Numbers 25:8 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

Went after the man of Israel into the tent, х haqubaah (H6898)] - the alcove, or projection in the posterior part of a tent; a vaulted pleasure-tent, devoted to the impure worship of Baal or Priapus (Gesenius). [Septuagint, eis teen kaminon.]

So the plague was stayed, х hamageepaah (H4046)]. This word, which is rendered plague, has a generic and also a specific meaning. It signifies a divine judgment, in particular, a pestilential disease (cf. Numbers 14:37; Numbers 16:48; Numbers 17:13; Numbers 25:18, etc.), and also an extensive slaughter by the sword, hand, or any cause (1 Samuel 4:17; 2 Samuel 17:9). We understand by its use in this case a sudden and widespread mortality.

Numbers 25:8

8 And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.