Numbers 25:4

And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Take all the heads of the people.—The “heads” or “chiefs” of the people seem to be identical with the “judges” of the following verse. Some understand by “all the heads” those only who had been the chief offenders, whilst others understand the word “take” as equivalent to “assemble,” or “bring before thee,” and refer the word “them” to the offenders.

Hang them up . . . —It is obvious from Numbers 25:5 that the punishment of impaling or crucifying was not to be inflicted until after death. The LXX. renders the Hebrew verb which is here used (and which is found also in 2Samuel 21:6; 2Samuel 21:9) by the same word which occurs in Hebrews 6:6, and is there translated “to put to an open shame.”

Benson Commentary

Numbers 25:4. Take — That is, apprehend; all the heads (or chief) of the people — Such as were chief in this transgression, and in place and power. These are singled out to this exemplary punishment for their concurrence with others in this wickedness, which was more odious, and of more pernicious tendency in them. Hang them up before the Lord — That is, either before the sanctuary, as men who had forsaken the worship of God, and were by his sentence adjudged to die; or, to the vindication of his honour and justice. Others interpret the words thus: Take unto thee, or to thine assistance, the heads, or judges of the people, and hang them up; that is, hang up such as have joined themselves to Baal-peor. This interpretation seems to be justified by the next verse, in which Moses directs the judges to do their duty by punishing the offenders. Against the sun — Publicly and openly, as their sin was public and scandalous, that all the people might see, and fear to sin; and speedily, before the sun went down. It was provided by the Jewish law, that the bodies of malefactors should hang no longer than till the evening of the day on which they suffered, Deuteronomy 21:22-23.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:1-5 The friendship of the wicked is more dangerous than their enmity; for none can prevail against God's people if they are not overcome by their inbred lusts; nor can any enchantment hurt them, but the enticements of worldly interests and pleasures. Here is the sin of Israel, to which they are enticed by the daughters of Moab and Midian. Those are our worst enemies who draw us to sin, for that is the greatest mischief any man can do us. Israel's sin did that which all Balaam's enchantments could not do; it set God against them. Diseases are the fruits of God's anger, and the just punishments of prevailing sins; one infection follows the other. Ringleaders in sin ought to be made examples of justice.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Take - i. e., assemble the chiefs of the people to thee (compare the phrase "took men," in Numbers 16:1). The offenders were to be first; slain by the hands of "the judges of Israel" Numbers 25:5, and afterward hung up "against the sun" (i. e., publicly, openly; compare 2 Samuel 12:12) as an aggravation of their punishment. This would be done by impaling the body or fastening it to a cross. Compare Deuteronomy 21:23 note, and 2 Samuel 21:9.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. The Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up—Israelite criminals, who were capitally punished, were first stoned or slain, and then gibbeted. The persons ordered here for execution were the principal delinquents in the Baal-peor outrage—the subordinate officers, rulers of tens or hundreds.

before the Lord—for vindicating the honor of the true God.

against the sun—that is, as a mark of public ignominy; but they were to be removed towards sunset (De 21:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The sense is, either,

1. Take, to wit. to thyself and thy assistance,

all the heads, i.e. the judges, as they are called Numbers 25:5, or rulers,

of the people; and in their presence, and by their help,

hang them, i.e. the people, now mentioned, to wit, such of them as were guilty, as was said Numbers 25:1. And this sense seems to be favoured by the next verse, where the execution of this command is mentioned, Moses said unto the judges of Israel, whom he had taken to himself and called together, Slay ye every one his man, i.e. each. of you execute this command of God, and hang up the delinquents under your several jurisdictions. Or,

2. Take, i.e. apprehend,

all the heads, i.e. the chief, of the people, such as were chief, either in this transgression, or rather in place and power, who are singled out to this exemplary punishment either for their neglect in not preventing, restraining, or punishing the offenders according to their power and duty, or for their concurrence with others in this wickedness, which was more odious and mischievous in them than in others. And then this must be necessarily limited to such heads as were guilty, which is evident from the nature of the thing, and from the words of the verse. And so these

heads of the people differ, as in name and title, so in place and dignity, from the judges of the people, Numbers 25:5, which may seem to note the superior magistrates, even the seventy elders, which, being persons of great worth and piety, chosen by God, and endowed with his Spirit, most probably kept themselves from this contagion, and therefore were fitter to punish others; and the heads of the people seem to be the inferior magistrates, the rulers of tens or hundreds, or the like, who as they did many of them partake with the people in other rebellions, so probably were involved in this guilt. Now these are to be hanged up as other malefactors and condemned persons were, Deu 21:23 2 Samuel 21:6.

Before the Lord; to the vindication of God’s honour and justice.

Against the sun, i.e. publicly, as their sin was public and scandalous; and speedily, before the sun go down. But withal this phrase may signify, that these also must be taken down about sun-setting, as other malefactors were, Deu 21:23.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Lord said unto Moses,.... Being provoked with the sins of the people, he called to him out of the tabernacle, or out of the cloud:

take all the heads of the people, the princes of the tribes, not to hang them, but to judge those that worshipped Peor, as Jarchi interprets it; though some think that these having sinned, were ordered to be taken and hanged, and made public examples of; but it can hardly be thought, though there were some that might be guilty of the above sins, as Zimri, yet not all of them:

hang them up before the Lord against the sun; that is, those that were guilty of idolatry: the meaning is, and which all the Targums give into, that these heads of the people were to assemble at some proper place, the court of judicature, and order the delinquents to be brought before them, and try, judge, and condemn those they found guilty, and cause them to be hanged somewhere near the tabernacle, and before it, having neglected the worship of God there, and served an idol; and this was to be done openly in the daytime, that all might see and fear; and if it was the sun that was worshipped in this idol, as some think, they were hanged against the sun, to show that the idol they worshipped was not able to deliver them; but, in the face of it, and as it were in defiance of it, they were ordered to be hanged up; and this, according to the Targum of Jonathan, was in the morning against the rising sun, and where they hung all day, and were taken down at sun setting:

that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel; when justice had taken place, and proper punishment was inflicted upon the criminals, whereby a just resentment was made against sin, and God glorified.

Geneva Study Bible

And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD {c} against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.

(c) Openly in the sight of all.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. hang them up] i.e. the offenders, not the chiefs. The form of execution denoted by the Heb. word is uncertain. It is the causative (Hiphil) form of the verb used of the dislocation of Jacob’s thigh (Genesis 32:25). Aquila understood it to mean ‘impale,’ Targ. ‘crucify’; others, from the analogy of an Arabic word, explain it as ‘to throw down,’ as from a high rock. It occurs elsewhere only of the execution of Saul’s sons (2 Samuel 21:6).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - The Lord said unto Moses. It seems strange that so fearful an apostasy had gone so far without interference on the part of Moses. He may have been absent from the camp on account of the wars with the Amorite kings; or he may have trusted to the chiefs to see that due order and discipline was maintained in the camps. Take all the heads of the people, i.e., the chiefs, who ought to have prevented, and might have prevented, this monstrous irregularity, but who seem, if we may judge from the case of Zimri, to have countenanced it. The mere neglect of duty in so gross a case was reason enough for summary execution. Hang them up before the Lord. Either by way of impalement or by way of crucifixion, both of which were familiar modes of punishment. In this case the guilty persons were probably slain first, and exposed afterwards. The hanging up was not ordered on account of its cruelty, nor merely for the sake of publicity ("against the sun ), but in order to show that the victims were devoted to the wrath of God against sin (cf. Deuteronomy 21:23; 2 Samuel 21:2-6). The Septuagint has here παραδειγμάτισον αὐτούς. Cf. Hebrews 6:6, where this word is coupled with "crucify." Them is no authority for referring the "them" (אותָם) to the guilty persons instead of to the heads of the people, as is done by the Targums and by many commentators. Numbers 25:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And the anger of the Lord burned against the people, so that Jehovah commanded Moses to fetch the heads of the people, i.e., to assemble them together, and to "hang up" the men who had joined themselves to Baal-Peor "before the Lord against the sun," that the anger of God might turn away from Israel. The burning of the wrath of God, which was to be turned away from the people by the punishment of the guilty, as enjoined upon Moses, consisted, as we may see from Numbers 25:8, Numbers 25:9, in a plague inflicted upon the nation, which carried off a great number of the people, a sudden death, as in Numbers 14:37; Numbers 17:11. הוקיע, from יקע, to be torn apart or torn away (Ges., Winer), refers to the punishment of crucifixion, a mode of capital punishment which was adopted by most of the nations of antiquity (see Winer, bibl. R. W. i. p. 680), and was carried out sometimes by driving a stake into the body, and so impaling them (ἀνασκολοπίζειν), the mode practised by the Assyrians and Persians (Herod. iii. 159, and Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 374, and plate on p. 369), at other times by fastening them to a stake or nailing them to a cross (ἀνασταυροῦν). In the instance before us, however, the idolaters were not impaled or crucified alive, but, as we may see from the word הרגּוּ in Numbers 25:5, and in accordance with the custom frequently adopted by other nations (see Herzog's Encyclopaedia), they were first of all put to death, and then impaled upon a stake or fastened upon a cross, so that the impaling or crucifixion was only an aggravation of the capital punishment, like the burning in Leviticus 20:14, and the hanging (תּלה) in Deuteronomy 21:22. The rendering adopted by the lxx and Vulgate is παραδειγματίζειν, suspendere, in this passage, and in 2 Samuel 21:6, 2 Samuel 21:9, ἐξηλιάζειν (to expose to the sun), and crucifigere. ליהוה, for Jehovah, as satisfaction for Him, i.e., to appease His wrath. אותם (them) does not refer to the heads of the nation, but to the guilty persons, upon whom the heads of the nation were to pronounce sentence.