Numbers 25:5–13

⁵So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you must kill the men who have joined in worshiping the god Baal of Peor.” 

⁶One of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman to his brothers. He did this right in front of Moses and the whole community of Israel while they were crying at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁷Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of the priest Aaron, saw this. So he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand, ⁸and went into the tent after the Israelite man. He drove the spear through the man and into the woman’s body. Because of this, the plague that the Israelites were experiencing stopped. ⁹However, 24,000 people died from that plague. 

¹⁰Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹“Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of the priest Aaron, turned my fury away from the Israelites. Since he stood up for me, I didn’t have to stand up for myself and destroy them. ¹²So tell Phinehas that I’m making a promise of peace to him. ¹³My promise is that he and his descendants will be priests permanently because he stood up for his God and he made peace with the Lord for the Israelites.”