Phinehas

A man brings a Midianite woman into the camp in full view of Moses and a congregation weeping at the tabernacle door, and a priest’s son picks up a javelin (Numbers 25:6-8). That is Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson. God says he “hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel” and gives him “my covenant of peace” (Numbers 25:11-12). Christians and Jews have long weighed what this deed teaches, and the passage sets it inside a plague that took twenty-four thousand lives. Phinehas appears once more, standing before the ark as Israel asks whether to fight again (Judges 20:28). Numbers 25 is the place to begin.

11 verses

Exodus

Exodus 6:25

And Eleazar Aaron's son took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife; and she bare him Phinehas: these are the heads of the fathers of the Levites according to their families.

Numbers

Numbers 25:7

And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;

Numbers 25:8

And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

Numbers 25:9

And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.

Numbers 25:10

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Numbers 25:11

Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.

Numbers 25:12

Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:

Numbers 25:13

And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

Numbers 25:14

Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites.

Numbers 25:15

And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian.

Judges

Judges 20:28

And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Mouth of brass, or from old Egypt, the negro. (1.) Son of Eleazar, the high priest (Ex. 6:25). While yet a youth he distinguished himself at Shittim by his zeal against the immorality into which the Moabites had tempted the people (Num. 25:1-9), and thus “stayed the plague” that had broken out among the people, and by which twenty-four thousand of them perished. For his faithfulness on that occasion he received the divine approbation (10-13). He afterwards commanded the army that went out against the Midianites (31:6-8). When representatives of the people were sent to expostulate with the two and a half tribes who, just after crossing Jordan, built an altar and departed without giving any explanation, Phinehas was their leader, and addressed them in the words recorded in Josh. 22:16-20. Their explanation follows. This great altar was intended to be all ages only a witness that they still formed a part of Israel. Phinehas was afterwards the chief adviser in the war with the Benjamites. He is commemorated in Ps. 106:30, 31. (See ED.)

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(2.) One of the sons of Eli, the high priest (1 Sam. 1:3; 2:12). He and his brother Hophni were guilty of great crimes, for which destruction came on the house of Eli (31). He died in battle with the Philistines (1 Sam. 4:4, 11); and his wife, on hearing of his death, gave birth to a son, whom she called “Ichabod,” and then she died (19-22).

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(mouth of brass).

(1.) Son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron. (Exodus 6:25) He is memorable for having while quite a youth, by his zeal and energy at the critical moment of the licentious idolatry of Shittim, appeased the divine wrath, and put a stop to the plague which was destroying the nation. (Numbers 25:7) (B.C. 1452.) For this he was rewarded by the special approbation of Jehovah and by a promise that the priesthood should remain in his family forever. (Numbers 25:10-13) He was appointed to accompany as priest the expedition by which the Midianites were destroyed. ch. (Numbers 31:6) Many years later he also headed the party which was despatched from Shiloh to remonstrate against the altar which the transjordanic tribes were reported to have built near Jordan. (Joshua 22:13-32) In the partition of the country he received an allotment of his own --a hill on Mount Ephraim which bore his name. After Eleazar’s death he became high priest --the third of the series. In this capacity he is introduced as giving the oracle to the nation during the whole struggle with the Benjamites on the matter of Gibeah. (Judges 20:28) The verse which closes the book of Joshua is ascribed to Phinehas, as the description of the death of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy is to Joshua. The tomb of Phinehas, a place of great resort to both Jews and Samaritans, is shown at Awertah , four miles southeast of Nablus .

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(2.) Second son of Eli. (1 Samuel 1:3; 2:34; 4:4,11,17,19; 14:3) Phinehas was killed with his brother by the Philistines when the ark was captured. (B.C. 1125.) [ELI]

(3.) A Levite of Ezra’s time, (Ezra 8:33) unless the meaning be that Eleazar was of the family of the great Phinehas.