Give Ear to My Voice
A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, I call upon you; thasten to me!
Give ear to my voice when I call to you!
2 Let umy prayer be counted as incense before you,
3 xSet a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
ykeep watch over the door of my lips!
4 zDo not let my heart incline to any evil,
to busy myself with wicked deeds
in company with men who awork iniquity,
and blet me not eat of their delicacies!
5 cLet a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness;
let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head;
let my head not refuse it.
Yet dmy prayer is continually against their evil deeds.
6 When their judges are ethrown over the cliff,1
then they shall hear my words, for they are pleasant.
7 As when one plows and breaks up the earth,
8 But gmy eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord;
hin you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!3
9 Keep me from ithe trap that they have laid for me
and from the snares of evildoers!
10 Let the wicked jfall into their own nets,
while I pass by safely.
Baal Worship at Peor
1 While Israel lived in eShittim, fthe people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. 2 gThese invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 4 And the Lord said to Moses, h“Take all the chiefs of the people and ihang1 them in the sun before the Lord, jthat the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 And Moses said to kthe judges of Israel, l“Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor.”
6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were mweeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 nWhen Phinehas othe son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. 9 Nevertheless, pthose who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
The Zeal of Phinehas
10 And the Lord said to Moses, 11 “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he qwas jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in rmy jealousy. 12 Therefore say, s‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, 13 and it shall be to him and to this descendants after him the covenant of ua perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.’”
14 The name of the slain man of Israel, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, chief of a father’s house belonging to the Simeonites. 15 And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of vZur, who was the tribal head of a father’s house in Midian.
16 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 17 w“Harass the Midianites and strike them down, 18 for they have harassed you with their xwiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of yPeor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the chief of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague on account of Peor.”
