Numbers 25–26

Footnotes

1. 1 Chapter 25 tells of Israel’s sins on the steppes of Moab, and God’s punishment. In the overall plan of the book, here we have another possible threat to God’s program, although here it comes from within the camp (Balaam was the threat from without). If the Moabites could not defeat them one way, they would try another. The chapter has three parts: fornication (vv. 1–3), God’s punishment (vv. 4–9), and aftermath (vv. 10–18). See further G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 105–21; and S. C. Reif, “What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” 90 (1971): 200–206.
2. 2 This first preterite is subordinated to the next as a temporal clause; it is not giving a parallel action, but the setting for the event.
3. 3 The account apparently means that the men were having sex with the Moabite women. Why the men submitted to such a temptation at this point is hard to say. It may be that as military heroes the men took liberties with the women of occupied territories.
4. 4 The verb simply says “they called,” but it is a feminine plural. And so the women who engaged in immoral acts with Hebrew men invited them to their temple ritual.
5. 5 What Israel experienced here was some of the debased ritual practices of the Canaanite people. The act of prostrating themselves before the pagan deities was probably participation in a fertility ritual, nothing short of cultic prostitution. This was a blatant disregard of the covenant and the Law. If something were not done, the nation would have destroyed itself.
6. 6 The verb is “yoked” to Baal-peor. The word is unusual, and may suggest the physical, ritual participation described below. It certainly shows that they acknowledge the reality of the local god. The evidence indicates that Moab was part of the very corrupt Canaanite world, a world that was given over to the fertility ritual of the times.
7. 7 The meaning must be the leaders behind the apostasy, for they would now be arrested. They were responsible for the tribes’ conformity to the Law, but here they had not only failed in their duty, but had participated. The leaders were executed; the rest of the guilty died by the plague.
8. 8 The leaders who were guilty were commanded by God to be publicly exposed by hanging, probably a reference to impaling, but possibly some other form of harsh punishment. The point was that the swaying of their executed bodies would be a startling warning for any who so blatantly set the Law aside and indulged in apostasy through pagan sexual orgies.
9. 9 Heb “in the sun.” This means in broad daylight.
10. 10 Heb “slay—a man his men.” The imperative is plural, and so “man” is to be taken collectively as “each of you men.”
11. 11 The verse begins with the deictic particle וְהִנֵּה (véhinneh), pointing out the action that was taking place. It stresses the immediacy of the action to the reader.
12. 12 Or “to his family”; or “to his clan.”
13. 13 Heb “before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of.”
14. 14 The vav (ו) at the beginning of the clause is a disjunctive because it is prefixed to the nonverbal form. In this context it is best interpreted as a circumstantial clause, stressing that this happened “while” people were weeping over the sin.
15. 15 The first clause is subordinated to the second because both begin with the preterite verbal form, and there is clearly a logical and/or chronological sequence involved.
16. 16 The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” 90 [1971]: 200–206).
17. 17 Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.
18. 18 Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the Lord himself had had the guilty put to death. And there was already some plague breaking out in the camp that had to be stopped. And so in his zeal he dramatically put an end to this incident, that served to stop the rest and end the plague.
19. 19 Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.
20. 20 The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (, , , ), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.
21. 21 Heb “say.”
22. 22 Here too the grammar expresses an imminent future by using the particle הִנְנִי (hinni) before the participle נֹתֵן (noten)—“here I am giving,” or “I am about to give.”
23. 23 Or “my pledge of friendship” (), or “my pact of friendship” (). This is the designation of the leadership of the priestly ministry. The terminology is used again in the rebuke of the priests in Mal 2.
24. 24 The motif is reiterated here. Phinehas was passionately determined to maintain the rights of his God by stopping the gross sinful perversions.
25. 25 The atonement that he made in this passage refers to the killing of the two obviously blatant sinners. By doing this he dispensed with any animal sacrifice, for the sinners themselves died. In Leviticus it was the life of the substitutionary animal that was taken in place of the sinners that made atonement. The point is that sin was punished by death, and so God was free to end the plague and pardon the people. God’s holiness and righteousness have always been every bit as important as God’s mercy and compassion, for without righteousness and holiness mercy and compassion mean nothing.
26. 26 Heb “a father’s house.” So also in v. 15.
27. 27 Heb “head.”
28. 28 The passage makes it clear that this individual was a leader, one who was supposed to be preventing this thing from happening. The judgment was swift and severe, because the crime was so great, and the danger of it spreading was certain. Paul refers to this horrible incident when he reminds Christians not to do similar things (1 Cor 10:6–8).
29. 29 The form is the infinitive absolute used in place of a verb here; it clearly is meant to be an instruction for Israel. The idea is that of causing trouble, harassing, vexing Midian. The verb is repeated as the active participle in the line, and so the punishment is talionic.
30. 30 This is the same word as that translated “treachery.”
31. 31 Cozbi’s father, Zur, was one of five Midianite kings who eventually succumbed to Israel (Num 31:8). When the text gives the name and family of a woman, it is asserting that she is important, at least for social reasons, among her people.
32. 1 The breakdown of ch. 26 for outlining purposes will be essentially according to the tribes of Israel. The format and structure is similar to the first census, and so less comment is necessary here.
33. 2 The has also “saying.”
34. 3 Heb “house of their fathers.”
35. 4 Heb “everyone who goes out in the army in Israel.”
36. 5 The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity (also in v. 62).
37. 6 For the location of Jericho see ; ; ; ; ; .
38. 7 “Number the people” is added here to the text for a smooth reading.
39. 8 The Hebrew text has no preposition here, but one has been supplied in the translation for clarity. Cf. vv. 23, 30, 31, 32.
40. 9 The Reubenites had decreased from 46,500 to 43,730.
41. 10 The has “and the sons of Pallu.”
42. 11 Or “company” (so , , ); Heb “congregation.”
43. 12 This is “Zohar” in Exod 6:15 and Gen 46:10.
44. 13 Before entering Sinai the tribe numbered 59,300, the third largest. Now it was about one-third its original size.
45. 14 The of Gen 46:16 reads this as “Ezbon.”
46. 15 The Greek version and have “Ad[d]i,” probably by confusion of letters.
47. 16 Gen 46:16 and the here read “Arodi.”
48. 17 The Gadites decreased from 45,650 to 40,500.
49. 18 and the Greek version have “Hamuel.”
50. 19 The Judahites increased from 74,600 to 76,500.
51. 20 The Issacharites increased from 54,400 to 64,300.
52. 21 The Zebulunites showed a slight increase from 57,400 to 60,500.
53. 22 The Manassehites increased from 32,200 to 52,700.
54. 23 This is a significant reduction from the first count of 40,500.
55. 24 With the exception of a few manuscripts the has Shephupham. The spelling in the translation above is supported by and the ancient versions.
56. 25 The has Adar. Cf. 1 Chr 8:3.
57. 26 “From Ard” is not in the Hebrew text.
58. 27 The Benjaminites increased from 35,400 to 45,600. The Greek version has here 35,500.
59. 28 The Danites increased from 62,700 to 64,400.
60. 29 Also mentioned in 1 Chr 7:30.
61. 30 The Asherites increased from 41,500 to 53,400.
62. 31 The Naphtalites decreased from 53,400 to 45,400.
63. 32 This number shows only a slightly smaller total in the second census; the first was 603,550.
64. 33 Heb “to many you will multiply his inheritance.”
65. 34 Heb “to a few you will lessen his inheritance.”
66. 35 Heb “according to those that were numbered of him,” meaning, in accordance with the number of people in his clan.
67. 36 Heb “divided.”
68. 37 Heb “who she bore him to Levi.” The verb has no expressed subject. Either one could be supplied, such as “her mother,” or it could be treated as a passive.
69. 38 The expression אֵשׁ זָרָה (’esh zarah, “strange fire”) seems imprecise and has been interpreted numerous ways (see the helpful summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [ 4], ). The infraction may have involved any of the following or a combination thereof: (1) using coals from some place other than the burnt offering altar (i.e., “unauthorized coals” according to J. Milgrom, Leviticus [], 1:; cf. Lev 16:12 and cf. “unauthorized person” [אִישׁ זָר, ’ish zar] in Num 16:40 [17:5 ], “layman”), (2) using the wrong kind of incense (cf. the Exod 30:9 regulation against “strange incense” [קְטֹרֶת זָרָה, qétoret zarah] on the incense altar and the possible connection to Exod 30:34–38), (3) performing an incense offering at an unprescribed time (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [], ), or (4) entering the Holy of Holies at an inappropriate time (Lev 16:1–2). This event is narrated in Lev 10:1–7.