The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 357

CHAPTER XXV. seems strange that so fearful an apostasy ha.d gone so far without interference on the pa.rt THE BIN OJ' lsRAEL AND ATONEMENT OJ' of Moses. He ma.y have been absent from PHINEHAS (vers. 1-18). Ver. 1.-Abode in the camp on account of the wars with the Shittim. For a considerable time; from their Amorite kings ; or he ma.y have trusted to fi.rst arrival in the Arboth Moab until the the chiefs to see that due order and disci- crossing of the Jordan. Shittim is the pline was maintained in the camps. Take all shortened form of .A.bel-Shittim, " Field of the heads of the people, i. e. the chiefs, Acacias" (eh. xxxili. 49). It seems to have who ought to have prevented, and might been the northernmost part of the last have prevented, this monstrous irregularity, encampment of Israel on that side Jordan, bat who seem, if we may judge from the ca.sP and the head-quarters of the host (Josh. ii. of Zimri, to have countenanced it. The men 1; iii. 1). Began to commit whoredom with neglect of duty in so gross a. case was reasou the daughters of Moab. This commence- enough for summary execution. Xang them ment of sin seems to have been made by up before the Lord. Either by way of im- Israel without special provocation. The very palement or by way of crucifixion, both of victories won, o.nd the comparative ease and which were familiar modes of punishment. affluence now enjoyed, after long marches and In this case the guilty persons were probably hardships, may well have predisposed them to slain fi.rst, and exposed afterwards. The this sin, for which they now for the fu-st time hanging up was not ordered on account of it~ found abundant opportunity. cruelty, nor merely for the sake of publicity Ver. 2.-And they called, i. e. the women (" against the sun"), bat in order to show of Moab, encouraged to do so by the licen- that the victims were devoted to the wrath tious intercoW"Se which had sprung up. of God against siu (cf. Deut. x:ri. 23 ; 2 Sam. Without such encouragement it is difficult xxi. 2-6). The Septuagint has here ,rapa· to suppose that they would have ventured on ouyµ.tir,aov aurou,;. Cf. Heh. vi. 6, when such a step. And the people did eat. this word is coupled with "crucify." Ther~ Gluttony added its seductions to lust, No is no authority for refening the "them" doubt this generation were as weary of the (CJ;liN) to the guilty persons instead of to manna and as eager for other and heavier the heads of the people, ns is done by tha food as their fathers had been (see on eh. xi. Tnrgums and by many commentotors.:.:...L 4; xxi. 6). Ver. 5.-Thejudges of Israel. '~!)177~. Ver. 3.-Israel joined himself unto Baal- This is the first pface where "the fudge;" Peor. This is a technical phrase, repeated ore mentioned by this name (cf. Dent. i. 16 ; in ver. 61 and quoted in Ps. cvi. 28, express- Judges ii. 16), but lhe verb is freely used in ing the quasi-sacramental union into which Exod. xviii. in describing the functions of they entered with the heathen deity by par- the officers appointed at Sinai. Every one taking of his sacrificial meats and by sharing his men. The men who were under his J'ar- in his impure rites {cf. Hosea ix. 10 and the ticular jurisdiction. This command given argument of St. Paul in 1 Oor, x.), There by Moses is not to be confounded with the can be little doubt that Peor (iill~, from 'W~, previous command given to Moses to ho.ng to open) has the sense of aperiena, in usu up oil the chiefs. Moses only could deal obsmw, and that it was the distinguishing with the chief, but it was within the_power name of Baal or Ohemosh when worshipped and the province of the judges to deo1 with as the god of reproduction with the abomin- ordinary offenders. It does not, however, able rites proper to this cultus. Fora notice appear how for either of these commands of the same thing in the last days of Israel was put in practice. see Hosea iv. H, and for the practice of Ver. 6.-A lllidianitish woman. Rather, Babylonian and (to some degree) Egyptio.n "the Midianitish woman." n'~:"J~rrnl$. women, see Herodotus, i. 199; ii. 60). The Septuagint, rr)v Mao,avin1v. The writer Septuagint has here lreXiallJ r,jj BuX<f>,ywp, deals with an incident only too notorious, "was co11secrated," or "initiated," unto and which by the peculiar 11ggrovation of its Baal-Peor, which admirably expressed the circumstances had fixed itself tleeply in the sense, popular memory. This is the first mention Ver. 4.-The Lord aaid unto lllosea. It of the Midionites iu connection with thi!t  THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. XXV. 1-18,