Numbers 25:2
וַתִּקְרֶאןָ לָעָם לְזִבְחֵי אֱלֹהֵיהֶן וַיֹּאכַל הָעָם וַיִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ לֵֽאלֹהֵיהֶֽן׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וַתִּקְרֶ֣אןָ לָעָ֔ם לְזִבְחֵ֖י אֱלֹהֵיהֶ֑ן וַיֹּ֣אכַל הָעָ֔ם וַיִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוּ֖וּ לֵֽאלֹהֵיהֶֽן׃
καὶ ἐκάλεσαν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ ταῖς θυσίαις τῶν εἰδώλων αὐτῶν, καὶ ἔψαγεν ὁ λαὸς τῶν θυσιῶν αὐτῶν καὶ προσεκύνησαν τοῖς εἰδώλοις αὐτῶν,
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
quæ vocaverunt eos ad sacrificia sua. At ille comederunt et adoraverunt deos earum.
pues ellas invitaban a los hombres a los sacrificios de sus dioses. El pueblo comió de los sacrificios y se inclinó ante esos dioses.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Las cuales llamaron al pueblo á los sacrificios de sus dioses: y el pueblo comió, é inclinóse á sus dioses.
who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse describes women inviting the Israelite people to the sacrifices of their gods; the people responded by eating and bowing down to those gods. The action unfolds in three sequential narrative steps: invitation, eating, and prostration.
Key words
- tikRena ("they invited", H7121G) — qal narrative verb, feminine plural subject, opening the sequence of events with "and then they invited."
- zivChei ("sacrifices of", H2077) — masculine plural noun in construct state, linking directly to the following noun ("sacrifices of...").
- 'eloHei ("gods", H0430J) — masculine plural noun in construct, here paired with the suffix hen ("their," feminine) to form "their gods," i.e., the gods belonging to the women who invited.
- yoChal ("it ate", H0398) — qal narrative verb, third person singular, referring collectively to ha'Am ("the people", H5971A) as a singular unit.
- yishtaChaVu ("they bowed down", H7812) — hishtaphel narrative verb, masculine plural, marking the final action in the sequence: prostration before the gods.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of three narrative verbs, each introduced by the narrative va ("and", H9001), producing a sequence: "and they invited... and it ate... and they bowed down." This vav-consecutive structure signals successive, connected events rather than simultaneous ones — first the invitation, then the eating, then the bowing.
The construct chains are notable: zivChei 'eloHei-Hen ("sacrifices of gods of-their") stacks two nouns in construct relationship, meaning "the sacrifices belonging to their gods." The suffix Hen ("their", H9029) is feminine plural, indicating the gods belong to the women mentioned as subject of the first verb, not to the people who eat and bow. The verb yoChal ("it ate", H0398) is grammatically singular even though ha'Am ("the people", H5971A) refers to a collective group — this is typical Hebrew treatment of collective nouns as singular. The final verb yishtaChaVu ("they bowed down", H7812) switches back to plural, matching the people as a group of individuals performing the bowing.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew 'eloHei-Hen ("their gods", referring to the women's gods) is rendered in the LXX as τῶν εἰδώλων αὐτῶν ("their idols"), using the Greek term for idols rather than a neutral word for "gods." This same pattern repeats at the end of the verse. The Vulgate uses deos earum ("their gods"), closer to the Hebrew semantic range. The BSB and SBLIBRE also use "gods" in English/Spanish, following the Hebrew term 'eloHei ("gods", H0430J) without the LXX's specifically pejorative "idols" framing.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.