Numbers 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 ¹  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. ² 

Ex 22:5; Ex 34:14; De 4:24; De 29:20; De 32:16,21; Jos 7:25,26; Jos 24:19; 2Sa 21:14; 1Ki 14:22; Ps 78:58; Ps 106:23; Eze 16:38; Na 1:2; Zep 1:18; Zep 3:8; Joh 3:36; 1Co 10:22; 2Co 11:2

¹ 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.

² 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.