Israel’s Harlotry in Moab
1 Now Israel remained inAcacia Grove, and thepeople began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.
2 They invited the people tothe sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate andbowed down to their gods.
3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, andthe anger of theLordwas aroused against Israel.
4 Then theLordsaid to Moses,“Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before theLord, out in the sun,that the fierce anger of theLordmay turn away from Israel.”
5 So Moses said tothe judges of Israel,“Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor.”
6 And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel,whowereweeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
7 Nowwhen Phinehasthe son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, sawit,he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand;
8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. Sothe plague wasstopped among the children of Israel.
9 Andthose who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
10 Then theLordspoke to Moses, saying:
11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel inMy zeal.
12 Therefore say,‘Behold, I give to himMy covenant of peace;
13 and it shall be to him andhis descendants after him a covenant ofan everlasting priesthood, because he waszealous for his God, andmade atonement for the children of Israel.’ ”
14 Now the name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman,wasZimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s house among the Simeonites.
15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killedwasCozbi the daughter ofZur; hewashead of the people of a father’s house in Midian.
16 Then theLordspoke to Moses, saying:
17 “Harass the Midianites, and attack them;
18 for they harassed you with theirschemes by which they seduced you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of Peor.”