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Numbers 25

Israel’s worship of Baal Peor brings lethal judgment, while Phinehas’s zeal turns away God’s wrath and receives a priestly covenant.

Israel is staying at Shittim when the people join Moabite women in sacrifices and worship Baal Peor. YHWH commands judgment, and Moses directs Israel’s judges to kill those involved. While the congregation weeps at the Tent of Meeting, Zimri brings a Midianite woman, Cozbi, into the camp. Phinehas kills them both, stopping a plague that has killed twenty-four thousand. YHWH commends Phinehas, promises his descendants an everlasting priesthood, and commands action against Midian for its deception.

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1Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab;
2for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods.
3Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, and the LORD’s anger burned against Israel.
4The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to the LORD before the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”
5Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.”
6Behold, 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.
7When 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.
8He 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.
9Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
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.
12Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace.
13It 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.’”
14Now 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.
15The 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.
17“Harass the Midianites, and strike them;
18for 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.”
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Key verses
Numbers 25:1The opening locates Israel at Shittim and introduces sexual unfaithfulness that becomes entangled with the worship of other gods.
Numbers 25:7Phinehas’s decision to take up a spear begins the intervention that stops the plague and receives God’s approval.
Numbers 25:11God explains Phinehas’s action as sharing his jealousy, turning away wrath so that Israel is spared from destruction.
Where this chapter reaches

Deuteronomy and Joshua recall Israel’s sin at Peor, and Psalm 106 recounts Phinehas’s intervention and the end of the plague. In 1 Corinthians, Israel’s wilderness judgments become warnings against idolatry and sexual immorality, sharing this chapter’s link between unfaithfulness to God and death.

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Questions people ask about Numbers 25

What is Baal Peor in Numbers 25?

Baal Peor is the deity associated with Peor whom Israel joins in worship. The chapter describes participation through sacrificial meals and bowing down to other gods, alongside sexual relations with Moabite women. It does not explain the details of the cult or its rituals.

Why did Phinehas kill Zimri and Cozbi?

Zimri brings Cozbi before the grieving congregation during judgment over Israel’s worship of Baal Peor. Phinehas follows and kills them, and the plague stops. God says Phinehas shared his jealousy and made atonement for Israel. This account concerns a specific divine judgment within Israel; it grants no general permission for religious violence.

What is the covenant of peace in Numbers 25?

God’s “covenant of peace” is his pledge to Phinehas, followed by the promise of an everlasting priesthood for him and his descendants. The stated reason is Phinehas’s zeal for God and his making atonement for Israel. The promise follows the turning away of wrath and the stopping of the plague.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).