²⁰ And ^(A)Phinehas the son of Eleazar was the chief officer over them in time past; the Lord was with him.

⁹ “And the patriarchs, ^(A)jealous of Joseph, ^(B)sold him into Egypt; but ^(C)God was with him ¹⁰ and rescued him out of all his afflictions and ^(D)gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ^(E)who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

¹⁸ One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, ^(A)a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, ^(B)and the Lord is with him.”

⁶ And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary and ^(A)the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.

^7 (A)When Phinehas ^(B)the son of Eleazar, 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 chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. ⁹ Nevertheless, ^(C)those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

The Zeal of Phinehas

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

³³ This is the service of the clans of the sons of Merari, the whole of their service in the tent of meeting, ^(A)under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”

²⁸ This is the service of the clans of the sons of the Gershonites in the tent of meeting, and their guard duty is to be ^(A)under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.

¹⁶ “And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall have charge of ^(A)the oil for the light, the ^(B)fragrant incense, ^(C)the regular grain offering, and ^(D)the anointing oil, with the oversight of the whole tabernacle and all that is in it, of the sanctuary and its vessels.”

³² And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest was to be chief over the chiefs of the Levites, and to have oversight of those who kept guard over the sanctuary.