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Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to indulge in sexual relations with the women of Moab. 2 The women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to these gods. 3 So Israel yoked itself to the Baal of Peor, and the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.
4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of these people and execute them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”
5 So Moses said to Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death those of your men who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”
6 Just then an Israelite man came bringing a Midianite woman to his family in the sight of Moses and the whole Israelite community while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent Of Meeting. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand, 8 and followed the Israelite man into the tent. Then he drive the spear through both of them—through the Israelite man and the woman through the belly. Then the plague was stopped among the Israelites, 9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
10 The Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phineas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned My anger away from the Israelites because he was zealous among them for My honour, so I did not destroy the Israelites in My zeal. 12 Therefore tell him that I am granting him My covenant of peace. 13 It will be for him and his descendants after him a covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”
14 The name of the Israelite man who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of an ancestral house from the tribe of Simeon. 15 The name of the Midianite woman was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal head of a Midianite ancestral house.
16 The Lord said to Moses, 17 “Treat the Midianites as enemies and strike them down, 18 because they treated you as enemies with the treachery they deceived you with in the affair of Peor. They also did the same thing in the case of their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader who was killed the day the plague came as a result of Peor.”