Numbers 25:2

These women invited ¹  the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ² 

Ex 20:5; Ex 23:24; Ex 34:15,16; Jos 22:17; Jos 23:7,16; 1Ki 11:1-8; 1Ki 19:18; Ps 106:28; Ho 9:10; 1Co 10:20; 1Co 10:27,28; 2Co 6:16,17; Re 2:14

¹ 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.

² 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.