Numbers 22:41

22:41 Then on the next morning Balak took Balaam, and brought him up to Bamoth Baal. ¹  From there he saw the extent of the nation.

Numbers 23:13-14

23:13 Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you can observe them. You will see only a part of them, but you will not see all of them. Curse them for me from there.”

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.

Numbers 23:27

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 

Numbers 25:1

Israel’s Sin with the Moabite Women

25:1 ⁷ When ⁸  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ⁹  with the daughters of Moab.

Numbers 33:49

33:49 They camped by the Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab.

Joshua 4:19

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 

Joshua 5:9-10

5:9 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have taken away ¹²  the disgrace ¹³  of Egypt from you.” So that place is called Gilgal ¹⁴  even to this day.

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 

Joshua 10:42-43

10:42 Joshua captured in one campaign ¹⁶  all these kings and their lands, for the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. 10:43 Then Joshua and all Israel returned to the camp at Gilgal.

[22:41]  ¹ sn The name Bamoth Baal means “the high places of Baal.”

[23:14]  ² tn Heb “he brought him”; the referents (Balak and Balaam) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:14]  ³ tn Some scholars do not translate this word as “Pisgah,” but rather as a “lookout post” or an “elevated place.”

[23:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he built.”

[23:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “be pleasing in the eyes of God.”

[23:27]  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.

[25:1]  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.

[25:1]  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.

[25:1]  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.

[4:19]  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).

[4:19]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[5:9]  ¹² tn Heb “rolled away.”

[5:9]  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 Lord’s deliverance of his people from slavery, which had begun with the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea, reached its climax. See T. C. Butler, Joshua (WBC), 59.

[5:9]  ¹⁴ sn The name Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew verb “roll away” (גַּלַל, galal).

[5:10]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[10:42]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “at one time.”