Bamidbar 25

1. And Yisroel was staying in Sheetim, and HaAm began to commit whoredom with the Banot Moav.

2. And they invited the people unto the zevakhim of their g-ds; and the people did eat and bowed down to their g-ds.

3. And Yisroel joined himself unto Baal-Peor [see Num.23:28]; and the Af Hashem was kindled against Yisroel.

4. And Hashem said unto Moshe, Take Kol Rashei HaAm, and kill them, hanging them [on a tree, stake], before Hashem against the shemesh, that the fierce Af Hashem (Anger of Hashem) may be turned away from Yisroel.

5. And Moshe said unto the shofetim of Yisroel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baal-Peor.

6. And, hinei, one of the Bnei Yisroel came and brought unto his brethren a woman from Midyan before the eyes of Moshe, and before the eyes of Kol Adat Bnei Yisroel, who were weeping before the entrance of the Ohel Mo’ed.

7. And when Pinchas ben Eleazar ben Aharon HaKohen saw it, he rose up from among HaEdah, and took a romach (spear) in his yad;

8. And he went after the ish Yisroel into the inner tent, and thrust through both of them, the ish Yisroel, and the isha through her belly. So the maggefah (plague) was stopped from the Bnei Yisroel.

9. And those that were the mesim (dead ones) in the maggefah (plague) were twenty and four thousand.

[PINCHAS]

10. And Hashem spoke unto Moshe, saying,

11. Pinchas ben Eleazar ben Aharon HaKohen, hath turned My wrath away from the Bnei Yisroel, when he had kanous (zealousness) with My kanous among them, that I consumed not the Bnei Yisroel in My kina (jealousy, zeal, vengeance).

12. Therefore say, Hineni, I am making unto him My Brit (Covenant) of Shalom;

13. And he shall have it, and his zera after him, even the Brit Kehunat Olam; because he had kanous for Elohav, and made kapporah for the Bnei Yisroel.

14. Now the shem of the ish Yisroel that was slain, even that was slain with the woman from Midyan, was Zimri ben Salu, a leader of one of the clans from the tribe of Shimon.

15. And the shem of the isha from Midyan that was slain was Kozbi bat Tzur; he [Tzur] was rosh over the people in one of the clans of Midyan.

16. And Hashem spoke unto Moshe, saying,

17. Be hostile toward the Midyanim, and strike them;

18. For they are hostile toward you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Kozbi bat Nasi Midyan, their achot, which was slain in the yom of the maggefah that resulted from Peor.