1Israel dwelt in Shittim, and the people began to commit sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab.2They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down before their gods.3Israel yoked itself to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD burned against Israel.4The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the heads of the people and hang them up for the LORD in the sight of the sun, so that the burning anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel."5Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you must kill the men under your authority who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor."6Then an Israelite man came and brought the Midianite woman to his kinsmen in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the Israelites, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.7When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he rose from the midst of the congregation, took a spear in his hand,8followed the Israelite man into the tent, and thrust both of them through—the Israelite man and the woman—through her belly. Then the plague was stopped from the Israelites.9Those who died in the plague numbered twenty-four thousand.10The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,11"Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest has turned away my wrath from the Israelites by being zealous with my zeal among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal.12Therefore say, 'Behold, I hereby grant him my covenant of peace.13It shall be for him and for his descendants after him a covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.'"14The name of the slain Israelite man who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite father's house.15The name of the slain Midianite woman was Cozbi daughter of Zur, head of the peoples of a father's house in Midian.16The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,17"Harass the Midianites and strike them down,18because they harassed you with their deceitful schemes by which they deceived you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the Midianite leader and their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague concerning Peor."