1. When the Israelites were camped in the Valley of Acacia, the men began to have sexual intercourse with the Moabite women who were there.
2. These women invited them to sacrificial feasts, where the god of Moab was worshipped. The Israelites ate the food and worshipped the god
3. Baal of Peor. So the Lord was angry with them
4. and said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of Israel and, in obedience to me, execute them in broad daylight, and then I will no longer be angry with the people.”
5. Moses said to the officials, “Each of you is to kill every man in your tribe who has become a worshipper of Baal of Peor.”
6. One of the Israelites took a Midianite woman into his tent in the sight of Moses and the whole community, while they were mourning at the entrance of the Tent of the Lord's presence.
7. When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest, saw this, he got up and left the assembly. He took a spear,
8. followed the man and the woman into the tent, and drove the spear through both of them. In this way the epidemic that was destroying Israel was stopped,
9. but it had already killed 24,000 people.