The local god of Peor, and by extension his shrine — 'the lord of Peor', the deity of the summit Balak had used two chapters earlier as a lookout. ⭐ Numbers 23:28 mentions the mountain as a place with a view and nothing more; Numbers 25:3 is where it becomes the name of a disaster. ⚠ Nothing is known about the cult from outside the Bible, and the text itself says only that Israel ate, bowed down, and was YOKED to it. Later writers treat it as the type-case of apostasy: Deuteronomy 4:3 and Joshua 22:17 both use it as a warning within living memory, Hosea 9:10 makes it the moment Israel 'separated themselves unto that shame', and Psalm 106:28 retells it using this chapter's own yoke-verb.