Numbers 25:4

_AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, TAKE ALL THE HEADS OF THE PEOPLE, AND HANG THEM UP BEFORE THE LORD AGAINST THE SUN, THAT THE FIERCE ANGER OF THE LORD MAY BE TURNED AWAY FROM ISRAEL._ Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up. The language is somewhat ambiguous, and may mean either that Moses was to take measures, with the help of "all the heads" - i:e., the judges (Numbers 25:5) - for putting to death the most noted and flagrant offenders in each of the tribes; or that the persons here ordered for execution were the officers-subordinate, but still public officers-rulers of tens and hundreds, who might have been concerned in the infamous deeds at Peor, and who, as from their dignity and power they ought to have preserved the people in their integrity, were to be consigned to a violent and ignominious death as a public warning. Israelite criminals who were condemned to

4._And the Lord said unto Moses. _We have often seen before how God executed His judgments by His own hand, as if He put it forth from heaven; He now imposes this office on Moses, although it is evident from the context that he was not appointed to execute it alone, but that the other judges were associated with him; for it immediately follows that Moses intrusted the same charge to them, and thus, what was obscure, on account of the brevity with which it is recorded, is more clearly expressed. At any rate, it was a notable judgment of God Himself, though He employed men as its ministers. Nor does Paul in vain exhort (184) us by this example to beware of fornication. The mode of the punishment, however, was diverse, for the lower orders were slain (by pestilence,) but the leaders were hanged upon the gallows, that the sight might awaken more terror; for by “the heads of the people” he me...

1-5 The friendship of the wicked is more dangerous than their enmity; for none can prevail against God's people if they are not overcome by their inbred lusts; nor can any enchantment hurt them, but the enticements of worldly interests and pleasures. Here is the sin of Israel, to which they are enticed by the daughters of Moab and Midian. Those are our worst enemies who draw us to sin, for that is the greatest mischief any man can do us. Israel's sin did that which all Balaam's enchantments could not do; it set God against them. Diseases are the fruits of God's anger, and the just punishments of prevailing sins; one infection follows the other. Ringleaders in sin ought to be made examples of justice....

Verse Numbers 25:4. _TAKE ALL THE HEADS OF THE PEOPLE, C._] Meaning the chiefs of those who had transgressed as if he had said, "Assemble the chiefs and judges, institute an inquiry concerning the transgressors, and hang them who shall be found guilty _before the_ _Lord_, as a matter required by his justice." _Against the sun _- in the most public manner, and in daylight. Dr. Kennicott has remarked that the Samaritan and Hebrew texts must be both taken together, to make the sense here complete: And the Lord said unto Moses, SPEAK unto _all_ the heads of the people; AND LET THEM SLAY THE MEN THAT WERE JOINED TO BAAL-PEOR; _and hang_ _them up before the Lord against the sun_, c....

TAKE - i. e., assemble the chiefs of the people to thee (compare the phrase “took men,” in Numbers 16:1). The offenders were to be first; slain by the hands of “the judges of Israel” Numbers 25:5, and afterward hung up “against the sun” (i. e., publicly, openly; compare 2 Samuel 12:12) as an aggravation of their punishment. This would be done by impaling the body or fastening it to a cross. Compare Deuteronomy 21:23 note, and 2 Samuel 21:9....

EXPOSITION THE SIN OF ISRAEL AND ATONEMENT OF PHINEHAS (Numbers 25:1). NUMBERS 25:1 ABODE IN SHITTIM. For a considerable time; from their first arrival in the Arboth Moab until the crossing of the Jordan. Shittim is the shortened form of Abel-Shittim, "Field of Acacias" (Numbers 33:49). It seems to have been the northernmost part of the last encampment of Israel on that side Jordan, and the head-quarters of the host (Joshua 2:1;...

AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES,.... Being provoked with the sins of the people, he called to him out of the tabernacle, or out of the cloud: TAKE ALL THE HEADS OF THE PEOPLE, the princes of the tribes, not to hang them, but to judge those that worshipped Peor, as Jarchi interprets it; though some think that these having sinned, were ordered to be taken and hanged, and made public examples of; but it can hardly be thought, though there were some that might be guilty of the above sins, as Zimri, yet not all of them: HANG THEM UP BEFORE THE LORD AGAINST THE SUN; that is, those that were guilty of idolatry: the meaning is, and which all the Targums give into, that these heads of the people were to assemble at some proper place, the court of judicature, and order the delinquents to be brought before them, and try, judge, and condemn those they found guilty, and cause them to be hanged somewhe...

2. ISRAEL'S SIN WITH THE DAUGHTERS OF MOAB: PHINEHAS CHAPTER 25 _ 1. The transgression and the anger of Jehovah (Numbers 25:1)_ 2. Phinehas' action (Numbers 25:6) 3. Phinehas and his reward (Numbers 25:10) 4. The Midianites to be smitten (Numbers 26:16) The sin of Israel was the result of Balaam's work. He could not turn Jehovah from Israel (no enemy can), but he could turn Israel from God. While we do not read here that the fornication and idolatry into which Israel fell was Balaam's work, elsewhere this information is given. See...

NUMBERS 25. In this chapter fragments of two distinct narratives have been united. In the first (from JE), the Israelites sin with _Moabite_ women, and the sin is punished by the _judicial execution_ of the offenders. In the second (from P), the sin is committed with _Midianite_ women, and is avenged by a _plague._ The first fragment lacks a conclusion, the second its beginning. NUMBERS 25:1. (JE). IMMORALITY WITH MOABITE WOMEN AT SHITTIM. This was followed by participation in the idolatrous worship of the Moabite god Chemosh (Numbers 21:29), who was styled (Numbers 25:3 _mg.)_ the Baal (or lord) of Peor (just as there was a Baal of Hermon, and a Baal of Lebanon). The carrying o

SAID. See note on Numbers 3:40. HEADS: i.e. chiefs or princes of the People. The number not stated here, but must have been 1,000, and included in the 24,000 of Numbers 25:9, and excluded in 1 Corinthians 10:8. The 23,000 mentioned in 1 Corinthians 10:8 "fell in one day": the day of the plague, verses: Numbers 25:9; Numbers 25:18. And those who were hanged prior to that (verses:...