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 Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab; 2 for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, and Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel. 4 Yahweh said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel."

5 Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor."

6 Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 7 When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the middle of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand. 8 He went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. 9 Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

10 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 11 "Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace. 13 It shall be to him, and to his offspring after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’"

14 Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers’ house among the Simeonites. 15 The name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur. He was head of the people of a fathers’ house in Midian.

16 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 17 "Harass the Midianites, and strike them; 18 for they harassed you with their wiles, wherein they have deceived you in the matter of Peor, and in the incident regarding Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor."