Numbers 25
New King James Version
Israel’s Harlotry in Moab
25 Now Israel remained in (A)Acacia Grove,[a] and the (B)people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. 2 (C)They invited the people to (D)the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and (E)bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and (F)the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, (G)“Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the Lord, out in the sun, (H)that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.”
5 So Moses said to (I)the judges of Israel, (J)“Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor.”
6 And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, (K)who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 7 Now (L)when Phinehas (M)the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose 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 body. So (N)the plague was (O)stopped among the children of Israel. 9 And (P)those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
10 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 11 (Q)“Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in (R)My zeal. 12 Therefore say, (S)‘Behold, I give to him My (T)covenant of peace; 13 and it shall be to him and (U)his descendants after him a covenant of (V)an everlasting priesthood, because he was (W)zealous for his God, and (X)made [b]atonement for the children of Israel.’ ”
14 Now the name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s house among the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of (Y)Zur; he was head of the people of a father’s house in Midian.
16 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17 (Z)“Harass the Midianites, and [c]attack them; 18 for they harassed you with their (AA)schemes[d] by which they seduced you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of Peor.”
Footnotes
- Numbers 25:1 Heb. Shittim
- Numbers 25:13 Lit. covering
- Numbers 25:17 be hostile toward
- Numbers 25:18 tricks
Numbers 25
International Standard Version
Worship of Baal of Peor
25 While Israel remained encamped in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality with Moabite women, 2 who also invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. So the people ate what they had sacrificed[a] and then worshipped their gods. 3 The people joined the Baal-peor cult.[b] As a result, the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel, 4 so the Lord told Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute[c] them in broad daylight for the Lord, so the Lord’s burning anger may be withdrawn from Israel.”
5 Then Moses ordered the judges of Israel, “Each one of you is to execute the men in his own tribe[d] who joined the Baal-peor cult.”
6 That very moment, one of the Israelis arrived, bringing to his brothers one of the Midianite women, right in front of Moses and the entire community of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting! 7 When Eleazar’s son Phinehas, grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up from the middle of the community, grabbed a javelin in his hand, 8 followed the Israeli man inside his tent,[e] and impaled the two of them—the Israeli man and the woman—right through both of them and into her abdomen. Then the plague infecting the Israelis was brought to a halt. Nevertheless, 9 24,000 people died because of the plague.
God Commends Phinehas
10 The Lord told Moses, 11 “Eleazar’s son Phinehas, grandson of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from Israel. Because his zealousness reflected my own zeal for them, I didn’t consume Israel in my jealousy. 12 Therefore, I’m certainly going to be giving him my covenant of peace, 13 for him and for his descendants after him, too, a covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelis.”
14 Now the name of the Israeli man who was slain, along with the Midianite woman, was Salu’s son Zimri, a leader from the tribe of Simeon. 15 The woman who was slain, that is, the Midianite woman, was named Cozbi. She was the daughter of Zur, a leader[f] of one of the ancestral houses of Midian.
God Orders the Destruction of Midian
16 Later, the Lord ordered Moses, 17 “Attack the Midianites and execute them, 18 because they’ve acted deceitfully, bringing trouble to you in this incident at Peor with Cozbi, daughter of a prince from Midian, who was killed during the plague that came about because of the incident at Peor.”
Footnotes
- Numbers 25:2 The Heb. lacks what they had sacrificed
- Numbers 25:3 Lit. joined themselves to Baal-Peor; and so throughout the chapter
- Numbers 25:4 Or hang
- Numbers 25:5 The Heb. lacks in his own tribe
- Numbers 25:8 Or inner part of the tent
- Numbers 25:15 Lit. head
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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