23. So he said he would exterminate them, had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to reverse his wrath from destroying them.
24. Then they refused the desirable land; they did not believe his word,
25. but grumbled in their tents. They did not obey the voice of Yahweh.
26. So he made an oath against them, to make them drop in the wilderness,
27. and to disperse their descendants among the nations and to scatter them among the lands.
28. They also attached themselves to Baal of Peor, and they ate sacrifices offered to the dead.
29. Thus they provoked to anger by their deeds, and a plague broke out among them.
30. Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and so the plague was stopped,
31. and it was reckoned to him as righteousness throughout all generations.
32. They also angered God at the waters of Meribah, and it went badly for Moses on account of them,
33. because they rebelled against his Spirit, and he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips.
34. They did not exterminate the peoples, as Yahweh had commanded them,
35. but they mingled with the nations and learned their works,