Chapter 25
Israel Worships Baal of Peor. 1 While Israel dwelt in Shittim,[a] the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. 2 They invited the people to sacrifice to their gods. The people ate and worshiped their gods. 3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal[b] of Peor. The Lord grew angry at Israel 4 and the Lord said to Moses, “Take all of the leaders of the people and hang them before the Lord in broad daylight[c] so that the rage of the Lord turns away from Israel.”
5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you is to kill those who joined themselves to Baal of Peor.”
6 Then one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his relatives before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of the whole assembly of the people of Israel who were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
Phinehas’ Zeal for God. 7 When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he got up and left the assembly, taking a spear in his hand. 8 He followed the Israelite into the tent. He then drove it through both of them, through the Israelite and into the woman’s stomach. This is how the plague among the people of Israel was stopped. 9 Yet, twenty-four thousand died[d] in the plague.
10 The Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has calmed my anger at the people of Israel. He was zealous for my sake among them so that I not consume the people of Israel in my zeal. 12 Therefore, say, ‘I establish my covenant of peace with him. 13 He will have it, and his descendants after him, as a covenant for an everlasting priesthood. He was zealous for his God, and he made atonement for the people of Israel.’ ”
14 Now the name of the Israelite who was slain along with the Midianite woman was Zimri, the son of Salu, a leader of the ancestral tribe of the Simeonites. 15 The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, a tribal leader of an ancestral tribe of Midian.
16 Downfall of the Midianites. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Harass the Midianites and slay them 18 for they harassed you with their schemes when they seduced you in the affair at Peor and in the affair of Cozbi, the daughter of the leader of Midian, their sister who was slain on the day of the plague because of Peor.”
Footnotes
- Numbers 25:1 Shittim: opposite Jericho, on the other side of the Jordan. See Jos 2:1.
- Numbers 25:3 Baal: means “Lord” and was the generic name for the divinities of the Canaanites. See Num 31:16; Deut 4:3; 1 Cor 10:8.
- Numbers 25:4 Hang them before the Lord in broad daylight: a public display of those who had sinned might dissuade others from straying.
- Numbers 25:9 Twenty-four thousand died: the worship of Baal had a devastating effect on the people of Israel. The numbers are corroborated in the decrease from the first census to the second (see Num 1:44-46; 26:51).