The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Numbers 25
1 Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the
daughters of Moab;
2 for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and
bowed down to their gods.
3 Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, and
Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel.
4 Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the
chiefs of the people, and hang them up
to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.”
5 Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.”
6 Behold, one of the children of Israel
came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in
the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at
the door of the Tent of Meeting.
7 When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the
son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up
from the middle of the congregation, and
took a spear in his hand.
8 He went after the man of Israel into the
pavilion, and thrust both of them through,
the man of Israel, and the woman through
her body. So the plague was stopped
among the children of Israel.
9 Those who died by the plague were
twenty-four thousand.
10 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
11 “Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son
of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath
away from the children of Israel, in that he
was jealous with my jealousy among them,
so that I didn’t consume the children of
Israel in my jealousy.
12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him
my covenant of peace.
13 It shall be to him, and to his offspring
after him, the covenant of an everlasting
priesthood, because he was jealous for his
God, and made atonement for the children
of Israel.’ ”
14 Now the name of the man of Israel
that was slain, who was slain with the
Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of
Salu, a prince of a fathers’ house among
the Simeonites.
15 The name of the Midianite woman
who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of
Zur. He was head ofthe people of a fathers’
house in Midian.
16 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
17 “Harass the Midianites, and strike
them;
18 for they harassed you with their wiles,
wherein they have deceived you in the
matter of Peor, and in the incident regarding Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of
Midian, their sister, who was slain on the
day of the plague in the matter of Peor.”