, that the circumstances were extraordinary, the boldness of the crime, the great interests, even the highest good imperilled, justified his assumption of authority, and his consecration to his judicial act. It would be very strange to construe such an act, by such a person, under such circumstances, into a precedent for irregular acts of zeal.—A. G.].

Num_25:10-12. קִנְאָתִי “is not zeal for me, but my zeal, the zeal of Jehovah, with which Phinehas was filled, and impelled to put the daring sinners to death,” Keil. The zeal of Jehovah manifested itself in the plague. Here the zeal of Phinehas for Jehovah is exalted according to its real merit. [Hath turned my wrath away. He made an atonement for the children of Israel.—וַיְכַפֵּר and covered, or was for a covering. Bible. Com.: “The signal example thus made by Phinehas of a leading offender, was accepted by God as an expiation, and the exterminating wrath which had gone out against the whole people was arrested.” I give him my covenant of peace.—Give or fulfil. “The covenant granted to Phinehas consisted in the fact that an eternal priesthood (i. e., the eternal possession of the priesthood) was secured to him; not for himself alone, but for his descendants also as a covenant, i. e., in a covenant or irrevocable form, since God never breaks a covenant that He has made. In accordance with this promise the high priesthood which passed from Eleazar to Phinehas continued in his family, with the exception of a brief period from Eli to David, until the typical priesthood of Aaron was merged into the actual priesthood of Christ.” Keil. The covenant of peace, because it is only through the priesthood and its atoning sacrifices that peace between God and the sinful world can be established, as it was through the act of Phinehas, by which God’s right was vindicated and established in Israel, that His wrath was stayed, and peace restored.—A. G.].

Num_25:14-15. Zimri was a prince out of the chief house of the tribe of Simeon, but the father of the Midianitish woman Cozbi was the head of several tribes, and of a chief house in Midian, and is called king, and numbered among the five kings of Midian who were slain by the Israelites, Num_31:8.

Num_25:16-18. Cozbi their sister.—The repetition is emphatic, the clauses form a climax. It was an extreme case of the grossest outrage that Cozbi, a Midianitish princess, the sister of the people, i. e., of their chiefs, should herself be led in clear sunlight, into the sacred camp, to glorify lust, and render it an act of service or worship. [Baumgarten: “Moses was commanded to vex the Midianites in order that the practical zeal of Phinehas against sin, by which expiation had been made for the guilt, might be adopted by all the nation.”—A. G.].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

The history of the fall and sin of Israel through its participation in the idolatrous festivals of the Midianitish gods, can scarcely be too strongly emphasized, in its significance for the Christian history of the Church and world. Its particular features are, 1. The stealthy diabolical counsel of Balaam to destroy the people of the faith by beguiling them into lascivious worship, and worldly lusts and passions generally. This fiendish method has played a larger part in secret than has ever found publicity in history, poisoning individual characters, and whole nations. 2. The dangerous situation of Israel, as it is encamped in the acacia groves and celebrates its victories. 3. The alluring invitation to the idolatrous festivals and sacrifices. 4. The evil example of the great, and of the upper class in general. The fearful result of the enticement and sin of Israel, appears morally in a lapse from the faith and its pure morality, and physically in the outgrowth of deadly pestilences. On the other hand these offences call out in unexampled vigor the spirit of zeal, the primal source and type of all moral police, as it has celebrated its triumphs in Florence, Geneva and elsewhere. Such acts of moral defence and safety must be broadly distinguished from deeds of fanaticism; although the flame rarely begins without smoke. Generally we have here the primitive type of that ever returning freeing of the kingdom of God from all antinomianism, from all libertinism in the great, and all hypocrisy in the small, from all mingling of holiness with glittering fleshly lusts, and from all mingling of hallowed festal service, with seductive and corrupting feasts. The name Cozbi has especially furnished a basis for a long catalogue of sister names, who, like the Jezebel of the Apocalypse, have wrought fatal mischief in both worldly and spiritual circles.

[The history shows that the “curse causeless never comes.” God’s people are safe from the curse unless they bring it upon themselves. They never experience it unless they have practically renounced God and His law. The floodgates are open, then, and nothing but a vindicated divine right will stem the tide.—A. G.].

HOMILETICAL HINTS

The enticement of Israel through the idolatrous Midianitish festivals. An old and new story. Cozbi a type of the historical and corrupting woman. The zeal of Phinehas or the distinction between religious and fanatical zealotism. The idolatrous Midianitish festivals, a lasting warning for Christendom. A warning also against the mingling of religious devotion with the sexual life, characteristic of some sects. The twofold correction of the divine righteousness for the Midianitish excesses. The plague or the pestilence, and the sword of Phinehas. How often may the judicial sword hinder or remove a pestilence. [Henry: “We have here: 1. The sin of Israel. 2. Its punishment by the hand of the magistrate and by the immediate hand of God. 3. The zeal of Phinehas in slaying the impudent offenders. 4. God’s commendation of his zeal; and 5. The enmity put between the Israelites and the Midianites their tempters, as at first between the woman and the serpent. The heads of the people who were guilty are first slain. Ringleaders in sin ought to be made examples of justice. Zimri’s sin was a daring affront: 1. To the justice of the nation, and bid defiance to that. 2. To the religion of the nation, and put contempt upon that. In the face of the command to stay the criminals, and while the congregation were weeping at the door of the tabernacle.” It was also a bold affront against God. Since it was committed while the plague was raging. God will surely deal with those who do the devil’s work in tempting men to sin.—A. G.].

Footnotes:

[1]Marg. with my zeal.

[2]Marg. house of a father.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Israel’s Sin with the Daughters of Moab: Phinehas

CHAPTER 25

1. The transgression and the anger of Jehovah (Num 25:1-5)

2. Phinehas’ action (Num 25:6-9)

3. Phinehas and his reward (Num 25:10-15)

4. The Midianites to be smitten (Num 26:16-18)

The sin of Israel was the result of Balaam’s work. He could not turn Jehovah from Israel (no enemy can), but he could turn Israel from God. While we do not read here that the fornication and idolatry into which Israel fell was Balaam’s work, elsewhere this information is given. See Num 31:16 and Rev 2:14. The stumbling block, which this instrument of Satan put into the way of Israel, by which they committed fornication and idolatry, were the daughters of Moab. Pergamos in the second chapter of Revelation is prophetically that period of the church which began with Constantine the Great. Then the church left the ground of separation and was wedded to the world. Spiritual fornication was committed and idolatry followed in its train. This was Satan’s work as much as Balaam’s act was. And today we see Christendom in the sad condition of Israel at Shittim. Separation is given up completely. Judgment will be visited ere long upon apostate, adulterous Christendom as it fell upon Israel. In the plague 24,000 died. In 1Co 10:8, we read, “Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.” The record in Numbers speaks of a previous punishment when the heads of the transgressors were hung up before the Lord against the sun. Traditions among the Jews states that the number of those who were thus punished was a thousand, so that only 23,000 perished in the plague. In verse 9 this thousand is reckoned in, while in Corinthians they are left out.

Then followed an outrageous act of defiance (verse 6). The name of the Midianitish woman was Cozbi (my lie). By the zeal of Phinehas the people were saved from further judgment and Jehovah was glorified. He was zealous for His God and made an atonement for the children of Israel. He received for reward an everlasting priesthood. It is another type of Christ in His righteousness and holy zeal for God.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Division 4. (Num 25:1-18; Num 26:1-65; Num 27:1-23.)

The testing in its consequences.

The fourth division is, naturally, of smaller compass than usual in the book of Numbers, which is throughout characterized by this number. In this division, it is testing in its consequences that is put before us. And this has three parts: —

First, there is seen the necessity, in the high-handed departure from God that takes place, for such atonement as is made by Phinehas, -atonement to the government of God by judgment of the evil, for the zealous execution of which he gets the assurance of everlasting priesthood.

Secondly, the new numbering of the people shows how they have come through the wilderness, their increase or diminution, and God’s faithfulness to His word, whether in grace or judgment.

Thirdly, it is seen that for the realization of the inheritance Moses must give place to Joshua, -Christ personally with us to Christ in Spirit -typically what Christ declared to His disciples, when He said, "It is expedient for you that I go away; for, if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." The truth is not here that the law cannot bring us to heaven (as many think), true as, of course, this is, but one much less realized by the people of God than this; nor does Moses represent the law here. We shall speak of all this, however, better in its own place.

1. Israel abide in Shittim, no doubt, so called from its acacias; but the word literally means "things that turn aside," as the acacias with their strong thorns do. Yet the acacia is only spoken of with commendation in Scripture, and so takes its place in the promises of blessing for the renewed earth. (Isa 41:19, Joe 3:18.) It furnishes the gum arabic of commerce, which, says Tristram, "exudes from the tree spontaneously, as I have often observed in hot weather, but is also obtained more systematically by making incisions in the bark; and the Arabs not only collect it for sale, but for food in times of scarcity. They also say that it allays thirst." "It flourishes most in the dry beds of extinct water-courses, and where no other tree can find moisture. It is a very conspicuous feature wherever it occurs. The timber is very hard and close-grained, of a fine orange-brown color, with a darker heart, and admirably adapted for fine cabinet work."

With so many precious reminders of Him who was indeed before God (not before man only, as so many think), "a root out of a dry ground," the type of a life independent of circumstances and overmastering death; yielding spontaneously, yet also to the hand of violence, the precious sustenance for our souls; we can understand why the shittim-wood should furnish material for the ark, for the table of show-bread, and other furniture of the sanctuary which speak of Christ.

Yet the acacia has its thorns to guard the treasure that it carries, and such is the lesson we are to gather from it now. The resurrection-priesthood, so glorious in its efficacy for the people, as we have already seen, develops here new characters, characters which may at first seem even contradictory of the grace which has gone before, but which are not, -are only the other side of it. The priesthood of Phinehas springs from, and is the continuation of, the priesthood of Eleazar, yet is perpetuated and sustained by judgment; nay, strange as it may seem, atonement is made by judgment: "Phinehas hath turned away My wrath from over the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in My jealousy. Wherefore say, ’Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace; and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, a covenant of everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’"

A solemn and yet salutary theme, then, is before us. Again we see, at Shittim, the people of God in their constant liability to get away from God. They begin to give up their separation from the nations among which they are, and as this is no arbitrary thing, but needful separation from the iniquity in which these were plunged, a wild and awful license is the result. Idolatry, the degradation of God, issues (as always) in the degradation of man. "Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor, and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel." Judgment, as is implied in this, goes forth: pestilence begins to do its deadly work, and to appease this anger the heads of the people are sentenced to be hung up to Jehovah before the sun.

But the zealous deed of an Israelite anticipates this sentence. In the midst of the outbreak of lamentation among the congregation, gathered now before Jehovah at the entrance of the tent of meeting, a man of the children of Israel shamelessly brings near before them all a Midianite woman to his tent. Now it is that the zeal of Phinehas awakes: he executes swift judgment, and God accepts this as atonement. It is God’s wrath he executes, and the wrath is stayed from Israel: the plague ceases.

Notice how, each time that Phinehas is named, his relation to Eleazar and to Aaron is insisted on. It is what man would most of all have put out of sight. Priestly intercession we understand, but execution of judgment we do not ordinarily consider priestly work: yet the connection here is emphasized. "Phinehas" means "mouth of brass," and implies the firmness of the word of God which here he executes. So "Jesus Christ the righteous" is the title of Him who is our Advocate, -righteous, and the "propitiation for our sins." (1Jn 2:1-2.)

Righteousness, yea, divine righteousness, was shown in the manner of His work for us; and the cross is the solemn declaration of righteous judgment upon sin. So much every Christian bows to and delights in; and herein was propitiation alone possible for us. He bare our sins, that we might not have to bear them; being borne for us we cannot bear them for ourselves. "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" is now the unchangeable word of the same righteousness of God which the cross has so fully manifested and glorified.

But if so, what is the typical meaning of the scene before us? Why is Phinehas the executor of judgment, instead of bearing it? Why is the everlasting priesthood declared his on this very account? And why, above all, does Jehovah’s own mouth declare, that in this execution of judgment he had "made atonement" for the children of Israel?

God’s Word is true and unchangeable, absolutely self-consistent throughout; and we need not fear to ask such questions. To shirk or shuffle over them would be to do grievous dishonor to His Word, and injury to our own souls. But what, then, are we to say of this certainly most exceptional aspect of atonement, by the execution of judgment, not upon a substitute for sinners, but upon the sinners themselves?

"For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily," says the apostle, "eateth and drinketh judgment* to himself; not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."

{*See Rev. Vers., 1Co 11:29, and margin of the common version.}

Note that he is writing explicitly to Christians, making no doubt of their Christianity, as we may see by his very language, "that ye should not be condemned with the world." This means, of course, that they are not of the world. What an unscriptural and unchristian doctrine would it be, that the temporal judgments falling upon unbelievers here deliver them from final condemnation! No, assuredly; nothing but the blood of Jesus can put away sin from before God, or justify the ungodly, so that he shall not be judged forever.

The judgment spoken of here is the judgment of children, for it is children who are alone entitled to it, so that "if ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? but if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." The thorn of tribulation grows for us thus on the shittah-tree: the cress it is that has procured for us a chastening so needful; and we surely see how the priest after all may have to do with it, how the work of intercession may bring it on. If we look back to that fundamental promise of God to Abram which we find in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, there where Jehovah pledges Himself, by all the value of the sacrifice for Him, to fulfill the promise of inheritance, the emblems that represent Him in thus binding Himself are the furnace of fire and the burning lamp. This is the pledge that needful discipline shall not be wanting, where the "deep sleep" falling upon His people may require this. And to this afterward the burning bush answers, which is not consumed because God is in the fire. The Egyptian oppression was thus, on its reverse side, covenant mercy. And this is only an example of what is a constant principle of the divine ways.

And "when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." For though the cross is our salvation, God must be consistent with Himself. He must be holy in His ways, -must show that He cannot lightly deal with sin: His government must represent aright His character. Thus the cross cannot excuse from discipline, but secures it; as He says to Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore will I punish you for your iniquities."

If it is asked still how this can be called "making atonement," we must remember how in the sixteenth chapter atonement is said to be made by the incense also, and that the Hebrew word, which is the intensive form of the verb to "cover," is used with regard to every fresh application of atonement, as we should rather say. By his zealous action Phinehas,

in the line of the risen priesthood, as is impressed upon us here, covers the children of Israel, NOT apart from the value of that death which a risen priest implies, but rather as insisting on its value. The cross of Christ it is by which we are crucified to the world. If we do not maintain this position, God is true to it and to us in maintaining it as to us; and in respect to His government this is necessary: with regard to it this judgment covers, though only in the hands of our Phinehas could it do so.

2. (1) We have now the second numbering of the tribes, the wilderness-journey being accomplished, and in view of their speedy settlement in the land; to which the claim of the daughters of Zelophehad is evidently an appendix. This second numbering is, of course, intended also for comparison with the first, -a comparison which should furnish us with many lessons. We are dull, however, and slow in reading them;; few of us, it is to be feared, to the very last of our lives here, could give much account of the meaning of the Lord’s ways with us. There is a day coming, however, in which everything shall be told out, and its full meaning be apprehended.

The tribes come before us according to their relation to one another in their camps, the camp of Reuben, the natural first-born, being first, however, as in the former numbering, but here also Manasseh preceding Ephraim. It is accountability, not grace, that occupies us, although grace necessarily shines through all God’s dealings with His people. The relation of the tribes in their camps has important connection with their history, as we are formed so much by our associations (though in this case they are not voluntary, but ordained by God Himself) and has therefore a fitness which, in its spiritual meaning for us, we have already considered. Individual responsibility is in no wise affected by it. Let us look now at what this numbering presents to us, in contrast with the former one, and in connection with what we may find of their history elsewhere.

(a) First, REUBEN. Reuben according to his name speaks of sonship, natural rather than spiritual, and yet upon which the spiritual may be grafted. Man, as the offspring of God, is in His likeness prominently by that intelligent will, in the possession of which his responsibility is realized. By it he may degrade himself below the beast, and in yielding it to God alone he is blessed and ennobled. These lessons we have had before in connection with Reuben. (Gen 49:1-33; Num 2:1-34.) His four sons we have also briefly looked at in Exo 6:14: Enoch -the "dedicated," Phallu -the "separated," Hetzron -the "enclosed," Carmi -the "vine-dresser;" -all these are susceptible of a good meaning, although all these may be apart from fruit. They remain as permanent heads of families in the account before us, other names being added which are of great significance.

Thus the son of Phallu is Eliab -"God is Father," -a meaning which, according to the peculiar ambiguity of these Reubenite names, may be either the claim of mere nature, forgetting the fall, or the true cry begotten of the Spirit in the heart of the child of God. That this is no mere fancy is proved by the names of those that spring from him. Dathan and Abiram have already shown us the spirit of rebellion which goes with the assumption of the merely natural claim. Nemuel, on the other side, -"circumcised of God," -shows how, as brought to the realization of "no confidence in the flesh" (Php 3:3), we may obtain the true claim of grace, in new creation: for every child born in Israel was circumcised on the eighth day. (Gen 17:12.)

In Nemuel, then, is Reuben truly fruitful; -the promise of his name is fulfilled. And in the diminution of his numbers (from forty-six thousand, five hundred, at the beginning, to forty-three thousand, seven hundred and thirty, at the close), we may learn the loss resulting in our lives from fleshly reasoning and pretension. Let us notice, as in agreement with all that we have seen of Reuben, that he inherits Sihon’s territory, Heshbon itself being rebuilt by the men of Reuben (Num 32:37), although later it became a Levite city in the tribe of Gad. Of these things we may see more in their place.

(b) Of SIMEON it is difficult to speak with clearness. The name given him does not seem to characterize him, and Jacob does not in his prophecy as to the tribe appear to refer to it. Moses, in his blessing leaves out Simeon entirely. There is little or no history attaching to them: they seem to be found generally associated with others; in the land, with Judah; and their inheritance falls within the portion of Judah (Jos 19:1): they have no individual man of any special prominence.

All this, if put together, tells a tale, however, of its own, and it does not seem as if we could be wrong, in characterizing Simeon as the Lot among the children of Israel. Always seeking companionship, he takes the color of the company he keeps, and never attains to individuality. In the matter of Shechem, he would seem to have imbibed fierceness from Levi, who, upon another occasion and in a different spirit, still shows the unflinching determination which we see in the Hivite massacre. On the other hand, in the Midianite snare, we may easily understand them to have been deeply involved as we see, in fact, that it is the conduct of a prince of Simeon that rouses the zeal of Phinehas. Association is the bane all through, a spirit of dependence which seeks help, not of God, but man; and which, while it may give them a transient appearance of prosperity, in the result shows itself as disastrous. In the beginning of their wilderness history they are fifty-nine thousand three hundred strong, third among all the tribes; but at the end they are but twenty-two thousand two hundred, absolutely the weakest of all. Nor do they ever after come into prominence: no name of note occurs among them; hasty maturity, as so often, has passed into a long decay, which, as far as history goes, is final, although it cannot avail against the grace which gives Simeon his place at last in the revived nation.

Of this grace of God, in contrast so great with their history, the names of the tribal families seem to speak in a remarkable way. Thus they begin with another Nemuel, "circumcised of God," which in Genesis appears as Jemuel, "may God circumcise him!" Here, indeed, Simeon’s own name is fulfilled: a hearing God hath heard! Blessed be He! we know Him well.

Next comes Jamin, "right hand," the place of honor and dignity, to which grace alone can exalt the children of men. Then Jachin, "He shall establish." Then Zerah, in which the former, Zohar, "splendor," appears more significantly as the "sunrise." And lastly, Saul, even as the son of the Canaanitess, may remind us of how the Canaanite is made to illustrate, as here in his connection with the families of Israel, redemption from the curse.

(c) The third tribe here is GAD. Both from his name and history, Gad seems a warrior-tribe; though, as with the Arab now, they could unite the pastoral occupation with it. In Jacob’s prophecy he is overcome before he overcomes, and thus knows how to turn defeat into a victory. In Leah’s mouth his name is a prophecy of increase; and his seven sons all survive in families.

The names here do not, however, fall into ready sequence, and are some of them difficult also to interpret certainly; nor does the blessing of Gad by Moses do more apparently than confirm the character which we have already seen to belong to him. Connecting all together, and allowing its due emphasis to Jacob’s original prophecy, it would seem that Gad represents the strength that is ministered when weakness and defeat have taught their lesson, -the divine strength thus found when our own has failed and broken down, -a practical power of resurrection, which suits well with the third place in which we find the tribe in this chapter.

Power seems to be indeed the lesson illustrated by this first camp all through -the camp of Reuben, whose standard we have seen to be faith. These two things, faith and power, are in necessary connection. In Reuben himself we find the source of it in God the Almighty, as declared in the covenant of circumcision, which affirms relationship to Him to be in grace, in new creation. In Simeon, next, the alliance that gives power is with God alone; though, of course also, if with God, we shall realize our relation, and be helpers to each other according to His ordinance. Here, however, we have to take exceeding care; for to lean upon each other is still weakness, and not strength. Here, therefore, as we find with Simeon now, the circumcised Nemuel must come first, that the Jamins and the Jachins may follow in due place. Thirdly, then Gad gives us the practical acquirement of the lesson, first of all by realized weakness and defeat, that God alone may be exalted, -a practical resurrection-lesson blessed to learn indeed.

(2) The second camp here is that of Judah, whose standard is righteousness, first in the order of march, as Paul names it in his epistle to Timothy (2Ti 2:22), "follow righteousness, faith." Here there is a different thought, and another side of righteousness seen in the place assigned to Judah, which speaks, I believe, of service. All obedience is that, of course; even for those "who only stand and wait." That Judah comes first of the three associated tribes is simple enough. The outflow of the full heart manward is in service, as it is Godward in praise. The spirit of praise it is that banishes legality and makes the life a true offering to God. Then, indeed, Issachar may follow, and the husbandman that laboreth be partaker of the fruit; Zebulon speaking of that open, recognized association of God with us, which is the seal upon true labor. Let us look at Judah, then, from this point of view, and see of what the names found may remind us.

(a) First, then, we are carried back to Er and Onan, that we may remember what a history was that of Judah’s family. In these the enmity to God, and the iniquity in which it displays itself find their condemnation and pass away. No fruit of righteousness -Tamar, the "palm" -can be from these. In the third son, Shelah, does Judah’s seed find, as it were, its resurrection, and his name tells of "peace," now for the first time found.

Shelah is fruitful, but much more Tamar’s seed; of which Pharez, the "breaker forth," breaks out into a multitudinous fruit, which fills up all the after history of Judah. Hence come her kings, and her great King; while twin with Pharez comes Zerah. or the [sun] rise, from whom come afterward singers, as Ethan, and warriors, as Shammah, Sibbechai, Maharai, stout defenders of the throne. A little care may easily find here the meaning.

Two families of Pharez have special mention, Hetzron ("inclosure"?), and Hamul ("compassionate.") They may perhaps represent tendencies which easily come into opposition with one another, and which should not, whose true meaning is seen in union, as with the walled palm-stem of which we have been led to think, and which supports its plenteous fruit.

These histories at least, we may be sure, are parables, even to the genealogical tables, which, as merely that, have been so utterly neglected, or worked in a fashion which has been barren of all profit. Let us only remember, God in all His Word is thinking of our souls; and we have the fullest warrant for the interpretation of names. "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing," says the wise man; "but the honor of kings to search out a matter." (Pro 25:2.) Where are God’s kings today? and who will listen to the voice that says, "Know ye not this parable? and how, then, will ye know all parables?"

(b) Issachar follows, looking, as his name imports, for recompense: so does every laborer expect the fruitful fields which are to justify his work. Issachar has but four sons, the name of the first of which is that of apparently the sole great man of his tribe, Tola, the judge of Israel after the death of Abimelech. Tola’s name is significant enough as -a lesson to the great: it means "a worm," or rather, the coccus of the oak,* which produces the "scarlet" or "crimson" dye used in the East, and with which was produced the "scarlet" familiar to us in the vail of the tabernacle and elsewhere. Tola’s name, first in the list of the families of Issachar, seems clearly to teach what is.a fundamental principle for all who are to find from their labors the reward they seek. "Scarlet," or better "crimson," is the blood color, and the mode of its production speaks plainly in this respect. But how solemn, then, is the language of the twenty-second psalm, "I am (tola) a worm, and no man"! He whose this voice really is, went down indeed, to do for us His redemption-work, into a depth immeasurably below the place of man as God made him first, the place into which, simply as becoming man, He had descended. And the Tolas are they, who, having learned the depth of His humiliation, have learned in this to recognize their own, and so to take their place upon Job’s dust-heap, conscious henceforth that for them recompense, if it be not in hopeless judgment, must be "mercy" merely. (2Ti 1:18.)

{*Properly the kermes insect, Coccus ilicis, (Coccus of the oak); the cochineal being the coccus cacti, and American.}

How fittingly, then, does Tola lead among the families of Issachar. Then first with Puah does "utterance" become safe. It will no longer be for the glory of man, but in truthful testimony to Him who is no longer heard about with the hearing of the ear, but whom the eye has seen, and seen in fullest glory in the abyss of sorrow. Not simply will the lips either "utter" this: the life will be utterance, or there is no real one. So Jashub, "he returns," following Puah, may indicate. So the prodigal; and this is what conversion in its true sense indicates, a turning back to God. Finally, and in the fourth place, suitably to the weakness of which it reminds us, we have Shimron with his warning note. "On guard" may better perhaps than any thing else express his name.

(c) This completes Issachar: Zebulon who follows is more difficult to interpret. In his name, and according to what he represents in Jacob’s prophecy, he may seem to have close affinity with Simeon in character. But there is a difference: Leah’s "Now shall my husband dwell with me" might well be the joyful language of Israel, in view of the relationship which He who dwelt in their midst had entered into with them. The separation to Himself implied by this, Zebulon, in Jacob’s words, disregards for commerce with the Gentiles. It is not positive alliance with this nation or that, that seems so much indicated, as the passing out of God’s enclosure to seek his own things outside untrammeled.

Here, on the other hand, Zebulon seems to rest in the shelter of the divine arms; and we think as we look at the names of his families of that association of God with us, which, where it is found, is the manifest seal of God upon the ways that please Him. What it implies in us can perhaps not be better expressed than just in contentment to be there, -the enclosing arms not felt as a restraint, but as a shelter, statutes but songs; with which we have traced the circle, and come back once more to Judah.

The names of the three families seem to speak of the realization of this being with God, in its results in blessing: Sered, escape," the joy of the dove which has fled from the stormy wind and tempest to be at rest in its sanctuary home; Elon, "oak," or "strength," which the oak typifies, and which God is to the weakest that have fled to Him; lastly, Jahleel, "expectation of God," the blessed result for one weaned from other dependences, in which the need of the creature finds its holiest expression, and its interpretation spiritually.

(3) The third camp now is Ephraim’s, in which we find, however, -it is quite intelligible why -Manasseh foremost. This, as we have seen, is the order of progress, if Ephraim give us the governing thought. In this place Manasseh may represent whole heartedness, as with the apostle in Php 3:13; and from him springs Machir, "one who recollects"? for as on the one hand forgetting is the fruit of remembrance, so also do we forget in order to remember: the resolute turning from things here is to occupy oneself with the things beyond: "set your mind on things above," says the apostle, (Col 3:2, marg.) "not on things on the earth." From hence springs again Gilead, the "rocky," hard, as it may seem, and rough, but strong; and Gilead branchessss out into six families: Jeezer, "where there is help;" Helek, "equal division;" Asriel, "divine bond;" Shechem, "shoulder," -that which bears the burden; Shemida, "name of knowledge," -speaking of that one Name, in the apprehension of which is indeed true knowledge? Lastly, Hepher, "a digging, a well," -the series ending with that which provides for permanent refreshment and growth.

Zelophehad the son of Hepher is introduced here, not as the head of a distinct family in Manasseh, but as preparing the way for what follows in the next chapter.

Ephraim comes after Manasseh with three sons, and a grandson. Much difficulty is connected with these names, which need an intelligent believing study they have never yet received. I do not, therefore, attempt their explanation. And the same exactly is to be said of —

Benjamin, where the many questions that have been raised, had they been sought to be answered with a more spiritual end than a mere dry settlement of difficulties, would long since have put us in possession of that which would have not only conclusively solved the difficulties, but been for us fruitful in true blessing; as it is, we must pass on, having no place for criticisms as yet unfruitful, and with which now almost every one who has the desire and skill can easily become acquainted. The connection of Benjamin with the camp of Ephraim has been already briefly considered.

(4) We come now to the fourth camp, that of Dan. Dan, though only second in number of the tribes of Israel, has but one family, that of Shuham, just as only one son is ascribed to Dan in Gen 46:1-34, Hushim. The natural inference is that Shuham and Hushim are the same, and that the one name by transposition has become the other; but then the transposition itself must have a meaning: the earlier name signifies "hastening," while the latter is "depression, humiliation." Dan, child of the bondmaid, stands yet for the spirit of rule -a rule which is rightly service, but which in man so easily becomes the tyranny of pride and self-interest. The first duty of government is self-government; and the ruler’s school is therefore that of discipline. So with God’s kings: the back-side of the desert was Moses’ school, where he who had once been hasty in judgment became the meekest of all men. David too had not only his shepherd training, but his affliction at the hand of Saul. And now for ourselves also the same rule holds good: if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him."

The one name here may have a meaning then; and its change from the old form show how from the hasty spirit of self Dan grows into his proper shape and into a multitude. Abasement is God’s way of exaltation and there is no other way: the heart is exercised, the eye is cleared, the mists roll off; the testing has done its work in transforming Hushim into Shuham. Dan becomes a prince indeed, and fulfills his name.

Asher is also the child of a handmaid, and his place in connection with Dan has been already indicated; but neither in the case of Asher nor of Naphtali do the names speak as yet with clearness, while prophecy and history are comparatively silent also. Unwillingly, therefore, we must leave them without notice here.

(5) With this closes the first part of what is clearly a septenary series; the last three parts being distinct from the first four, as even the numbering of Levi is distinct from that of Israel with whom they have no inheritance. This fifth section now provides that according to the number of the tribes their inheritance in the land shall be allotted them. These numbers evidently represent gains or losses for which they were responsible; and as they had thus flourished so should they inherit. The section fills, therefore, exactly its numerical place, and contains a very solemn warning for us. The "lot," according to which the division was to be, makes this still more directly from the Lord. (Pro 16:33.)

So little complete -to our common shame -has the mere outline interpretation of this chapter been to us, that of necessity the lesson of the numbering itself could not be attempted to be given in detail. I add therefore here from another some remarks which are not only of much interest in themselves, but which may help to stimulate the zeal of others to look more believingly into the seemingly more barren places of God’s precious Word. In barren spots it is that the ore is found by the miner’s labor.

"Here, not less than elsewhere, numbers are significant, indicating prosperity (Gen 48:19) and strength (Luk 14:31).

"Reuben (Num 1:20; Num 26:5) heads the list, -the first-born, and therefore entitled, according to nature, to the leadership; but because of sin, he was not to have the excellency. In these forty years’ wanderings, his numbers dwindle, -at the close, we see him weaker than at the beginning. Looking at his history for a reason for this we come to the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram, who were of this tribe (Num 16:1). Desiring to be leaders, under pretense of claiming their rights for the people, they rebel against God’s authority in Moses, turn back in heart to Egypt, and murmur at the trials of the way. Swift judgment overtakes them, -the earth opens and swallows them up, but the leaven of their example spreads among the people, and rebellion is only checked when fourteen thousand are slain by the plague. (Num 16:49.) How many, like these children of Reuben, rebel against God’s authority, in pure self-will, and murmur at the trials of the way, only to weaken themselves and their brethren, finding that, instead of being exalted by their independence, they have become abased!

"In looking at Simeon, we are struck with the shrinkage from fifty-nine thousand, three hundred, to twenty-two thousand, two hundred, -his strength but little more than one third of what he had at the start, and we cannot help remembering that it was a prince of this tribe who was the leading offender at Baal Peor, upon whom also judgment was summarily executed (Num 25:8); and doubtless his brethren (v. 6) who were sharers in his sin partook also of his judgment, leaving Simeon’s ranks woefully depleted. But what was this sin that wrought such havoc? What Balak’s efforts at cursing could not effect, mixture with the Midianites did, in measure. Rebellion, the sin of Reuben, does not leave the tribe so weak as mingling with strange people does Simeon. How many, alas! of God,s people have proven, as Simeon did here, that mixture with the world saps their strength and destroys their spiritual prosperity! It is the Pergamos state of the Church -marriage with the world, and is so described in Rev 2:1-29. Then, too, as though in solemn warning, it was at the close of the journey that Simeon thus sinned, and there was no time for recovery. Like Solomon afterward, and Lot before, the last thing mentioned is the sin, and their lamp (of testimony) goes out in obscure darkness. David failed grievously, but there was a good measure of recovery (though he bore his scars to the grave). Let us beware of the first symptoms of coldness or worldliness, lest we too, like Simeon, find our last days here blighted by irremediable failure.

"Gad also shows a weakening at the close. His outward history shows no reason for this, unless his close connection with Reuben and Simeon (Num 2:10-16) made him a sharer in their sin and judgment. Association with evil workers, even where one outwardly is not a partaker, has a weakening effect. How we can see this all around! -a repetition of Jonathan, -upright himself; yet linked with the house of Saul. Many of God’s people are growing weaker, through ecclesiastical, business, social, or family relationships with those who drag them into worldliness.

"Secret causes sap the strength of Naphtali, and he comes out of the course weaker by eight thousand men than when he entered it. With nothing unusual laid to his charge, he has gone backward. Let us beware lest some little foxes’ spoil our vines, -lest, while outwardly blameless -with nothing positive in our conduct to be condemned as in Reuben, or in our associations as Gad, we may show even greater deterioration than either. It is loss of first love, even where there are abundant works, which brings such weakness.

"Fruitful Ephraim seems to contradict his name, losing eight thousand men. It is one thing to have a name by grace, quite another to prove it in our walk.

"But this catalogue has also a bright side. Warnings alone might discourage us. Besides, it is not true that the wilderness is a place that only weakens: on the contrary, rightly gone through, the strength is renewed -’thy pound hath gained ten pounds.’ There is Judah, who gains nearly two thousand in those forty years of trial. Did Caleb’s faith stimulate them all? (Joshua was not, perhaps, so closely identified with Ephraim, though of that tribe, being the companion of Moses -Exo 33:11.) Jonathan and David, and a host of others, show what the faith of one man can do in encouraging others. Companionship with a man of faith is helpful; unless, like Lot, we lean on him, instead of imitating his faith. Caleb, at the close of his journey, could say (Jos 14:11), ’As yet, I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in.’ So the numbers of Judah speak of vigor undiminished. May it be so with us at the close. Issachar and Zebulon, in the same camp with Judah, can bear the same testimony -that the wilderness does not necessarily weaken. Even here there is a difference, -Issachar’s increase of nearly ten thousand being much greater than that of Zebulon. Those who succeed, do so in various degrees.

"Manasseh reverses Ephraim’s experience, and is an illustration of the fact that ’many that are first shall be last, and the last first.’ Many a sincere, quiet, plodding Christian, with nothing brilliant, will show at the close a brighter record than his brother who apparently had so much better prospects.

"Dan, already large, increases; while Asher, from being one of the smaller tribes, takes his place with the largest. Friend, come up higher’ might be said of him.

"What varied results, both of failure and success! and to be explained by various reasons. Here are indications of little failures and great ones, of small progress and astonishing progress. Can we not take these two catalogues, and seeing in them a picture for ourselves, learn the lesson? God shows us that at the close, an examination will be made -’we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.’ In these pictures, we can read the end from the beginning, and so be wise, and seek to gather daily gold, silver, precious stones, shunning all that would weaken us, and counting on that grace which bears us on eagle’s wings.

"Though the way be long and dreary,

Eagle strength He’ll still renew;

Garments fresh, and foot unweary,

Tell how God hath brought thee through."

(S. Ridout, Help and Food, vol. 7, pp. 253-257.)

(6) We now find separately the families of Levi, and their number. With the names we are more or less familiar. Beside the three main families of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, into which the tribe as a whole was divided, we find in Gershon the family of Libni prominent, in Kohath, that of Hebron, while Merari’s two sons have gained an equal rank; to these are added the Korahites, also of Kohath, but whom their history gives an exceptional place. Finally, of Kohath also come Aaron and his priestly house, Moses, and Miriam. Aaron’s four sons are specified, and the death of Nadab and Abihu. Nowhere is evil more conspicuous than in the tribe of Levi; nowhere is the victory of grace over it more manifest. These depths and heights known are quite fitted to make effective ministers and joyful worshipers such as are represented in this tribe.

(7) The seventh section brings us to the impressive close, in which we find how surely God’s word has been fulfilled as to the generation sinning in the wilderness. So will the history of man at last show His faithfulness and truth all through, till the last "It is done" confirms the new heavens and new earth in eternal blessedness..

(Appendix.) The appeal of the daughters of Zelophehad is clearly an appendix to the twenty-sixth chapter, in which the people have been numbered in view of the inheritance. It is a supplement to the law of inheritance whereby God assures the faith that reckons upon Him without title (save that, surest of all, in His own nature) of His power and will to answer it.

3. We come now to what already anticipates what we only fully reach at the end of Deuteronomy. Joshua is appointed to succeed Moses, as Eleazar has succeeded Aaron; and it need not be strange to find that as Moses and Aaron were connected for the deliverance from Egypt, so now Joshua and Eleazar are connected for the entrance into the land. Their relation is different in this respect, that whereas Moses is every way foremost in the first case, now it is Eleazar, and not Joshua. And here, again, the spiritual meaning so governs all, that we must have the typical significance clearly ascertained in order to understand this, which is then at once intelligible.

Eleazar we have already seen to represent Christ in His heavenly priesthood -as risen and gone in to God, as Aaron speaks of Him in connection with the sacrificial work of the cross especially, although there are links on either side with the other, which show the identity of the priest all through, and this naturally much more upon Aaron’s side than Eleazar’s. The cross is the fundamental priestly work, Aaron the head of the priestly house, and therefore Aaron it is who is seen entering the sanctuary on the day of atonement, while Eleazar is only once seen sprinkling the blood, in the case of the red heifer, where plainly the point of view suits with the "Minister of the sanctuary."

If we compare Joshua with Moses, -both, again, types of Christ, -we shall find Moses representing Him, as it would seem, in almost every possible way. He is, indeed, the type of Christ in person; Joshua, of Christ in spirit, not person -acting in His people by the Holy Ghost; and thus it is that Joshua stands before Eleazar, the work of the Spirit being dependent upon the priesthood of Christ on high. Thus through the wilderness also Moses and Joshua are found together, but the latter the attendant upon the former; while Joshua it is who leads Israel into the land, figuring present realization of the inheritance by faith, as, in a somewhat different aspect, Abraham does.

As has been already said, the giving way of Moses to Joshua here is evidently, therefore, in type, what our Lord says to His disciples, -"It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." (Joh 16:7,) This is a truth upon which we must pause, however, as even yet, for many Christians, there is no proper understanding of it.

The departure that He speaks of is quite plain, indeed. He was leaving His place on earth among His own, to depart to heaven from whence He had come. Sent by the Father into the world upon His glorious mission, His work was now just about completed, the cross being at the next step upon His path, to be followed then by His resurrection and ascension to the Father. It was a real personal departure, no one doubts; and the coming of the Spirit in His place is represented by Him as just as real and personal. The difficulty arising in our minds with regard to this seems to be twofold: first, that the Spirit of God, as a divine Being, is omnipresent; and secondly, that He has always been the Author of all spiritual work in those converted to God: both which things are undeniable by any who are subject to Scripture. But the first is not against a special coming," such as is often in the Old Testament ascribed to God, when He manifests Himself here or there in any special way; and the second is quite consistent with that indwelling in believers now, in which His "coming" finds its confirmation and interpretation.

That it is a thing of wondrous value, our Lord’s words assure us: of how much value, if, that it might be, it were expedient that He should go away! How much would the presence of Christ with us in the world -such a presence as His disciples enjoyed -mean for us today! With it, they themselves were blest as none before had been; yet here is blessing for which it is worth while even to lose that blessing! Certainly no display of power, as in the miracles of Pentecost and after, could be intended. Such things had been before, -did not need Christ to be away that they might have them, -did not "abide" when they came, as He declared the Comforter should abide. But what miracles could be to us, if we had them, what Christ our Lord would be? But the presence of the Spirit of God within us, making our bodies the temples of the Holy Ghost; Spirit of truth, Spirit of holiness, Spirit of adoption, Comforter, fount of knowledge, spring of living water, so that we thirst not, but out of the belly shall flow rivers of living water! this is something far beyond any gift of miraculous power: it is the Church’s endowment for the place to which she is destined, -her competency to enter into and to fill it. "We have received," says the apostle, "not the spirit that is of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God." (1Co 2:12.)

Here Christ’s absence has its power for us also. He is gone to prepare for us the many mansions of the Father’s house, because where He is we are to be also; and the Spirit of God, taking of the things that are Christ’s to show them to us, develops in us the heavenly character, which is in effect our sanctification. Our hearts are drawn out of the world. The power of what is unseen and eternal delivers us from the whole scene in which are hid all the snares and entanglements of the subtle adversary. While in it, we are not of it: in faith is the victory over the world. The glory of Christ beheld in faith changes us from glory to glory. Christ thus before us, an object imprinted upon our hearts, becomes thus Christ in practical reality: Christ and the Spirit become practically one for us, and of this Joshua therefore is the type: "the Lord the Spirit" identified in this way with "the Spirit of the Lord," as the apostle shows us in Corinthians. (2Co 3:17.)

Thus we can see also why it is just at this point that Joshua is formally designated as the leader. In the wilderness, as to guidance, we are to walk as He walked. (1Jn 2:6.) His living form is before us, as presented in the gospels, Moses rather than Joshua, though the latter, as we have seen, also has his place, and accompanies us all through. But when the wilderness is no longer in question, but the land, then Moses gives up his place, although his word still abides as guidance which Joshua himself follows. (Compare Jos 1:1-18.) Every thing is therefore in harmony, as always in the precious, perfect, unerring Book with which we are occupied.

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25:1-18 Israel was camped across the Jordan from Jericho, almost on the eve of conquest, but they plunged to a new low in moral failure and spiritual bankruptcy. Balaam’s advice led to the immorality and apostasy of Baal-peor (31:16); he found a way to damage Israel, if not through a curse, then through lust and idolatry. The same temptation to idolatry and immorality existed for the early church (1 Cor 10:6, 11).

25:1 Acacia Grove: This type of tree thrives in arid regions. From here, Joshua later sent spies across the Jordan, and the Hebrews launched their conquest (Josh 2:1; 3:1). • Moabite women: The Moabites and Midianites shared culpability in the episode involving Balaam (Num 22:2-4, 7; 31:8, 15-16).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

With the women.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Here is, I. The sin of Israel, to which they were enticed by the daughters of Moab and Midian; they were guilty both of corporal and spiritual whoredoms, for Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor, Num 25:3. Not all, nor the most, but very many, were taken in this snare. Now concerning this observe, 1. That Balak, by the advice of Balaam, cast this stumbling-block before the children of Israel, Rev 2:14. Note, Those are our worst enemies that draw us to sin, for that is the greatest mischief any man can do us. If Balak had drawn out his armed men against them to fight them, Israel had bravely resisted, and no doubt had been more than conquerors; but now that he sends his beautiful women among them, and invites them to his idolatrous feasts, the Israelites basely yield, and are shamefully overcome: those are smitten with this harlots that could not be smitten with his sword. Note, We are more endangered by the charms of a smiling world than by the terrors of a frowning world. 2. That the daughters of Moab were their tempters and conquerors. Ever since Eve was first in the transgression the fairer sex, though the weaker, has been a snare to many; yea strong men have been wounded and slain by the lips of the strange woman (Pro 7:26), witness Solomon, whose wives were shares and nets to him Ecc 7:26. 3. That whoredom and idolatry went together. They first defiled and debauched their consciences, by committing lewdness with the women, and then were easily drawn, in complaisance to them, and in contempt of the God of Israel, to bow down to their idols. And they were more likely to do so if, as it is commonly supposed, and seems probable by the joining of them together, the uncleanness committed was a part of the worship and service performed to Baal-peor. Those that have broken the fences of modesty will never be held by the bonds of piety, and those that have dishonoured themselves by fleshly lusts will not scruple to dishonour God by idolatrous worships, and for this they are justly given up yet further to vile affections. 4. That by eating of the idolatrous sacrifices they joined themselves to Baal-peor to whom they were offered, which the apostle urges as a reason why Christians should not eat things offered to idols, because thereby they had fellowship with the devils to whom they were offered, Co1 10:20. It is called eating the sacrifices of the dead (Psa 106:28), not only because the idol itself was a dead thing, but because the person represented by it was some great hero, who since his death was deified, as saints in the Roman church are canonized. 5. It was great aggravation of the sin that Israel abode in Shittim, where they had the land of Canaan in view, and were just ready to enter and take possession of it. It was the highest degree of treachery and ingratitude to be false to their God, whom they had found so faithful to them, and to eat of idol-sacrifices when they were ready to be feasted so richly on God's favours.

II. God's just displeasure against them for this sin. Israel's whoredoms did that which all Balaam's enchantments could not do, they set God against them; now he was turned to be their enemy, and fought against them. So many of the people, nay, so many of the princes, were guilty, that the sin became national, and for it God was wroth with the whole congregation. 1. A plague immediately broke out, for we read of the staying of it (Num 25:8), and of the number that died of it (Num 25:9), but no mention of the beginning of it, which therefore must be implied in those words (Num 25:3), The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. It is said expressly (Psa 106:29), The plague broke in. Note, Epidemical diseases are the fruits of God's anger, and the just punishments of epidemical sins; one infection follows the other. The plague, no doubt, fastened on those that were most guilty, who were soon made to pay dearly for their forbidden pleasures; and though now God does not always plague such sinners, as he did here, yet that word of God will be fulfilled, If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, Co1 3:17. 2. The ringleaders are ordered to be put to death by the hand of public justice, which will be the only way to stay the plague (Num 25:4): Take the heads of the people (that is, of that part of the people that went out of the camp of Israel into the country of Moab, to join in their idolatries) - take them and hang them up before the sun, as sacrifices to God's justice, and for a terror to the rest of the people. The judges must first order them to be slain with the sword (Num 25:5), and their dead bodies must be hanged up, that the stupid Israelites, seeing their leaders and princes so severely punished for their whoredom and idolatry, without any regard to their quality, might be possessed with a sense of the evil of the sin and the terror of God's wrath against them. Ringleaders in sin ought to be made examples of justice.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

CHAPTER XXV

While Israel abode in Shittim the people commit whoredom with

the daughters of Moab, 1.

They become idolaters, 2.

The anger of the Lord is kindled against them, and he commands

the ringleaders to be hanged, 3, 4.

Moses causes the judges to slay the transgressors, 5.

Zimri, one of the Israelitish princes of the tribe of Simeon,

brings a Midianitish princess, named Cozbi, into his tent,

while the people are deploring their iniquity before the

tabernacle, 6.

Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, incensed by this insult to the

laws and worship of God, runs after them and pierces them both

with a javelin, 7, 8.

Twenty-four thousand die of the plague, sent as a punishment for

their iniquity, 9.

The Lord grants to Phinehas a covenant of peace and an

everlasting priesthood, 10-13.

The name and quality of the Israelitish man and Midianitish

woman, 14, 15.

God commands the Israelites to vex and smite the Midianites, who

had seduced them to the worship of Baal-peor, 16-18.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXV

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

XXV.

(1) Abode in Shittim—i.e., Abel-Shittim (Num_33:49). (See Note on Num_22:1.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. abode in Shittim] The name has the definite article, and means ‘the Acacias.’ The site is uncertain, but it lay somewhere in the steppes of Moab. The full form Abel-Shittim occurs in Num_33:49. It is perhaps to be identified with Abila, which Josephus locates 60 stadia from the Jordan. This verse may be considered the J E parallel to Num_22:1 (P ). Notice that the possession of the territory by the Amorites is, as before (see on Num_22:41), disregarded, for the Israelites here come into contact not with Amorites but with Moabites.

1–5. The Israelites sinned with the women of Moab, and were invited by them to the sacrificial feasts of the local god (J E ). 6–15. An Israelite brought a Midianite woman into the camp, and Phinehas, for his zeal in killing them both, received the promise that his descendants should perpetually possess the priesthood (P ). The narratives are quite distinct, but both express condemnation of the immorality of the Israelites in consorting with foreign women. The interest of the former is prophetic, and is concerned with the struggle between the pure worship of Jehovah and the native local cults. The interest of the latter is ecclesiastical, and is concerned with the succession of the Aaronite priesthood.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Israel abode in Shittim,.... A place in the plains of Moab, so called from the shittim wood, which grew here in great abundance, so often mentioned in the building of the tabernacle; which was a sort of white thorn, or rather the acacia tree, since there was scarcely any thing else grew in the deserts of Arabia; see Gill on Exo 25:5 its full name was Abelshittim, Num 33:49, here the Israelites abode even to the death of Moses, for this was their last station in the wilderness; they were now on the borders of the land of Canaan, and just ready to enter into it, which is an aggravation of the sins they here fell into, and are next observed:

and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab; and of Midian also, as appears from Num 25:6 by the advice of Balaam, the Moabites and Midianites found ways and means to become familiar with the Israelites, and to introduce their daughters into their company and conversation, and being ensnared and enamoured with them, they were drawn to commit lewdness with them, and hereby were led on to commit other abominations, which brought the divine displeasure upon them; so that what they dared not attempt by war, and could not effect by sorceries and divinations, they accomplished by those iniquitous arts, namely, bringing the wrath, the curse, and plague of God upon them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The records of the neighboring cities of the plain, and the circumstances of the origin of Moab (Gen 19:30 ff) suggest that the people among whom Israel was now thrown were more than ordinarily licentious.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Settim, which had Abel, "mourning," prefixed to it, (chap. xxxiii. 49,) on account of the slaughter of 24,000 of the Israelites, ver. 6, 9. It was situated in the plains of Moab, near the Jordan, and was the last station of the Hebrews. (Calmet) --- In this neighbourhood all the following transactions occurred, which are recorded, till the end of the Pentateuch. (Menochius) --- Balaam, being convinced that the Hebrews would be invincible, as long as they continued faithful to God, advised the nations, who had sent to consult him, to let their daughters converse freely with the Israelites, but not to yield to their impure desires, unless they consented to offer sacrifice to their idols. (Calmet) --- Thus they first captivated their hearts, and then subverted their understanding: For some rejecting a good conscience, have made shipwreck concerning the faith, 1 Timothy i. 19. (Haydock) --- By the same method many have been drawn into heresy. (Worthington) --- The counsels of an able but wicked man, are often followed by the most dreadful effects. That these women were sent by the Moabites, and also by the Madianites, (ver. 6, 17,) instigated by the perverse counsels of Balaam, (Calmet) appears not only from the event being recorded in this place, but also by the express declaration of Moses, chap. xxxi. 7, 8, and of the Apocalypse, chap. ii. 14. (Salien, Mic. vi. 5.) (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Shittim; a place called more largely Abel-shittim, Num 33:49, it being usual with the Hebrews to abbreviate long proper names, as Hermon is put for Baal-hermon, Jdg 3:3, Tholad for El-tholad, Jos 19:4, Nimrim, Isa 15:6 for Beth-nimrim, Num 32:36. And this was their last station, from whence they passed immediately into Canaan. So this is here 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 and much-desired land.

The people; not all, but many of them, as appears from Deu 4:3,4; 1Co 10:8.

To commit whoredom, both corporally and spiritually, either because they prostituted themselves to them upon condition of worshipping their god; or because their filthy god was worshipped by such filthy acts, as Priapus and Venus were.

Of Moab, and of Midian too, as is evident from Num 25:6,17,18; Num 31:16; for both these people being confederated in this wicked design, the one is put for the other; and the daughters of Moab may be named, either because they began fine transgression, or because they were the chief persons, possibly, the relations or courtiers of Balak king of Moab.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

THE SIN OF ISRAEL AND ATONEMENT OF PHINEHAS (verses Num_33:49) It seems to have been the northernmost part of the last encampment of Israel on that side Jordan, and the head-quarters of the host. (Jos_2:1 Jos_3:1) Began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. This commencement of sin seems to have been made by Israel without special provocation. The very victories won, and the comparative ease and affluence now enjoyed, after long marches and hardships, may well have predisposed them to this sin, for which they now for the first time found abundant opportunity.

Vers. 1-18. Sin, zeal, and atonement.

We have in this chapter the sin of man and the righteousness of God set before us in the most striking light; the virulence of the one, and the triumph of the other through the zeal of God"s servant. We may contemplate here

I The seductions of the flesh and of the devil, and the apostasy to which they lead;

II The insolence of sin when allowed to gain a head;

III The zeal against sin which pleases God and obtains favour;

IV In a figure, the atonement wrought by God"s holy servant Jesus.

I Consider, therefore, with respect to THE APOSTASY OF ISRAEL

1. That it was due to two things their own licentiousness, and the craft of Balaam taking advantage of it. They knew not indeed that Balaam had any part in it, but we know that the instigation came from him. Even so there is the same double origination of all grave fallings away from God and grace. A man is drawn away of his own lust, (Jam_1:14) andenticed by the lust of the flesh and of the eyes; (1Jn_2:16) but beneath and behind all these temptations is the craft of an evil will counter-working the grace and purpose of God. (Eph_6:11, 16 1Pe_5:8) And note that Balsam could not harm them by his curses or magical practices, but only by taking advantage of their evil concupiscence. So has our adversary no power against us, save through our own sins.

2. That the sin of Israel began with idleness, and the reaction from toil and victory, which encouraged them to give the rein to wandering desires. Even so the most dangerous moments, morally speaking, in a Christian"s life are those intervals of comparative inactivity and apparent safety when dangers seem to be surmounted, foes overcome, and toils left behind.

3. That the danger of Israel against which they had been so strongly warned now beset them, viz., the danger of too friendly intercourse with people whose religion and morality were altogether inferior to that of Israel. Even so the great and constant danger of Christian people especially of such as mix much with others lies in intercourse with a world which does not acknowledge the laws of God, and in the almost inevitable lowering of the moral and religious tone which follows.

4. That the first fatal step was indulgence in carnal pleasures an indulgence such as was now for the first time thrown in their way. And this is still the frequent source of apostasy; a snare into which the most unlikely persons constantly fall when it is suddenly presented to them. How many of the greatest, intellectually, and most promising, spiritually, have fallen through lust! how many deem themselves absolutely above it simply because the temptation has never yet come in their way!

5. That fellowship in sin led directly to fellowship in idolatry: the two things being mutually intermixed in the abominations of those days. Even so it is impossible to take part in the sinful indulgences of the flesh and of the world without denying God and committing treason against him. Immorality is not simply evil in the sight of God, it is an outrage upon him, and a direct renunciation of our allegiance to him. The first Christians rightly regarded Venus and Bacchus as devils. Fleshly sin involves a quasi-sacramental union with the enemy of God. (1Co_6:13-20 1Co_10:21, 1Co_10:22; and cf. Psa_73:27 Act_15:20 1Ti_5:11)

6. That the wrath of God burnt especially against the heads of the people, because they had permitted these iniquities to go on, and had perhaps encouraged them. Even so their sin is greatest and their punishment will be sorest who fail to use their position and authority to discourage vice; much more if they countenance it by their example.

7. That the sentence of death was pronounced upon all who were joined to Baal-Peor. It is not the will of God that sin as such should now be punished by the magistrate, but none the less is the sentence of eternal death gone forth against all who through sinful indulgence have made themselves over to the prince of this world. (Rom_1:18, 32 6:23 Eph_5:5 Rev_19:20 Rev_21:8)

8. That the judges of Israel were commanded to execute judgment, not indiscriminately, but each upon such as he was responsible for. Even so is every Christian held bound to extirpate by all needful violence his own sins and sinful inclinations which cleave unto iniquity and do dishonour to God. For each one of us is responsible for all that is within him, and not for others, save by example and admonition. (Rom_8:13 1Co_9:27 Gal_6:5 Eph_5:11Co Eph_3:5, where "mortify" is simply "put to death

II Consider again, with respect to THE SIN OF ZIMBI

1. That the bad example and negligence of the chiefs went further in encouraging this evil than the declared wrath of God in discouraging it. It would have been impossible for such a thing to have occurred if the leaders of Israel had been doing their duty. Even so in a society nominally Christian the bad example of its leaders has much more effect than all the denunciations of Scripture. Nothing is more remarkable than the extreme insolence with which the worst vices are ever ready to assert themselves, and to flaunt their vileness in the face of day, if they find encouragement, or even toleration, with those that lead opinion and set the fashion. Worse sins than that of Zimri, such as adultery, and murder (in the form of duelling), have been and are practiced without shame and without rebuke by those who claim the name and privilege of Christians.

2. That the rank of the two offenders no doubt increased their presumptions, as shielding them from punishment. Even so in the Churches of Christ it has ever been the rich and the great who have dragged down the moral law and outraged the holiness of their calling, because they seemed to be beyond the reach of discipline or correction in this world.

3. That their sin was intensified by contrast with the penitential sorrow and the trouble all around them. Even so does the reckless sin of abandoned people assume a darker hue in the sight of God and of good men, because it shows itself side by side with all the sorrow and the pain, the penitence and supplication, which that very sin has worked in unnumbered souls. There is not a city in Christendom where that scene of sin and weeping in the camp of Israel is not ever being reproduced in full sight of God, if not of men.

4. That the sin of Zimri was, and is, revolting to everybody, not, however, because it was really worse than numberless other such acts, but only because it asserted itself in its naked hideousness. Even so the most revolting crimes which all men cry out upon are not really worse than those which are committed every day; it is only that circumstances have robbed them of the disguises and concealments beneath which men hide their ordinary sins.

III Consider again, with respect to THE ZEAL OF PHINEHAS

1. That it was well-pleasing in the sight of God because it was a zeal for God, and against sin. Even such must be the character of all true religious zeal; it must have no lesser or meaner inspiring motive than the pure desire that God may be glorified and sin may be destroyed. It is this zeal, and nothing else, which puts the creature at once on the side of the Creator, and produces an active harmony of will and purpose between God and man. How little religious zeal has this pure character! Hence, although it achieves much, builds churches, wins converts, gains all its ends on earth, yet it does not obtain any commendation or reward from God.

2. That it stood in strong contrast to the supineness of the chiefs, and even apparently of Moses; they (at best) only mourned, Phinehas acted. True zeal is always rare, and most rare in high places. It is so much easier to deplore the existence of evils than to throw oneself into active contention against them. The enthusiasms and reforms which have purged the Church of its grosser moral corruptions have never come from its leaders.

3. That it was all the more acceptable with God because it was spontaneous, and not official. Even so the zeal which pleases God is that which is not paid for directly or indirect]y, and which is not prompted by any human expectations, and does not wait for any advantages of position. How often do men tacitly agree to leave zeal for religion and morality to their official exponents, as if it were a professional matter to seek the glory of God and the triumph of righteousness!

4. That it merited the favour of Heaven because it was unhesitating and unabashed. No one else perhaps would have "followed" when and where Phinehas followed. Even so a genuine religious zeal does not hesitate to seek its ends by painful courses, and such as natural feeling and ordinary sentiment shrinks from. Zeal knows no shame except the shame of doing wrong or of suffering wrong to be done if it can be helped.

5. That the act of Phinehas was commended because it was

a. according to the will of God, and

b. inspired by zeal for God unmixed with lower motives.

According to the law of Israel, as then understood and sanctioned by God, it was right that these sinners should die, and right that any private person in Israel should execute judgment upon them if the rulers hesitated; and Phinehas had no private ends to gain or malice to gratify by what he did. Even such is the ultimate test of every act of religious zeal, by which it must be weighed in the last account. If a thing be right in itself, according to the revealed will of God, yet if it be done from any motive but the highest, it has no reward hereafter, because it seeks its reward here.

6. That the act of Phinehas was one which was right then, but would be wrong now, because the present dispensation is built upon eternal, not upon temporal, sanctions. Yet is his zeal and ours all one in its essence: we must put to death the deeds of the flesh by the arms of righteousness; every man must be a Phinehas to his own lusts in act to others in word and example only. (cf. 2Co_7:11)

IV Consider lastly, with respect to PHINEHAS AS A FIGURE OF CHRIST IN HIS ATONEMENT

1. That the act of Phinehas teas accepted as an atonement because it was inspired by a pure zeal for God and against sin, without regard of self. And this was the moral element, the controlling motive power, in the life and death of Christ, which made it infinitely precious in the eyes of God, and infinitely available for the remission of sins.

2. That God had sought for such an atonement before and it had not been given (see verse 4: "Hang them up.... that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel"). And God had looked in vain among the children of men for any that should have perfect sympathy with his own hatred of sin, and perfect self-devotion in seeking to destroy it. (cf. Isa_53:11, "my righteous servant;" Isa_63:4, 5 Mat_3:17, &c.);

3. That Phinehas "satisfied" the wrath of God against sin, inasmuch as he gave expression in the most open and public way to the real mind of God in respect of sin. And our Lord did not merely regard sin with the eyes of God, but he manifested unto all the world in the very highest sense the righteousness of God as arrayed against the sinfulness of sin. Beholding the carcasses of those sinners, Israel awoke from his evil dream to a consciousness of what such lust really was. Gazing upon the dead face of him that was made sin for us, we realize what the hatefulness and hideousness of sin truly is.

4. That Phinehas condemned sin in the flesh by the death since nothing less would suffice of the sinners. And God condemned sin in the flesh not by inflicting death, but by sending his only-begotten to suffer death in the name and in the place of that sinful race with which he had wholly identified himself.

5. That Phinehas, having displayed and vindicated the righteousness of God, delivered the rest of Israel from the plague. Even so our Lord, having condemned sin by his own death, through death destroyed the power of death, and delivered his brethren from the fear of death.

6. That Phinehas received for his zeal God"s covenant of peace, and the promise of an everlasting priesthood. And our Lord, for that he made atonement for the sins of the world, and reconciled in one life and death the holiness and the love of God, became himself our peace, (Eph_2:14) and was made a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec. (Heb_5:9, Heb_5:10)

7. That Phinehas could not abide because of death, nor his seed because of infirmity and change; wherefore the premise could not be permanently made good to him. But Christ abideth for ever, for ever the same, eternal inheritor of all the promises made to all holy men. (Heb_7:24 Heb_13:8, &c.); See the note above.

HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-5. Moab finds a more effective weapon.

In spite of all his efforts and confident expectations, Balak fails in bringing" down Jehovah"s curse on Israel. But what cannot be accomplished in the way Balak proposes now gives fair promise of being speedily accomplished in another way. While Israel abode in Shittim the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.

I ISRAEL, FULLY AWARE OF SOME DANGERS, IS EQUALLY REGARDLESS OF MUCH GREATER ONES. Israel having been refused passage through Edom, and having also had to fight its way through the strong opposing forces of Sihon and Og, came at last into the plains of Moab, doubtless expecting a similar conflict with Balak. While he was looking for Israel to attack him, Israel would be wondering why he left it unmolested. And while Balak is waiting for the expected curse, Moab puts on a peaceful, harmless appearance. What was more natural than that Israel should enter into neighbourly intercourse? The nearness of the two peoples gave every facility for this. There must also have been a great charm in seeing fresh faces and hearing unaccustomed voices. As day followed day without any signs of hostility, Israelite and Moabite would mingle more freely together. If Balak had followed the example of Sihon and Og, it would have been far better for Israel. The worst enemies are those who, on their first approach, put on the smiling face and give the salutation of peace. We know what to do with the open enemy, who bears his hostility in his countenance; but what shall we do with him who comes insidiously, to degrade, corrupt, and utterly pervert the life within; and this by a very slow process, of which the victim at the beginning must not be conscious at all, and indeed as little conscious as possible until it is too late for escape? Puritanism, so much condemned, laughed at, and satirized, is really the only safety of God"s people. Go with the courage which he inspires into any den of lions, into any physical peril whatsoever, remembering what Jesus has said: "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it"; (Luk_17:33) but refrain with equal courage from everything that is mere pleasure, mere comfort of the flesh, for in doing so you may keep clear from some temptations in a world which is crowded with them. Remember that to go in the way of one temptation is to go in the way of more than one, perhaps of many. Israel got conversing with the daughters of Moab, and this led to whoredom, which assuredly was bad enough; but worse remained, for whoredom led on to idolatry, and idolatry to the manifested wrath of God. The devil was delighted when he saw the sons of Israel, God"s own chosen and beloved race, of whom such glorious things had been spoken in prophecy, in abominable intercourse with the daughters of Moab; still more delighted when he saw the bowings to Moab"s gods; and his delight was crowned when 24, 000 died in the plague. One cannot enter a grocer"s shop now-a-days without noticing how many things are hermetically sealed, in order to be kept free from taint. The very smallest crevice would be fatal. We cannot indeed be hermetically sealed that would be to go out of the world, arid Christ"s prayer is, not that we should be taken from the world, but kept from the wicked one. But surely we shall not be slow in seconding Christ"s prayer and effort with our prayer and effort. We must live in this world as knowing how corruptible we are, and that ceaseless vigilance is the price of spiritual safety.

II BALAK, FULLY PERSUADED OF THE POWER OF ONE WEAPON, IS UTTERLY UNCONSCIOUS OF THE GREATER POWER OF ANOTHER. Balak, sending all this long way for Balaam, was utterly ignorant of a resource lying close at hand, which probably began to operate even while his negotiations with Balaam were in progress. The world is not conscious of its greatest resources against the Church; it does its greatest damage unwittingly. Balaam certainly seems to have had something to do with bringing out to its full extent this power of the daughters of Moab, (Num_31:16) but it must have been already in action, revealing to him something of the disposition of the Israelites, before he guessed what could be done with it towards utterly destroying them. The world inflicts much spiritual mischief simply by doing its own things in its own way pursuing, with energy and vivacity, its godless, mammon-worshipping, pleasure-loving path, and thus drawing towards it God"s people, never sufficiently heedful of their steps, never sufficiently looking away from the world to Jesus. It is in the resources which the world does not consider that we are to look for the greatest dangers.

Balak was simply counting the fighting men of Moab; the women he considered of no consequence. The world, it would seem, is given to despise its own weak ones as much as it despises the weak ones of the Church. God takes weak ones to do his work, but he takes them consciously, deliberately, and with well-ascertained ends, serviceable to the good of his people and the glory of his name. The world also has weak ones to do its work, but it knows not all they do or can do. The lustful daughters of Moab were more dangerous than a corps of Amazons, for they led Israel into idolatry, and that was even worse than if Israel"s prime and strength had been stretched dead on some bloody field. Women have done untold and peculiar service in the Church; and what they have done is but a small part of their possible service, if they would only all waken to their powers and opportunities, and if they were only allowed to make full proof of them. The ill that these daughters of Moab did is the measure of the great good that truly Christian women may accomplish. Notice that all the daughters of Moab were not as these mentioned here. There was one daughter of Moab, not so many generations after, of a very different spirit Ruth, the great-grandmother of David. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The sin of Israel, ver. 1-3. Their punishment, ver. 4, 5. The zeal of Phinehas, with the promise annext to it, ver. 6-15. The command to slay the Midianites, ver. 16-18.

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 people - Many of them. Whoredom - Either because they prostituted themselves to them upon condition of worshipping their God: or because their filthy God was worshipped by such filthy acts, as Priapus and Venus were. The daughters of Moab - And of Midian too; for both these people being confederated in this wicked design, the one is put for the other, and the daughters of Moab may be named, either because they began the transgression, or because they were the chief persons, possibly, the relations or courtiers of Balak.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Numbers 25

Here a new scene opens upon our view. We have been on the top of Pisgah, hearkening to God’s testimony respecting Israel, and there all was bright and fair, without a cloud, without a spot. But now we find ourselves in the plains of Moab, and all is changed. There, we had to do with God and His thoughts. Here, we have to do with the people and their joys. What a contrast! It reminds us of the opening and the close of 2 Corinthians 12. In the former, we have the positive standing of the Christian; in the latter, the possible state into which he may fall if not watchful. That shows us "a man in Christ" capable of being caught up into paradise, at any moment. This shows us saints of God capable of plunging into all manner of sin and folly.

Thus it is with Israel, as seen from "The top of the rocks," in "The vision of the almighty," and Israel as seen in the plains of Moab. In the one case, we have their perfect standing; in the other, their imperfect state. Balaam’s parables give us God’s estimate of the former; the javelin of Phinehas, His judgement upon the latter. God will never reverse His decision as to what His people are as to standing; but he must judge and chasten them when their ways comport not with that standing. It is His gracious will that their state should correspond with their standing. But here is, alas! where failure comes in. Nature is allowed to act in various ways, and our God is constrained to take down the rod of discipline, in order that the evil thing which we have suffered to manifest itself may be crushed and subdued.

Thus it is in Numbers 25. Balaam, having failed in his attempt to curse Israel, succeeds in seducing them, his wiles, to commit sin, hoping whereby to gain his end. "And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. and 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." (Ver. 3, 4.) Then we have the striking record of the zeal and faithfulness of Phinehas: "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, 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. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: and 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." Verse 10-13.

God’s glory and Israel’s good were the objects that ruled the conduct of the faithful Phinehas on this occasion. It was a critical moment. He felt there was a demand for the most stern action. It was no time for false tenderness. There are moments in the history of God’s people in the which tenderness to man becomes unfaithfulness to God; and it is of the utmost importance to be able to discern such moments. The prompt acting of Phinehas saved the whole congregation, glorified Jehovah in the midst of His people, and completely frustrated the enemy’s design. Balaam fell among the judged Midianites; but Phinehas became the possessor of an everlasting priesthood.

Thus much as to the solemn instruction contained in this brief section of our book, May we profit by it. May God’s Spirit give us such an abiding sense of the perfection of our standing in Christ, that our practical ways may be more in accordance with it!

C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Sin and its Punishment. —

v. 1. And Israel abode in Shittim, in the fields or plains of Moab, on the east side of the Jordan, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. Balaam, having failed in his intention to curse Israel and thus to earn the reward of unrighteousness which his covetous heart craved, had sought revenge by giving the princes of Midian a bit of devilish counsel, namely, that of overcoming the enemy by strategy, by tempting them to indulge in sins of the flesh. Cf Num 31:16; Rev 2:14. Shittim is named because it was at this city, at the northern end of the steppes of Moab, that the approach of the Midianites and Moabites took place, as they undertook to conquer the people of God through sensual lust.

v. 2. And they, the Moabites, called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. In this manner the temptation was set into action: the women of Moab were employed to entice the men of Israel, to form acquaintances and friendships with them, to invite them to the sacrificial meals in honor of their heathen idols. It was thus that both spiritual and bodily whoredoms were soon committed, for the most brazen shamelessness, indulgence in the vilest immorality, was connected with the cult of the heathen idols.

v. 3. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor, the majority of the people became guilty of the sins connected with the worship of this heathen idol, for it was in his honor that women and virgins openly sacrificed their honor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, for by indulging in lasciviousness in this instance the people became doubly guilty.

v. 4. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, either because they themselves were leaders in the transgression or because they neglected their responsibility of hindering the spread of the sin, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, out in the open before all the people, as a warning example, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel, since the ringleaders at least had suffered their punishment.

v. 5. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, the men who were his assistants in governing the affairs of Israel, Slay ye every one his men, the men from his tribe or division, that were joined unto Baal-peor. It was an order for a wholesale execution, for only in this manner could the wrath of God be appeased. This is an example of warning also for our days; for the Lord’s hand is not shortened to punish, and the increasing worldliness in the midst of the Church challenges His interference.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Shittim

This is the name of a place in Moab. (See: How to Translate Names)

bowed down

This was an act of worship. (See: Symbolic Action)

Peor

Peor was the name of a mountain. See how you translated this in Numbers 23:28.

Yahweh's anger was kindled

The increase in Yahweh's anger is spoken of as if it was a fire starting to burn. This can be stated in active form. See how you translated a similar phrase in Numbers 21:20. AT: "Yahweh became very angry" (See: Idiom and Active or Passive)

translationWords

Israel

had relations with

Moab

sacrifice

false god

bow

worship

Baal

Yahweh

anger

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

בשטים — Thus was its name: SHITTIM.

לזנות אל בנות מואב TO COMMIT WHOREDOM WITH THE DAUGHTERS OF MOAB — by the advice of Balaam, — as is related in the chapter חלק (Sanhedrin 106a).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

AND ISRAEL ABODE IN SHITTIM, AND THE PEOPLE BEGAN TO COMMIT HARLOTRY WITH THE DAUGHTERS OF MOAB — “because of the advice of Balaam, as is related in [the Chapter of] Cheilek.”, meaning: “I will counsel thee how to lead the people astray, and I will tell you what this people shall do …” Ramban explains the phrase “I will counsel thee” differently. This is Rashi’s language. And indeed this [seduction to] immorality was not instigated as a plan of the [Moabite] women, but was done upon the advice of their men and their leaders. [The idea] came to them from the elders of Midian, as it says of the Midianites, for they harass you, by their wiles wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, for they beguiled them by means of immorality in order to draw them astray [to worship] Baal-peor. Therefore it is [indeed] possible that Balaam was behind this counsel, since he was considered by them [the Moabites] great in counsel, and his intention was to bring evil upon Israel, and therefore he did everything in his power to this end, as it is said, And the Eternal thy G-d would not hearken unto Balaam, and therefore they slew him with the sword. But according to the simple meaning of Scripture, it is not alluding here to the counsel of Balaam, but only [alludes to it] when it says afterwards, Behold, these [women] caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam etc., Verse 16. just as it does not mention here the counsel of the elders of Midian, and only [mentions it] when it says, for they harass you. Thus [it is only] after the event [had happened], at the time of [describing] their punishment, that He mentions what was the source of the evil that befell them. He is [thus] saying that what happened [to them] as a result of the desire for sexual pleasure which exists naturally in men and women from [the time of] their youth, was only [the result] of an evil plan [whose purpose was] to lead them astray [into worshipping Baal-peor]; therefore [the instigators of this plan] deserve a severe punishment. The interpretation of the verse, Come and I will counsel thee what this people shall do to thy people in the end of days is thus indeed as I have explained [there].It is also possible according to the simple meaning of Scripture that Balak at first wanted to curse them [the Israelites] and to wage war against them, and he did not want to give them permission to enter his borders at all. But when Balaam told him that he would not prevail over them, and informed him that they would only destroy his land and his people in the end of days, then he [Balak] brought forth bread and wine in the plains of Moab [i.e., in Shittim], and enticed them [with the daughters of Moab] as if he were their friend. This is [the meaning of the phrase] ‘bidvar’ (through ‘the word’ of) Balaam, Verse 16. for it was because of his words [i.e., his prophecy that the Israelites would not conquer their land now, that the Moabites] did so [i.e., that they did not fight them, but tried to seduce them and lead them astray through their women]. But because it was Balaam’s desire to curse them, and he allowed Balak to hire him [and would indeed have cursed them] were it not for the righteous acts of the Eternal Who turned the curse into a blessing, therefore they slew him with the sword, for both the hirer [Moab] and the hired one [Balaam] were punished, just as He said, and because he hired against thee Balaam the son of Beor etc.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.