🔢WEB · Numbers 25:16
What does Numbers 25:16 mean?
"Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,"
— Numbers 25:16 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
It shall be to him, and to his offspring after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’”
Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers’ house among the Simeonites.
The name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur. He was head of the people of a fathers’ house in Midian.
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Harass the Midianites, and strike them,
for they harassed you with their wiles, wherein they have deceived you in the matter of Peor, and in the incident regarding Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.”
Explanation
Numbers 25:16 is a short transitional verse that simply announces that Yahweh is about to speak to Moses. In itself it contains no new information, no command, and no narrative action — it is a formula, the kind of verse that functions like a header, alerting the reader that what comes next is not Moses's own words or a human decision but a direct communication from God. The content of what God actually says begins in the following verses (25:17-18), where he instructs Moses to treat the Midianites as enemies because of their role in the Baal-Peor incident.
To understand why this formula appears here
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