Numbers 25:4-6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
4 (A)The Lord said to Moses: Gather all the leaders of the people, and publicly execute them[a] before the Lord, that the blazing wrath of the Lord may turn away from Israel. 5 So Moses told the Israelite judges, “Each of you kill those of his men who have attached themselves to the Baal of Peor.”[b]
Zeal of Phinehas. 6 At this a certain Israelite came and brought in a Midianite woman[c] to his kindred in the view of Moses and of the whole Israelite community, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
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- 25:4 Publicly execute them: the same phrase occurs in 2 Sm 21:6–14, where the context shows that at least a part of the penalty consisted in being denied honorable burial. In both passages, dismemberment or impalement (perhaps subsequent to the actual execution) as a punishment for the breaking of covenant pledges, is a possible interpretation of the Hebrew phrase.
- 25:5 Thereby Moses apparently alters the Lord’s command to execute all the leaders.
- 25:6 Midianite woman: according to 22:4, 7, the Midianites were allied with the Moabites in opposing Israel, while 31:16 claims that Balaam had induced the Midianite women to lure the Israelites away from the Lord. They were weeping: on account of the plague that had struck them; cf. v. 8.
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