Numbers 25:7-15

GOD’S WORD Translation

⁷ Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of the priest Aaron, saw this. So he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand, ⁸ and went into the tent after the Israelite man. He drove the spear through the man and into the woman’s body. Because of this, the plague that the Israelites were experiencing stopped. ⁹ However, 24,000 people died from that plague.

¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ “Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of the priest Aaron, turned my fury away from the Israelites. Since he stood up for me, I didn’t have to stand up for myself and destroy them. ¹² So tell Phinehas that I’m making a promise of peace to him. ¹³ My promise is that he and his descendants will be priests permanently because he stood up for his God and he made peace with the Lord for the Israelites.”

¹⁴ The name of the Israelite man who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri, son of Salu. (Salu was the leader of a family from Simeon.) ¹⁵ The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi, daughter of Zur. (Zur was the head of a family from the Midianite tribes.)