3 Israel thereby attached itself to the Baal of Peor, and the Lord’s anger flared up against Israel.
4 The Lord said to Moses: Gather all the leaders of the people, and publicly execute them before the Lord, that the blazing wrath of the Lord may turn away from Israel.
5 So Moses told the Israelite judges, “Each of you kill those of his men who have attached themselves to the Baal of Peor.”
6 At this a certain Israelite came and brought in a Midianite woman to his kindred in the view of Moses and of the whole Israelite community, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
7 When Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he rose up from the assembly, and taking a spear in his hand,
8 followed the Israelite into the tent where he pierced the two of them, the Israelite and the woman. Thus the plague upon the Israelites was checked;
9 but the dead from the plague were twenty-four thousand.