Spies Sent into Canaan

13 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the people of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a leader among them.”

Worship of Baal of Peor

25 While Israel dwelt in Shittim the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. ² These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods. ³ So Israel yoked himself to Ba′al of Pe′or. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel; ⁴ and the Lord said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them in the sun before the Lord, that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” ⁵ And Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Every one of you slay his men who have yoked themselves to Ba′al of Pe′or.”

⁶ And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Mid′ianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting. ⁷ When Phin′ehas the son of Elea′zar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation, and took a spear in his hand ⁸ and went after the man of Israel into the inner room, and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her body. Thus the plague was stayed from the people of Israel. ⁹ Nevertheless those that died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ “Phin′ehas the son of Elea′zar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. ¹² Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace; ¹³ and it shall be to him, and to his descendants after him, the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”

¹⁴ The name of the slain man of Israel, who was slain with the Mid′ianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, head of a fathers’ house belonging to the Simeonites. ¹⁵ And the name of the Mid′ianite woman who was slain was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was the head of the people of a fathers’ house in Mid′ian.

¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷ “Harass the Mid′ianites, and smite them; ¹⁸ for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Pe′or, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Mid′ian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague on account of Pe′or.”

An Attempted Invasion is Repulsed

²⁶ And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, ²⁷ “How long shall this wicked congregation murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the people of Israel, which they murmur against me. ²⁸ Say to them, ‘As I live, says the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: ²⁹ your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and of all your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, ³⁰ not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephun′neh and Joshua the son of Nun. ³¹ But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. ³² But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. ³³ And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. ³⁴ According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ ³⁵ I, the Lord, have spoken; surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”