Episode 66: The Israelites commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab

(Numbers 25)

25 ¹ While the Israelites were living in Shittim, they began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. ³ And God was angry with them.

God and Moses respond

⁴ God said to Moses,

Take all the heads of the people and hang them up in front of me, so I won't be mad at the Israelites anymore.

⁵ Moses said to the judges of Israel,

Kill all the men who committed whoredom with Baalpeor.

Phinehas stops God's plague

^6-8 When Aaron's grandson, Phinehas, saw an Israelite man and a Midianite woman having sex, he took his javelin and thrust it through man and the woman through her belly. And that stopped the plague. ⁹ But not before 24,000 Israelites had died.

¹⁰ God said to Moses,

¹¹ Phinehas had made me stop being angry with the Israelites. He was zealous for my sake, so I stopped killing them in my jealousy.

¹² So I am giving him my covenant of peace.

¹³ Phinehas and his seed shall have the covenant of the everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for me and made an atonement for Israel.

¹⁴ The name of the Israelite man that was killed by Phinehas was Zimri, and the Midianite woman's name was Cozbi.

Smite the Midianites

¹⁶ God said to Moses,

¹⁷ Vex the Midianites and smite them.

¹⁸ Because they have vexed you in the matter of Cozbi, the Midianite woman.