Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for Yahweh your God has destroyed all the men who followed Baal Peor from among you.
Parallel Translations
-
Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal Peor; for Yahweh your God has destroyed all the men who followed Baal Peor from among you.
-
Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baal-peor: for all the men that followed Baal-peor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you.
-
Your eyes have seen what the LORD did in Baal-peor; for all the men that followed the Baal of Peor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from the midst of thee.
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 4:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Numbers 25:1-9 Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab; for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods. Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, and Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel. Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.” Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.” Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting. When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the middle of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand. He went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
- Psalms 106:28-29 They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.
- Numbers 26:64 But among these there was not a man of them who were counted by Moses and Aaron the priest, who counted the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
- Numbers 31:16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.
- Joshua 22:17 Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although there came a plague on the congregation of Yahweh,
- Hosea 9:10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season; but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain God’s judgments executed upon other idolaters ought to serve…
God’s judgments executed upon other idolaters ought to serve for our instruction, read Num. 25:3,4.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 4:3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD…
Deu 4:3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you.
Ver. 3. Destroyed them.] Hanging them up in gibbets, as it were, before your eyes, to warn you.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because…
Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor,.... Because of the idolatry the people of Israel fell into by worshipping that idol, being drawn into it by the daughters of Moab and Midian, through the counsel of Balaam, with whom they committed fornication; which led them to the other sin, and both highly provoking to God. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are,"what the Word of the Lord has done to the worshippers of the idol Peor;"
for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you; 24,000 persons died on that account; which being a recent thing, fresh in memory, and what they were eyewitnesses of, was a caution to them to avoid the same sins, as it is to us on whom the ends of the world are come, Num 23:9.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Deu 4:3-4. Are alive every one of you this…
Deu 4:3-4. Are alive every one of you this day — A singular providence watched over them, to preserve them in such good healthy that not one of so many thousands was dead since that time. Nor, in the war with the Midianites, did they lose so much as one man, Num 31:7-49.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Among you, when the guilty Israelites and the Madianites…
Among you, when the guilty Israelites and the Madianites were slain, Numbers xxv., and xxxi.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because…
Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor . . . the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you--It appears that the pestilence and the sword of justice overtook only the guilty in that affair (Num 25:1-9) while the rest of the people were spared. The allusion to that recent and appalling judgment was seasonably made as a powerful dissuasive against idolatry, and the fact mentioned was calculated to make a deep impression on people who knew and felt the truth of it.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Of Baal-peor — Moses refers to that recent…
3. Of Baal-peor — Moses refers to that recent judgment of God upon the sins of the people when twenty-four thousand were slain. Num_25:1-9.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. Your eyes have seen] Cp. Deu_3:21.
3. Your eyes have seen] Cp. Deu_3:21.
because of Baal-peor] Heb. in Ba‘al-Pe‘or (= in Beth-Ba‘al-Pe‘or), a place-name as in Hos_9:10; cp. Deu_3:29. The sin and its punishment are related by JE, Num_25:1-5; then follows, 6–16, a similar story about Israel and Midianite seductions, from P. Ba‘al of Pe‘or was a local deity, otherwise unknown to us. Driver (Deut. 63 f.) questions the usual opinion that he was a priapic deity, yet the close association of the charge of worshipping him with that of illicit intercourse with the daughters of Moab, combined with the notorious impurity of the Syrian religions, appears to confirm the opinion.
Read full note →
thy God … from the midst of thee] Note the change to the Sg. here from the Pl. in the beginning of the verse. Sam. and LXX, probably less originally, give Pl. throughout. For similar changes see Deu_4:25; Deu_4:29; Deu_4:34; Deu_11:13-14.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) Your eyes have seen.—Literally, your eyes are they…
(3) Your eyes have seen.—Literally, your eyes are they that see—i.e., you are witnesses of these things. The men who perished by the plague because of the iniquity of Beth peor—to the number of 24,000—seem to have been all members of the younger generation; for they had already passed the brook Zered. (See on Deu_2:13.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 3, 4. The people had had personal experience…
Vers. 3, 4. The people had had personal experience of the danger, on the one hand, of transgressing, and the benefit, on the other, of keeping God"s Law; they had seen how those who sinned in worshipping Baal-peer were destroyed, (Num_25:3, Num_25:9) whilst those who remained faithful to the Lord were kept alive. This experience the people had had only lately before, so that a reference to it would be all the more impressive. Baalpeor, the idol whose cultus was observed at Peor. Baal (Bal, Be"cf., Bel, Lord) was the common name of the supreme deity among the northern of the Semitic-speaking people, the Canaanites, the Phoenicians, the Aramaeans, and the Assyrians. There were thus many Baals. Followed: walked after; a common Biblical expression for religious adherence and service (cf. Jer_8:2 Jer_9:14; and with a different formula, Num_32:12; Deu_1:36; Jos_14:8; Jud_1:2:12, etc.) Ye that did cleave unto Jehovah your God. "To cleave unto one" is expressive of the closest, most intimate attachment and communion (Gen_2:24; Isa_14:1) The phrase is frequently used of devotion to the service and worship of the true God (cf. Jos_22:5 Jos_23:8; Act_2:23, etc.) here it expresses the contrast between the conduct of those who remained faithful to Jehovah and those who forsook him to worship Baal. Are alive every one of you this day. "Thus they that keep themselves pure in general defections, are saved from the common destruction (Eze_9:4-6; Rev_20:4) (Ainsworth).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Moses continues speaking to the people of Israel.
Read full note →
Your eyes have seen
Here "eyes" refers to the people of Israel. AT: "You saw" (See: Synecdoche)
because of Baal Peor
The full meaning of this statement can be made clear. AT: "because of the sins you committed at Baal Peor" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Peor
See how you translated this in Deuteronomy 3:29.
Yahweh your God has destroyed them from among you
Moses speaks to the people of Israel as though they were one person, so "your" and "you" are singular. (See: Pronouns)
you who clung to Yahweh
The writer speaks as if trusting in Yahweh and obeying him were like physically holding on to a person. AT: "you who were careful to obey Yahweh" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Yahweh
Baal
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:3 Baal was the Canaanite god associated with the…
4:3 Baal was the Canaanite god associated with the fertility of the soil and of human and animal life. Local pagan worship centers linked Baal with their own shrines and cultic rituals, as with the god of Peor (see 3:29).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.