When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar—saw it, &c.— Phinehas was a man of great authority, being next to the high priest, whom he succeeded in office. Warmed with a religious zeal at this insolent and unfeeling crime, he rose from amongst the congregation; i.e. from among the judges, and with his own hand put the criminals to death, in the very moment of their offence. Considering Phinehas as one of the judges appointed to pass sentence on those Israelites who were guilty in this matter, Numbers 25:5 we may look upon this step as the generous action of a magistrate, who, seeing justice affronted and not intimidated by the audacity and quality of one of the criminals had the courage to transcend the regular modes of proceeding, to execute, with his own hand, a just sentence against a notorious criminal, whose offence was so heinous.
This blow of vengeance, struck at such a pressing juncture, and by a man whom we must suppose to have been led to it after a miraculous manner by the spirit of God, cannot be made a precedent to any other persons. Nothing can be more absurdly advanced, than the judgment which the Jews build upon this circumstance, and which they call a judgment of zeal. The very examples which they quote establish what we maintain; namely, that these extraordinary strokes of vengeance are only allowed to extraordinary men. The case of Matthias may be numbered among these. See Genesis 2:24. It is notorious, however, that the Jews abused this judgment of zeal upon several occasions. They put it in practice very often, not only against innocent persons, but against those who were endowed with the most eminent virtues. Of this St. Stephen, whom they inhumanly stoned, and St. Paul, whom they vowed to assassinate without any form of justice, are glaring proofs. See Saurin's 65th Dissertation.