Numbers 31:15-16

31:15 Moses said to them, “Have you allowed all the women to live? ¹  31:16 Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord!

Genesis 26:10

26:10 Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us? ²  One of the men ³  might easily have had sexual relations with ⁴  your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”

Exodus 32:21

32:21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought on them so great a sin?”

Exodus 32:35

32:35 And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf ⁵  – the one Aaron made. ⁶ 

Revelation 2:14

2:14 But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam, ⁷  who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block ⁸  before the people ⁹  of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality. ¹⁰ 

¹ tn The verb is the Piel perfect of the word חָיָה (khayah, “to live”). In the Piel stem it must here mean “preserve alive,” or “allow to live,” rather than make alive.

² tn Heb “What is this you have done to us?” The Hebrew demonstrative pronoun “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to us?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

³ tn Heb “people.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew verb means “to lie down.” Here the expression “lie with” or “sleep with” is euphemistic for “have sexual relations with.”

⁵ tn The verse is difficult because of the double reference to the making of the calf. The NJPS’s translation tries to reconcile the two by reading “for what they did with the calf that Aaron had made.” B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 557) explains in some detail why this is not a good translation based on syntactical grounds; he opts for the conclusion that the last three words are a clumsy secondary addition. It seems preferable to take the view that both are true, Aaron is singled out for his obvious lead in the sin, but the people sinned by instigating the whole thing.

⁶ sn Most commentators have difficulty with this verse. W. C. Kaiser says the strict chronology is not always kept, and so the plague here may very well refer to the killing of the three thousand (“Exodus,” EBC 2:481).

⁷ sn See Num 22-24; 31:16.

⁸ tn That is, a cause for sinning. An alternate translation is “who instructed Balak to cause the people of Israel to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols…”

⁹ tn Grk “sons,” but the expression υἱοὶ ᾿Ισραήλ (Juioi Israhl) is an idiom for the people of Israel as an ethnic entity (see L&N 11.58).

¹⁰ tn Due to the actual events in the OT (Num 22-24; 31:16), πορνεῦσαι (porneusai) is taken to mean “sexual immorality.” BDAG 854 s.v. πορνεύω 1 states, “engage in illicit sex, to fornicate, to whore…W. φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα ‘eat meat offered to idols’ Rv 2:14, 20.”