Numberschapter 25
18 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
It will be a covenant of permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”
It stands in A covenant of peace and lasting priesthood, verses 10 to 15.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Baal-peor. Israel commits whoredom with the daughters of Moab, eats of their sacrifices, and bows to their gods. The LORD's anger kindles; 24,000 die in a plague. A prince of Simeon brings a Midianite woman into the camp in the sight of Moses and the weeping congregation; Phinehas the grandson of Aaron takes a javelin and pierces them both through. The plague is stayed. ‘Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace … the covenant of an everlasting priesthood’. The chapter's darkness is a reminder that the near approach to the land brings its own temptations; idolatry enters where cursing could not.
Context
Law · Moses · Numbers overview
The world behind this chapter
Numbers 25The history
The chapter names four people. Moses and the judges, Phinehas the grandson of Aaron, Zimri a leader of a Simeonite family, and Cozbi the daughter of Zur, whom 31:8 lists among the five kings of Midian.
The time is the fortieth year and the place is Shittim, the last camp before the Jordan.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The occasion is an invitation. The women of Moab invited Israelite men to the sacrifices of their god, and the text lists the steps in order, that the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
A first hearer knew what a sacrificial feast was. It was a meal eaten in the presence of a deity, and eating it was an act of allegiance rather than an evening out.
He also knew that the religion of Canaan and Moab tied the fertility of fields, flocks and womb to ritual practice. Joining the feast and joining the women were one decision in that world rather than two.
He knew the hill. Baal of Peor is the god of the height where Balaam spoke his third oracle at 23:28, so the trap was laid on the ground the oracles had been spoken from. Numbers 31:16 later says outright that the counsel was Balaam's.
And he knew what the act of Phinehas was. Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes both mark it as exceptional and never a precedent, and the chapter is careful to report what stopped, which is the plague.
What it meant to them
The lesson landed hard. Moab's army could not touch them, Moab's hired seer could not curse them, and Moab's dinner invitation nearly finished them.
For a generation about to cross into a land full of exactly these feasts, the timing was the message. The danger in Canaan was not going to be the walls.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Timothy R. Ashley, The Book of Numbers (NICOT)
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible , 1832, on Numbers 25:12
Where the chapter sits
Numbers 25 falls in Approach to Moab (chapters 21–25). The bronze serpent; Balaam's oracles; apostasy at Baal-peor.
Before it: Wilderness rebellions and instruction, chapters 15–20. After it: Second census and preparations, chapters 26–36.
The whole shape of Numbers→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Moab's daughters and the god of Peor
1. (vv. 1-2)
Numbers 25:1
“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.”
Numbers 25:2
“I might say that those who deny Christianity on oath at the tribunals or before they have been put on trial do not worship but only bow down to idols when they take "God" from the name of the Lord God and apply it to vain and lifeless wood. Thus the people who were defiled with the daughters of Moab bowed down to idols but did not worship them.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM 6patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 25:2
“Unto the sacrifices - Unto the feasts which were made of their parts of the sacrifices, after the manner of the Jews and Gentiles too, the participation whereof, was reckoned a participation in the worship of that God to whom the sacrifices were offered. Of their gods - Of their God, Baal-peor, the plural Elohim being here used, as commonly it is, for one God.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Four chapters of oracles that could not be turned into a curse are followed by one invitation, and the invitation works. Numbers 31:16 says the counsel behind it was Balaam's, which chapters 22 to 24 never said, and Revelation 2:14 names the two things he taught Balak to set before Israel, food offered to idols and fornication. The order in these two verses runs from the women to the table of their gods to the bowing, so what starts as appetite ends in worship.
2. (v. 3)
Numbers 25:3
“Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor--Baal was a general name for "lord," and Peor for a "mount" in Moab. The real name of the idol was Chemosh, and his rites of worship were celebrated by the grossest obscenity.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 25:3
“Joined himself - i. e., by taking part in the sacrificial meals as described in the last verse. Compare Exo 34:15; 1Co 10:18. The worship of Baal was attended with the grossest impurity, and indeed partly consisted in it Hos 4:14; Hos 9:10. Baal-peor - i. e., the Baal worshipped at Peer, the place mentioned in Num 23:28 (compare Baal-meon, Num 32:38). (The identification of this god with Chemosh in Num 21:29 is now given up.)”
The verb is a yoking word and the subject of the sentence is the whole nation, so what a number of men did is charged to Israel as one. Four later passages look back at this place: Deuteronomy 4:3 tells the next generation their own eyes saw what was done because of Peor, Joshua 22:17 calls it an iniquity from which we are not cleansed until this day, Psalm 106:28 says they ate the sacrifices of the dead, and Hosea 9:10 says they separated themselves unto that shame. Micah 6:5 sets Shittim in the same line as Balak's consulting and Balaam's answer.
3. (vv. 4-5)
Numbers 25:4
“Take all the heads of the people, etc. - Meaning the chiefs of those who had transgressed; as if he had said, “Assemble the chiefs and judges, institute an inquiry concerning the transgressors, and hang them who shall be found guilty before the Lord, as a matter required by his justice.” Against the sun - in the most public manner, and in daylight.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 25:4
“The persons ordered here for execution were the principal delinquents in the Baal-peor outrage--the subordinate officers, rulers of tens or hundreds. before the Lord--for vindicating the honor of the true God. against the sun--that is, as a mark of public ignominy; but they were to be removed towards sunset (De 21:23).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 25:5
“And Moses said unto the judges of Israel,.... Either the same with the heads of the people, or the rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, according to the distribution by the advice of Jethro: slay ye everyone his men, that were joined unto Baalpeor; all that were under their several districts and jurisdictions, that were found guilty of that crime; these they are ordered to slay, either with their own hands, or rather cause to be slain by proper persons they should appoint to be executioners.”
Two orders are given and they differ. God tells Moses to take the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, and Moses tells the judges to slay every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor. Readers divide over who the heads are, with Jamieson, Fausset and Brown taking them as the principal offenders in the Peor outrage, and Adam Clarke reading the order as a charge to assemble the chiefs, hold an inquiry, and hang those found guilty. Deuteronomy 21:22-23 is the law that governs a body hanged on a tree, and it requires the body taken down and buried the same day.
B. Phinehas takes a spear in his hand
1. (v. 6)
Numbers 25:6
“One of the children of Israel - Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief family in the tribe of Simeon, Num 25:14, brought a Midianitish woman, Cozbi, daughter of Zur, head over a people of one of the chief families in Midian, Num 25:15. The condition of these two persons plainly proves it to have been a matrimonial alliance, the one was a prince, the other a princess; therefore I must conclude that fornication or whoredom, in the common sense of the word, was not practiced on this occasion.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The woman is a Midianite where verse 1 named the daughters of Moab, and that difference is what verses 17 and 18 take up when the war is ordered against Midian. The act is done in the sight of Moses and of a congregation weeping at the door of the tabernacle, so a public grief is answered in public. Both names are held back until verses 14 and 15, and the text reports the deed before it reports the rank of the man who did it.
2. (vv. 7-8)
Numbers 25:7
“And lest we appear to you to bring these things forth from our own understanding rather than from the authority of the divine Scriptures, go back to the book of Numbers and recall what Phinehas the priest did when he saw a harlot of the Midianite people with an Israelite man clinging in impure embraces in the eyes of all. Filled with the wrath of divine jealousy, he drove a sword, which he had seized, through the breast of both.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON GENESIS 1:17patristic
Numbers 25:8
“Thrust both of them through - Inspired undoubtedly by the Spirit of the God of justice to do this act, which can never be a precedent on any common occasion. An act something similar occurs in our own history.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 25:8
“But when we are aware of his attacks, we ought to repeat to ourselves the apostolic words, "As many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death." Now if we have been conformed to His death, sin henceforth in us is surely a corpse, pierced through by the javelin of Baptism, as that fornicator was thrust through by the zealous Phinehas. Flee therefore from us, ill-omened one! for it is a corpse thou seekest to despoil, one long ago joined to thee, one who long since lost his senses for pleasures.”
Gregory of Nyssa· written before 395· ON THE BAPTISM OF CHRISTpatristic
Numbers 25:8
“The word signifies such a booth or place of retirement as was designed and fitted up for lewdness. Thus he declared his sin as Sodom, as was so far from blushing for it that he rather prided himself in it, and gloried in his shame. All the circumstances concurred to make it exceedingly sinful, exceedingly shameful.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Phinehas is Aaron's grandson and a priest, and he leaves the weeping assembly with a javelin in his hand. The word rendered tent in verse 8 is a rare one, and Matthew Henry reads it as a place fitted up for the act itself. Verse 8 ends by saying the plague was stayed, which is the first mention of a plague anywhere in the chapter, so the narrative reports the stopping of something it never reported starting. Psalm 106:30 tells it the same way, then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed.
3. (v. 9)
Numbers 25:9
“And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. The apostle says 23,000 1Co 10:8. Moses includes those that were hanged against the sun, in the time of the plague, as well as those that were taken off by it, even all that died on this account; the apostle only those that "fell", which cannot with propriety be said of those that were hanged, who might be 1000 and so their numbers agree; but of this and other ways of removing this difficulty See Gill on 1Co 10:8.”
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 25:9
“As far as that goes, we too have examples from this same past in favor of our own way of thinking, examples of a judgment on fornication which was not only not remiss but rather immediately executed. It is quite enough, I should think, that so great a number of the chosen people, twenty-four thousand, perished at one stroke after they had fornicated with the daughters of Midian. I prefer, however, for the glory of Christ, to derive ecclesiastical discipline from Christ.”
Tertullian· written before 220· ON PURITY 6.6.12-14patristic
Numbers 25:9
“Twenty and four thousand - Paul 1Co 10:8 says “three and twenty thousand,” following probably the Jewish tradition which deducted one thousand as the number slain by the hands of their brethren.”
Numbers 25:9-10
Numbers gives twenty and four thousand and 1 Corinthians 10:8 gives three and twenty thousand, with Paul adding that they fell in one day. John Gill takes the larger figure to include the men the judges executed, and Albert Barnes reports the Jewish tradition that deducts from the total the thousand slain by their brethren. Numbers gives no span for its number and Paul limits his to a single day, and the two figures stand as written with the text settling nothing between them.
C. A covenant of peace and lasting priesthood
1. (v. 10)
Numbers 25:10
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Out of the cloud, or out of the tabernacle, at the door of which Moses now was, Num 25:6, this was after so many had died of the plague, and after the fact of Phinehas, by which it was stopped: saying; as follows.”
2. (vv. 11-12)
Numbers 25:11
“Hath turned my wrath away - The signal example thus made of a leading offender by Phinehas was accepted by God as an expiation (literally in Num 25:13 “covering;” see the note at the typical significance Lev 1:4), and the exterminating wrath which had gone forth against the whole people was arrested Psa 106:30. The act of Phinehas must be regarded as exceptional.”
Numbers 25:12
“My covenant of peace - of an everlasting priesthood - As the word peace implied all kinds of blessings, both spiritual and temporal, it may mean no more here than the promise of God, to grant him and his family the utmost prosperity in reference to both worlds. The everlasting priesthood refers properly to the priesthood of Christ which was shadowed out by the priesthood under the law; no matter in what family it was continued.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 25:12
“By the covenant of peace given him, some understand in general a promise of long life and prosperity, and all good; it seems rather to be meant particularly of the covenant of priesthood, for that is called the covenant of life and peace ( Mal. ii. 5 ), and was made for the preservation of peace between God and his people.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The word behind zealous for my sake and the word behind my jealousy come from one root, so the man's zeal and God's jealousy are named with the same term. What is given him is called a covenant of peace, and Malachi 2:5 uses that pair of the covenant with Levi, my covenant was with him of life and peace. Albert Barnes and Adam Clarke both mark the deed as exceptional rather than a pattern, Clarke writing that it can never be a precedent on any common occasion.
3. (v. 13)
Numbers 25:13
“But this promise was conditional, and therefore might be made void, by the miscarriages of Phinehas's sons, as it seems it was, and thereupon a like promise was made to Eli of the line of Ithamar, that he and his should walk before the Lord, namely, in the office of high- priest, forever, which also for his and their sins was made void, 1 Sam. ii, 30.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
A man who used a javelin is said to have made an atonement, and the verb is the one used of what a priest does at the altar. The high priesthood runs in Eleazar's line through Phinehas, and Judges 20:28 still has him standing before the ark in the days of the judges. Adam Clarke reads the everlasting priesthood as pointing properly to the priesthood of Christ, shadowed by the priesthood under the law, whatever family carried the office. Zadok, who holds it from 1 Kings 2:35, is traced back through Eleazar and Phinehas at 1 Chronicles 6:4-8.
4. (vv. 14-15)
Numbers 25:14
“Now the name of the Israelite that was slain,.... By Phinehas, as before related: even that was slain with the Midianitish woman; who was slain also, both together with one thrust: was Zimri, the son of Sela, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites; or a prince of his father's house, or family; there were five families of the Simeonites, and this man was a prince of one of them, see Num 26:12 though Josephus (h), and so the Samaritan Chronicle (i), make him to be a prince of the tribe of Simeon.”
Numbers 25:15
“And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur,.... One of the five kings of Midian, Num 31:8 and so the Samaritan Chronicle says (k), it was the daughter of a king that came to a prince of the tribe of Simeon, and enticed him to eat of her food, and worship her idols.”
Numbers 25:14-16
The names come after the act, and both belong to ruling houses. Zimri is a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites, and Cozbi is the daughter of Zur, whom Numbers 31:8 lists among the five kings of Midian killed in the war this chapter orders. Simeon numbered fifty nine thousand three hundred at Numbers 1:23 and twenty two thousand two hundred at Numbers 26:14, the largest decrease of any tribe between the two counts, and Numbers draws no line between that figure and this chapter.
D. Treat Midian as the enemy she has been
1. (v. 16)
Numbers 25:16
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... This was some time after the above affair happened; how long it was is not certain; and a little time before the death of Moses, see Num 31:1, saying; as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 25:16
“1 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 3 And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the L ORD was kindled against Israel.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 17-18)
Numbers 25:17
“Vex the Midianites, etc. - See this order fulfilled, Numbers 31:1-20. Twelve thousand Israelites attacked the Midianites, destroyed all their cities, slew their five kings, every male, and every grown up woman, and took all their spoils.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 25:17
“The Midianites - And why not the Moabites. It is probable the Midianites were most guilty, as in persuading Balak to send for Balaam, chap. xxii, 4, 7. So in the reception of Balaam after Balak had dismissed him, chap. xxxi, 8, and in farther consultation with him, and in contriving the means for the executing of this wicked plot.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Numbers 25:18
“Note, Whatever draws us to sin should be a vexation to us, as a thorn in the flesh. The mischief which the Midianites did to Israel by enticing them to whoredom must be remembered and punished with as much severity as that which the Amalekites did in fighting with them when they came out of Egypt, Exod. xvii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 25:18
“For they vex you with their wiles,....”
The war is ordered against Midian while verse 1 named the daughters of Moab, and verse 18 gives the ground as the wiles by which they beguiled Israel in the matter of Peor. Moab is handled another way, since Deuteronomy 23:3-6 shuts the Moabite out of the congregation and names the hiring of Balaam in the same breath. The order given here is carried out in Numbers 31, and verse 16 of that chapter is where the counsel is finally traced to Balaam.
This page carries no textual note on Numbers 25. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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