Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 25:17
Vex the Midianites, and smite them:
Verse 17. Vex the Midianites, &c.] See this order fulfilled, Nu 31:1-20. Twelve thousand Israelites attacked the Midianites, destroyed all their cities, slew their five kings, every male, and every grown up woman, and took all their spoils.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And why not the Moabites, who were as guilty, Num 25:1?
Answ. 1. Because God will reserve to himself a liberty of punishing or sparing, according to his own good pleasure.
2. God had a kindness for the Moabites for Lots sake, Deu 2:9.
3. God punished the Moabites in another manner, partly, by his own immediate hand, whereby it is probable he cut off those Moabitish women that were guilty of this fact; partly, by a particular and dreadful kind of excommunication, Deu 23:3; and partly, by impunity, which in its consequences is commonly worse and more pernicious than any or all temporal punishments, which none that believes the Bible can deny.
4. It is probable the Midianites were most guilty, as in persuading Balak to send for Balaam, as may be gathered from Num 22:4,7; so in the reception of Balaam after Balak had dismissed him, Num 31:8, and in further consultation with him, and in contriving the means for the executing of this wicked plot.
Smite them, i.e. kill them; in which words, as there is a command to war against them, so there is a promise of success.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. Vex the Midianites, and smitethemThey seem to have been the most guilty parties. (CompareNum 22:4; Num 31:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Vex the Midianites, and smite them. Go to war with them, and smite them with the sword; not the Moabites, but the Midianites, though they were both confederates against Israel; but God had given a charge not to contend in battle with Moab, De 2:9, they were spared for the sake of Lot, from whom they sprang; and, as Jarchi says, for the sake of Ruth, who was to come from them; and so in the Talmud l; though they did not entirely escape the divine resentment, as appears from
De 23:3 but the Midianites were the first that advised to send for Balaam, and with them he stayed and was entertained, after he had been dismissed by Balak; and it seems as if it was to them he gave the wicked counsel, to draw Israel into fornication, and so into idolatry, and thereby bring the curse of God upon them; which advice they communicated to the Moabites, and both were concerned in putting it into execution; see Nu 22:4.
l T. Bab. Bava Kama, fol. 38. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
17. Vex the Midianites, and smite them. Inasnmch as God constantly forbids His people to take vengeance, it is surprising that the people of Israel should now be instigated to do so; as if they were not already more than enough disposed to it. We must bear in mind, however, that since God, who is the just avenger of all wickedness, often makes use of men’s instrumentality, and constitutes them the lawful ministers for the exercise of his vengeance, it must not be altogether condemned without exception, but only such vengeance as men themselves are impelled to by carnal passions. If any one is injured, straightway he is carried away to the desire of vengeance by the stimulus of his own private injury; and this is manifestly wrong: but if a person is led to inflict punishment by a just and well-regulated zeal towards God, it is not his own cause, but that of God which he undertakes. God did not, therefore, desire to give reins to His people’s anger, so as to repay the Midianites as they had deserved in the violence of its impulse; but He armed them with His own sword for their punishment; as if He had declared that there was a just cause for their war, and that they need not fear the charge of cruelty, if they exterminated such obnoxious enemies. For, although Balaam alone had imagined this snare, still the guilt is laid upon the whole people. In the meantime, the punishment of the Moabites is delayed, although they had apparently inflicted the grosser injury. Because no good reason here appears why God should mercifully bear with the one nation, whilst He hastens speedily to the punishment of the others, let us learn to regard His judgments with reverence, and not to presume to discuss them further than is lawful. Let it be sufficient for us to know that war was justly declared against the Midianites, because it was not their fault that Israel was not ruined by their iniquitous impiety. (190)
(190) “Par l’impiete a laquelle ils l’induisoyent;” by the impiety to which they induced them. — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(17) Vex the Midianites, and smite them.The Midianites appear to have been joint actors with the Moabites throughout the whole of the opposition which was offered to Israel, and the chief actors in the wiles by which the Israelites were seduced. As the descendants of Abraham, the father of the faithful, the Midianites ought to have feared and obeyed Abrahams God, and to have shown brotherly kindness to His people, who were their own kindred. The special judgments of God are directed against the sins of apostacy and of seduction. (Comp. Rev. 2:14; Rev. 18:6.) Although the Moabites were not to be smitten with the Midianites (see Deu. 2:9), nevertheless they did not escape punishment, but were shut out, even to the tenth generation, from the congregation of the Lord. (See Deu. 23:3-4.) Their exemption at this time from the judgment executed upon the Midianites was probably due, not to their descent from Lot (for the Midianites were descended from Abraham), but to the fact that the measure of their sin was not yet full. (Comp. Gen. 15:16.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
WAR AGAINST MIDIAN COMMANDED, Num 25:16-18.
17. Vex the Midianites Although Midian and Moab were united in bringing Balaam from the east, (Num 22:4; Num 22:7,) and the daughters of Moab were associated with those of Midian in seducing Israel, yet only Midian provoked Jehovah to a declaration of war at this time, possibly because Moab was not so forward in this iniquity. Says Ainsworth, “For though Baalam gave counsel to the king of Moab, (Rev 2:14,) and the Moabitish women were prostitute also unto whoredom, yet Balak at first did not much regard that counsel, but turned Balaam away with shame, but the Midianites retained him, and among them he was slain.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 25:17. Vex the Midianites The Moabites are not named. See Deu 2:9. It is not unlikely, that the Midianites had the principal hand in this seduction of the Israelites; ready as we find they were to prostitute a daughter of one of their most honourable families, in order to procure the disgrace and destruction of Israel; in just retribution therefore for their wickedness, God commands Moses to be ready, at a time which he should appoint, to attack their country with his whole force: the consequence of which was a fatal overthrow. See ch. 31: Nothing could be more just, than to assign a proportionable punishment for an offence so cruel, carried on by such odious means.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Num 25:17 Vex the Midianites, and smite them:
Ver. 17. Vex the Midianites. ] As more malicious and mischievous than the Moabites; as appears, (1.) By their detaining of Balaam, when the Moabites dismissed him in great displeasure; (2.) By the wickedness of their women, who by Cozbi may seem to have been meretrices meretricissimae, such as afterwards was Julia, Messalina, and that Romish Lucretia, concubine to Pope Alexander VI., of whom Pontanus, a
“ Hoc tumulo dormit Lucretia nomine, sed re
Thais, Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus. ”
a
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Vex. Compare Num 31.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Balaam’s counsel seems to have been first given to Balak, king of Moab; but probably the Midianitish women, especially of the higher ranks, as Cozbi was, were the principal tempters; and the nation of Midian seems to have come into the execrable measure more generally and heartily than that of Moab: they were therefore first selected to be made examples of, for a warning to the Moabites, who were spared at this time. Num 31:2, Rev 18:6
Reciprocal: Gen 25:2 – Midian Gen 37:28 – Midianites Deu 25:17 – General Jdg 6:1 – Midian
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 25:17. Vex the Midianites It is probable, from Num 25:6, compared with Num 21:16, that the Midianites had had the principal hand in seducing the Israelites into this shameful revolt from the worship of God to the vile sacrifices of Baal-peor, and in causing this open and impudent affront to be put upon the professors of the true religion in the matter of Zimri, to whom they prostituted a daughter of one of their most honourable families, to procure the disgrace and destruction of the Israelites; therefore, in just retribution for their wickedness, God commands Moses to be ready at a time he should appoint to attack their country with his whole force, and give them a fatal overthrow.