1 Habitando os israelitas em Setim, entregaram-se à libertinagem com as filhas de Moab.
2 Estas convidaram o povo aos sacrifícios de seus deuses, e o povo comeu e prostrou-se diante dos seus deuses.
3 Israel juntou-se a Beelfegor, provocando assim contra ele a cólera do Senhor:
4 "Reúne, disse o Senhor a Moisés, todos os chefes do povo, e pendura os culpados em forcas diante de mim, de cara para o sol, a fim de que o fogo de minha cólera se desvie de Israel."
5 Moisés disse aos juízes de Israel: "Cada um de vós mate os seus que se tenham juntado a Beelfegor."
6 Entretanto, um dos filhos de Israel trouxe para junto de seus irmãos uma madianita, sob os olhos de Moisés e de toda a assembléia que chorava à entrada da tenda de reunião.
7 Vendo isso, Finéias, filho de Eleazar, filho do sacerdote Aarão, levantou-se no meio da assembléia, tomou uma lança,
8 seguiu o israelita até a sua tenda, e ali transpassou-o juntamente com a mulher, ferindo-os no ventre. E deteve-se então o flagelo que se alastrava entre os israelitas.
9 Morreram vinte e quatro mil homens com essa praga.
10 O Senhor disse a Moisés:
11 "Finéias, filho de Eleazar, filho do sacerdote Aarão, desviou minha cólera de sobre os israelitas, dando provas entre eles do mesmo zelo que eu. Por isso não os extingui em minha cólera.
12 Dize-lhe, pois, que lhe dou a minha aliança de paz.
13 Isso será para ele e seus descendentes o pacto de um sacerdócio eterno, porque. se mostrou cheio de zelo pelo seu Deus, e fez expiação pelos israelitas."
14 Chamava-se Zamri, filho de Salu, o israelita que foi morto com a madianita, o qual era chefe de uma família patriarcal da tribo de Simeão;
15 o nome da madianita morta era Cozbi, filha de Sur, chefe de tribo, de família patriarcal em Madiã.
16 O Senhor disse a Moisés:
17 "Atacai os madianitas e matai-os,
18 porque eles vos atacaram primeiro, enganando-vos artificiosamente por meio do ídolo de Fogor e de Cozbi, sua irmã, filha de um chefe de Madiã, que foi massacrada no dia do flagelo que sobreveio por causa do sacrilégio de Fogor."
1 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women,
2 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods.
3 So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the LORD's anger burned against them.
4 The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD's fierce anger may turn away from Israel."
5 So Moses said to Israel's judges, "Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor."
6 Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand
8 and 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;
9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
10 The LORD said to Moses,
11 "Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites. Since he was as zealous for my honor among them as I am, I did not put an end to them in my zeal.
12 Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him.
13 He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites."
14 The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family.
15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Kozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.
16 The LORD said to Moses,
17 "Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them.
18 They treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the Peor incident involving their sister Kozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of that incident."