Numbers 25:2

25:2 These women invited ¹  the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ² 

Numbers 33:4

33:4 Now the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them; the Lord also executed judgments on their gods.

Numbers 22:22

God Opposes Balaam

22:22 Then God’s anger was kindled ³  because he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose ⁴  him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him.

[25:2]  ¹ 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.

[25:2]  ² 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.

[22:22]  ³ sn God’s anger now seems to contradict the permission he gave Balaam just before this. Some commentators argue that God’s anger is a response to Balaam’s character in setting out – which the Bible does not explain. God saw in him greed and pleasure for the riches, which is why he was so willing to go.

[22:22]  ⁴ tn The word is שָׂטָן (satan, “to be an adversary, to oppose”).