Numbers 25King James Version
Israel begins to commit fornication with the daughters of Moab, who lead them into the worship of Baal. A plague breaks out. An Israelite man brings a Midianite woman into the camp in plain sight. Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, takes a javelin and runs them both through. The plague stops, but twenty four thousand have died.
While camped at Shittim, Israelite men begin sleeping with Moabite women and worshiping Baal of Peor. God sends a plague. While Moses and the leaders are weeping at the entrance of the tent, an Israelite man openly brings a Midianite woman into camp. Phinehas the priest kills both of them with a spear. The plague stops, having killed 24,000. God gives Phinehas a covenant of perpetual priesthood.
The curse that Balaam could not speak, Israel's enemies achieved through seduction; the compromise that oracles cannot stop, one act of zeal does.
11: "Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy." One man's action breaks a judgment that was already killing people.
Shittim in Moab, 1406 BC, right at the end of the forty-year period. The second generation has survived the wilderness. They are camped at the last stop before Jordan. The Baal-Peor episode is their first major failure, and it happens at the threshold of everything they were promised.
Phinehas son of Eleazar, whose action stops the plague; Zimri son of Salu, the Israelite man killed; Cozbi daughter of Zur, the Midianite woman killed; Moses and the elders, weeping at the entrance.
Baal-Peor is the single catastrophe that Balaam could not cause from outside but that was achieved by the counsel later attributed to him in Numbers 31. The plague kills 24,000, more casualties than any single battle in Numbers. The act of Phinehas polarizes interpreters: it is praised by God and celebrated in Psalm 106, but its precedent as a model for religious violence has been invoked in darker ways throughout history.
For when something you thought was protected turns out to have been compromised from within, and the grief is doubled because it was preventable. The leaders are weeping before Phinehas even acts.
1And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
2And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
3And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
4And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.
5And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor.
6And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
7And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;
8And 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 belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
9And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.
10And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
11Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
12Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:
13And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
14Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites.
15And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian.
16And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
17Vex the Midianites, and smite them:
18For they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague for Peor's sake.