Numbers 25:7-8

25:7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, ¹  he got up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand, 25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent ²  and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. ³  So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. ⁴ 

Numbers 25:1

Israel’s Sin with the Moabite Women

25:1 ⁵ When ⁶  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ⁷  with the daughters of Moab.

Numbers 18:1

Responsibilities of the Priests

18:1 ⁸ The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your tribe ⁹  with you must bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, ¹⁰  and you and your sons with you must bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

Isaiah 34:6

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ¹¹  with fat;

it drips ¹²  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ¹³  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ¹⁴  in Bozrah, ¹⁵ 

a bloody ¹⁶  slaughter in the land of Edom.

Jeremiah 48:10

48:10 A curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord’s work!

A curse on anyone who keeps from carrying out his destruction! ¹⁷ 

¹ tn 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.

² tn 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,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).

³ tn 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.

⁴ sn 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.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ 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.

⁸ sn This chapter and the next may have been inserted here to explain how the priests are to function because in the preceding chapter Aaron’s position was affirmed. The chapter seems to fall into four units: responsibilities of priests (vv. 1-7), their portions (vv. 8-19), responsibilities of Levites (vv. 20-24), and instructions for Levites (vv. 25-32).

⁹ tn Heb “your father’s house.”

¹⁰ sn The responsibility for the sanctuary included obligations relating to any violation of the sanctuary. This was stated to forestall any further violations of the sanctuary. The priests were to pay for any ritual errors, primarily if any came too near. Since the priests and Levites come near all the time, they risk violating ritual laws more than any. So, with the great privileges come great responsibilities. The bottom line is that they were responsible for the sanctuary.

¹¹ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

¹² tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹³ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁴ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

¹⁵ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

¹⁶ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

¹⁷ tn Heb “who withholds his sword from bloodshed.” This verse is an editorial aside (or apostrophe) addressed to the Babylonian destroyers to be diligent in carrying out the work of the Lord in destroying Moab.