민수기 25:2의 주석

וישתחוו לאלהיהן AND THEY PROSTRATED THEMSELVES BEFORE THEIR GODS — When anyone’s passions overpowered him and he said to her, “Submit to me”, she took out for him an image of Peor from her bosom, saying to him, “First prostrate yourself before this" (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 18).

ותקראן לעם, They called to the people. The reason the Torah had to repeat the word לעם having previously described the people involved as העם is that not all of these people went for strolls so that they encountered the Moabite women. Our verse indicates that the Moabite women went out to seek out Israelites who had not gone strolling in the neighbourhood around their camp. An alternative explanation could be that they wanted to involve the Israelites in a group activity thus breaking down each Israelite's inhibition against committing sinful acts. They were invited to partake of the meals prepared by the Moabite women in honour of their idols.

ויאכל העם וישתחוו לאלוהיהן, “the people ate and prostrated themselves in front of their deities.” The mixture of the use of feminine and masculine pronoun endings means that both the Israelites and the Moabites prostrated themselves to these deities.

When he was overcome by lust… Rashi needed to say this, because when one is promiscuous it is because his evil inclination takes control of him. Thus one should not wonder as to how Yisroel stumbled [into promiscuity]. However one might wonder as to how they stumbled into idolatry. Therefore Rashi comes to inform you… (Gur Aryeh). For if not so, it should state, “And they prostrated themselves before the gods of Moav.” Why does it state לאלהיהן ["to their gods" with the word "their" in the feminine form]? This implies that their status as “gods” was connected to the promiscuity [of the women]. It was through promiscuity that they engaged in idolatry.

V. 2. ותקראנה וגו׳. Die von ihnen Verführten luden sie zu ihren Opfermählern und brachten sie endlich dazu, sich ihren Peorgöttern hinzuwerfen, in deren Kult sinnliche Ausschweifung aufhörte Verbrechen zu sein und einer Göttermacht huldigende Hingebung wurde.

לזבחי אלוהיהם, to the sacrifices of their gods. Although the Midrash had described the worship of the Baal Pe-Or as consisting of the worshiper excreting and urinating in front of that deity so that slaughtering of meat was certainly not part of this, it is possible that the meat was not really part of the rite but was part of a celebration in their god's honour. On the other hand, eating a lot may have been intended to ultimately result in excreting a lot in front of that idol.

ויצמד ישראל לבעל פעור "and Israel was joined to Baal Pe-Or." The words ויצמד ישראל לבעל פעור "Israel joined itself to Baal Pe-Or mean that the reason for Israel bowing down to the idol was the peculiar power of this idol exerted over people who worshiped it. [apparently even the elite was now involved. Ed.]