6. Moses and the Israelites were gathered at the entrance to the Meeting Tent, crying there. Then an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman to his brothers in plain sight of Moses and all the people.
7. Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, so he left the meeting and got his spear.
8. He followed the Israelite into his tent and drove his spear through both the Israelite man and the Midianite woman. Then the terrible sickness among the Israelites stopped.
9. This sickness had killed twenty-four thousand people.
10. The Lord said to Moses,
11. “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has saved the Israelites from my anger. He hates sin as much as I do. Since he tried to save my honor among them, I will not kill them.
12. So tell Phinehas that I am making my peace agreement with him.
13. He and his descendants will always be priests, because he had great concern for the honor of his God. He removed the sins of the Israelites so they would belong to God.”
14. The Israelite man who was killed with the Midianite woman was named Zimri son of Salu. He was the leader of a family in the tribe of Simeon.