Attack the MidianitesThe command to attack the Midianites comes after the events at Peor, where the Israelites were led into idolatry and immorality through the influence of the Midianite women (
Numbers 25:1-3). This directive is a divine response to the spiritual and moral corruption that threatened the covenant community. The Midianites, though related to the Israelites through Abraham (
Genesis 25:1-2), had become adversaries by leading Israel into sin. This attack is not merely a military action but a divine judgment against those who sought to undermine God's people. The Midianites are often associated with nomadic tribes in the region, and their influence extended into Moabite territory, as seen in the alliance against Israel.
and strike them dead.
The phrase "strike them dead" underscores the severity of the judgment. This is not a call for indiscriminate violence but a specific judgment against those who have led Israel into sin. The execution of this command is seen later inNumbers 31, where Moses sends a force to carry out this divine directive. The complete destruction of the Midianites involved the death of their kings and the prophet Balaam, who had counseled Balak to use the Midianite women to seduce the Israelites (Numbers 31:8, 16). This act of judgment serves as a sobering reminder of the consequences of leading God's people into sin and the seriousness with which God protects His covenant relationship. Theologically, it reflects the holiness of God and His intolerance of idolatry and immorality among His people.
Persons / Places / Events
1.
MidianitesA nomadic tribe descended from Midian, a son of Abraham by Keturah. They were often in conflict with Israel and played a significant role in leading the Israelites into idolatry and immorality.
2.
IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At this time, they were journeying through the wilderness towards the Promised Land.
3.
MoabA neighboring nation to Israel, whose people, along with the Midianites, enticed the Israelites into sin.
4.
Baal of PeorA local deity worshiped by the Moabites and Midianites. The Israelites were seduced into worshiping this false god, leading to God's anger.
5.
PhinehasThe grandson of Aaron, who zealously defended God's honor by executing an Israelite man and a Midianite woman engaged in idolatry and immorality, thus stopping a plague among the Israelites.
Teaching Points
The Danger of Idolatry and ImmoralityThe Israelites' sin with the Midianites serves as a warning against the dangers of idolatry and immorality. Believers must guard their hearts and remain faithful to God.
Zeal for God's HonorPhinehas' actions demonstrate the importance of zeal for God's honor. Christians are called to stand firm in their faith and oppose sin in their lives and communities.
God's Justice and MercyWhile God commands justice against sin, His mercy is evident in the provision of atonement and forgiveness through repentance. Believers should seek God's mercy and extend it to others.
The Importance of ObedienceObedience to God's commands is crucial for maintaining a right relationship with Him. The Israelites' failure to obey led to severe consequences, reminding us of the importance of following God's Word.
Bible Study Questions and Answers
1.What is the meaning of Numbers 25:17?
2.How does Numbers 25:17 demonstrate God's response to sin among His people?
3.What lessons can we learn from God's command in Numbers 25:17?
4.How does Numbers 25:17 connect to God's covenant with Israel?
5.How can we apply the principle of obedience from Numbers 25:17 today?
6.What does Numbers 25:17 teach about God's holiness and justice?
7.Why does Numbers 25:17 command hostility against the Midianites?
8.How does Numbers 25:17 align with the concept of a loving God?
9.What historical context explains the conflict in Numbers 25:17?
10.What are the top 10 Lessons from Numbers 25?
11.Why did God command killing Midianites, including children?
12.Numbers 25:16–18: How do we explain God’s order to target the Midianites if later passages show them still existing as a significant force?
13.Numbers 31:7–18: How can the command to kill non-virgin women and boys be reconciled with claims of a compassionate God?
14.Numbers 31:15-16: Why is Balaam's influence singled out as the sole reason for divine judgment on Midian, given previous chapters mention other deeds?What Does Numbers 25:17 Mean
Attack“Attack” shows the Lord calling Israel to decisive, active obedience. He does not suggest negotiation or compromise. Earlier, similar commands came when Amalek attacked Israel (Exodus 17:8-13), when Canaanite kings opposed Joshua (Joshua 10:40-42), and when Israel was told to purge evil from its midst (Deuteronomy 13:5). God’s people were not to stand idle while sin and idolatry threatened their covenant relationship. The verb reminds us that faith sometimes requires confronting evil, not merely avoiding it (Ephesians 5:11).
the MidianitesMidian had lured Israel into idolatry and immorality through the counsel of Balaam and the seduction of Midianite women (Numbers 25:1-3, 6;Revelation 2:14). This was not random aggression but judgment on a specific nation that had actively sought Israel’s downfall (Numbers 31:1-2). Midian’s hostility appears again inJudges 6:1-6, where the nation oppressed Israel until God raised up Gideon. The Midianites symbolize any force that entices God’s people away from wholehearted loyalty (James 4:4).
and strike them dead.The severity of the command reflects the seriousness of sin against a holy God. Midian’s actions had already cost 24,000 Israelites their lives (Numbers 25:9). The sentence illustrates several truths:
- God’s judgments are just (Deuteronomy 32:4;Psalm 19:9).
- Sin’s wages are death (Romans 6:23).
- God protects His redemptive plan; corrupting influences must be removed so His people can flourish (Deuteronomy 20:16-18;Ezra 9:14).
While this was a unique, time-bound directive to Israel under the Mosaic covenant (Numbers 31:7-8), it foreshadows the ultimate eradication of evil at Christ’s return (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9;Revelation 19:11-16). For believers today, the battle is spiritual, calling us to “put to death” the deeds of the flesh (Colossians 3:5) and to resist the devil (1 Peter 5:8-9).
summaryNumbers 25:17 commands Israel to launch a holy war against Midian because Midian had led God’s people into destructive sin. The verse underscores that:
- God takes idolatry and moral compromise seriously.
- Obedience sometimes requires decisive action against corrupting influences.
- Divine judgment, though severe, is always righteous and purposeful.
Trusting the Lord’s wisdom, we learn to confront sin swiftly and guard the purity of our devotion to Him.
(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 Abraham's 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.
Revelation 2:14;
Revelation 18:6.) Although the Moabites were not to be smitten with the Midianites (see
Deuteronomy 2:9), nevertheless they did not escape punishment, but were shut out, even to the tenth generation, from the congregation of the Lord. (See
Deuteronomy 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.
Genesis 15:16.)
. . .Verse 17. -Vexthe Midianites. The Moabites, although the evil began with them, were passed over; perhaps because they were still protected by the Divine injunction (Deuteronomy 2:9) not to meddle with them; more probably because their sin had not the same studied and deliberate character as the sin of the Midianites. We may think of the women of Moab as merely indulging their individual passions after their wonted manner, but of the women of Midian as employed by their rulers, on the advice of Balsam, in a deliberate plot to entangle the Israelites in heathen rites and heathen sins which would alienate from them the favour of God.NOTE ON THE ZEAL OF PHINEHAS. The act of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, in slaying Zimri and Cozbi is one of the most memorable in the Old Testament; not so much, however, in itself, as in the commendation bestowed upon it by God. It is unquestionably surprising at first sight that an act of unauthorized zeal, which might so readily be made (as indeed it was made) the excuse for deeds of murderous fanaticism, should be commended in the strongest terms by the Almighty; that an act of summary vengeance, which we find it somewhat hard to justify on moral grounds, should be made in a peculiar sense and in a special degree the pattern of the great atonement wrought by the Saviour of mankind; but this aspect of the deed in theeyes of God by its very unexpectedness draws our attention to it, and obliges us to consider wherein its distinctive religious character and excellence lay. It is necessary in the first place to point out that the act of Phinehas did really receive stronger testimony from God than any other act doneproprio motu in the Old Testament. What he did was not done officially (for he held no office), nor was it clone by command (for the offenders were not under his jurisdiction as judge), nor in fulfillment of any revealed law or duty (for no blame would have attached to him if he had let it alone), and yet it had the same effect in staying the plague as the act of Aaron when he stood between the living and the dead with the hallowed fire in his hand (see on Numbers 16:46-48). Of both it is said that"he made an atonement for the people," and so far they both appear as having power with God to turn away his wrath and stay his avenging hand. But the atonement made by Aaron was official, for he was the anointed high priest, and, being made with incense from the sanctuary, it was mate in accordance with and upon the strength of a ceremonial law laid down by God whereby he had bound himself to exercise his Divine right of pardon. The act of Phinehas, on the contrary, had no legal or ritual value; there is no power of atonement in the blood of sinners, nor had the death of 24,000 guilty people had any effect in turning away the wrath of God from them that survived. It remains, therefore, a startling truth that the deed of Phinehas is the only act neither official nor commanded, but originating in the impulses of the actor himself, to which the power of atoning for sin is ascribed in the Old Testament: for although in2 Samuel 21:3 David speaks of making an atonement by giving up seven of Saul's sons, it is evident from the context that the "atonement" was made to the Gibeonites, and not directly to the Lord. Again, the act of Phinehas merited the highest reward from God, a reward which was promised to him in the most absolute terms. Because he had clone this thing he should have God's covenant of peace, he and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. This promise must mean that he and his seed should have power with God for ever to make peace between heaven and earth, and to make reconciliation for thesins of the people; and, meaning this, it is a republication in favour of Phinehas, and in more absolute terms, of the covenant made with Levi as represented by Aaron (see on Malachi 2:4, 5). Nor is this all. InPsalm 106:31 it is said of his deed that "it was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations forevermore." This word "counted" or "imputed" is the same (חָשַׁב) which is used of Abraham inGenesis 15:6, and the very words of the Septuagint here (ἐλογίσθη αὐτῷ εἰς δικαιοσύνην) are applied to the obedience of Abraham inJames 2:23. It appears then that righteousness was imputed to Phinehas, as to the father of the faithful, with this distinction, that to Phinehas it was imputed as an everlasting righteousness, which is not said of Abraham. Now if we compare the two, it must be evident that the act of Phinehas was not, like Abraham's, an act of self-sacrificing obedience, nor in any special sense an act of faith. While both acted under the sense of duty, the following of duty in Abraham's case put the greatest possible strain upon all the natural impulses of mind and heart; in the case of Phinehas it altogether coincided with the impulses of his own will. If faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousness, it is clear that zeal was imputed to Phinehas for righteousness for evermore. This being so, it is necessary in the second place to point out that the act in question (like that of Abraham in sacrificing his son) was distinctly one of moral virtue according to the standard then Divinely allowed. An act which was in itself wrong, or of doubtful rectitude, could not form the ground for such praise and promise, even supposing that they really looked far beyond the act itself. Now it is clear(1) that under no circumstances would a similar act be justifiable now;
(2) that no precedent could be established by it then.
The Jews indeed feigned a "zealot-right," examples of which they saw (amongst others) in the act of Samuel slaying Agag (1 Samuel 15:33), of Mattathias slaying the idolatrous Jew and the king's commissioner (1 Macc. 2:24-26), of the Sanhedrim slaying St. Stephen. But the last-mentioned case is evidence enough that in the absence of distinct Divine guidance zeal is sure to degenerate into fanaticism, or rather that it is impossible to distinguish zeal from fanaticism. Every such act must of necessity stand upon its own merits, for it can only be justified by the coexistence of two conditions which are alike beyond human certainty: . . .
Parallel Commentaries ...
Hebrew
“Attack
צָר֖וֹר(ṣā·rō·wr)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive absolute
Strong's 6887:To bind, tie up, be restricted, narrow, scant, or cramped
the Midianites
הַמִּדְיָנִ֑ים(ham·miḏ·yā·nîm)
Article | Noun - proper - masculine plural
Strong's 4084:Midianite -- a descendant of Midian
and strike them dead.
וְהִכִּיתֶ֖ם(wə·hik·kî·ṯem)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine plural
Strong's 5221:To strike
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OT Law: Numbers 25:17 Harass the Midianites and strike them (Nu Num.)
