<< Numbers 25:18 >>

For they vex you with their {h} wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague for Peor's sake.

(h) Causing you to commit both corporal and spiritual fornication by Balaam's counsel, Nu 31:16, Re 2:14.

Wesley's Notes

25:18 With their wiles - For under pretence of kindred and friendship and leagues, which they offered to them, instead of that war which the Israelites expected, they sought only an opportunity to insinuate themselves into their familiarity, and execute their hellish plot of bringing that curse upon the Israelites, which they had in vain attempted to bring another way.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. they vex you with their wiles-Instead of open war, they plot insidious ways of accomplishing your ruin by idolatry and corruption.

their sister-their countrywoman.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:16-18 We read not that any Midianites died of the plague; God punished them with the sword of an enemy, not with the rod of a father. We must set ourselves against whatever is an occasion of sin to us, Mt 5:29,30. Whatever draws us to sin, should be a vexation to us, as a thorn in the flesh. And none will be more surely and severely punished than those who, after Satan's example, and with his subtlety, tempt others to sin.

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Verses 16-18

God had punished the Israelites for their sin with a plague; as a Father he corrected his own children with a rod. But we read not that any of the Midianites died of the plague; God took another course with them, and punished them with the sword of an enemy, not with the rod of a father. 1. Moses, though the meekest man, and far from a spirit of revenge, is ordered to vex the Midianites and smite them, v. 17. Note, We must set ourselves against that, whatever it is, which is an occasion of sin to us, though it be a right eye or a right hand that thus offends us, Mt. 5:29, 30. This is that holy indignation and revenge which godly sorrow worketh, 2 Co. 7:11. 2. The reason given for the meditating of this revenge is because they vex you with their wiles, v. 18. Note, Whatever draws us to sin should be a vexation to us, as a thorn in the flesh. The mischief which the Midianites did to Israel by enticing them to whoredom must be remembered and punished with as much severity as that which the Amalekites did in fighting with them when they came out of Egypt, Ex. 17:14. God will certainly reckon with those that do the devil's work in tempting men to sin. See further orders given in this matter, ch. 31:2.