Numbers 11:6

11:6 But now we ¹  are dried up, ²  and there is nothing at all before us ³  except this manna!”

Numbers 25:2

25:2 These women invited ⁴  the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ⁵ 

Numbers 28:17

28:17 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the festival. For seven days bread made without yeast must be eaten.

¹ tn Heb “our souls.”

² sn The Hebrews were complaining both about the bland taste of the manna and dehydration – they were parched in the wilderness.

³ tn Heb “before our eyes,” meaning that “we see nothing except this manna.”

⁴ tn 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 sn 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.