Numbers 25 · a question people ask
Why does the LORD praise Phinehas for what he did?
The chapter gives the LORD's own reasons. Phinehas "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" (25:11). The covenant is given "because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel" (25:13). He acted after a man brought a Midianite woman "in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation" (25:6), and his act ended the plague (25:8). A psalm remembers it the same way: "Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, so the plague was stopped" (Psalm 106:30). The chapter tells what Phinehas did and what the LORD said about it; it doesn't tell what Phinehas thought.
The verses
“Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting.”
“He went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.”
““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.”
“It shall be to him, and to his offspring after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’””