Numbers 25
Big idea: What Balak could not buy, Moab gets for free. Israel stays in Shittim and the people begin to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab, who call them to the sacrifices of their gods — and Israel eats, bows down, and joins itself to Baal Peor. The chapter's arithmetic is brutal: four oracles of blessing on the heights, and in the valley a plague that kills twenty-four thousand. In the middle of the weeping at the tent door, an Israelite brings a Midianite woman in front of everyone, and Phinehas takes a spear and follows him. The plague stops. God's verdict on the act is a covenant of peace — and an instruction to deal with the Midianites, who did by invitation what a hired prophet could not do by curse.
Chapter 25 ends the first generation with a plague. Chapter 26 counts what is left, and finds a new nation.
25:1–5 — Joined to Baal Peor
Israel stays in Shittim, and the people begin to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab, who call them to the sacrifices of their gods. The people eat and bow down to their gods. Israel joins himself to Baal Peor, and Yahweh's anger burns against Israel. Yahweh says 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. And Moses says to the judges of Israel: everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.
1 Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab; 2 for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, and Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel. 4 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 Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.”
25:6–13 — Phinehas stood up
One of the children of Israel brings a Midianite woman to his brothers in the sight of Moses and of all the congregation, while they are weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting. Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, sees it, rises up from the middle of the congregation, takes a spear in his hand, follows the man into the pavilion and thrusts both of them through. So the plague is stopped — and those who died by it were twenty-four thousand. Then Yahweh speaks: Phinehas has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn't consume them in my jealousy. Therefore: I give to him my covenant of peace, and to his offspring after him the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the children of Israel.
6 Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 7 When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the middle of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand. 8 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 stopped among the children of Israel. 9 Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. 10 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 11 “Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace. 13 It shall be to him, and to his offspring after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’”
25:14–18 — Their names, and the Midianites
The names are recorded: the man of Israel who was slain was Zimri son of Salu, a prince of a fathers' house among the Simeonites; the Midianite woman was Cozbi, daughter of Zur, head of a fathers' house in Midian. Then Yahweh says: harass the Midianites and strike them, for they harassed you with their wiles, in which they deceived you in the matter of Peor and in the incident regarding Cozbi, daughter of the prince of Midian, who was slain on the day of the plague.
14 Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers’ house among the Simeonites. 15 The name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur. He was head of the people of a fathers’ house in Midian. 16 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Harass the Midianites, and strike them; 18 for they harassed you with their wiles, wherein they have deceived you in the matter of Peor, and in the incident regarding Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).