Psalms 106:28

Psalm 106:28-30 . They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor — To wit, in worship, whereby they had a union and communion with him, as God’s people have with God in acts of his worship. And ate the sacrifices of the dead — Which were offered to idols, which he calls dead, in opposition to the true and living God, and by way of contempt, and to denote the stupidity of idolaters, who worshipped lifeless things, as dead images, or men deified after death. Or, by the sacrifices of the dead, he may mean sacrifices offered to the infernal deities, so called, on behalf of their dead friends. They provoked him with their inventions — Various species of idolatry, and false worship, and other branches of wickedness, devised in contempt of God and his institutions, his commands and threatenings. And the plague brake in upon them — And swept away twenty-four thousand of those impudent sinners. Then stood up Phinehas — In his zeal for the Lord of hosts; and executed judgement — Namely, upon Zimri and Cozbi, sinners of the first rank; genteel sinners; he put the law in execution upon them; and this was a service so pleasing to God, that upon it the plague was stayed, Psalm 106:30 . By this, and some other like acts of public justice on that occasion, Numbers 25:4-5 , the guilt ceased to be national, and the general controversy was let fall: when the proper officers did their duty, God left it to them, and did not any longer keep the work in his own hands by the plague.

28 They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. 29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions; and the plague brake in upon them. 30 Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment; and so the plague was stayed. 31 And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore. Psalm 106:28 "They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor." Ritualism led on to the adoration of false gods. If we choose a false way of worship we shall, ere long, choose to worship a false god. This abomination of the Moabites was an idol in whose worship women gave up their bodies to the most shameless lust. Think of the people of a holy God coming down to this. "And ate the sacrifices of the dead." In the orgies with which the Baalites celebrated their detestable worship Israel joined partaking even in their sacrifices as earnest inner-court worshippers, though the gods were but dead idols. Perhaps they assisted in necromantic rites which were intended to open a correspondence with departed spirits, thus endeavouring to break the seal of God's providence, and burst into the secret chambers which God has shut up. Those who are weary of seeking the living God have often shown a hankering after dark sciences, and have sought after fellowship with demons and spirits. To what strong delusions those are often given up who cast off the fear of God! This remark is as much needed now as in days gone by.

Psalm 106:29 "Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them." Open licentiousness and avowed idolatry were too gross to be winked at. This time the offences clamoured for judgment, and the judgment came at once. Twenty-four thousand persons fell before a sudden and deadly disease which threatened to run through the whole camp. Their new sins brought on them a disease new to their tribes. When men invent sins God will not be slow to invent punishments. Their vices were a moral pest, and they were visited with a bodily pest: so the Lord meets like with its like. Psalm 106:30 "Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed." God has his champions left in the worst times, and they will stand up when the time comes for them to come forth to battle. His righteous indignation moved him to a quick execution of two open offenders. His honest spirit could not endure that lewdness should be publicly practised at a time when a fast had been proclaimed. Such daring defiance of God and of all law he could not brook, and so with his sharp javelin he transfixed the two guilty ones in the very act. It was a holy passion which inflamed him, and no enmity to either of the persons whom he slew. The circumstances were so remarkable and the sin so flagrant that it would have involved great sin in a public man to have stood still and seen God thus defied, and Israel thus polluted.

(28-31) The licentious character of the cult of Baal-peor in Numbers 25 is expressed in the word “joined,” better, yoked. LXX. and Vulg., “were initiated,” i.e., by prostitution. (28) Ate the sacrifices of the dead—i.e., the sacrifices of a dead divinity. Numbers 25:2, “and they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods,” shows that here we must not see any allusion to necromantic rites, such as are referred to in Deuteronomy 18:11; Isaiah 8:19, and the parallelism shows that the “god” in question is Baal-peor. Carcases of idols.—This phrase is actually used in Leviticus 26:30; here no doubt the plural is used poetically for the singular.

Verse 28. - They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor (see Numbers 25:3 ). The exact expression used in the Pentateuch is repeated. It signifies a mystic union, such as was supposed to exist between a heathen god and his worshippers, and to be kept up by sacrificial meals and the like. "Baal-peor" - i.e. "the Lord of Pehor" - is probably identified with Chemosh. And ate the sacrifices of the dead. The corresponding phrase in Numbers (Numbers 25:2) is, "the sacrifices of their gods," who were "dead," as opposed to the true living God. Psalm 106:28

They joined themselves, to wit, in worship, whereby they had a union and communion with him, as God’s people have with God in acts of his worship. And this phrase seems also to note their carnal copulation with the daughters of Moab in the temple, or to the honour of Baal-peor. The sacrifices of the dead; which were offered to idols, which he calls dead, in opposition to the true and living God, and by way of contempt, and to note the sottishness of idolaters, who worshipped lifeless things, as stocks and stones, or dead men. And some learned men conceive that this is spoken with particular regard to Baal-peor, or the lord of Peor , a place so called, who had been a person of great eminency in those parts, and therefore was worshipped, according to the custom of the heathens, after his death, by sacrifices and feasts appointed for his honour and memory.

28-30. sacrifices of the dead—that is, of lifeless idols, contrasted with "the living God" (Jer 10:3-10; compare Ps 115:4-7; 1Co 12:2). On the words, joined themselves to Baal-peor—see Nu 25:2, 3, 5. Baal-peor—that is, the possessor of Peor, the mountain on which Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped, and at the foot of which Israel at the time lay encamped (Nu 23:28). The name never occurs except in connection with that locality and that circumstance.

28 . They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor ] Attached themselves as devotees. The phrase is taken from Numbers 25:3 . The LXX renders ἐτελέσθησαν , they were initiated ; but the word does not necessarily denote this. Peor seems to have been a locality ( Numbers 23:28 ), and Baal-peor was the particular Baal worshipped there by the Moabites. and ate the sacrifices of the dead ] See Numbers 25:2 . By the dead are meant heathen gods in contrast to Jehovah, the one living and true God. Cp. Psalm 115:4 ff.; Jeremiah 10:11 ; Wis 13:10 , “Miserable were they, and in dead things were their hopes, who called them gods which are works of men’s hands”; Wis 15:17 ; 1 Corinthians 12:2 . Participation in the sacrificial feasts of the Moabites was an act of communion with their lifeless gods. There is no reference to ancestor worship or funeral offerings. 28–31 . A sixth instance; the sin of participating in the abominations of Moabite worship.