Discovery BoxNumbers 11:33 
Context11:33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before they chewed it, 1 the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.
Numbers 16:47
Context16:47 So Aaron did 2 as Moses commanded 3 and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people.
Numbers 25:8
Context25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent 4 and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. 5 So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. 6
Numbers 31:16
Context31:16 Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord!
1 tn The verb is a prefixed conjugation, normally an imperfect tense. But coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem) it is treated as a preterite.
2 tn Heb “took.”
3 tn Or “had spoken” (NASB); NRSV “had ordered.”
4 tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).
5 tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.
6 sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the
