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Numbers 25:3

in Numbers 25

So Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD burned against them.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel.

KJV

And Israel joined himself unto Baal–peor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

This verse in Numbers 25

Commentary

7 notes on this verse
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.)

This site's exposition

And Israel joined himself unto

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

It is said expressly ( Ps. cvi. 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.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

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.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

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.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor - The same as the Priapus of the Romans, and worshipped with the same obscene rites as we have frequently had occasion to remark. The joining to Baal-peor, mentioned here, was probably what St. Paul had in view when he said, 2Co 6:14: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And this joining, though done even in a matrimonial way, was nevertheless fornication, (see Rev 2:14), as no marriage between an Israelite and a Midianite could be legitimate, according to the law of God. See the propositions at the close of the preceding chapter Num 24:25 (note).

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיִּצָּ֥מֶדand it joined itself

    vaiyitzamedH6775

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לIsrael

    yisraelH34782507 times

  • לְבַ֣עַלto Baal

    levaalH118712 times

  • פְּע֑וֹרPeor

    peorH118712 times

  • וַיִּֽחַר־and it burned

    vaiyichar-H273491 times

  • אַ֥ף[the] anger of

    ʾafH639276 times

  • יְהוָ֖הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃on Israel

    beyisraelH34782507 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Joshua 22:17

    Was not the sin of Peor enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day? It even brought a plague upon the congregation of the LORD.

    it leads to

    • Numbers 25:1–18

      While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

  • Through

    Judges 2:14

    Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they…

    it leads to

    • 2 Kings 17:20

      So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.

    • Psalms 106:40–42

      So the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.

    • Deuteronomy 32:30

      How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?

    • Deuteronomy 31:17–18

      On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them.…

  • Through

    Judges 2:20

    So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed the covenant I laid down for their fathers and has not heeded My voice,

    it leads to

    • Judges 2:14

      Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they…

    • Joshua 23:16

      If you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will burn against…

  • Through

    Hosea 9:10

    I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so…

    it leads to

    • Jeremiah 11:13

      Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah; the altars of shame you have set up—the altars to burn incense to Baal—are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.