Numbers 25 Study Notes

25:1 The scene moves from the mountains of Moab to the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove (see Jos 2:1). Prostitute themselves with refers to ritual worship of foreign deities (Ex 34:15-16; Lv 17:7; Dt 31:16; Jdg 2:17).

25:2 The chief deity of the Moabites was known as Chemosh (21:29). Worship of Chemosh, Asherah, and others involved sacrificial rituals along with sacrificial meals (communal offerings) celebrating the goodness of the gods. The final step was bowing in worship, demonstrating the worshipers’ submission to the gods as servants. In doing this, the idolatrous Israelites were rejecting their exclusive allegiance to the one true God, who could not be portrayed by figurines or other symbols.

25:3 This is the first reference in the OT to the god Baal (Baal of Peor), who would become the primary competitor with Yahweh for the devotion of the people of Israel. The historical setting is the late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BC), when Baal was emerging as one of the chief deities in Canaan. Numerous cuneiform texts from the excavations of Ugarit reveal that Baal was the agent of the creative order who, with his consort Anath, defeated the forces of evil. The father-god was El, who with his consort Asherah was said to rule the heavens and the earth. The final words of the verse, and the Lord’s anger burned against Israel, echo the refrain of the first rebellion at Taberah (11:1). God’s judgment was about to fall, implying the onset of a plague (25:9).

25:4-5 The Lord instructed Moses, who delegated authority to the righteous judges of Israel to execute (lit “impale”) the leaders of this rebellion immediately to avert any further judgment against the people. These judges were probably those appointed by Moses at the suggestion of his father-in-law Jethro (Ex 18:13-27). The guilty parties were to be executed before the Lord, meaning that they were to be rendered unto the Lord to expiate the divine wrath demonstrated in the plague. This was harsh punishment, but the holiness of the community of faith was at stake. If the nation did not remain holy, she would fail like the previous generation that had died in the wilderness.

25:6-7 Phinehas son of Eleazar was Aaron’s grandson. He executed a rebellious Israelite who dared to present his Midianite seductress to his family near the entrance of the tabernacle, the place reserved for sacred presentation of offerings to God.

25:8-9 Phinehas, with his executioner’s spear in hand, impaled the man and his mistress together, quite possibly while they were beginning to have sexual relations (v. 1). Like Aaron did in the judgment scene against Korah and his rebellious followers (16:46-50), Phinehas stood in the gap between the living and the dying.

25:10 A shift in the language of divine instruction (the Lord spoke to Moses) goes almost unnoticed in the English translation. After Moses and Aaron had rebelled against God in the striking of the rock at Meribah (20:9-13), God merely “said” various things to Moses (Hb ’amar, v. 4; 20:12,23; 21:8,16,34), but now at the conclusion of the rebellion cycles of Numbers, and in the backdrop of Moses and Phinehas faithfully following the Lord’s commands, the Lord restored communication with Moses by “speaking” or “instructing” (Hb dibber, over thirty times in the first 19 chaps.). Moses was restored to full fellowship with God.

25:11-13 The zeal of Phinehas in defending the faith was rewarded with a divinely ordained relationship. His descendants would serve continuously as high priests (covenant of perpetual priesthood) over the nation of Israel. A covenant of peace is also mentioned in Is 54:10; Ezk 34:25; 37:26; and Mal 2:5. The recipients of this covenant were assured of God’s presence, protection, and provision in times of trouble.

25:14-15 The people killed by Phinehas were from prominent families, the man being a son of a Simeonite leader and the woman being the daughter of Zur, a Midianite tribal leader. Sinfulness and the judgment that follows it are no respecters of persons, whether from the lower classes or the elite.

25:16-18 These verses serve as a precursor to the directive of 33:50-56, in which the Lord instructed the Israelites to drive out the idolatrous Canaanites lest these inhabitants of the promised land lead Israel into idolatry. During this Midianite campaign (Moses’s last before his death), Balaam would be killed (31:8).