17 "Harass the Mid'ianites, and smite them;

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 25:17

Commentary on Numbers 25:16-18

(Read Numbers 25:16-18)

We read not that any Midianites died of the plague; God punished them with the sword of an enemy, not with the rod of a father. We must set ourselves against whatever is an occasion of sin to us, Matthew 5:29,30. Whatever draws us to sin, should be a vexation to us, as a thorn in the flesh. And none will be more surely and severely punished than those who, after Satan's example, and with his subtlety, tempt others to sin.