25When Israel dwelled in Shittim, the people began to prostitute^a themselves with the daughters of Moab. ²And they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and worshiped their gods. ³So Israel was joined together to Baal Peor, and Yahweh became angry^b with Israel. ⁴Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the leaders^c of the people and hang them before Yahweh in the sun, so the fierce anger of Yahweh will turn from Israel.” ⁵So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill his men who are joined together with Baal Peor.”

⁶And behold, a man from the Israelites^d came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of all of the community of the Israelites,^e and they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of assembly. ⁷When Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest saw, he got up from the midst of the community and took a spear in his hand. ⁸He went after the man of Israel into the woman’s section of the tent, and he drove the two of them, the man of Israel and the woman, into her belly. And the plague among the Israelites^f stopped. ⁹The ones who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.

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Footnotes

aOr “have sexual relations”
bLiterally “the nose of Yahweh became hot”
cLiterally “the heads”
dLiterally “sons/children of Israel”
eLiterally “sons/children of Israel”
fLiterally “sons/children of Israel”