Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter Twenty-five
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Hebrews commit fornication with the Madianites, and worship Beelphegor: hence some 24 thousand are partly hanged by Moses, partly slain by God. Phinees stays this plague, slaying Zambri and Cozbi, and therefore God assigns the priesthood to him for ever.
1. And Israel abode at that time in Settim, and the people committed fornication with the daughters of Moab, 2. Who called them to their sacrifices. And they ate of them and adored their gods. 3. And Israel was initiated to Beelphegor: and the Lord being angry, 4. Said to Moses: Take all the princes of the people, and hang them up on gibbets against the sun: that my fury may be turned away from Israel. 5. And Moses said to the judges of Israel: Let every man kill his neighbours that have been initiated to Beelphegor. 6. And behold one of the children of Israel went in before his brethren into a harlot of Madian, in the sight of Moses, and of all the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle. 7. And when Phinees the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the multitude, and taking a dagger, 8. He went in after the Israelite into the brothel house, and thrust both of them through together, to wit, the man and the woman in the genital parts. And the plague ceased from the children of Israel: 9. And there were slain twenty-four thousand men. 10. And the Lord said to Moses: 11. Phinees the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel: because he was moved with my zeal against them, that I myself might not destroy the children of Israel in my zeal. 12. Therefore say to him: Behold I give him the peace of my covenant, 13. And the covenant of the priesthood for ever shall be both to him and to his seed, because he hath been zealous for his God, and hath made atonement for the wickedness of the children of Israel. 14. And the name of the Israelite that was slain with the Madianitish woman, was Zambri the son of Salu, a prince of the kindred and tribe of Simeon. 15. And the Madianitish woman that was slain together with him, was called Cozbi the daughter of Sur, a most noble prince of the Madianites. 16. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17. Let the Madianites find you enemies, and strike them: 18. Because they also have acted as enemies against you, and have craftily deceived you by the idol of Phogor, and Cozbi their sister the daughter of the prince of Madian, who was slain in the day of the plague for the sacrilege of Phogor.
Numbers 33:49 it is called Abelsatim, the word abel, that is, mourning, being added, perhaps on account of the mourning of the idolaters, who, being Hebrews, are in this chapter narrated to have been slain in Settim. So Abulensis.
1 and 2. AND THE PEOPLE COMMITTED FORNICATION WITH THE DAUGHTERS OF MOAB, WHO CALLED THEM TO THEIR SACRIFICES.—Behold here the execution of the counsel of Balaam; which he himself, on departing from Balac, had promised to give him, chapter 24, verse 14.
1. AND ISRAEL ABODE AT THAT TIME IN SETTIM.—This is the 42nd and last encampment of the Hebrews in the desert, namely in the plains of Moab; for from Settim Josue sent two spies into Chanaan, Moses being dead, Josue 2:1. In Settim, then, were done all the things which follow in Numbers, and which are described in the whole of Deuteronomy. This place, the counsel of Balaam and of the Moabites, namely, the Moabites and Madianites, to provide for their lives, lest they should be overcome and slain by the Hebrews, sent their most beautiful daughters to the camp of the Hebrews, to entice them to luxury, and thence to idolatry, that so God might be angry with them, and desert them, and permit them to be both conquered and slaughtered by the Moabites.
Learn here how great is the allurement and power of beauty in women. Against the Hebrew soldiers king Balac ordered not armed troops but beautiful women to be marshalled, and that by the counsel of Balaam, whom Origen here introduces speaking thus: “We must fight not by the valour of soldiers but by the beauty of women, not by the vigour of the armed but by the softness of the female sex; remove far the armed band, and gather a chosen company of maidens: beauty conquers the armed; loveliness takes iron captive; they shall be conquered by appearance who are not conquered in battle.”
Note here first the vileness and vile spirits of the Moabites and Madianites, who prostituted all their virgins to a strange and hostile people, for whom and for whose chastity all ought to have fought even unto death. They would more manfully have done, by falling bravely in war, or exposing themselves to any kind of death, than by advising, nay permitting, their virgins to suffer, nay to do, things so unspeakable. This was the blindness of the Gentiles, who made little of chastity and much of life. So Abulensis.
Note secondly: These maidens carried with them their gods, namely the idols of Beelphegor, and things offered to idols, that is, food sacrificed and consecrated to him, that they might entice the young men of the Hebrews first to eat the things offered to idols, and thence through them to worship the idols themselves. Their allurements and the arts by which they deceived the Hebrews Josephus beautifully narrates, Antiquities book IV, chapter 6; in the same way also Julian the Apostate wished to entice, nay to compel, the Christians of Constantinople by things offered to idols to worship idols, as Nectarius the Archbishop of Constantinople narrates in the oration which he delivered at the beginning of Lent, and Theodoret, book I History, chapter 14.
Note thirdly: These maidens first by their beauty, adornment and blandishments enticed the Hebrews to desire of them; then, when they saw them burning with love of them, they did not permit them to be mingled with themselves until, enticed by blandishments, they induced them to eat of the things offered to Beelphegor, and at last to burn incense or sacrifice to Beelphegor himself; and so iniquity and idolatry were consummated. Or rather, the maidens here seem first to have enticed the Hebrews to concubinage; then, having them already bound to themselves, they enticed them to things offered to idols, and at length to idols, namely to worship their Beelphegor. For the order of the words of Holy Scripture here signifies this latter rather; and it is the manner of harlots first to ensnare young men with their loves, then to drive them where they will. For if these maidens had first proposed idolatry to the Hebrews, their fraud would have been plain, and the Hebrews would have turned away from them with their idols. And in this way Solomon was led by the same women from their embrace to idols. For love and lust drive wise minds mad; and, as Plato says: “The lover’s soul, dying in its own body, lives in another’s.”
Note fourthly: Nearly all the Hebrews were caught by this fraud and allurement of the maidens, and this was the reason why Moses did not punish them; for that the greater part of the people inclined to them, so that they did not fear Moses, is plain from this, that, in the sight of Moses and of all the people, that Jew went in to the Madianite woman, verse 6. For if he had feared Moses or the rest of the people, either he would not have gone to the harlot, or would not have done it openly. Moses therefore did not dare to punish them, but wept, as is said in verse 6, and grieved greatly with the few who had zeal for God, and prayed to God, as was his custom, at the door of the tabernacle. Whence God commanded these fornicators to be hanged, and presently, by God’s command, Moses resumed vigour and courage to punish them, and actually hanged them; for he knew that God commanding would give strength to carry it out, and would bring it about that none could resist. So it befell; for many, even of the chief men, were hanged, no one contradicting or daring to open his mouth. So Abulensis.
Morally, that Abbot in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, title On Fornication, gave this remedy to one tempted by the spirit of fornication: “Thou knowest,” he said, “what the Madianites did: they adorned their daughters, and set them in the sight of the Israelites; yet they did not extort from any that they should be mingled with them, but those who willed ran upon them. Others, however, being indignant, threatened, and with the destruction of those who had presumed avenged the fornication: so is it to be done with fornication. And when they begin to speak in thy heart, answer them not; but rising up, pray, and do penance, saying: Son of David, have mercy on me.”