Numbers 14:45

14:45 So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped ¹  down and attacked them ²  as far as Hormah. ³ 

Numbers 16:33

16:33 They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community.

Numbers 16:45

16:45 “Get away from this community, so that I can consume them in an instant!” But they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground. ⁴ 

Numbers 20:15

20:15 how our ancestors went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time, ⁵  and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors badly. ⁶ 

Numbers 22:27

22:27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she crouched down under Balaam. Then Balaam was angry, and he beat his donkey with a staff.

Numbers 25:2

25:2 These women invited ⁷  the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ⁸ 

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¹ tn Heb “came down.”

² tn The verb used here means “crush by beating,” or “pounded” them. The Greek text used “cut them in pieces.”

³ tn The name “Hormah” means “destruction”; it is from the word that means “ban, devote” for either destruction or temple use.

⁴ tn Heb “they fell on their faces.”

⁵ tn Heb “many days.”

⁶ tn The verb רָעַע (ra’a’) means “to act or do evil.” Evil here is in the sense of causing pain or trouble. So the causative stem in our passage means “to treat wickedly.”

⁷ tn The verb simply says “they called,” but it is a feminine plural. And so the women who engaged in immoral acts with Hebrew men invited them to their temple ritual.

⁸ sn What Israel experienced here was some of the debased ritual practices of the Canaanite people. The act of prostrating themselves before the pagan deities was probably participation in a fertility ritual, nothing short of cultic prostitution. This was a blatant disregard of the covenant and the Law. If something were not done, the nation would have destroyed itself.