Parsha of the Week

God became angry, because Balaam was going eagerly, even though God had made it clear that He did not want him to curse the Jews. An angel of GOD stationed himself on the road to thwart him. By thwarting Balaam’s path, God displayed both His anger – by posing him difficulties, and His mercy – by preventing him from sinning and incurring punishment. Balaam was riding on his she-donkey, and his two servants were with him, as befits a distinguished person.

If God were to grant humans the perception to see angels, they would perforce see both benevolent and destructive angels (i.e., demons). Since the sight of destructive angels would be too overwhelming for most people, God generally does not grant humans this perception. But since animals do not have free choice and possess less sophisticated consciousness than humans, they are not frightened by the sight of destructive angels, so God allows them to see angels. Thus, Balaam’s she-donkey saw the angel of GOD stationed on the road with his sword drawn in his hand. Seeing the angel blocking the way, the she-donkey turned aside from the road and went into a field. In not allowing Balaam to remain on the path, forcing him to go around him to either side, the angel was intimating that if Balaam wished to curse Abraham’s descendants, he had only two choices: the descendants of Ishmael or the descendants of Keturah; he could not curse Isaac. Balaam beat the she-donkey to get it back onto the road.

Further on, the angel of GOD stood in a path of the vineyards, once more blocking the way, this time with a stone wall on one side and another stone wall on the other side, so there was no way to take a detour.

The she-donkey saw the angel of GOD, and because the angel was taking up most of the passageway, she was pressed against the wall as she passed him. In the process, she pressed Balaam’s leg against the wall, and he beat her again. By forcing Balaam to one side, the angel was intimating that if Balaam wished to curse Isaac’s descendants, he had only one choice: the descendants of Esau; he could not curse Jacob.

The angel of GOD passed further ahead, and stood in a narrow place, where there was no room to turn right or left, thus making it impossible to pass. The angel was now intimating that if Balaam wished to curse Jacob’s descendants, there was no possibility at all, since all his children remained loyal to God’s calling and therefore could not be cursed.

The she-donkey saw the angel of GOD, and it crouched down under Balaam. Balaam became angry, and he beat the she-donkey with a stick.

GOD opened the mouth of the she-donkey, enabling her to speak, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times [regalim]?” God, via the donkey’s choice of words, intimated that it was useless for Balaam to try to destroy a nation that observes the three pilgrim festivals [regalim].

Balaam said to the she-donkey, “For you have humiliated me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now!” This declaration embarrassed Balaam in front of the Moabite delegation accompanying him, for he was on his way to slay an entire nation with his speech, but required a weapon to do away with a single donkey.

The Moabite delegates asked Balaam, “Why did you take this donkey instead of a horse?” He replied, “I left my horse in the pasture to graze.” Upon hearing this, the she-donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your personal she-donkey, and is it not true that you have never owned a horse?” Balaam said, “Well, yes, but I only use you for transporting burdens.” To this, the donkey answered, “Am I not the donkey on which you have always ridden?” Balaam said, “Well, yes, but only once!” Again, the she-donkey said, “Am I not the donkey you have ridden since you first started in your career and have continued riding until now?” Balaam could not deny this. The donkey continued, “Have I been accustomed to act disobediently like this to you?” He said, “No.”

GOD then opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of GOD standing in the road, with a sword drawn in his hand, intimating that Balaam was wrong in trying to usurp the Jews’ power of the mouth and abandoning the non-Jews’ power of the sword, and that in retribution God would have him killed by the means he had abandoned. As will be seen later, this actually happened. Balaam bowed and prostrated himself on his face.

The angel of GOD said to him, “Why have you beaten your she-donkey these three times? Behold, I came out to thwart you, for I perceived that you eagerly hastened to set out on the journey in order to go against me – that is, against God, who sent me.

Even your she-donkey sensed that proceeding on this journey was against God’s will, and when the she-donkey saw me, she turned aside these three times. Had she not turned aside before me, I would not only have delayed you, but also killed you now and spared her, instead of killing her and sparing you. But now, because you had no defense against her rebuke, I must kill her so people will not be able to identify her as the animal that humiliated you.” Even though Balaam was wicked, he was human, and God showed respect for his human dignity. And so the angel killed the donkey.

Balaam said to the angel of GOD, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing on the road before me.” This admission greatly embarrassed Balaam, for he had boasted of his prophetic powers. But he quickly resumed the offensive. He told the angel, “Now, if it displeases you, I will turn back. You, as God’s agent, claim to have my interests at heart and that I am acting against God’s will, but He has explicitly allowed me to do this! Just as when Abraham was about to slaughter Isaac and an angel cancelled God’s order, here, too, God has said one thing to me and you now contravene Him!”

The angel of GOD said to Balaam, “If, despite all this, you still insist, then go with these men and join them in their wickedness, but be advised that the word I will speak to you – that is what you must speak.” So Balaam went with Balak’s dignitaries, still as eager to curse the Jews as they were, and still thinking that he would catch God off guard.

Balaam sent messengers to Balak to announce his arrival. When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out toward him to meet him in the most populous city of Moab, in order to impress him with the magnitude of destruction he imagined that the Israelites were about to cause. This city is on the border of Moab, the Arnon River, which is at the northern edge of Moab’s territory.

Balak said to Balaam, “Did I not summon you several times? Why did you not come to me then? Am I indeed incapable of honoring you to your satisfaction?” He unwittingly prophesied that through this undertaking Balaam would become disgraced, rather than honored.

Balaam said to Balak, “Behold, I have come to you now! But beware: do you think I have any power to say anything I like? The word that God puts into my mouth – that is what I will speak.”

Balaam went with Balak, and they arrived at another populous city, Kiryat Chutzot [“a city of many outdoor marketplaces”]. They hoped that if they asked God to curse the Jews from there, they would be able to arouse His mercy over so many people.

Balak slaughtered just one of the cattle and one of the flock and sent them to Balaam and to the dignitaries with him, even though he had promised to honor him lavishly. Balaam was insulted, and planned revenge.

In the morning, Balak took Balaam and led him up to the heights where the Moabites worshiped Ba’al, and from there he saw part of the encampment of the Jewish people.

Intending to make him pay for his stinginess, Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”

Balak did as Balaam had requested, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

Balaam said to Balak, “Remain next to your ascent-offering, and I will go off to meditate. God does not usually communicate with me during the day, but perhaps GOD will communicate with me, even if reluctantly, and He will show me something that I can relate to you.” So he went, alone and undisturbed.

God indeed communicated reluctantly with Balaam, in order to thwart his plans to curse the Israelites. Balaam said to Him, “Look! I have set up seven altars, in order to neutralize the merit accrued by the seven altars that the patriarchs built, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar, whereas they only offered up one ram at a time.”

GOD placed His message into Balaam’s mouth, i.e., He granted him a prophetic vision, in which He showed Balaam that he cannot curse the people: firstly, because God loves and protects them, and secondly, because their own merits outweigh the force of any curse he could pronounce. And He said, “Return to Balak and speak thus.”

When he returned, Balak was standing next to his ascent-offering, together with all the Moabite dignitaries.

Balaam began to recite his parable, and said, “Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east, saying, ‘Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, invoke God’s wrath against Israel!’ He had me refer to the Israelites by both names of their ancestor, so there should be no doubt as to whom the curse was directed.

But how can I curse whom God has not cursed? When Jacob should have cursed Simeon and Levi for wiping out the city of Shechem, he only cursed their anger, not them. When Jacob tricked Isaac and deserved to be cursed, God arranged for him to be blessed. When God will give them directions regarding how to seal His covenant with them through blessings and curses, He will describe the blessing as being directed at the people but will mention the curse only in general. All I can really do is determine when God gets angry with the Israelites, and then take advantage of the moment to pronounce my curse. But now, how can I invoke God’s wrath? GOD has not been angered at all since you hired me!

For from their beginning as a nation, I see them as sturdy as mountain peaks in the merit of their patriarchs, and I behold them as sturdy as hills in the merit of their matriarchs. See, they are a nation that in the ultimate future will dwell alone, for they alone will inherit the earth. They will not be reckoned among all the other nations when the nations will be punished. Nor will their enjoyment of God’s goodness along with the other nations be reckoned and deducted from their reward in the future, when they will rejoice alone.

Furthermore, not only are they impervious to curses because of the sturdiness they have inherited from their forefathers; they also have their own merits and qualities that render them invulnerable. This invulnerability is not due to their physical numbers, for although they are indeed numerous, they are, after all, finite, and there are many nations more numerous than they. Rather, has anyone counted the descendants of Jacob, thinking that their number expresses the sum total of their merit? When God blessed them to be as uncountable as the dust of the earth, He meant that they possess intrinsic, essential quality, which transcends mere quantity. Therefore, God loves them unconditionally, as if they were His young children. And does anyone think that the Jewish people’s uniqueness can be expressed by counting the number of people in one of the four divisions of the camp of Israel? Their uniqueness lies in their essential quality, which God has indicated by arranging them in four distinct divisions, similar to the formation of the angelic hosts. May my soul die the death of the upright of Israel, and let my end be like theirs!”

Hearing what Balaam said, Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I hired you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed, yes, blessed them!”

He answered, saying, “Is not what GOD puts into my mouth what I must take care to say?”

Balak said to him, “As you have told me, we cannot curse the entire people, because they collectively enjoy God’s protective love and their collective merit renders them immune to curses. Therefore, come with me to another place from where you will see them; however, you will see only a part of them, not all of them. If you do not see all of them at once, you will regard them as individuals, and since there are surely individuals among them of lesser merit, you will be able to curse at least these individuals for me from there.”

He took him outside what were then the borders of Moab altogether, to the field of the lookouts, where guards kept watch for approaching invaders, and which was on the peak of Mount Nebo, where Moses would die. Balak’s powers of divination were superior to Balaam’s, and he foresaw that misfortune would befall the Jewish people at this location. But he mistakenly thought that this misfortune would be due to Balaam’s curse. As before, Balak built seven altars and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

Balaam said to Balak, “Remain here next to your ascent-offering, and perhaps I will again be reluctantly communicated with by God here.”

GOD again communicated reluctantly with Balaam and placed a second message into his mouth. In this vision, God showed Balaam that not only can he not curse the people, but that they in fact deserve to be blessed, both on account of their own merits and because God loves them. When Balaam saw that God was again going to use him to bless the Israelites, he decided not to return to Balak. But God forced him: He said, “Return to Balak and speak thus.”

When he came to him, he was still standing next to his ascent-offering, and some of the Moabite dignitaries were with him, for the others had left when they saw that Balaam was not going to succeed in cursing the Israelites. Balak said to him mockingly, “What did GOD say? You are just a puppet; you cannot do what you want.”

Balaam responded to Balak’s mocking tone by trying to vex him. He began to recite his parable and said, “Arise, Balak, and hear! You have no right to remain sitting while I deliver God’s message to you! Listen closely to me, son of Tzipor.

God is not a man that He should lie, nor is He a mortal that He should reconsider His decisions. He promised to give the Israelites the Land of Israel, so it is useless for you to try to oppose His word. Do you think He would say that He would do something and not do it? that He would speak and not fulfill what He said?

I have received an instruction to bless them; He has blessed, and I cannot retract it, because

I have looked and not found any idolaters in them, Jacob’s descendants, nor any dishonest workers in them, Israel’s descendants. This alone makes them worthy of being blessed. Moreover, whenever they do transgress God’s will, He overlooks it: He does not look at whatever evil there is in the actions of the people, Jacob’s descendants, and sees no perversity in the actions of the people, Israel’s descendants. GOD, their God, is with them even when they provoke Him, and even then they retain the King’s friendship.

They did not leave Egypt on their own, as you implied; God took them out of Egypt with the strength He possesses because of His loftiness, His ability to fly above worldly power, and His power over demons.

The Israelites are further worthy of blessing because there are no diviners of auspicious omens in Jacob and no stick-diviners in Israel. Now, this indicates that a soothsayer is a bad thing, but that is not why I, who am a soothsayer, cannot curse them; it is because they have their own merits that make them worthy of being blessed. God manifested His affection for them openly when He gave them the Torah and spoke to them personally. Just like He taught them His cherished Torah then, so will He do again in the messianic future, when He will seat them closer to Him than His ministering angels and teach them the innermost teachings of the Torah. It will then be said to Jacob and Israel by these angels, when they want to know what God has said, ‘What has God wrought?’ – for the Israelites will have more intimate access to God’s ways than they.

Behold, the Israelites deserve to be blessed because they are a people that rises in the morning like a fearsome lion, raising itself like a lion to do God’s will fearlessly. Their first acts in the morning all express their complete devotion to His will. They dress themselves in their ritually-tasseled garments, which remind them to observe all of God’s commandments. They then recite the Shema, which contains the fundamental concepts of the Jew’s relationship with God. They put on tefilin, which reminds them of the Exodus from Egypt, the source of their spiritual freedom. Also, they do not lie down to sleep at night until they recite the Shema, and in return for dedicating themselves to God in this way, God fights their enemies, consumes those who seek to prey upon them, and drinks the blood of their slain enemies. Furthermore, they will not settle in their land until they consume their prey – the nations they will dispossess – and inherit the spoil of the slain. And finally, Moses will not die until he kills me – his prey – when he kills the princes of Midian whom he will also slay.”

Balak said to Balaam, “You must neither curse them nor bless them! If you cannot curse them, don’t say anything!”

Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Have I not spoken to you, saying, ‘Everything God tells me to do is what I must do’?”

Balak Tries Again
But then Balak had another idea. Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to a different place. Perhaps God will assent that you curse them for me from there.”

So Balak took Balaam to the peak of Pe’or, overlooking the wastelands, where the Israelites would succumb to idolatry and be punished for doing so. Here, too, he foresaw that misfortune would befall the Jewish people at this location, and thought that it would result from Balaam’s curse.

Once again, Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”

Balak did as Balaam told him, and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

By this time Balaam saw that it only pleased GOD to bless Israel and that he would not be able to catch God off guard and convince Him to curse them, so he did not go off to practice meditative divinations in order to influence God to communicate with him as he had done once and again. Instead, he decided to mention the Israelites’ past sins explicitly, believing that his curse would thereby befall them whether or not God wanted. He turned his face to gaze first toward the Sinai desert, where they had committed the sin of the Golden Calf.

Balaam raised his eyes in order to look at the entire Israelite camp, and thereby arouse his jealousy of their prosperity. He assumed that his jealousy would make God reconsider whether or not the Israelites deserved this prosperity. Deliberately feeling jealous in order to deprive others of what they possess is called “casting the evil eye” on them. Thus, Balaam showed himself to be maliciously jealous, conceited, and greedy. But when he looked, he saw Israel dwelling orderly, according to its tribes, and he realized that this was possible only because the people had been scrupulous about their marital fidelity. Moreover, in order to safeguard everyone’s privacy, they pitched their tents such that their openings did not face one another. When he saw how much they valued controlling and properly channeling their carnal drive, his attitude changed: his spirit aligned with the spirit of God, and he decided to bless them of his own accord.

Balaam’s Third Oracle
He began to recite his parable and said, “This is the word of Balaam son of Be’or, the word of the man with one open eye socket and one seeing eye.

The word of the one who hears God’s sayings, who sees the vision of the Almighty. True, God reveals Himself to me only when I am lying down, both because He usually comes to me stealthily, when I am in bed at night, and because I am uncircumcised and therefore I cannot withstand the awe of Divine revelation and it would disgust Him to appear to me when I am standing up. But I still see the vision He grants me clearly, as if with open eyes.

I wanted to mention the Israelites’ sins so my curse would befall them, but how can I? How good are your tents, people of Jacob: their openings do not face one another, indicating how you value modesty and privacy! How good are your encampments, people of Israel: you are organized into orderly divisions, indicating your carnal self-discipline and marital fidelity! This merit certainly outweighs any other sins you may be guilty of. And anyway, even if you do sin, how good are your Sanctuaries, people of Jacob! Your Tabernacle and your Temple atone for your sins: when they are standing, you can offer up sacrifices to atone for some of them; and when they will be in ruins, they will serve as collateral for you, people of Israel, and atone for all the rest!

Therefore, I bless you: Your kingdoms will extend far into the future, like streams; your olive trees and vineyards will flourish like gardens by the river; your fame will spread like the fragrance of aloes that grow in the Garden of Eden, which GOD Himself planted, and extend like the tent of heaven, which GOD Himself pitched; you will have kings as upright as cedars that grow by the water.

Water will flow from your wells, i.e., your king’s dynasty will continue uninterrupted. Your seed will have abundant water, i.e., your kingdom will prosper materially and rule over others. Your first king, Saul, will be bold enough to be raised over and conquer Agag, the king of the Amalekites. Your succeeding two kings, David and Solomon, will aggrandize your monarchy so much that your kingdom will be exalted and dreaded by the other nations.

God, who has given you this greatness, and who has taken you out of Egypt with the strength He possesses because of His loftiness, will consume the nations that are your adversaries, skin their bones, dye His arrows in their blood, and divide up their land.

You will settle and dwell in your land in strength like a lion, like a fearsome lion that no one would dare rouse. Those who bless you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed.”

Balak Spurns Balaam
Balak became angry with Balaam, and he clapped his hands in frustration. Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them these three times.

Now, flee back to your place. I said I would honor you greatly, but GOD has prevented you from receiving any honor from me.”

Balaam said to Balak, “But I even told the messengers you sent to me in the very beginning,

‘Even if Balak would give me enough silver and gold to fill his house, I cannot transgress the word of GOD to do either good or evil on my own; I can speak only what GOD speaks.’” But then, Balaam called God “my God,” whereas here he did not call Him “my God,” for he knew that by this time he had disgusted God and repelled Him.

Balaam’s Prophecy
Balaam continued, “And now that I have lost favor with God and will soon lose my prophetic gifts, I am going to my people and will become an ordinary person, like them. I will use my talents to be a soothsayer, like my father. But in the meantime, come, and I will advise you how to conquer the Israelites. As for you, I will now prophesy what this people will do to your people at the end of days, that is, in the distant future.”

He began to recite his parable and said, “This is the word of Balaam son of Be’or, the word of the man with one open eye socket and one seeing eye.

The word of the one who hears God’s sayings and knows when the mind of the Most High is angry; who sees the vision of the Almighty, fallen yet with open eyes.

I do indeed see the Israelites conquering Moab, but not now; I behold it, but not soon. Therefore, you need not feel threatened by them or that your attempt to protect yourself by hiring me was a total failure. They will only conquer you when an auspicious star of good fortune will shoot forth from God for Jacob; this will be when a king, who wields an authoritative staff, will arise from Israel. This king, David, will strike and kill the princes of Moab, and also undermine the autonomy of all the descendants of Seth, that is, of all humanity, who are all descended from Adam’s son Seth (through Noah, Adam’s only male descendant who, along with his children, survived the Flood).”

Having described how the Israelites will conquer Moab in the time of King David, Balaam turned to focus on the future awaiting the Israelites’ other neighbors. “Edom will be possessed by the Israelites; Mount Se’ir, the location of Edom, will become the possession of Israel, his enemies. And Israel will prosper.

This will happen when, besides King David, another ruler will come out of Jacob – the Messiah. He will destroy the remnant of Rome, the capital city of the Romans, who are descended from Esau/Edom.”

When Balaam prophetically saw the punishment destined for Amalek, he began to recite a parable about them, and said, “Amalek was the first of the nations to attack the Israelites, and his end will be everlasting destruction at the Israelites’ hands, as they fulfill God’s commandment to wipe them out.”

When he prophetically saw the future of the descendants of Jethro, the Keinites, who lived near the Amalekites, he began to recite a parable about them and said, “How firm is your dwelling place, and your nest is set securely in a cliff! Some of you sit in the Sanhedrin, the high court of the Israelites! How did you merit this? After all, your ancestor Jethro sat together with me when we advised Pharaoh to enslave them!

Your merit will protect you, for even if the Keinite homeland will be laid waste, as it will, and the Assyrians exile you with the 10 northern tribes of Israel, how far, after all, will Assyria take you captive? You will still survive, and you will return with the other exiles.”

Having mentioned the Assyrian exile, he began to recite a parable about the future upheavals and said, “Alas! Who can survive when God will impose these things? Sennacherib king of Assyria will exile and dislocate every nation in his empire.

After him, ships will come from the land of the Kittites, that is, from Rome, and afflict the empires that will succeed Assyria, and then proceed to afflict those on the other, eastern side of the Euphrates. But in the end, Rome too will perish forever.”

Having finished his oration, Balaam arose, departed, and returned home, and Balak went on his way. He returned to Moab and enlisted his people in executing Balaam’s plan for causing the Israelites to sin. He enlisted the help of the Midianites, as well, and they readily consented, sending their daughters to entice the Israelite men. They even sent the girls of their ruling houses to try to seduce the distinguished Israelites.

The Incident of Ba’al Pe’or
Israel settled in Shitim, an area in the plains of Moab. Their overconfidence after their successful campaigns against the Amorite kings and the excessive booty they plundered made them lose some of their sense of discretion. The people began to frequent the marketplaces Balak had set up according to Balaam’s plan. Within a short time, the men began to stray with the daughters of the Moabites.

The Moabite girls invited the people to the feast-offerings of their gods, and 157,200 of the people ate of the offerings and prostrated themselves to their gods at the urging of the Moabite girls. Whenever a Moabite girl would seduce an Israelite man and they were on the verge of carnal relations, the girl would take an idol out of her garment and tell the man to worship it first. The Moabite idol was named Ba’al Pe’or (“the Master of Baring”), for they worshiped it by baring their fundament and defecating in front of the idol.

Thus, through Balaam’s scheme, Israel became attached to Ba’al Pe’or. GOD became angry with Israel and unleashed a plague against them, which struck the innocent as well as the guilty.

In order to stop the plague, GOD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and assemble them as a court to judge those who worshiped the idol. Witnesses are usually required to try idolaters, but here the guilty parties sinned privately, in the Moabite tents. So, in order to enable the judges to convict and sentence them, I will roll back the cloud over the guilty people and the sun will shine on them directly. Stone those found guilty and hang them before GOD, facing the sun, so that everyone can identify them clearly and learn not to imitate their deeds. Then GOD’s anger will be removed from Israel and the plague will cease.”

The 157,200 guilty Israelites were exposed, tried, and convicted this way. Moses then said to the 78,600 judges of Israel, “Each of you must kill two men who became attached to Ba’al Pe’or by stoning and hanging them.”

The Israelite man, Zimri son of Salu, came and brought the Midianite woman, Kozbi the daughter of Tzur, to his brethren who were assembled in the sight of Moses. He confronted Moses in the sight of the entire community of the ­Israelites. God caused Moses, along with the rest of the people, to forget the law regarding what should be done in such a case, and since he seemed powerless to stop this insurrection, the loyal Israelites started weeping at the entrance to the Courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. Moses’ inability to act now contrasted sharply with his strong and decisive reaction to the sin of the Golden Calf. In fact, however, God made everyone forget the law in order that Aaron’s grandson Pinechas could rise to the occasion and earn the distinction he deserved.

Pinechas Takes the Initiative
Pinechas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest saw what Zimri did and said to Moses, “Didn’t you teach us that if someone sees a man having carnal relations publicly with a gentile woman and is overcome by righteous indignation, he may warn him and, if he does not stop, execute him without trial?” Suddenly recalling the law, Moses replied, “You are correct! If you qualify, then since you remembered this law, you deserve the honor of fulfilling it!” So Pinechas arose from the community, and took a spear in his hand.

He went after the Israelite man, Zimri son of Salu, into the tent, warned them that he was about to kill them for their act, and miraculously, Zimri and Kozbi did not disengage (for then it would have been forbidden for Pinechas to slay them without trial). Miraculously, he pierced both of them with his spear; the Israelite man through his reproductive organ, and the woman Kozbi through her reproductive organ, and Zimri did not cry out for help. More miracles: Pinechas lifted them up on his spear and they did not slip off, an angel lifted the frame of the doorway to the tent so he could carry them out as they were so it would be clear to all that he killed them justly. When they saw Pinechas carrying the couple on his spear, Zimri’s sympathizers wished to attack him, so the plague intensified in order to kill these sympathizers. Perceiving that the plague had suddenly intensified and many people were quickly dying, Pinechas cast Zimri and Kozbi to the ground and prayed to God to stop the plague. Thus the plague against the Israelites ceased.

Those who died in the plague numbered 24,000. Once Zimri’s uprising was quashed, the judges were able to finish executing those guilty of idolatry.