Numbers 25:5–13

⁵So Moses said to Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death^q those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor.”^r

⁶Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite^s woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping^t at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁷When Phinehas^u son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear^v in his hand ⁸and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman’s stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped;^{w 9}but those who died in the plague^x numbered 24,000.^y

¹⁰The Lord said to Moses, ¹¹“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites.^z Since he was as zealous for my honor^a among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal. ¹²Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace^b with him. ¹³He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood,^c because he was zealous^d for the honor^e of his God and made atonement^f for the Israelites.”^g