Numbers 25
A Plague Stopped by One Man’s Zeal
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Israel’s Betrayal
25:1Israel lodged at Shittim, and the people profaned themselves by engaging in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab.
25:2They invited them to the sacrifices of their idols. The people ate from their sacrifices and bowed down to their idols.
25:3Israel was initiated into the worship of Baal of Peor, and the Lord became angry with Israel.
The Divine Command for Execution
25:4The Lord said to Moses: Take all the leaders of the people and make a public example of them before the Lord in the sunlight, and the Lord's fierce anger will turn away from Israel.
25:5Moses said to Israel's tribes: Each of you shall kill his own kinsman who was initiated into the worship of Baal of Peor.
25:6An Israelite man came and brought his brother to the Midianite woman before Moses and the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance of the Tent of Testimony.
25:7Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, rose from among the congregation, and took a lance in his hand.
25:8He went after the Israelite man into the furnace and stabbed both of them, the Israelite man and the woman, through her womb. The plague against the sons of Israel stopped.
25:9Those who died in the plague numbered twenty-four thousand.
The Covenant of Everlasting Priesthood
25:10The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
25:11Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has stopped My wrath against the sons of Israel by being zealous with My zeal among them, and I did not consume the sons of Israel in My jealousy.
25:12Therefore say: Look, I give him a covenant of peace.
25:13It shall be for him and his offspring after him a perpetual covenant of priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made propitiation for the sons of Israel.
Orders of War
25:14The name of the Israelite man struck down with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, a ruler of an ancestral house of Simeon.
25:15The name of the Midianite woman who was struck down was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a ruler of the nation of Ommoth, an ancestral house of Midian.
25:16The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the sons of Israel, saying:
25:17Be hostile to the Midianites and strike them,
25:18for they are hostile to you through the deceit by which they deceive you because of Peor and because of Cozbi, daughter of a Midianite ruler, their sister, who was struck down on the day of the plague because of Peor.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.