Numbers 25:7 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

Phinehas rose up The psalmist says, He stood up and executed judgment; which seems to import that he acted as a judge; but in a crime so presumptuous, and so openly committed, he thought it not necessary to wait for a judicial process against the offenders, but cut them off directly with his own hand. It is thought too, not without reason, that the number and dignity of the offenders intimidated the judges from executing their office. So that unless Phinehas, by this seasonable zeal for God, and the interests of the public, had supported the authority of the laws, either a total anarchy had ensued, or the whole body of the people been exposed to the severest judgments from God.

Numbers 25:7

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;