Then Joshua secretly sent out two spies from the Israelite camp at Acacia Grove. He instructed them,“ Scout out the land on the other side of the Jordan River, especially around Jericho.” So the two men set out and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there that night.
While the Israelites were camped at Acacia Grove, some of the men defiled themselves by having sexual relations with local Moabite women.These women invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, so the Israelites feasted with them and worshiped the gods of Moab.In this way, Israel joined in the worship of Baal of Peor, causing the Lord’s anger to blaze against his people.The Lord issued the following command to Moses:“ Seize all the ringleaders and execute them before the Lord in broad daylight, so his fierce anger will turn away from the people of Israel.”So Moses ordered Israel’s judges,“ Each of you must put to death the men under your authority who have joined in worshiping Baal of Peor.”Just then one of the Israelite men brought a Midianite woman into his tent, right before the eyes of Moses and all the people, as everyone was weeping at the entrance of the Tabernacle.When Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up and left the assembly. He took a spearand rushed after the man into his tent. Phinehas thrust the spear all the way through the man’s body and into the woman’s stomach. So the plague against the Israelites was stopped,but not before 24,000 people had died.
