1 And Israel remained in Shittim, and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moab.

2 And they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

3 And Israel was joined to Baal-peor, and the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel.

4 And Jehovah said to Moses, Take all the heads of the people and hang them before Jehovah in broad daylight, that the burning anger of Jehovah may be turned away from Israel.

5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal-peor.

6 And behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought in to his brethren a Midianite woman before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.

7 And when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand;

8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman, through her belly. Thus the plague was stopped from the children of Israel.

9 And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.

10 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying:

11 Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My jealousy.

12 Therefore say, Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace;

13 and it shall be to him and his seed after him a covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.

14 Now the name of the man of Israel who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a ruler of a father’s house of the Simeonites.

15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur; he was head of a tribe of a father’s house in Midian.

16 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying:

17 Strike to harass the Midianites;

18 for they harassed you with their schemes by which they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a ruler of Midian, their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of the matter of Peor.