13 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

² Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.

25 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.

² And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.

³ And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

⁴ And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.

⁵ And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor.

⁶ And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

⁷ And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up 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 belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

⁹ And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.

¹⁰ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

¹¹ Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

¹² Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:

¹³ And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

¹⁴ Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites.

¹⁵ And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian.

¹⁶ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

¹⁷ Vex the Midianites, and smite them:

¹⁸ For they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague for Peor's sake.

²⁶ And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

²⁷ How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

²⁸ Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

²⁹ Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me.

³⁰ Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

³¹ But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

³² But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.

³³ And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

³⁴ After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

³⁵ I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

⁶ We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.

⁷ Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.

⁸ Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.

⁹ He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.

¹⁰ And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

¹¹ And the waters covered their enemies: there was not one of them left.

¹² Then believed they his words; they sang his praise.

¹³ They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:

¹⁴ But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.