_A.M. 2552. B.C. 1452._ The sin of Israel, Numbers 25:1. Their punishment, Numbers 25:4; Numbers 25:5. The zeal of Phinehas, with the promise annexed to it, Numbers 25:6. The command to slay the Midianites, Numbers 25:16.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Israel abode in Shittim_ And this was their last station, from whence they passed immediately into Canaan. This is noted as a great aggravation of their sin, that they committed it when God was going to put them into the possession of their long-expected land. _The people_ Many of them. _Whoredom_... [ Continue Reading ]
_They called_ The Moabites, being now neighbours to the Israelites, and finding themselves unable to effect their design by war and divination, fell another way to work, by contracting familiarity with them, and, perceiving their evil inclinations, _they_, that is, their daughters, invited them _unt... [ Continue Reading ]
_Joined himself_ The word implies a forsaking God, to whom they were joined, and a turning to, and strict conjunction with, this false god. _Baal-peor_ Called Baal, by the name common to many false gods, and especially to those that represented any of the heavenly bodies; and Peor, either from the h... [ Continue Reading ]
_Take_ That is, apprehend; _all the heads_ (or chief) _of the people _ Such as were chief in this transgression, and in place and power. These are singled out to this exemplary punishment for their concurrence with others in this wickedness, which was more odious, and of more pernicious tendency in... [ Continue Reading ]
_Slay ye every one his men_ Moses having, in conjunction with the judges, searched out such as had been guilty of this lewdness and idolatry, allots to each magistrate his number of malefactors for execution, that they might either put them to death with their own hands, as Phinehas did, (Numbers 25... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold one came_ This was done when Moses had given the charge to the judges, and, as it may seem, before the execution of it; otherwise it is probable he would not have been so foolish as to have run upon certain ruin, when the examples were frequent before his eyes. _To his brethren_ Into the cam... [ Continue Reading ]
_Phinehas rose up_ The psalmist says, _He stood up and executed judgment;_ which seems to import that he acted as a judge; but in a crime so presumptuous, and so openly committed, he thought it not necessary to wait for a judicial process against the offenders, but cut them off directly with his own... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thrust them both through_ Phinehas was himself a man in great authority, and did this after the command given by Moses to the rulers to slay these transgressors, and in the very sight, and no doubt by the consent of Moses himself, and also by the special direction of God's Spirit.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Twenty and four thousand_ St. Paul mentions only _twenty and three thousand_, who, he says, fell in one day, 1 Corinthians 10:8. But it seems that one thousand were slain by the judges, (Numbers 25:5,) and twenty- three thousand by the hand of God. For what we render plague does not signify pestile... [ Continue Reading ]
_That I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy_ When God ascribes jealousy and the passions to himself, in Scripture, he speaks after the manner of men, and in conformity to our apprehension. The meaning is, that his own glory and the salvation of mankind render it necessary that he shou... [ Continue Reading ]
_My covenant of peace_ That is, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, as it is expounded Numbers 25:13, which is called a covenant of peace, partly with respect to the happy effect of this heroical action of his, whereby he made peace between God and his people, and partly with regard to the pr... [ Continue Reading ]
_An everlasting priesthood_ To continue as long as the law and commonwealth of the Jews did. 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 an... [ Continue Reading ]
_Vex the Midianites_ It is probable, from Numbers 25:6, compared with Numbers 21:16, that the Midianites had had the principal hand in seducing the Israelites into this shameful revolt from the worship of God to the vile sacrifices of Baal-peor, and in causing this open and impudent affront to be pu... [ Continue Reading ]
_With their wiles_ For under pretence of kindred, and friendship, and leagues, which they offered to them, instead of that war which the Israelites expected, they sought only an opportunity to insinuate themselves into their familiarity, and execute their hellish plot of bringing that curse upon the... [ Continue Reading ]