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The People of Israel at Peor

¹ When the Israelites were camped at Acacia Valley, the men began to have sexual intercourse with the Moabite women who were there. ² These women invited them to sacrificial feasts, where the god of Moab was worshiped. The Israelites ate the food and worshiped the god ³ Baal of Peor. So the Lord was angry with them ⁴ and said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of Israel and, in obedience to me, execute them in broad daylight,^[a] and then I will no longer be angry with the people." ⁵ Moses said to the officials, "Each of you is to kill every man in your tribe who has become a worshiper of Baal of Peor."

⁶ One of the Israelites took a Midianite woman into his tent in the sight of Moses and the whole community, while they were mourning at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence. ⁷ When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest, saw this, he got up and left the assembly. He took a spear, ⁸ followed the man and the woman into the tent, and drove the spear through both of them. In this way the epidemic that was destroying Israel was stopped, ⁹ but it had already killed twenty-four thousand people.

¹⁰ The Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ "Because of what Phinehas has done, I am no longer angry with the people of Israel. He refused to tolerate the worship of any god but me, and that is why I did not destroy them in my anger. ¹² So tell him that I am making a covenant with him that is valid for all time to come. ¹³ He and his descendants are permanently established as priests, because he did not tolerate any rivals to me and brought about forgiveness for the people's sin."

¹⁴ The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the head of a family in the tribe of Simeon. ¹⁵ The woman's name was Cozbi. Zur, her father, was chief of a group of Midianite clans.

¹⁶ The Lord commanded Moses, ¹⁷ "Attack the Midianites and destroy them, ¹⁸ because of the evil they did to you when they deceived you at Peor, and because of Cozbi, who was killed at the time of the epidemic at Peor."