Numbers 25 is badly written. The narrative is confused, and the Israelites' foil shifts abruptly from Moabites to Midianites. For some reason, God gets mad at the Midianites but we find later that he protects the Moabites. There is probably some contemporary politics of the Second Temple Period behind this, but who knows? I should also note that the actual historical nature of the Midianites is uncertain. The word may refer to a socio-religious grouping of several states that may have included the Moabites, which would make the meaning of the distinction in this context unclear. The incident recounted here is even more confusing, as I will explain when we get to it. In any event, God continues to be a depraved psychopath.
25 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, 2 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. 3 So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.
Baal of Peor is the name of a rival God.
4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”
5 So Moses said to Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”
6 Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand 8 and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; 9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
As I say, the narrative is badly written. The plague isn't mentioned until it has stopped. Even more confusing is that the plague must have been punishment for liaisons with the Moabites, but suddenly this incident involves a Midianite. In Genesis, the Midianites are identified as descendants of Abraham. Moses, you may recall, was exiled in Midian, where at the time they worshiped Yahweh, and he is married to a Midianite woman, whose father for a time accompanied the Israelites and advised Moses. Now all of a sudden they are unclean. What is more, we will see in the future that God takes it out on the Midianites but protects the Moabites -- he reserved his punishment in that instance for Israelites.
10 The Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honor among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal. 12 Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. 13 He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”
So Phinehas gets the Nobel Peace Prize for a double murder.
14 The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Kozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.
16 The Lord said to Moses, 17 “Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them. 18 They treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the Peor incident involving their sister Kozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of that incident.”
Again, the writer seems to have mixed up the Midianites and the Moabites. A plague that killed 24,000 people couldn't possibly have come as a result of the incident with Kozbi because she was murdered almost immediately upon arrival, evidently en flagrante delecto. So this is an ugly mess. However, it's going to get a whole lot uglier after a brief pause for another census.
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