Numbers 25:7

25:7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, ¹  he got up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand,

Numbers 31:6

Campaign Against the Midianites

31:6 So Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from every tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge ²  of the holy articles ³  and the signal trumpets.

Numbers 25:11

25:11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal ⁴  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. ⁵ 

[25:7]  ¹ tn The first clause is subordinated to the second because both begin with the preterite verbal form, and there is clearly a logical and/or chronological sequence involved.

[31:6]  ² tn The Hebrew text uses the idiom that these “were in his hand,” meaning that he had the responsibility over them.

[31:6]  ³ sn It is not clear what articles from the sanctuary were included. Tg. Ps.-J. adds (interpretively) “the Urim and Thummim.”

[25:11]  ³ tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.

[25:11]  ⁴ tn The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.