Deuteronomy 4:3

3 Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did with [the case of] Baal Peor, for {each} man that followed after Baal Peor Yahweh your God destroyed from your midst.

Deuteronomy 4:3 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 4:3

Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baalpeor,
&c.] Because of the idolatry the people of Israel fell into by worshipping that idol, being drawn into it by the daughters of Moab and Midian, through the counsel of Balaam, with whom they committed fornication; which led them to the other sin, and both highly provoking to God. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are,

``what the Word of the Lord has done to the worshippers of the idol Peor;''

for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the Lord thy God hath
destroyed them from among you;
24,000 persons died on that account; which being a recent thing, fresh in memory, and what they were eyewitnesses of, was a caution to them to avoid the same sins, as it is to us on whom the ends of the world are come, ( Numbers 23:9 ) ( 1 Corinthians 10:6-8 1 Corinthians 10:11 ) .

Deuteronomy 4:3 In-Context

1 "Now, Israel, listen to the rules and to the regulations that I [am] teaching you to do, in order that you may live and you may go [in] and you may take possession of the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, [is] giving to you.

2 You must not add to the word that I [am] commanding you, and you shall not take away from it [in order] to keep the commands of Yahweh your God that I [am] commanding you [to observe].

3 Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did with [the case of] Baal Peor, for {each} man that followed after Baal Peor Yahweh your God destroyed from your midst.

4 But you, the [ones] holding fast to Yahweh your God, [are] all alive {today}.

5 See, I now teach you rules and regulations [just] as Yahweh my God has commanded me, to observe [them] [just] so in the midst of the land where you [are] going, to take possession of it.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "your eyes the seeing what"
• [b]. Or "in"
• [c]. Literally "every one [of]"