Covenant of Peace

Biblical Texts

The "covenant of peace" is an Old Testament expression for a covenant that God establishes with a promise of peace. It first appears in Numbers 25.

While Israel was encamped at Shittim, the people committed whoredom with the women of Moab and joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and a plague broke out as punishment. Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, thrust his spear through an Israelite man and the Midianite woman he had brought into the camp, and the plague was stayed. God declares that Phinehas, zealous with God's own jealousy, turned away his wrath from the children of Israel. He continues, "Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace" (Numbers 25:12), and explains that it is "the covenant of an everlasting priesthood" given to him and to his descendants after him (Numbers 25:13).

The same expression also occurs in the prophetic books:

• Isaiah 54:10 declares that though the mountains depart, "neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed."
• Ezekiel 34:25 and 37:26 promise that after the exile God will make a covenant of peace with his restored people and that "it shall be an everlasting covenant."
• Malachi 2:5 calls the covenant made with Levi a covenant "of life and peace."

The New Korean Revised Version renders the same Hebrew expression with two different Korean phrases: pyeonghwa-ui eonyak in Numbers and hwapyeong-ui eonyak in Isaiah and Ezekiel.

Background and Terminology

The Hebrew word berith means "covenant," and shalom means peace, well-being, and wholeness. Shalom denotes not merely the absence of war but a state in which relationships between God and humanity, and among people, are rightly ordered and life is whole.

In Numbers, this covenant is bound up with the priesthood. The high-priestly genealogy in 1 Chronicles 6 runs from Eleazar through Phinehas to Zadok. Psalm 106:30–31 celebrates Phinehas's deed: "And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore."

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The covenant of peace in Numbers is a promise given to a single priestly family. The covenant of peace in the prophets is a promise of restoration that God will extend to the whole people after judgment.

Ezekiel 34 portrays God raising up David as shepherd and causing evil beasts to cease from the land so that the people may dwell in safety. Chapter 37 promises that God will set his sanctuary in the midst of his people for evermore. These two chapters are closely connected with the promise of the new covenant.

The exact phrase "covenant of peace" does not appear in the New Testament. However, Hebrews 13:20 speaks of "the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus ... through the blood of the everlasting covenant," and Ephesians 2:14–17 calls Christ "our peace." On the basis of such texts, Christian interpreters have read the covenant of peace as fulfilled through Christ's atonement.

Interpretations and Debates

• Phinehas's action: In Jewish tradition, Phinehas became a model of zeal for the law. The apocryphal book of 1 Maccabees (chapter 2) likens the revolt of Mattathias to the deed of Phinehas. Christian interpreters generally regard the incident as an extraordinary event that took place while the whole congregation was under judgment, and they do not treat it as a general principle permitting individuals to punish sin by violence. The text itself presents Phinehas's act as atonement and does not command others to imitate it.
• The meaning of "peace": Some interpreters understand it as the restoration of the broken relationship between God and Israel. Others understand it as a promise that God would protect Phinehas himself and his family.
• Fulfillment of the prophetic promises: Covenant theology and the Reformed tradition generally hold that Ezekiel's covenant of peace is fulfilled in Christ as the new covenant and extends to the church. The dispensationalist tradition holds that the promise will be literally fulfilled for national Israel in the future millennial kingdom. Judaism reads these texts as promises of Israel's restoration.