Numbers 31:16
Are not these they, that deceived the children of Israel by the counsel of Balaam, and made you transgress against the Lord by the sin of Phogor, for which also the people was punished?
In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- nonne istæ sunt, quæ deceperunt filios Israël ad suggestionem Balaam, et prævaricari vos fecerunt in Domino super peccato Phogor, unde et percussus est populus ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- αὗται γὰρ ἦσαν τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμα Βαλαὰμ τοῦ ἀποστῆσαι καὶ ὑπεριδεῖν τὸ ῥῆμα Κυρίου ἕνεκεν Φογώρ, καὶ ἐγένετο ἡ πληγὴ ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ Κυρίου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הֵ֣ן הֵ֜נָּה הָי֨וּ לִבְנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ בִּדְבַ֣ר בִּלְעָ֔ם לִמְסָר מַ֥עַל בַּיהוָ֖ה עַל דְּבַר פְּע֑וֹר וַתְּהִ֥י הַמַּגֵּפָ֖ה בַּעֲדַ֥ת יְהוָֽה
Haydock's commentary
The sin of Phogor. The sin committed in the worship of Beelphegor. (Challoner)
Many of the prostitutes had returned home, being terrified at the slaughter of their queen, Cozbi. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Irenaeus Fragments from the Lost Writings of, XXV
“To inflict vengeance from the Lord on Midian.” For this man (Balaam), when he speaks no longer in the Spirit of God, but contrary to God’s law, by setting up a different law with regard to fornication, is certainly not then to be counted as a prophet, but as a soothsayer. For he who did not keep to the commandment of God, received the just recompense of his own evil devices.
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXIII
And wherefore names he not likewise the punishment for their idolatry? Either because it was clear and more notorious, or because the plague was not so great at that time, as in the matter of Balaam, when they joined themselves to Baalpeor, the Midianitish women appearing in the camp and alluring them to wantonness according to the counsel of Balaam. For that this evil counsel was Balaam’s Moses sheweth after this, in the following statement at the end of the Book of Numbers. ( Numb. xxxi. 8, 11, 15, 16 . in our translation.) “Balaam also the son of Beor they slew in the war of Midian with the sword and they brought the spoils.... And Moses was wroth, and said, Wherefore have ye saved all the women alive? For these were to the children of Israel for a stumbling-block, according to the word of Balaam, to cause them to depart from and despise the word of the Lord for Peor’s sake.”