1. 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 worshipped the Moabite gods.
3. The Lord was angry with Israel because they had worshipped 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. Perhaps then I will stop being angry with the Israelites.”
5. Moses told Israel's officials, “Each of you must put to death any of your men who worshipped Baal.”
6. Later, Moses and the people were at the sacred tent, crying, when one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman to meet his family.
7. Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron 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 twenty-four thousand Israelites had already died.
10. The Lord said to Moses,
11. “In my anger, I would have wiped out the Israelites if Phinehas had not been faithful to me.