Baal Worship at Peor

(Numbers 16:41-50; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13)

1And Israel at that time abode in Settim, and the people committed fornication with the daughters of Moab, 2Who called them to their sacrifices. And they ate of them, and adored their gods. 3And Israel was initiated to Beelphegor: upon which the Lord being angry, 4Said to Moses: Take all the princes of the people, and hang them up on gibbets against the sun: that my fury may be turned away from Israel. 5And Moses said to the judges of Israel: Let every man kill his neighbours, that have been initiated to Beelphegor.

Phinehas Kills Zimri and Cozbi

6And behold one of the children of Israel went in before his brethren to a harlot of Madian, in the sight of Moses and of all the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle. 7And when Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose up from the midst of the multitude, and taking a dagger, 8Went in after the Israelite into the brothel house, and thrust both of them through together, to wit, the man and the woman in the genital parts. And the scourge ceased from the children of Israel. 9And there were slain four and twenty thousand men.

Phinehas' Reward

10And the Lord said to Moses: 11Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel: because he was moved with my zeal against them, that I myself might not destroy the children of Israel in my zeal. 12Therefore say to him: behold I give him the peace of my covenant, 13And the covenant of the priesthood for ever shall be both to him and his seed, because he hath been zealous for his God, and hath made atonement for the wickedness of the children of Israel.

14And the name of the Israelite, that was slain with the woman of Madian, was Zambri the son of Salu, a prince of the kindred and tribe of Simeon. 15And the Madianite woman, that was slain with him, was called Cozbi the daughter of Sur, a most noble prince among the Madianites.

A Warning against the Midianites

16And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17Let the Madianites find you their enemies, and slay you them: 18Because they also have acted like enemies against you, and have guilefully deceived you by the idol Phogor, and Cozbi their sister, a daughter of a prince of Madian, who was slain in the day of the plague for the sacrilege of Phogor.