Text: Psalm 106:29
OT Text Referred to: Numbers 25:13
Subject: zealous intervention
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Numbers 25:13 grants Phinehas an eternal priestly covenant because he made כִּפֶּר (kipper, "atonement") for Israel through his zealous act. Psalm 106:29 recalls the context: "They provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them." Israel had yoked itself to Baal of Peor and eaten sacrifices offered to dead gods (v. 28), provoking the plague that only Phinehas's intervention could stop. The psalm situates the Baal-Peor apostasy within a sweeping historical confession that moves from Egypt through the wilderness to Canaan, treating it as paradigmatic of Israel's recurring tendency to exchange covenant loyalty for idolatrous worship.