Sin at Baal Peor; Phinehas's zeal
Numbers 25; Psalm 106:28–31; 1 Corinthians 10:8
Israelite men joined Moabite women in worshiping Baal of Peor; a plague killed 24,000 until Phinehas the priest stopped it.
“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.”
Numbers 25:11 (World English Bible)
What Balaam couldn't accomplish with curses, seduction did. The plague stopped when Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, executed an Israelite leader who brought a Midianite woman into his tent in open defiance. God promised Phinehas a lasting priesthood.
Places
Dating notes
Plains of Moab, 40th year (Ussher, 1452 BC). Paul gives 23,000 dying “in one day” (1 Corinthians 10:8); Numbers gives the total as 24,000.