Numbers 25:8

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁶Just then, an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ⁷On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand, ⁸followed the Israelite into his tent, and drove the spear through both of them-through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted,⁹but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000. ¹⁰Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹¹"Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the Israelites; for he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal. ¹²Declare, therefore, that I grant him My covenant of peace. ¹³It will be a covenant of permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites." ¹⁴The name of the Israelite who was slain with the Midianie woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family. ¹⁵And the name of the slain Midianite woman was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

thrust: Numbers 25:5, Numbers 25:11, Psalms 106:29-31

So the plague: Numbers 16:46-48, 2 Samuel 24:25, 1 Chronicles 21:22

Reciprocal: Exodus 22:20 - sacrificeth Numbers 1:23 - General Numbers 16:48 - General Numbers 25:18 - which Judges 3:21 - thrust it 1 Samuel 15:33 - hewed 2 Samuel 24:21 - the plague 1 Kings 18:45 - there was Proverbs 7:23 - a dart Ezekiel 9:5 - Go

Cross-References

Genesis 15:15
You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.

Genesis 25:7
Abraham lived a total of 175 years.

Genesis 25:8
And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.

Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.

Genesis 25:17
Ishmael lived a total of 137 years. Then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.

Genesis 25:28
Because Isaac had a taste for wild game, he loved Esau; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Genesis 25:29
One day, while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the field and was famished.

Genesis 35:18
And with her last breath-for she was dying-she named him Ben-oni. But his father called him Benjamin.

Genesis 49:29
Then Jacob instructed them, "I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.

Numbers 20:24
"Aaron will be gathered to his people; he will not enter the land I have given the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he went after the man of Israel into the tent,.... Into which he went with his harlot; the word here used is different from what is commonly used for a tent: Aben Ezra observes that in the Kedarene or Arabic language there is a word near to it, which Bochart, putting the article "al" to it, says a, is "alkobba", from whence is the word "alcove" with us; and Aben Ezra says, there was some little difference between the form of a tent and this, as well as others observe b there was in the matter of it, this being of skins and leather, and the other of hair, boughs of trees, c. the author of Aruch c says, it was short, or narrow above and broad below, and interprets it a place in which whores were put and so it is used in the Talmud d for a brothel house, and is so translated here by some interpreters e:

and thrust both of them through; with his javelin, spear, or pike;

the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly; by which, it seems, they were killed in the very act of uncleanness; this was an extraordinary action, done by a person of public authority, and under a more than common emotion of spirit, and not to be drawn into an example by persons of a private character:

so the plague was stayed from the children of Israel; which had broke out among them and carried off many; even a disease, the pestilence, according to Josephus f; it ceasing upon this fact of Phinehas, shows that that was approved of by the Lord.

a "conclave est camerati operis, quo lectus circumdatur", Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 4. c. 8. col. 1092. Vid. Schultens Animadv. Philolog. in Job. p. 183. b Castel. Lex. Heptaglot. col. 3261. c Baal Aruch, fol. 133. 4. d T. Bab. Avoda Zara, fol. 17. 2. e אל הקבה "in lupanar", V. L. "ad lupanar", Montanus; "in lupanar ipsum", Junius Tremellius "in fornicem", Tigurine version. f Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 4. c. 6. sect. 12.)

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Into the tent - The inner recess in the tent, fashioned archwise, and appropriated as the sleeping-chamber and women’s apartment.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 25:8. Thrust both of them through — Inspired undoubtedly by the Spirit of the God of justice to do this act, which can never be a precedent on any common occasion. An act something similar occurs in our own history. In 1381, in the minority of Richard II., a most formidable insurrection took place in Kent and Essex; about 100,000 men, chiefly under the direction of Wat Tyler, seized on London, massacred multitudes of innocent people, and were proceeding to the greatest enormities, when the king requiring a conference in Smithfield with the rebel leader, Sir William Walworth, then mayor of London, provoked at the insolence with which Tyler behaved to his sovereign, knocked him off his horse with his mace, after which he was instantly despatched. While his partisans were bending their bows to revenge the death of their leader, Richard, then only sixteen years of age, rode up to them, and with great courage and presence of mind thus addressed them: "What, my people, will you kill your king! be not concerned for the death of your leader; follow me, and I will be your general." They were suddenly appeased, and the rebellion terminated. The action of Sir William Walworth was that of a zealot, of essential benefit at the time, and justified only by the pressing exigencies of the case.