Numbers 25
1 And Israel dwells in Shittim, and the people begin to go whoring to daughters of Moab,
When the Israelites were staying at Shittim the men started to have sex with Moabite women
2 and they call for the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people eat and bow themselves to their gods,
who invited them to the sacrifices made to their gods. The Israelites ate the pagan meals and bowed down before these gods.
3 and Israel is joined to Ba‘al-Peor, and the anger of YHWH burns against Israel.
In this way the Israelites devoted themselves in worship to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry with them.
4 And YHWH says to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them before YHWH in sight of the sun; and the fierceness of the anger of YHWH turns back from Israel.”
The Lord told Moses, “Arrest all the Israelite leaders and kill them before the Lord where everyone can see in order to turn the Lord's furious anger away from the people.”
5 And Moses says to [the] judges of Israel, “Each slays his men who are joined to Ba‘al-Peor.”
So Moses instructed Israel's judges, “Each of you has to kill all of your men who have devoted themselves to worshiping Baal of Peor.”
6 And behold, a man of the sons of Israel has come, and brings a Midianitess to his brothers before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, who are weeping at the opening of the Tent of Meeting;
Right then an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman to his family tent in full view of Moses and all the Israelites as they were crying at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
7 and Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, sees, and rises from the midst of the congregation, and takes a javelin in his hand,
When he saw this, Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, left the assembly, grabbed a spear
8 and goes in after the man of Israel to the hollow place, and pierces them both, the man of Israel and the woman—to her belly, and the plague is restrained from the sons of Israel;
and followed the man into his tent. There Phinehas drove the spear through both of them, through the Israelite and on into the woman's stomach. This action stopped the plague that had started to kill the Israelites,
9 and the dead by the plague are twenty-four thousand.
but 24,000 had already died.
10 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,
The Lord told Moses,
11 “Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My fury from the sons of Israel by his being zealous with My zeal in their midst, and I have not consumed the sons of Israel in My zeal.
“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, because out of all of them he was passionately dedicated to me, so I did not destroy the Israelites in my passionate anger.
12 Therefore say, Behold, I am giving My covenant of peace to him,
So make an announcement that I am granting him my peace agreement.
13 and it has been to him and to his seed after him [for] a covenant of a continuous priesthood, because that he has been zealous for his God, and makes atonement for the sons of Israel.”
It will be an agreement that ensures a permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was passionately dedicated to his God and set the Israelites right.”
14 And the name of the man of Israel who is struck, who has been struck with the Midianitess, [is] Zimri son of Salu, prince of the house of a father of the Simeonite;
The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri, son of Salu, a family leader of the tribe of Simeon.
15 and the name of the woman who is struck, the Midianitess, [is] Cozbi daughter of Zur; he [is] head of peoples of a father’s house in Midian.
The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi, daughter of Zur, a family leader of a Midianite tribe.
16 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,
The Lord told Moses,
17 “Distress the Midianites, and you have struck them,
“Attack the Midianites and kill them,
18 for they are adversaries to you with their frauds, [with] which they have acted fraudulently to you, concerning the matter of Peor and concerning the matter of Cozbi, daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, who is struck in the day of the plague for the matter of Peor.”
because they attacked you deceptively, leading you astray by using Peor and their woman Cozbi, the daughter of the Midianite leader—the woman who was killed on the day the plague came because of their devotion to Peor.”
