Phinehas

Phinehas

According to the Hebrew Bible, Phinehas or Phineas (; Hebrew: פִּינְחָס‎, Modern: Pīnẖas, Tiberian: Pīnəḥās, Greek: Φινεες Finees, Latin: Phinees) was a priest during the Israelites’ Exodus journey. The grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priests (Exodus 6:25), he distinguished himself as a youth at Shittim with his zeal against the heresy of Peor. Displeased with the immorality with which the Moabites and Midianites had successfully tempted the Israelites (Numbers 25:1–9) to inter-marry and to worship Baal-peor, Phinehas personally executed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman while they were together in the man's tent, running a javelin or spear through the man and the belly of the woman, bringing to an end the plague sent by God to punish the Israelites for sexually intermingling with the Midianites. Phinehas is commended by God in the book of Numbers chapter 25:10-13, as well as King David in Psalm 106:28-31 for having stopped Israel's fall into idolatrous practices brought in by Midianite women, as well as for stopping the desecration of God's sanctuary. After the entry to the land of Israel and the death of his father, he was appointed the third High Priest of Israel, and served at the sanctuary of Bethel (Judges 20:28).

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