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.

Numbers 25:10 Parallel Commentaries

turned my

Joshua 7:25,26 And Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? the LORD shall trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones...

2 Samuel 21:14 And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulcher of Kish his father...

Psalm 106:23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath...

John 3:36 He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life...

for my sake. Heb. with my zeal

2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband...

that I

Exodus 22:5 If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field...

Exodus 34:14 For you shall worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Deuteronomy 4:24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man...

Deuteronomy 32:16,21 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger...

Joshua 24:19 And Joshua said to the people, You cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God...

1 Kings 14:22 And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed...

Psalm 78:58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

Ezekiel 16:38 And I will judge you, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give you blood in fury and jealousy.

Nahum 1:2 God is jealous, and the LORD revenges; the LORD revenges, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries...

,

Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath...

Zephaniah 3:8 Therefore wait you on me, said the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations...

1 Corinthians 10:22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?