6But later, while Moses/I and many HYP other people were crying at the entrance of the Sacred Tent, while they/we were watching, one of the Israeli men brought a woman from the Midian people-group into his tent and started to have sex with her.
7When Phinehas, who was the grandson of Aaron, saw that, he grabbed a spear
8and rushed into the man's tent. He thrust the spear completely through the man's body and into the woman's belly and killed both of them. When he did that, the ◄plague/serious illness► that had started to strike the Israelis stopped.
9But 24,000 people had already died from that plague.
10Then Yahweh said to Moses/me,
11“Phinehas has caused me to stop being angry with the Israeli people, by being as eager as I am to stop this sinful behavior. I was ready to get rid of all the Israeli people because I was extremely angry, but Phinehas has prevented me from doing that.
12Now tell him that I am making a special peace agreement with him.
13In this agreement, I am promising to give to him and to his descendants the right/authority to be priests. I am doing this because he showed that he was very eager to honor me, his God, by stopping this sinful behavior. He has caused the Israeli people to become acceptable to me again by causing them to be forgiven for their sin.”
14The Israeli man who was killed with the woman of the Moab people-group was named Zimri. He was the son of Salu, who was the leader of a family from the tribe of Simeon.
15The woman's name was Cozbi. She was the daughter of Zur, who was the leader of one of the clans of the Midian people-group.
16Then Yahweh said to Moses/me,
17“ Take your men and attack the Midian people-group and kill them.
Numbers 25
Numbers 25:6-17