Numbers 25:3-18

3So 1Israel joined themselves to 2Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel. 4The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them 3in broad daylight before the Lord, 4so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you 5slay his men who have joined themselves to 6Baal of Peor.”

6Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his 7relatives a 8Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, 9while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 710When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, 8and he went after the man of Israel into the 11tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the 12body. 13So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. 914Those who died by the plague were 24,000.

10Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 11“15Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned away My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel 16in My jealousy. 12Therefore say, ‘17Behold, I give him My 18covenant of peace; 13and it shall be for him and his 19descendants after him, a covenant of a 20perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and 21made atonement for the sons of Israel.’”

14Now the name of the 22slain man of Israel who was 23slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s household among the Simeonites. 15The name of the Midianite woman who was 24slain was 25Cozbi the daughter of 26Zur, 27who was head of the people of a father’s household in Midian.

16Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17“28Be hostile to the Midianites and strike them; 18for they have been hostile to you with their tricks, with which they have deceived you in the affair of Peor and in the affair of Cozbi, the daughter of the leader of Midian, their sister who was slain on the day of the plague because of Peor.”