1
When the Israelites were camped at Acacia Valley, the men began to have sexual intercourse with the Moabite women who were there.
2
These women invited them to sacrificial feasts, where the god of Moab was worshiped. The Israelites ate the food and worshiped the god
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Baal of Peor. So the Lord was angry with them
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and said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of Israel and, in obedience to me, execute them in broad daylight, and then I will no longer be angry with the people."
5
Moses said to the officials, "Each of you is to kill every man in your tribe who has become a worshiper of Baal of Peor."
6
One of the Israelites took a Midianite woman into his tent in the sight of Moses and the whole community, while they were mourning at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence.
7
When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest, saw this, he got up and left the assembly. He took a spear,
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followed the man and the woman into the tent, and drove the spear through both of them. In this way the epidemic that was destroying Israel was stopped,
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but it had already killed twenty-four thousand people.
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The Lord said to Moses,
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"Because of what Phinehas has done, I am no longer angry with the people of Israel. He refused to tolerate the worship of any god but me, and that is why I did not destroy them in my anger.