🔢WEB · Numbers 25:1
What does Numbers 25:1 mean?
"Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab;"
— Numbers 25:1 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab;
for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods.
Israel joined himself to Baal Peor. Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel.
Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.”
Explanation
Numbers 25:1 records a turning point in Israel's wilderness story: while camped at Shittim, on the plains of Moab just before crossing into the Promised Land, the Israelite men began engaging in sexual immorality with Moabite women. The plain sense of the verse is straightforward — after decades of testing in the wilderness, and on the very edge of receiving what God had promised, the people fell into moral compromise with the surrounding pagan culture.
The book of Numbers was written by Moses
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