Numbers 25 · Doctrine · Featured Study
The Covenant of Phinehas
Numbers 25 tells how a priest's zeal won his line a lasting covenant, and Psalm 106, Malachi 2 and Hebrews 7 read it again.
One man's zeal stopped the plague, and God answered it with peace and a priesthood for his line.
- First taught
- Numbers 25:10 to 13 “…I am granting him My covenant of peace.…”
- Fullest statement
- Malachi 2:4 to 7 “…this commandment so that My covenant with Levi…”
Jeremias van Winghe, Phinehas Slaying Zimri and Kozbi, 1585 to 1645. Public domain.
Summary
At Shittim, Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and a plague broke out. Phinehas, grandson of Aaron, halted it, and God granted him His covenant of peace and a covenant of permanent priesthood.
- Numbers 25:13 names the ground of the grant: Phinehas was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.
- Psalm 106:31 says his act was credited to him as righteousness, the verb Genesis 15:6 uses of Abram's faith.
- 1 Chronicles 6:4 to 8 traces the high priests from Phinehas to Zadok, and Ezra 7 traces Ezra back through Zadok to Phinehas.
- Malachi 2:5 calls the covenant with Levi one of life and peace and holds later priests to it.
- Hebrews 7:24 sets the permanent priesthood of Jesus against priests whom death removed.
Harlotry at Baal-peor
Numbers 25:1 to 9: Israel joins the worship of Moab's god, a plague breaks out, and one priest's spear halts it.
While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab, who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD burned against them.The sin begins at the last camp before the Jordan.
Shittim lay on the plains of Moab, across the river from the promised land. The judgment falls first on the leaders, whom the LORD orders executed in broad daylight (Numbers 25:4 to 5).
“Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor--Baal was a general name for ‘lord,’ and Peor for a ‘mount’ in Moab. The real name of the idol was Chemosh, and his rites of worship were celebrated by the grossest obscenity.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible · on Numbers 25:3Reformed
Just then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand, followed the Israelite into his tent, and drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted,One spear ends what the plague had begun.
but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.The toll stands as the text gives it.
Numbers 25:14 to 15 names the pair: Zimri, a leader of a Simeonite family, and Cozbi, daughter of a Midianite chief.
“The word signifies such a booth or place of retirement as was designed and fitted up for lewdness. Thus he declared his sin as Sodom, as was so far from blushing for it that he rather prided himself in it, and gloried in his shame. All the circumstances concurred to make it exceedingly sinful, exceedingly shameful.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Numbers 25:8Puritan
“Thrust both of them through - Inspired undoubtedly by the Spirit of the God of justice to do this act, which can never be a precedent on any common occasion. An act something similar occurs in our own history.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible · on Numbers 25:8Evangelical
The number in the text24,000 in Numbers 25:9; 23,000 in 1 Corinthians 10:8
Paul's count of the same event is lower by one thousand. Barnes reads the gap as Paul following a Jewish tradition that set aside one thousand as slain by the hands of their own brothers.
We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.Paul counts those who fell in one day.
“Twenty and four thousand - Paul 1Co 10:8 says ‘three and twenty thousand,’ following probably the Jewish tradition which deducted one thousand as the number slain by the hands of their brethren.”
Albert Barnes · Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869) · on Numbers 25:9Evangelical
Numbers 25:6 to 8, Numbers 25:9, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke
The Covenant Step by Step
Five texts in canonical order carry the grant at Shittim from Numbers to Hebrews.
The grant at Shittim is read again by a psalm, a prophet, a Gospel and a letter.
- What it adds
- the covenant of peace and of permanent priesthood, given for zeal and atonement
- What it adds
- the act credited to Phinehas as righteousness for endless generations
- What it adds
- a covenant of life and peace with Levi, held over priests who had broken it
- What it adds
- the disciples remember zeal for God's house when Jesus clears it
- What it adds
- a permanent priesthood held by one whom death cannot remove
Five texts in canonical order, each with what it adds to the covenant of peace and the permanent priesthood.
The Covenant of Peace
Numbers 25:10 to 13: the grant and the ground the text gives for it.
“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the Israelites; for he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal. Declare, therefore, that I am granting him My covenant of peace. It will be a covenant of permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”Two grants follow from one act of zeal.
The ground of the grant is stated twice in three verses. A judgment that had gone out against the whole nation is answered with a promise to one family of priests.
“Hath turned my wrath away - The signal example thus made of a leading offender by Phinehas was accepted by God as an expiation (literally in Num 25:13 ‘covering;’ see the note at the typical significance Lev 1:4), and the exterminating wrath which had gone forth against the whole people was arrested Psa 106:30. The act of Phinehas must be regarded as exceptional.”
Albert Barnes · Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869) · on Numbers 25:11Evangelical
“By the covenant of peace given him, some understand in general a promise of long life and prosperity, and all good; it seems rather to be meant particularly of the covenant of priesthood, for that is called the covenant of life and peace ( Mal. ii. 5 ), and was made for the preservation of peace between God and his people.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Numbers 25:12 to 13Puritan
Counted for Righteousness
Psalm 106:30 to 31 uses the accounting word of Abram's faith.
But Phinehas stood and intervened, and the plague was restrained. It was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.The psalm gives the act a verdict that outlasts the age that saw it.
Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.The same verb is used of Abram's faith centuries earlier.
The psalm uses the Bible's accounting word, chashab, an entry credited to someone's account. Genesis credits Abram's faith and the psalm credits Phinehas's act, so the shared word is the word for having something counted to a person.
“And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore. Down to the moment when this psalm was penned the house of Phinehas was honoured in Israel. His faith had performed a valorous deed, and his righteousness was testified of the Lord, and honoured by the continuance of his family in the priesthood. He was impelled by motives that what would otherwise have been a deed of blood was justified in the sight of God; nay, more, was made the evidence that Phinehas was righteous.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 5 · on Psalm 106:31
My Covenant Was With Levi
The line of Phinehas through Zadok, and Malachi's rebuke to its later priests.
The high priesthood ran from Phinehas through Zadok to the priests of Ezra's day.
- Phinehas in chargePhinehas son of Eleazar was over the gatekeepers, and the LORD was with him.1 Chronicles 9:20
- Eli's houseThe house of Eli had been told it would walk before God forever, and the word was withdrawn.1 Samuel 2:30
- Abiathar banishedSolomon removed Abiathar from the priesthood, fulfilling the word against the house of Eli.1 Kings 2:27
- Zadok appointedSolomon set Zadok the priest in Abiathar's place.1 Kings 2:35
- The line written downThe high priests are traced from Eleazar and Phinehas to Zadok.1 Chronicles 6:4 to 8
- The vision's priestsEzekiel's temple keeps its altar for the priests descended from Zadok.Ezekiel 44:15
- Ezra's descentEzra is traced back through Zadok to Phinehas and Aaron.Ezra 7:1 to 5
Seven texts in the order of Israel's history, each with what it says of the priestly line.
Then you will know that I have sent you this commandment so that My covenant with Levi may continue,” says the LORD of Hosts. “My covenant with him was one of life and peace, which I gave to him; it called for reverence, and he revered Me and stood in awe of My name. True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.The prophet holds the priests of his day to the terms their line received.
Centuries after Shittim, Malachi rebukes corrupt priests by naming their covenant one of life and peace, the peace granted to Phinehas. Barnes reads the covenant as made with the whole priestly office through Aaron, which is how Malachi can hold living priests to a covenant cut generations earlier.
“My covenant was with him life and peace; - literally ‘the life and the peace;’ that, which alone is true ‘life and peace.’ The covenant was not with Levi himself, but with Aaron, his representative, with whom the covenant was made in the desert, as is indeed here expressed; and, in him, with all his race after him, who succeeded him in his office; as, when it is said, that 1Ch 6:49, ‘Aaron and his sons offered upon the altar of burnt-offering,’ it must needs be understood, not of Aaron in person alone and his sons then living, but of any of his race that succeeded in his and their room.”
Albert Barnes · Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869) · on Malachi 2:5Evangelical
An Everlasting Priesthood, Fulfilled
John 2:17 and Hebrews 7:23 to 25: zeal for God's house, and a priest who always lives.
His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”John sets the cleansing at a Passover early in the ministry.
because zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult You have fallen on me.A psalm of lament supplies the line the disciples recalled.
The psalm's word for zeal, qinah, also stands in Numbers 25:11, the verse that credits Phinehas with zeal for God's sake. The disciples reach for it when Jesus overturns the tables in His Father's house. The link is one of word and theme, and John tells a different event.
Now there have been many other priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office. But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.Israel's priests were removed by death, and Jesus holds His priesthood permanently.
Clarke, on Numbers 25:12, reads the everlasting priesthood as pointing past Aaron's family to the priesthood of Christ, which that family shadowed. Wesley adds the history: the promise was conditional, and the office passed for a time to Eli's house before it returned to Phinehas's descendants in Zadok.
“My covenant of peace - of an everlasting priesthood - As the word peace implied all kinds of blessings, both spiritual and temporal, it may mean no more here than the promise of God, to grant him and his family the utmost prosperity in reference to both worlds. The everlasting priesthood refers properly to the priesthood of Christ which was shadowed out by the priesthood under the law; no matter in what family it was continued.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible · on Numbers 25:12Evangelical
“But this promise was conditional, and therefore might be made void, by the miscarriages of Phinehas's sons, as it seems it was, and thereupon a like promise was made to Eli of the line of Ithamar, that he and his should walk before the Lord, namely, in the office of high- priest, forever, which also for his and their sins was made void, 1 Sam. ii, 30.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament · on Numbers 25:13Evangelical
Hebrews 7 answers that history. Every priest of the line died and handed the office on, and Jesus lives forever to intercede for those who draw near to God through Him.
Hebrews 7:23 to 25, Adam Clarke, John Wesley
Marriage or Harlotry?
Two readings of the pair in Numbers 25:6, each with its holder.
Readers agree that the union brought the worship of Baal of Peor into the middle of the camp. They divide over what kind of union verse 6 describes.
An act of open immoralityMatthew Henry
Most commentators read verses 1 to 8 as one account of immorality with the women of Moab and Midian. Henry reads the tent of verse 8 as a booth fitted up for lewdness, and the man as proud of his sin.
A political marriageAdam Clarke
Clarke reads the pair differently. Given the rank of both, he takes the union for a marriage alliance between two ruling houses.
“One of the children of Israel - Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief family in the tribe of Simeon, Num 25:14, brought a Midianitish woman, Cozbi, daughter of Zur, head over a people of one of the chief families in Midian, Num 25:15. The condition of these two persons plainly proves it to have been a matrimonial alliance, the one was a prince, the other a princess; therefore I must conclude that fornication or whoredom, in the common sense of the word, was not practiced on this occasion.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible · on Numbers 25:6Evangelical
Books to Read Next
Four commentators quoted on Numbers 25 and Psalm 106, each free to read in full.
Commentary on the Whole Bible, Volume I (Genesis to Deuteronomy)
Matthew Henry · 1708 to 1710
Henry reads the covenant of peace as the covenant of priesthood and ties it to Malachi 2:5.
Read it at CCELCommentary on the Bible
Adam Clarke · 1832
Clarke carries the permanent priesthood forward to the priesthood of Christ.
Read Clarke at CCELExplanatory Notes upon the Old Testament
John Wesley · 1765
Wesley traces the grant through the later priesthood to 1 Samuel 2:30 in his note on Numbers 25:13.
Read it at CCELThe Treasury of David, Volume 5
Charles Spurgeon · 1878
Spurgeon's note on Psalm 106:31 reads the act as the evidence of a righteous man.
Read it at CCELA Priest Who Always Lives
The covenant granted at Shittim is kept in a priest whom death does not remove.
One act of zeal turned wrath away from Israel, and God bound a line of priests to Himself in peace. That line failed under Eli's house and was renewed in Zadok, and Hebrews 7 sets beside it a priest who lives forever.
For it is testified: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”The priesthood of the order of Melchizedek has no end.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832)
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832 to 1869)
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)
- Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Volume 5 (1878)
- Strong's H2803 chashab, H7068 qinah and H1285 berith.
- The Christian Classics Ethereal Library pages of Henry, Clarke, Wesley and Spurgeon.
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