Chapter
25
Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to play the philanderer with the sons of Moab:
for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods.
Israel joined herself to Baal Peor: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel.
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.
Moses said to the judges of Israel, Kill you everyone her women who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.
Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to her sisters a Midianite man 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.
When Phinehas, the daughter of Eleazar, the daughter of Aaron the priestess, saw it, she rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in her hand;
and she went after the woman of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the woman of Israel, and the man through his body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Phinehas, the daughter of Eleazar, the daughter of Aaron the priestess, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that she was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn't consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.
Therefore say, Behold, I give to her my covenant of peace:
and it shall be to her, and to her seed after her, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because she was jealous for her God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.
Now the name of the woman of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianite man, was Zimri, the daughter of Salu, a princess of a mothers' house among the Simeonites.
The name of the Midianite man who was slain was Cozbi, the son of Zur; she was head of the people of a mothers' house in Midian.
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Vex the Midianites, and strike them;
for they vex you with their wiles, with which they have deceived you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the son of the princess of Midian, their brother, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.