16 Then the Lord spoke to Moses , saying , 17 " Be hostile to the Midianites and strike them; 18 for they have been hostile to you with their tricks , with which they have deceived you in the affair of Peor and in the affair of Cozbi , the daughter of the leader of Midian , their sister who was slain on the day of the plague because e of Peor ."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 25:16-18
Commentary on Numbers 25:16-18
(Read Numbers 25:16-18)
We read not that any Midianites died of the plague; God punished them with the sword of an enemy, not with the rod of a father. We must set ourselves against whatever is an occasion of sin to us, Matthew 5:29,30. Whatever draws us to sin, should be a vexation to us, as a thorn in the flesh. And none will be more surely and severely punished than those who, after Satan's example, and with his subtlety, tempt others to sin.