Numbers 25:1-9

Contemporary English Version

The Israelites Worship Baal

25 While the Israelites were camped at Acacia, some of the men had sex with Moabite women. ² 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.

³ The Lord was angry with Israel because they had worshiped the god Baal Peor. ⁴ 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.”

⁵ Moses told Israel's officials,^[a] “Each of you must put to death any of your men who worshiped Baal.”

⁶ 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. ⁷ Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron^[c] the priest, saw the couple and left the crowd. He found a spear ⁸ 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, ⁹ but 24,000 Israelites had already died.