1 While Israel dwelt in Shittim the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.
2 These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods.
3 So Israel yoked himself to Ba'al of Pe'or. And the anger of YHVH was kindled against Israel;
4 and YHVH said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them in the sun before YHVH, that the fierce anger of YHVH may turn away from Israel."
Shittim, in Aramaic, means acacia or thorny. Moab means seed of the father. Baal-peor means lord of the chasm. It represents sensuality, especially having to do with sex. The neophyte is again distracted from the path to the Promised Land by the seduction of the sensual. YHVH, which here is the conscience of the soul, is angered with the people, or thoughts that have yielded to this temptation.
5 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Every one of you slay his men who have yoked themselves to Ba'al of Pe'or."
Once again, the conscience must eliminate the negative thoughts. Each thought must be rooted out at its source, or it will simply rear its head at another time, to cause trouble again. Implied here are the heads of the "people" (ideas) which are in error.
6 And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Mid'ianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.
7 When Phin'ehas, the son of Elea'zar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation, and took a spear in his hand
8 and went after the man of Israel into the inner room, and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her body. Thus the plague was stayed from the people of Israel.
Zimri means music and dancing. Salu means lifted up; exalted. The ideas born of exalted consciousness are still in danger of being seduced by passion. Cozbi means devious and deceptive. This passion promises joy and satisfaction, but the rewards are very short lived. Phinehas which means oracle or mouth of prophecy, put an end to these thoughts by running them through with a spear. The spear represents spiritual truth.
9 Nevertheless those that died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
Even though we are saved to continue on our spiritual journey, there is still a high price to pay every time we wander from the path. This 24,000 is to impress us of this cost. It reduces to the number which suggests material completion without recognition of Spirit.
11 "Phin'ehas the son of Elea'zar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy.
12 Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace;
13 and it shall be to him, and to his descendants after him, the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the people of Israel.'"
The soul always has a covenant with the part of our consciousness which is virtuous and zealous for spiritual truth. It is only this consciousness which can be the priests, or those worthy to make contact with the soul.
14 The name of the slain man of Israel, who was slain with the Mid'ianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, head of a fathers' house belonging to the Simeonites.
Zimri means music and dancing. Salu means lifted up; exalted. The ideas born of exalted consciousness are still in danger of being seduced by passion, thus the tendency to exalt the lower passions must be eliminated through focusing on the spiritual truths.
The two that were slain represent thoughts that come from hearing spiritual truths, but seek to pervert them, taking the individual off the path to Enlightenment.
15 And the name of the Mid'ianite woman who was slain was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was the head of the people of a fathers' house in Mid'ian.
Cozbi means devious and deceptive. This passion promises joy and satisfaction, but the rewards are very short lived. She is a part of the tendency to judge purely based on physical appearance, and not the deeper aspects of the personality. Rewards from relationships started in this attitude are short lived. This is signified by both Zimri and Cozbi being killed with a spear, representing spiritual truth.
17 "Harass the Mid'ianites, and smite them;
18 for they have harassed you with their wiles, with which they beguiled you in the matter of Pe'or, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Mid'ian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague on account of Pe'or."
Harassing the Midianites, and smiting them, means to consciously acknowledge this type of behavior and level of consciousness as being wrong, and destroy it, through focusing instead on seeing the world and all relationships through the state of Enlightenment.