Num 25:3-8 | TNotes | STEP | 25:3 Baal of Peor might refer to Chemosh (21:29 ) by a different name, but probably Baal (“lord”), the Canaanite god, was included on the list of deities honored by the Moabites. Numerous place-names were formed with this deity’s name (e.g., Baal-gad, Baal-hermon, Baal-meon, Baal-peor), representing shrines for local manifestations of Baal. Peor was a mountain from which Balaam could see the Israelite camp in the plains of Moab; the mountain and the related shrine of Beth-peor (23:28 ; 25:3 , 5 , 18 ; 31:16 ; Deut 3:29 ; 4:3 , 46 ; 34:6 ; Josh 13:20 ; 22:17 ) were somewhere in the vicinity of Mount Nebo. • Israel’s idolatry caused the Lord ’s anger to blaze against his people ; this included a plague (Num 25:8-9 ; 26:1 ; cp. 11:1 , 10 ; 12:9 ).

25:3 ^a Baal of Peor might refer to Chemosh (21:29 ^b) by a different name, but probably Baal (“lord”), the Canaanite god, was included on the list of deities honored by the Moabites. Numerous place-names were formed with this deity’s name (e.g., Baal-gad, Baal-hermon, Baal-meon, Baal-peor), representing shrines for local manifestations of Baal. Peor was a mountain from which Balaam could see the Israelite camp in the plains of Moab; the mountain and the related shrine of Beth-peor (23:28 ^c; 25:3 ^d, 5 ^e, 18 ^f; 31:16 ^g; Deut 3:29 ^h; 4:3 ⁱ, 46 ^j; 34:6 ^k; Josh 13:20 ^l; 22:17 ^m) were somewhere in the vicinity of Mount Nebo.

• Israel’s idolatry caused the Lord’s anger to blaze against his people; this included a plague (Num 25:8-9 ⁿ; 26:1 ^o; cp. 11:1 ^p, 10 ^q; 12:9 ^r).
25:4 ^s As he had at Sinai (Exod 32:27-28 ^t), the Lord required swift justice.

• execute ... in broad daylight: The guilty parties were perhaps impaled and left out in the sun (see 2 Sam 21:6 ^u, 9 ^v) so that everyone could see them and learn from their mistakes (cp. 2 Sam 12:12 ^w).
25:6 ^x Here another Israelite defiled himself with a foreign woman; apparently both Moabite and Midianite women had been involved in the scandal (25:1-3 ^y, 16-18 ^z; 31:1-2 ^aa). The man’s sin was particularly brazen, as he apparently disregarded the judgment and mourning around him.

• Some suggest that his tent was an unauthorized shrine associated with the worship of Yahweh, and not just Zimri’s dwelling.
Summary for Num 25:7-9: 25:7-9 ^ab Phinehas, acting as a representative of the priestly family, killed Zimri and Cozbi with one thrust of a spear (25:7-8 ^ac), which probably indicates that they were engaged in sexual intercourse. Phinehas’s zeal stopped the plague (25:1-3 ^ad).