Psalm 106:30–31

Context

Psalms 106 is a historical psalm that confesses sin while recounting how Israel repeatedly rebelled against God after the Exodus. It is also the final psalm of Book IV of the Psalter (Psalms 90–106). Verses 28–31 summarize the Baal-peor incident recorded in Numbers 25.

When the people of Israel committed whoredom with the women of Moab and bowed down to Baal-peor, a plague broke out. Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, thrust an Israelite man and a Midianite woman through with a spear, and the plague was stayed (Numbers 25:7–8). Numbers records that twenty-four thousand died in the plague. It also records that God gave Phinehas a covenant of peace and the covenant of an everlasting priesthood (Numbers 25:12–13).

The Hebrew verb rendered "punished" in the Korean Revised Version carries the senses of both "to judge" and "to intervene." English translations differ accordingly: the KJV renders it "executed judgment," while the ESV and NIV render it "intervened."

Interpretation

• Reading in connection with justification: The phrase "counted unto him for righteousness" is the same Hebrew expression found in Genesis 15:6, where Abraham's faith was counted to him for righteousness. Paul cited Genesis 15:6 to teach that a person is justified by faith (Romans 4:3). This passage, however, applies the same expression to a person's deed, and it has therefore long been debated. Since the Reformation, Protestant commentators have generally distinguished the two. They read "righteousness" here not as the ground on which a person is made righteous before God, but as an acknowledgment that the deed was right in God's sight. Others, by contrast, regard the passage as an instance of a deed being reckoned as righteousness and read it alongside James 2:21–24, which speaks of faith and works together.
• Reading in terms of the priestly covenant: This reading connects "unto all generations for evermore" with the promise of an everlasting priesthood in Numbers 25:13. The genealogy in 1 Chronicles 6 traces the Zadokite line of priests back to Phinehas.
• Reading in Second Temple Judaism: Sirach 45 and 1 Maccabees 2, which Protestants classify as Apocrypha, praise Phinehas as a model of zeal for the law. First Maccabees compares the revolt of Mattathias to the deed of Phinehas. Some scholars interpret the "zeal" that Paul says he possessed before his conversion (Galatians 1:14; Philippians 3:6) in relation to this tradition.

Questions Concerning Application

Phinehas's act was an execution carried out without a trial. For this reason, concerns have been raised that religious zeal could be used to justify violence. Many interpreters hold that this incident cannot be taken directly as a pattern of conduct for individuals to imitate today. They point to the context in which Moses commanded the judges to carry out executions (Numbers 25:4–5) and to the particular circumstances of ancient Israel's community of faith.

Related Passages

• Numbers 25:7–13
• Genesis 15:1–6
• Romans 4:1–5
• James 2:21–24
• Malachi 2:4–5