Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 261
25:4–26:4
N u mbers
249
joined in the worship of Baal of Peor, causing the Lord’s anger to blaze
against his people.
The Lord issued the following command to Moses: “Seize all the ringleaders and execute them before the Lord in broad daylight, so his fierce
anger will turn away from the people of Israel.”
So Moses ordered Israel’s judges, “Each of you must put to death the
men under your authority who have joined in worshiping Baal of Peor.”
Just then one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman into his
tent, right before the eyes of Moses and all the people, as everyone was
weeping at the entrance of the Tabernacle. When Phinehas son of Eleazar
and grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up and left the assembly. He took a spear and rushed after the man into his tent. Phinehas
thrust the spear all the way through the man’s body and into the woman’s
stomach. So the plague against the Israelites was stopped, but not before
24,000 people had died.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson
of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by being
as zealous among them as I was. So I stopped destroying all Israel as I had
intended to do in my zealous anger. Now tell him that I am making my
special covenant of peace with him. In this covenant, I give him and his
descendants a permanent right to the priesthood, for in his zeal for me, his
God, he purified the people of Israel, making them right with me.”
The Israelite man killed with the Midianite woman was named Zimri
son of Salu, the leader of a family from the tribe of Simeon. The woman’s
name was Cozbi; she was the daughter of Zur, the leader of a Midianite
clan.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Attack the Midianites and destroy them,
because they assaulted you with deceit and tricked you into worshiping
Baal of Peor, and because of Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, who
was killed at the time of the plague because of what happened at Peor.”
After the plague had ended, the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar son of
Aaron the priest, “From the whole community of Israel, record the names
of all the warriors by their families. List all the men twenty years old or
older who are able to go to war.”
So there on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho, Moses and Eleazar the priest issued these instructions to the leaders
of Israel: “List all the men of Israel twenty years old and older, just as the
Lord commanded Moses.”
This is the record of all the descendants of Israel who came out of Egypt.
