The heads] the ringleaders. Hang them up] Some shameful form of execution, followed by impalement: see on Deuteronomy 21:22.

6-18. The zeal of Phinehas in slaying with his own hand an Israelite and his Midianitish concubine is rewarded with the promise of the permanence of the priesthood in his family: cp. Exodus 32:26 and notes there.

This incident while related to the foregoing is distinct from it. Literary evidence shows that Numbers 25:6 are from a different source from Numbers 25:1. Observe that in the one case the punishment is slaughter (Numbers 25:5), and in the other plague (Numbers 25:9), and that the source of temptation in the one case is Moab and in the other Midian: see on Numbers 25:16.

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