Numbers 25

Wycliffe Bible

25 Soothly in that time Israel dwelled in Shittim (And so the Israelites lived in Shittim); and the people did fornication with the daughters of Moab;

² which daughters called them to their sacrifices, and they ate (the sacrificial food), and worshipped the gods of those daughters;

³ and Israel made sacrifice to Baalpeor. And the Lord was wroth, (and the Israelites sacrificed to Baal of Peor. And the Lord was angry against them,)

⁴ and said to Moses, Take thou all the princes of the people, and hang them against the sun in gibbets, that my strong vengeance be turned away from Israel. (and said to Moses, Take thou all the leaders of the people, and hang them up on gallows out in the sun, so that my strong vengeance be turned away from Israel.)

⁵ And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Each man slay his neighbours, that made sacrifice to Baalpeor. (And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Each one of you kill his neighbours, yea, they who sacrificed to Baal of Peor.)

⁶ And lo! one of the sons of Israel entered before his brethren to an whore of Midian, in the sight of Moses, and of all the company of the sons of Israel, which wept before the gates of the tabernacle. (And lo! one of the Israelites brought a woman of Midian into his tent, in the sight of Moses, and all the congregation of the Israelites, who were mourning at the entrance to the Tabernacle.)

⁷ And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, had seen this unshamefast doing (had seen this shameful thing), he rose (up) from the midst of the multitude; and when he had taken a sword,

⁸ he entered after the man of Israel into the whorehouse, and sticked through both together, that is, the man and the woman, in the places of engendering. And the vengeance ceased from the sons of Israel, (he went into that bawdy house, after the man of Israel, and stuck his sword through both of them together, that is, the man and the woman, in their places of begetting. And so the plague that had attacked the Israelites was stopped,)

⁹ and four and twenty thousand of men were slain. (but by then, twenty-four thousand people had already died.)

¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses,

¹¹ Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, (the) priest, hath turned away my wrath from the sons of Israel; for he was moved against them by my fervent love, (and so for) that, I myself (did) not do away the sons of Israel in my great ferventness of vengeance. (Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, hath turned away my anger from the Israelites; for he was moved against them by his fervent love for me, and because of that, I did not do away all the Israelites in my great fervour for vengeance.)

¹² Therefore speak thou to him, Lo! I give to him the peace of my covenant, (And so tell thou him, that lo! I now give him my covenant of peace,)

¹³ and it shall be an everlasting covenant of priesthood, as well to himself as to his seed; for he loved fervently for his God, and he hath cleansed the great trespass of the sons of Israel. (and it shall be an everlasting covenant of priesthood, with him as well as with his descendants; because he fervently loved for his God, and he made amends for the great trespass of the Israelites.)

¹⁴ Forsooth the name of the man of Israel, that was slain with the woman of Midian, was Zimri, the son of Salu, duke, of the kindred and lineage of Simeon (a leader, of the kindred and the tribe of Simeon).

¹⁵ Soothly the woman of Midian that was slain together with the whoreling, was called Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, the noblest prince of (the) Midianites.

¹⁶ And the Lord spake to Moses, and said,

¹⁷ Midianites feel you enemies, and smite ye them; (Regard ye the Midianites as your enemies, and strike ye them down;)

¹⁸ for also they have done enemy-like against you, and deceived you by treasons, by the idol of Peor, and by their sister Cozbi, daughter of the duke of Midian, which daughter was slain in the day of vengeance, for the sacrilege of Peor. (for they were like an enemy to you, and they deceived you with treasons, first in the matter at Peor, and then with their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, which daughter was killed during the plague, on the day of vengeance for the sacrilege at Peor.)