Numbers 25
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 25
Worship of Baal of Peor. 1 While Israel was living at Shittim,[a] the people profaned themselves by prostituting themselves with the Moabite women.(A) 2 These then invited the people to the sacrifices of their god, and the people ate of the sacrifices(B) and bowed down to their god. 3 Israel thereby attached itself to the Baal of Peor,(C) and the Lord’s anger flared up against Israel. 4 (D)The Lord said to Moses: Gather all the leaders of the people, and publicly execute them[b] 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.”[c]
Zeal of Phinehas. 6 At this a certain Israelite came and brought in a Midianite woman[d] 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. 7 (E)When Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he rose up from the assembly, and taking a spear in his hand, 8 followed the Israelite into the tent where he pierced the two of them, the Israelite and the woman. Thus the plague upon the Israelites was checked; 9 but the dead from the plague were twenty-four thousand.
10 Then the Lord said to Moses: 11 Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger from the Israelites by his being as jealous among them as I am; that is why I did not put an end to the Israelites in my jealousy.[e] 12 (F)Announce, therefore, that I hereby give him my covenant of peace,[f] 13 which shall be for him and for his descendants after him the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous on behalf of his God and thus made expiation for the Israelites.
14 [g]The name of the slain Israelite, the one slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, son of Salu, prince of a Simeonite ancestral house. 15 The name of the slain Midianite woman was Cozbi, daughter of Zur, who was head of a clan, an ancestral house, in Midian.
Vengeance on the Midianites. 16 [h]The Lord then said to Moses: 17 (G)Treat the Midianites as enemies and strike them, 18 for they have been your enemies by the deceitful dealings they had with you regarding Peor and their kinswoman Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite prince, who was slain at the time of the plague because of Peor.
III. Second Census of a New Generation and Preparation to Enter the Promised Land
Chapter 26
The Second Census. 19 After the plague
Footnotes
- 25:1 Shittim: the full name was Abel-shittim, a locality at the foot of the mountains in the northeastern corner of the plains of Moab (33:49). Prostituting themselves: the application to men of such traditional language for apostasy clearly suggests apostasy was taken to be an inevitable consequence of intermarriage with the Midianite women.
- 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.
- 25:11 My jealousy: God’s desire to maintain an exclusive hold on the allegiance of the Israelites.
- 25:12 Covenant of peace: by means of this covenant between God and Phinehas, Phinehas can expect God’s protection, especially from any threat of reprisal for his action; cf. Is 54:10; Ez 34:25; 37:26.
- 25:14–15 The noble lineage of the slain couple is mentioned in order to stress the courage of Phinehas in punishing them. The zeal of Phinehas became proverbial; cf. Ps 106:30; Sir 45:23; 1 Mc 2:26, 54.
- 25:16–18 The account of the execution of this command is given in 31:1–18.
Numbers 25
Wycliffe Bible
25 Soothly in that time Israel dwelled in Shittim (And so the Israelites lived in Shittim); and the people did fornication with the daughters of Moab;
2 which daughters called them to their sacrifices, and they ate (the sacrificial food), and worshipped the gods of those daughters;
3 and Israel made sacrifice to Baalpeor. And the Lord was wroth, (and the Israelites sacrificed to Baal of Peor. And the Lord was angry against them,)
4 and said to Moses, Take thou all the princes of the people, and hang them against the sun in gibbets, that my strong vengeance be turned away from Israel. (and said to Moses, Take thou all the leaders of the people, and hang them up on gallows out in the sun, so that my strong vengeance be turned away from Israel.)
5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Each man slay his neighbours, that made sacrifice to Baalpeor. (And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Each one of you kill his neighbours, yea, they who sacrificed to Baal of Peor.)
6 And lo! one of the sons of Israel entered before his brethren to an whore of Midian, in the sight of Moses, and of all the company of the sons of Israel, which wept before the gates of the tabernacle. (And lo! one of the Israelites brought a woman of Midian into his tent, in the sight of Moses, and all the congregation of the Israelites, who were mourning at the entrance to the Tabernacle.)
7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, had seen this unshamefast doing (had seen this shameful thing), he rose (up) from the midst of the multitude; and when he had taken a sword,
8 he entered after the man of Israel into the whorehouse, and sticked through both together, that is, the man and the woman, in the places of engendering. And the vengeance ceased from the sons of Israel, (he went into that bawdy house, after the man of Israel, and stuck his sword through both of them together, that is, the man and the woman, in their places of begetting. And so the plague that had attacked the Israelites was stopped,)
9 and four and twenty thousand of men were slain. (but by then, twenty-four thousand people had already died.)
10 And the Lord said to Moses,
11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, (the) priest, hath turned away my wrath from the sons of Israel; for he was moved against them by my fervent love, (and so for) that, I myself (did) not do away the sons of Israel in my great ferventness of vengeance. (Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, hath turned away my anger from the Israelites; for he was moved against them by his fervent love for me, and because of that, I did not do away all the Israelites in my great fervour for vengeance.)
12 Therefore speak thou to him, Lo! I give to him the peace of my covenant, (And so tell thou him, that lo! I now give him my covenant of peace,)
13 and it shall be an everlasting covenant of priesthood, as well to himself as to his seed; for he loved fervently for his God, and he hath cleansed the great trespass of the sons of Israel. (and it shall be an everlasting covenant of priesthood, with him as well as with his descendants; because he fervently loved for his God, and he made amends for the great trespass of the Israelites.)
14 Forsooth the name of the man of Israel, that was slain with the woman of Midian, was Zimri, the son of Salu, duke, of the kindred and lineage of Simeon (a leader, of the kindred and the tribe of Simeon).
15 Soothly the woman of Midian that was slain together with the whoreling, was called Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, the noblest prince of (the) Midianites.
16 And the Lord spake to Moses, and said,
17 Midianites feel you enemies, and smite ye them; (Regard ye the Midianites as your enemies, and strike ye them down;)
18 for also they have done enemy-like against you, and deceived you by treasons, by the idol of Peor, and by their sister Cozbi, daughter of the duke of Midian, which daughter was slain in the day of vengeance, for the sacrilege of Peor. (for they were like an enemy to you, and they deceived you with treasons, first in the matter at Peor, and then with their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, which daughter was killed during the plague, on the day of vengeance for the sacrilege at Peor.)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
2001 by Terence P. Noble