성경 주석서

And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.

To commit whoredom. — By the wicked counsel of Balaam, who knew well, that no one means hath more enriched hell than beautiful faces, and therefore taught Balak to lay this stumblingblock before the children of Israel; and is therein held by some to have sinned against the Holy Ghost. Howsoever he goes out in a stench, as it is usually said of his master the devil.

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And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.

Unto the sacrifices of their gods. — Unto their idol feasts; for Sine cerere et libero friget Venus. Gluttony is the gallery that lechery walketh through.

And bowed down to their gods. — Nemo repente fit turpissimus: by degrees they were drawn to open idolatry. If a man’s foot slip into the mouth of hell, it is a miracle if he stop ere he come to the bottom. Principiis obsta. Dally not with the devil; sin is very insinuative; and the old serpent, if he once get in his head, will quickly wind in his whole body.

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And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.

Joined himself to Baalpeor. — Separated himself to that shame, Hosea 9:10 that abominable and shameless service of Priapus, as Jerome and Isidore understand it, as Maachah the mother of Asa seems to have done, 1 Kings 15:13 and other filthy persons, whose fashion was, as soon as their sacrifice was ended, to step aside into the grove of their god, and there, like brute beasts, promiscuously to satisfy their lusts, … Vah scelus infandum!

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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.

Take all the heads. — The chieftains: their greatness might not bear them out. Potentes potenter torquebuntur. Hell is paved, said one of old, with the bald pates of shavellings, and with the crests of great commanders, who had ever opposed with crest and breast whatsoever stood in the way of their sins and lusts.

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And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor.

Unto the judges of Israel. — Those of them that had not defiled themselves; else with what face could they punish others? or look upon those, that before their faces had been hanged up against the sun, whose destruction was for ever to be remembered? Micah 6:5

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And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who [were] weeping [before] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

In the sight of Moses. — This man’s face was hatched over with detestable impudence; he thought, it may be, that being so great a man, none durst meddle with him. Pliny Plin, lib. vii. reports of Proculus Caesar, that by him, viginti virgines intra dies quindecim faetum conceperunt. Louis II of France inviting our Edward IV to the French court, Recte erit cognate, saith he, iucundi vivemus et suaviter, teque oblectabis cum lectissimis faeminis, … - he should have added, "But know, that for all these things thou must come to judgment": Ecclesiastes 11:9 that would have haply allayed his lust, cooled his courage, and not have come in with his - Adhibebo tibi Cardinalem Borbonium; is, quicquid peccaris, pro ea quam habet potestate, facile expiabit. Thou shalt take thy full pleasure, and then my cardinal shall give thee full pardon. Comineus, lib. vi.

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And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw [it], he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;

He rose up. — A heroical act, by an extraordinary motion: as was also that of Ehud; and therefore is not to be made a rule of practice, as Burchet conceited, when by this example he held himself warranted to kill a great personage in this kingdom, whom he took to be a vicious man, and God’s enemy.

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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.

And thrust both of them through. — So they died in the flagrancy of their lust; as did likewise one of the Popes, taken in the act, and slain together with his harlot, by the husband of the adulteress. Mention is likewise made by William Malmesbury, of one Walter, bishop of Hereford, A. D. 1060, his offering to force his seamstress; she resisted what she might, but finding him too strong for her, thrust her shears into his belly, and gave him his deathly wound. Godw., Catal.

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