- Israelites become involved in fornication and idol-worship with Moabites. What Balak could not do with a curse by Balaam, his women do in appealing to the lustful desires of some of the Israelites.
- Punished in gruesome ways: impalement of leaders ("hanging" in other versions), and a plague, which kills 24,000
- Phinehas, son of Eleazar, honored by God for his zeal in carrying out immediate punishment of an Israelite man and Midianite woman for public display of fornication
- With Phinehas's action comes a stop to the plague
- People twenty years and older
- Reuben: 43,700 (includes sons of Korah, who did not die with their father); Simeon: 22,200; Gad: 40,500; Judah: 76,500; Issachar: 64,300; Zebulun: 60,500; Manasseh: 52,700 (daughters of Zelophehad named); Ephraim: 32,500; Benjamin: 45,600; Dan: 64,400; Asher: 53,400. Total: 601,730.
- Judah - largest (an increase of 1900); Simeon - smallest (decreased by 37,100). Two observations on the size of Simeon: 1) It was a Simeonite who paraded the Midianite woman in front of the people; 2) Back in Genesis 49, Jacob said of Simeon and Levi: "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." Note that these are the smallest tribes.
- Land to be apportioned according to tribe population
- Levites: 23,000 males one month old and upward. (Moses's mother Jochebed mentioned by name.)
- v. 64 - Not one of these had been numbered in the wilderness of Sinai
- The reason behind the wilderness wanderings: that the adults would die before entering Canaan, except Joshua and Caleb. (Levites excluded.)
23 - "Our steps are made firm by the LORD, when he delights in our way; though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the LORD holds us by the hand." Is this the Old Testament version of "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light..." from 1 John 1:7? It's not exactly the same, but it indicates that when we are in fellowship with him, he is there to pick us up, not condemn us, when we stumble.
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