Numbers 25:1-3
New English Translation
Israel’s Sin with the Moabite Women
25 [a] When[b] Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality[c] with the daughters of Moab. 2 These women invited[d] the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods.[e] 3 When Israel joined themselves to Baal Peor,[f] the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel.
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- Numbers 25:1 sn Chapter 25 tells of Israel’s sins on the steppes of Moab, and God’s punishment. In the overall plan of the book, here we have another possible threat to God’s program, although here it comes from within the camp (Balaam was the threat from without). If the Moabites could not defeat them one way, they would try another. The chapter has three parts: fornication (vv. 1-3), God’s punishment (vv. 4-9), and aftermath (vv. 10-18). See further G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 105-21; and S. C. Reif, “What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8, ” JBL 90 (1971): 200-206.
- Numbers 25:1 tn This first preterite is subordinated to the next as a temporal clause; it is not giving a parallel action, but the setting for the event.
- Numbers 25:1 sn The account apparently means that the men were having sex with the Moabite women. Why the men submitted to such a temptation at this point is hard to say. It may be that as military heroes the men took liberties with the women of occupied territories.
- Numbers 25:2 tn The verb simply says “they called,” but it is a feminine plural. And so the women who engaged in immoral acts with Hebrew men invited them to their temple ritual.
- Numbers 25:2 sn What Israel experienced here was some of the debased ritual practices of the Canaanite people. The act of prostrating themselves before the pagan deities was probably participation in a fertility ritual, nothing short of cultic prostitution. This was a blatant disregard of the covenant and the Law. If something were not done, the nation would have destroyed itself.
- Numbers 25:3 tn The verb is “yoked” to Baal Peor. The word is unusual, and may suggest the physical, ritual participation described below. It certainly shows that they acknowledge the reality of the local god.sn The evidence indicates that Moab was part of the very corrupt Canaanite world, a world that was given over to the fertility ritual of the times.
Ruth 1:4
New English Translation
4 Both her sons[a] married[b] Moabite women. (One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.)[c] And they continued to live there about ten years.
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- Ruth 1:4 tn Heb “they.” The verb is third person masculine plural referring to Naomi’s sons, as the translation indicates.
- Ruth 1:4 tn Heb “and they lifted up for themselves Moabite wives.” When used with the noun “wife,” the verb נָשָׂא (nasaʾ, “to lift up, carry, take”) forms the idiom “to take a wife,” that is, to marry (BDB 673 s.v. Qal.3.d; 2 Chr 11:21; 13:21; 24:3; Ezra 9:2, 12; 10:44; Neh 13:25).
- Ruth 1:4 tn Heb “the name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the second [was] Ruth.” sn The name Orpah (עָרְפָּה, ʿorpah) is from the noun עֹרֶף (ʿoref, “back of the neck”) and the related verb (“to turn one’s back”). The name Ruth (רוּת, rut) is from the noun רְעוּת (reʿut, “friendship”), derived from the root רֵעַ (reaʿ, “friend, companion”). Ironically, Orpah will eventually turn her back on Naomi, while Ruth will display extraordinary friendship as her life-long companion (see 1:14). Since they seem to mirror the most definitive action of these women, perhaps they designate character types (as is the case with the name Mara in 1:21 and Peloni Almoni in 4:1) rather than their original birth names.
1 Kings 11:1
New English Translation
The Lord Punishes Solomon for Idolatry
11 King Solomon fell in love with many foreign women (besides Pharaoh’s daughter), including Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites.
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1 Chronicles 8:8
New English Translation
8 Shaharaim fathered sons in Moab after he divorced his wives Hushim and Baara.
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Ezra 9:1
New English Translation
A Prayer of Ezra
9 Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents[a] who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
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Ezra 9:2
New English Translation
2 Indeed, they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race[a] has become intermingled with the local residents. Worse still, the leaders and the officials have been at the forefront of all this unfaithfulness!”
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- Ezra 9:2 tn Heb “the holy seed,” referring to the Israelites as God’s holy people.
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