1The Israelites stayed in Shittim, and the men began to have sexual relations with the Moabite women.
2These women invited the Israelite men to the sacrifices for their gods. The men ate the food and bowed down to the Moabite gods.
3Israel joined themselves to Baal Peor, and Yahweh's anger burned against Israel.
4Yahweh said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and execute them before Yahweh in broad daylight, so that Yahweh's intense anger may turn away from Israel."
5Moses told the judges of Israel, "Every one of you must kill the men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor."
6Then, one of the Israelite men came and brought a Midianite woman to his brothers right in front of Moses and the whole Israelite community, while they were all weeping at the entrance to the Meeting Tent.
7When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, who was the son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he stood up from among the community and took a spear in his hand.
8He followed the Israelite man into his tent and thrust the spear through both of them—the Israelite man and the woman through her stomach. This stopped the plague among the Israelites.
9Twenty-four thousand people died from that plague.
10Yahweh said to Moses,
11"Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites because he shared my strong jealousy among them. This kept me from destroying the Israelites in my jealousy.
12Therefore, tell him: 'Look, I am giving him my covenant of peace.
13This covenant will give him and his descendants after him a lasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made things right for the Israelites.'"
14The Israelite man who was killed with the Midianite woman was named Zimri, son of Salu. He was a leader of a family among the Simeonite people.
15The Midianite woman who was killed was named Cozbi, daughter of Zur. Zur was the head of a family line in Midian.
16Yahweh said to Moses,
17“Attack the Midianites and defeat them,
18because they attacked you with their tricks. They deceived you in the incident at Peor and in the incident with Cozbi, the daughter of the Midianite leader, their relative, who was killed on the day of the plague during the Peor incident.”