⁷ Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, so he ·left the meeting [^Lrose up from the community/congregation/assembly] and ·got [^Ltook in his hand] his spear. ⁸ He followed the Israelite into his ·tent [vaulted/newlywed tent] and drove his spear through the belly of both the Israelite man and the Midianite woman [^Cwhile they were embracing]. Then the ·terrible sickness [plague] among the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] stopped.

⁹ This ·sickness [plague] had killed twenty-four thousand people.

¹⁰ The Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has saved the ·Israelites [^Lsons/^Tchildren of Israel] from my anger. He hates sin as much as I do. ·Since he tried to save my honor among them [^LBecause of his zeal in their midst], I will not kill them in my zeal. ¹² So tell Phinehas that I am making my ·peace agreement [covenant/treaty of peace] with him. ¹³ He and his ·descendants [^Lseed] will ·always be priests [^Lhave a covenant/treaty of eternal/perpetual priesthood], because he had ·great concern for the honor of [^Lpassion/zeal for] his God. He ·removed the sins of the Israelites so they would belong to God [^Lprovided atonement for the sons/^Tchildren of Israel].”

¹⁴ The Israelite man who was ·killed [^Lstruck] with the Midianite woman was named Zimri son of Salu. He was the leader of a ·family [ancestral clan] in the tribe of Simeon. ¹⁵ And the name of the Midianite woman who was ·put to death [^Lstruck] was Cozbi daughter of Zur, who was the chief of a Midianite ·family [ancestral clan].