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The Israelites Worship Baal

25 While the Israelites were camped at Acacia, some of the men had sex with Moabite women. These women then invited the men to ceremonies where sacrifices were offered to their gods. The men ate the meat from the sacrifices and worshiped the Moabite gods.

The Lord was angry with Israel because they had worshiped the god Baal Peor. So he said to Moses, “Take the Israelite leaders who are responsible for this and have them killed in front of my sacred tent where everyone can see. Maybe then I will stop being angry with the Israelites.”

Moses told Israel's officials,[a] “Each of you must put to death any of your men who worshiped Baal.”

Later, Moses and the people were at the sacred tent, crying, when one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite[b] woman to meet his family. Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron[c] the priest, saw the couple and left the crowd. He found a spear and followed the man into his tent, where he ran the spear through the man and into the woman's stomach. The Lord immediately stopped punishing Israel with a deadly disease, but 24,000 Israelites had already died.

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Footnotes

  1. 25.5 officials: These were special leaders who were probably responsible for an entire tribe or part of a tribe.
  2. 25.6 Midianite: Used here as a general term for various peoples who lived east of the Jordan River. Some of these people were probably ruled by the Moabite king (see Genesis 36.35).
  3. 25.7 Phinehas … Aaron: Hebrew “Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron.”

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