Topic summary
Baal-peor
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Numbers 31.
No connection to Baal-peor incident
Based on his exegesis of Joshua 24:9, Ellicott (1905) argued that Balaam's curse against Israel and the war in Numbers 31 were two separate acts of hostility initiated by Balak. However, he admits that the Hebrew Bible does not sufficiently indicate whether this was the case. Balak's motives for waging war against Israel range from pure hatred to self-defense.