1 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to fornicate with the daughters of Moab,
2 who called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
4 And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the princes of the people and disjoint them before the Lord hanging them from a tree against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.
5 Then Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor.
6 Then, behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the testimony.
7 And 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;
8 and 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 of the sons of Israel was stayed.
9 And those that died in that plague were twenty-four thousand.
10 Then the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,
11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the sons of Israel, being zealous for my sake among them, therefore I did not consume the sons of Israel in my jealousy.
12 Because of this say unto them, Behold, I establish my covenant of peace with him;
13 and he shall have, and his seed after him, even the covenant of the everlasting priesthood because he was zealous for his God and reconciled the sons of Israel.
14 Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianite, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a family of the tribe of Simeon.
15 And the name of the Midianite woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, prince of peoples, of the house of the father, in Midian.
16 And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,
17 Declare war on the Midianites and smite them;
18 for they treated you as enemies with their wiles, with which they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain in the day of the plague for Peor’s sake.