3 So Israel aligned itself with * Baal of Peor, n and the Lord’s anger burned against Israel. o 4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute p them in broad daylight before the Lord so that His burning anger may turn away from Israel.”

5 So Moses told Israel’s judges, “Kill each of the men who aligned themselves with Baal of Peor.”

Phinehas Intervenes

6 An Israelite man came bringing a Midianite woman to his relatives in the sight of Moses and the whole Israelite community while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand, 8 followed the Israelite man into the tent, q and drove it through both the Israelite man and the woman—through her belly. Then the plague on the Israelites was stopped,