Passage

Numbers 25.11

Book: Numbers · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

9. And those that died by the plague were twenty and four thousand. 10. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,

11. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: 13. and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel. (Numbers 25:9-13, ASV)

WEB

9. Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. 10. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

11. “Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.

Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace. 13. It shall be to him, and to his offspring after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’” (Numbers 25:9-13, WEB)

KJV

9. And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. 10. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

11. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. ^{for: Heb. with my zeal}

Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: 13. And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel. (Numbers 25:9-13, KJV)

YLT

9. and the dead by the plague are four and twenty thousand. 10. And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

11. 'Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, hath turned back My fury from the sons of Israel, by his being zealous with My zeal in their midst, and I have not consumed the sons of Israel in My zeal.

'Therefore say, Lo, I am giving to him My covenant of peace, 13. and it hath been to him and to his seed after him a covenant of a priesthood age-during, because that he hath been zealous for his God, and doth make atonement for the sons of Israel.' (Numbers 25:9-13, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Yahweh, speaking to Moses (Numbers 25:10).
Audience: Moses, and through him Israel.
Location: Shittim, in the plains of Moab (Numbers 25:1, 22:1).
Time period: Late in the fortieth year after the Exodus, on the sequence of Numbers 33:38 and Deuteronomy 1:3; traditionally dated to the 15th or 13th century BC, depending on the Exodus chronology.

Theological reading

Phinehas shares God's own jealousy. Yahweh says Phinehas "was jealous with my jealousy among them" (Numbers 25:11, ASV). The jealousy (H7065 - qana, H7068 - qinah) is covenant zeal, the exclusive claim of a husband on a wife, provoked here by Israel's harlotry with Moab and its joining to Baal-peor (Numbers 25:1-3).

The act ends the plague. By his act Phinehas "hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel", so that Yahweh "consumed not the children of Israel" (Numbers 25:11, ASV); the plague had already killed 24,000 (Numbers 25:9). Psalm 106:30-31 remembers that "the plague was stayed" and that "that was reckoned unto him for righteousness" (Psalm 106:30-31, ASV).

This is not a license for private violence. The act follows Moses' order to the judges of Israel to execute those who joined Baal-peor (Numbers 25:5), in a specific crisis under the covenant. See Divine Jealousy Is Covenantal Zeal (Defeater).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H7065 - qana, qana, Strong's H7065
H7068 - qinah, qinah, Strong's H7068
H3548 - kohen, kohen, Strong's H3548
H7725 - shuv, shuv, Strong's H7725
H1121 - ben, ben, Strong's H1121

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Idolatry, via Numbers 25.1-13

Lexicon:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.