And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. Israel abode in Shittim х ba-ShiTiym (H7851)] - always with the article prefixed (Joshua 2:1; Joshua 3:1); fully expressed х nachal (H5158) ha-ShiTiym (H7851)] (Joel 3:18, where, however, the name is believed to be applied to another locality, or to be used symbolically) - the wady or valley of acacias, or х 'Aabeel-ha-ShiTiym (H63)] (Numbers 33:49), the meadow (shaded by the acacias-a verdant meadow on the plains of Moab, on the eastern side of the Jordan (see the note at Numbers 22:1). Josephus, who calls it Abila, describes the place as about sixty stadia from that river ('Antiquities,' b. 4:, ch. 8:, sec. 1; also b.5:, ch. 1:, sec. 1), while Eusebius and Jerome ('Onomast.,' art. 'Sattim') represent it as lying in close contiguity to mount Peor. Modern travelers estimate its width at about five miles. It was most probably a part of, or identical with, "the valley over against Beth-peor" (cf. Numbers 33:48-49; Deuteronomy 1:1; Deuteronomy 3:29; Deuteronomy 4:46), which appears to have separated Wady Sha'il from Wady Hesban (Robinson's 'Physical Geography,' p. 75). The pass of Hesban, down which the Israelites came from the mountains to this plain, is a descent of 3,000 feet.
With the daughters of Moab. They were entrapped into this wickedness by a deeply-contrived scheme of seduction. It was a political device of the Midianites, who artfully employed the agency of Moabite women, as, on many accounts, the better fitted for carrying their plan for the ruin of Israel into execution. Their kindred origin, their friendly disposition toward the Israelites in allowing them a passage through their territory (Deuteronomy 2:29), and the ripening acquaintance between the two peoples, to which the protracted encampment on the plains of Moab had led, suggested the expedient of enlisting the blandishments of "the daughters of Moab" to break down the barrier that separated the nation of Israel from the indigenous people around them.
The Midianites were the guilty authors and the active promoters of this villanous plot (Numbers 25:6; Numbers 25:14; Numbers 25:17; Numbers 31:2-3); but "the daughters of Moab" are put prominently forward in the commencement of this narrative, because, Moab being nearer the camp of Israel, there was more frequent communicaton between the people of both; and also because Moab, as the greater power in the transjordanic confederacy, included the Midianites.