Numbers 25

This edition follows the Hebrew versification; the traditional number is given in brackets.

Israel and Baal of Peor

1While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to indulge in sexual immorality with the women of Moab. 2These women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3So Israel joined itself to Baal of Peor, and Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel. 4Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before Yahweh, so that Yahweh’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.” 5So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you must kill those of his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor.” 6Just then, one of the Israelites came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7When Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he got up from among the congregation and took a spear in his hand. 8He followed the Israelite man into the tent and drove the spear through both of them, the Israelite man and the woman, through her belly. Then the plague on the Israelites was stopped. 9Those who died in the plague numbered twenty-four thousand.

The Covenant with Phinehas

10Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 11“Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the Israelites, because he was zealous for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my jealousy. 12Therefore say: I am giving him my covenant of peace. 13It will be for him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.” 14The name of the Israelite man who was killed, the one killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri son of Salu, a leader of an ancestral house among the Simeonites. 15And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi daughter of Zur, who was head of a people, of an ancestral house in Midian. 16Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 17“Treat the Midianites as enemies, and strike them down, 18for they have treated you as enemies with the trickery they used against you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague because of Peor.” 19[—]And it happened, after the plague —