Numbers 25 · Parashot Balak–Pinchas

And Yisra᾽el abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Mo᾽av.

And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods: and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods.

And Yisra᾽el joined himself to Ba῾al-pe῾or: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Yisra᾽el.

And the Lord said to Moshe, Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the burning anger of the Lord may be turned away from Yisra᾽el.

And Moshe said to the judges of Yisra᾽el, Slay every one his men that have attached themselves to Ba῾al-pe῾or.

And, behold, one of the children of Yisra᾽el came and brought to his brethren a Midyanite woman in the sight of Moshe, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Yisra᾽el, who were weeping before the door of the Tent of Meeting.

And when Pineĥas, the son of El῾azar, the son of Aharon the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a spear in his hand;

and he went after the man of Yisra᾽el into the chamber, and thrust both of them through, the man of Yisra᾽el, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Yisra᾽el.

And those that died in the plague were twenty four thousand.

And the Lord spoke to Moshe, saying,

Pineĥas, the son of El῾azar, the son of Aharon the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Yisra᾽el, in that he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Yisra᾽el in my jealousy.

Wherefore say, Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace:

and he shall have it, and his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Yisra᾽el.

Now the name of the man of Yisra᾽el that was slain, that was slain with the Midyanite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a father’s house among the Shim῾oni.

And the name of the Midyanite woman that was slain was Kozbi, the daughter of Żur; he was head over the people of a father’s house in Midyan.

And the Lord spoke to Moshe, saying,

Vex the Midyanim, and smite them:

for they vex you with their wiles, with which they have beguiled you in the matter of Pe῾or, and in the matter of Kozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midyan, their sister, who was slain in the day of the plague in the affair of Pe῾or.