Baal of Peor

Numbers 25 - While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the LORD's anger burned against them.

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."

So Moses said to Israel's judges, "Each of you must put to death those of your men who have joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor."

Then an Israelite man brought to his family 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. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and into the woman's body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.

The LORD said to Moses, "Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them. Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him. 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."

The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family. And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.

The LORD said to Moses, "Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them, because they treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the affair of Peor and their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of Peor."

A number of things seem to come "out of left field" in the account of the Israelites' sin concerning the Baal (god) of Peor. I think many of the details are left out because it was disgusting to the God of Israel and to his faithful. Yet I know that it is referred to in many other portions of Scripture, so it is considered a very important "event" even if it's only briefly described here.

The men (soldiers, army) of Moab were afraid to encounter the Israelites, but apparently some of the more daring women weren't. I wonder if some of the men (leaders?) put them up to this seduction.

I wonder how long Baal of Peor had been around; that is, how long had people been worshipping this false god. Is this the same Baal mentioned elsewhere in the Bible? (I seem to recall that the word "Baal" simply means "god".)

I wonder if Zimri and Cozbi were flaunting themselves in front of Moses or if they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, but that's difficult to do especially since it was right in font of the Tent of Meeting as well.

"Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped...." Plague? What plague? Why isn't it even mentioned until 24,000 were known dead?

Cozbi was a Midianite. How did the Midianites get involved? I thought it was the Moabites who were causing the problems.

How did the Midianites deceive the Israelites? It sounded earlier like it was the Moabites who were seducing the Israelites, but even with them, no outright deception is mentioned.

Again, due to lack of details, much of this account remains a mystery. I'm sure all the pieces would fit together if we had the full story. Fortunately, we don't need the whole thing to understand that it was a very bad, sad day in the history of Israel.

I'm curious. Could you please tell me what brought you to this page by mentioning it in a comment? I won't publish the comment, if you ask me not to.