🔢WEB · Numbers 25:5
What does Numbers 25:5 mean?
"Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.”"
— Numbers 25:5 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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.”
Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.”
Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the middle of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand.
He went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
Explanation
Numbers 25:5 records Moses issuing an emergency command to Israel's appointed judges during a crisis of idolatry and immorality. In plain language, Moses tells the tribal leaders and officials that each of them must put to death the men under their authority who had committed themselves to worshiping the Moabite god Baal Peor. This was not a vague suggestion but a direct order for capital judgment against covenant-breakers within the camp.
The context is critical to understanding the verse. Israel was camped at Shittim, on the plains of Moab, poised to enter the Promised Land after decades of wilderness wandering. According to Numbers 25:1-3, the men of Israel began having sexual relations with Moabite women, who then invited them to sacrifices offered to their gods. The Israelites ate the sacrificial meals and bowed down to Baal of Peor, a local Canaanite deity associated with fertility rites. This provoked the Lord's anger, and a plague broke out among the people as judgment. God instructed Moses to execute the leaders of this apostasy publicly, and it's in response to this command from God (v. 4) that Moses relays the order to Israel's judges in verse 5. The judges were the officials appointed back in Exodus 18 and Deuteronomy 1 to administer justice at various levels
Compare translations
Go deeper with ScriptureCompanion AI
Ask questions about any verse, follow reading plans, write personal prayers, and track your daily habit — all grounded in verified scripture text.