23:14 So Balak brought Balaam 2 to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, 3 where 4 he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
23:27 Balak said to Balaam, “Come, please; I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God 5 to let you curse them for me from there.” 6
25:1 7 When 8 Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality 9 with the daughters of Moab.
4:19 The people went up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month 10 and camped in Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 11
5:10 So the Israelites camped in Gilgal and celebrated the Passover in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho. 15
1 sn The name Bamoth Baal means “the high places of Baal.”
2 tn Heb “he brought him”; the referents (Balak and Balaam) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Some scholars do not translate this word as “Pisgah,” but rather as a “lookout post” or an “elevated place.”
4 tn Heb “and he built.”
5 tn Heb “be pleasing in the eyes of God.”
6 sn Balak is stubborn, as indeed Balaam is persistent. But Balak still thinks that if another location were used it just might work. Balaam had actually told Balak in the prophecy that other attempts would fail. But Balak refuses to give up so easily. So he insists they perform the ritual and try again. This time, however, Balaam will change his approach, and this will result in a dramatic outpouring of power on him.
7 sn 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,” JBL 90 (1971): 200-206.
8 tn 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.
9 sn 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.
10 sn The first month was the month Abib (= late March-early April in the modern calendar). The Passover in Egypt also occurred on the tenth day of the first month (Exod 12:2; 13:4).
11 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
12 tn Heb “rolled away.”
13 sn One might take the disgrace of Egypt as a reference to their uncircumcised condition (see Gen 34:14), but the generation that left Egypt was circumcised (see v. 5). It more likely refers to the disgrace they experienced in Egyptian slavery. When this new generation reached the promised land and renewed their covenantal commitment to the Lord by submitting to the rite of circumcision, the
14 sn The name Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew verb “roll away” (גַּלַל, galal).
15 map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
16 tn Heb “at one time.”