⁵So Moses spoke to Israel’s judges. He said, “Some of your men have joined in worshiping the god Baal that is worshiped at Peor. Each of you must kill the men in your tribe who have done that.”

⁶Then a man of Israel brought a woman of Midian to his family. He did it right in front of the eyes of Moses and the whole community of Israel. They were sobbing at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

⁷Phinehas was a priest. He was the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron. When Phinehas saw what had happened, he left the people. He took a spear in his hand. ⁸He followed the man into a tent. Phinehas stuck the spear through both the man and the woman.

Then the Lord stopped the plague against the people of Israel. ⁹But the plague had already killed 24,000 of them.

¹⁰The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, ¹¹“Phinehas is a priest. He is the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron. Phinehas has turned my anger away from the people of Israel. I am committed to making sure I am honored among them. And he is as committed as I am. Even though I was angry with them, I did not put an end to them.

¹²“So tell Phinehas I am making my covenant with him. It promises to give him peace. ¹³He and his sons after him will have a covenant to be priests forever. That is because he was committed to making sure that I, his God, was honored. In that way he paid for the sin of the people of Israel.”

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