Study Desk

So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the officials of Moab. Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?”

So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.

So Balak did as Balaam said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

So Israel aligned itself with Baal of Peor, and the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.

The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the Lord so that his burning anger may turn away from Israel.”

So Moses told Israel’s judges, “Kill each of the men who aligned themselves with Baal of Peor.”

“Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the Israelites because he was zealous among them with my zeal, so that I did not destroy the Israelites in my zeal.

So Moses and the priest Eleazar said to them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho,

So Moses appealed to the Lord,

who will go out before them and come back in before them, and who will bring them out and bring them in, so that the Lord’s community won’t be like sheep without a shepherd.”

Confer some of your authority on him so that the entire Israelite community will obey him.

So Moses told the Israelites everything the Lord had commanded him.

So Moses spoke to the people, “Equip some of your men for war. They will go against Midian to inflict the Lord’s vengeance on them.

So one thousand were recruited from each Israelite tribe out of the thousands in Israel—twelve thousand equipped for war.

“Yet they are the ones who, at Balaam’s advice, incited the Israelites to unfaithfulness against the Lord in the Peor incident, so that the plague came against the Lord’s community.

So now, kill every male among the dependents and kill every woman who has gone to bed with a man,

So Moses and the priest Eleazar did as the Lord commanded Moses.

So we have presented to the Lord an offering of the gold articles each man found—armlets, bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces—to make atonement for ourselves before the Lord.”

So the Gadites and Reubenites came to Moses, the priest Eleazar, and the leaders of the community and said:

So the Lord’s anger burned that day, and he swore an oath: