Phinehas was the grandson of Aaron and served as a priest in Israel. He is best known for his zealous act when he stopped a plague in Israel at Baal-Peor, and God gave him an everlasting covenant of priesthood as a reward for his faithfulness.
When the Israelites sinned with Moabite women and began to worship Baal-Peor, Phinehas took a spear and killed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman, thereby stopping the plague that had already killed 24,000 people.
6Just then an Israelite man came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in full view of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
8followed the Israelite into the inner chamber, and drove the spear through both of them—the Israelite man and the woman, through her body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped.
11"Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the Israelites, for he was zealous with my own zeal among them; so I did not put an end to the Israelites in my zeal.
13It will be a covenant of a lasting priesthood for him and his descendants after him, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites."
13It will be a covenant of a lasting priesthood for him and his descendants after him, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites."
6Moses sent them out to war, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who took with him the holy vessels and the trumpets for sounding the alarm.
When the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-tribe of Manasseh built an altar by the Jordan, Phinehas was sent as leader of a delegation to investigate the matter and prevent conflict.
30When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the assembly and the heads of the clans of Israel who were with him heard what the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites said, they were satisfied.
31And Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the Manassites, "Today we know that the LORD is among us, because you have not committed this treachery against the LORD. Now you have delivered the Israelites from the hand of the LORD."
32Then Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders left the Reubenites and the Gadites in the land of Gilead and returned to the land of Canaan, to the Israelites, and reported to them.
Phinehas served as priest at the ark of the covenant in Bethel during the time of the judges and inquired of the Lord on behalf of Israel in the war against Benjamin.
28with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it—and they asked, "Shall we go out again to fight against the Benjaminites, our brothers, or shall we stop?" The LORD answered, "Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands."