Numbers 25
The Voice
25 Now it happened that while Israel was biding its time at Shittim, on the edge of the wilderness near Jericho, some of the men got mixed up with Moabite women. They got friendly and had sexual relations. 2 The Moabites invited these Israelites to participate in Moabite religious rituals and worship of their gods, 3 and God’s people bound themselves to the deity Baal of Peor, which made the Eternal One furious at Israel.
Eternal One (to Moses): 4 Grab them! Every wicked leader of this people. Then in broad daylight, in front of the Eternal, string them up on stakes to twist and turn so that My burning rage doesn’t consume the entire population.
Moses (to the Israelite judges): 5 Look to your people, and kill whoever pledged himself to the deity Baal of Peor.
6 Just then, even as people were dying right and left, one Israelite returned from among the Midianites with a woman whom he planned to make a part of his family. With her in tow, he walked right past Moses and everybody else while they were mourning in front of the congregation tent. 7 When Priest Aaron’s grandson Phinehas (Eleazar’s son) saw them, he took a spear in his hand. 8 He charged into the Israelite’s tent and ran the spear straight through the bellies of the couple. That one act appeased God’s anger and put an end to the death cascading through the Israelite camp. 9 Nevertheless, 24,000 people died before it was all over.
10 The Eternal One explained to Moses what had happened.
It is difficult in our age of diversity, tolerance, and equality to accept the prohibition of intermarriage between the Israelites and the peoples of the land and the command to eliminate the natives as the Israelites later occupy the land. Now this is not a command about ethnicity or purity of race; it is about shared purpose and complete devotion. The people cannot tolerate devotion to other deities and still serve the Lord. It is for their protection and well-being that God aggressively punishes those who pollute the faith.
Eternal One: 11 Phinehas (Eleazar’s son and Priest Aaron’s grandson) has done well. He saved the Israelites. Because he was so zealous on My account, tolerating no compromise, I did not consume the people of Israel with My jealousy. 12 So I want you to declare this: “I, your God, do pledge to Phinehas a covenant of peace, 13 not only for him but for his descendants too. I promise they will always be priests because in his jealousy for Me, Phinehas covered the wickedness of the Israelites.”
14 For the record, the Israelite man killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri (son of Salu, a leader of the Simeonite extended family). 15 The Midianite woman’s name was Cozbi. She was Zur’s daughter, and Zur was the leader of one of the extended families in Midian.
16 The Eternal One spoke to Moses.
Eternal One: 17 It’s time to go after the Midianites. Frustrate them, and crush them; 18 after all, they frustrated you by luring you into that Peor affair, including the business with Cozbi, who was killed to stop My punishing destruction from the plague, also because of that Peor affair. She was a Midianite leader’s daughter.
Numbers 25
Amplified Bible
The Sin of Peor
25 Israel settled and remained in Shittim, and the people began to play the prostitute with the women of Moab [by being unfaithful to God]. 2 For they invited the Israelites to the sacrifices of their gods, and the Israelites ate [food offered to idols] and bowed down to Moab’s gods. 3 So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor [in worship]. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people [who have committed sin with the Moabites], and execute them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each one of you must kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor [in worship].”
6 Then one of the Israelites came and presented to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of the Israelites, while they were weeping [over God’s judgment] at the doorway of the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle). 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he left the congregation and took a spear in his hand, 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and pierced both of them through the body, the man of Israel and the woman. Then the plague on the Israelites stopped. 9 Nevertheless, those [Israelites] who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
The Zeal of Phinehas
10 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the Israelites because he was [a]jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the Israelites in My jealousy. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to Phinehas My covenant of peace. 13 And it shall be for him and his descendants after him, a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous (impassioned) for [the unique honor and respect owed to] his God and made [b]atonement for the sons of Israel.’”(A)
14 Now the name of the man of Israel who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s household among the Simeonites. 15 The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was the tribal head of a father’s household in Midian.
16 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Provoke hostilities with the Midianites and attack them, 18 for they harass you with their tricks, the tricks with which they have deceived you in the matter [of the Baal] of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague because [of the Baal] of Peor.”
Footnotes
- Numbers 25:11 I.e. intolerant of unfaithfulness. God does not tolerate the transfer of the honor and worship that is due Him to any other being or object.
- Numbers 25:13 I.e. reconciled the Israelites to God.
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