Mazmur 106:28-33

106:28 They worshiped ¹  Baal of Peor,

and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. ² 

106:29 They made the Lord angry ³  by their actions,

and a plague broke out among them.

106:30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened, ⁴ 

and the plague subsided.

106:31 This brought him a reward,

an eternal gift. ⁵ 

106:32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,

and Moses suffered ⁶  because of them,

106:33 for they aroused ⁷  his temper, ⁸ 

and he spoke rashly. ⁹ 

[106:28]  ¹ tn Heb “joined themselves to.”

[106:28]  sn They worshiped Baal of Peor. See Num 25:3, 5. Baal of Peor was a local manifestation of the Canaanite deity Baal located at Peor.

[106:28]  ² tn Here “the dead” may refer to deceased ancestors (see Deut 26:14). Another option is to understand the term as a derogatory reference to the various deities which the Israelites worshiped at Peor along with Baal (see Num 25:2 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 49).

[106:29]  ³ tn Heb “They made angry [him].” The pronominal suffix is omitted here, but does appear in a few medieval Hebrew mss. Perhaps it was accidentally left off, an original וַיַּכְעִיסוּהוּ (vayyakh’isuhu) being misread as וַיַּכְעִיסוּ (vayyakh’isu). In the translation the referent of the pronominal suffix (the Lord) has been specified for clarity to avoid confusion with Baal of Peor (mentioned in the previous verse).

[106:30]  ⁴ sn The intervention of Phinehas is recounted in Num 25:7-8.

[106:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to a generation and a generation forever.” The verb חָשַׁב (khashav, “to reckon”) is collocated with צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) only in Ps 106:31 and Gen 15:6, where God rewards Abram’s faith with a land grant.

[106:31]  sn Brought him a reward. See Num 25:12-13.

[106:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “there was harm to Moses.”

[106:33]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text vocalizes the form as הִמְרוּ (himru), a Hiphil from מָרָה (marah, “to behave rebelliously”), but the verb fits better with the object (“his spirit”) if it is revocalized as הֵמֵרוּ (hemeru), a Hiphil from מָרַר (marar, “to be bitter”). The Israelites “embittered” Moses’ “spirit” in the sense that they aroused his temper with their complaints.

[106:33]  ⁸ tn Heb “his spirit.”

[106:33]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds “with his lips,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[106:33]  sn Verses 32-33 allude to the events of Num 20:1-13.