Read the Bible

¹ And Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to prostitute with the daughters of Moab:² for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods.³ And Israel joined himself to Baal-peor: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel.⁴ And Yahweh said to Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.⁵ And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Slay every one of his men that have joined themselves to Baal-peor.

⁶ And, look, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.⁷ And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand;⁸ and he went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the sons of Israel.⁹ And those that died by the plague were twenty and four thousand.¹⁰ And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,¹¹ Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the sons of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the sons of Israel in my jealousy.¹² Therefore say, Look, I give to him my covenant of peace:¹³ and it shall be to him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the sons of Israel.¹⁴ Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers' house among the Simeonites.¹⁵ And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a fathers' house in Midian.

¹⁶ And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,¹⁷ Vex the Midianites, and smite them;¹⁸ for they vex you with their wiles, with which they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.