Numbers 25:1

¹ When ²  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ³  with the daughters of Moab.

While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women,

While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.

While the Israelites were camped at Acacia, some of the men defiled themselves by sleeping with the local Moabite women.

While Israel was camped at Shittim (Acacia Grove), the men began to have sex with the Moabite women.

Now when Israel was living in Shittim the people became false to the Lord, doing evil with the daughters of Moab:

While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab.

Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.

¹ When ²  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ³  with the daughters of Moab.

¹ sn Chapter 25 tells of Israel’s sins on the steppes of Moab, and God’s punishment. In the overall plan of the book, here we have another possible threat to God’s program, although here it comes from within the camp (Balaam was the threat from without). If the Moabites could not defeat them one way, they would try another. The chapter has three parts: fornication (vv. 1-3), God’s punishment (vv. 4-9), and aftermath (vv. 10-18). See further G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 105-21; and S. C. Reif, “What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 (1971): 200-206.

² tn This first preterite is subordinated to the next as a temporal clause; it is not giving a parallel action, but the setting for the event.

³ sn The account apparently means that the men were having sex with the Moabite women. Why the men submitted to such a temptation at this point is hard to say. It may be that as military heroes the men took liberties with the women of occupied territories.