While God expressed His entire satisfaction with Phinehas's act, if
found many adversaries among Israel, who would scornfully call after
him, "Behold, this man, the grandson of one who fattened calves to
offer them up to an idol, daring to slay a prince among Israel!" This
spiteful remark referred to the fact that Phinehas was descended on his
mother's side not only from Joseph, but from Jethro also who, before
his conversion to Judaism, had been a priest of idols. God therefore
said to Moses, "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the
priest, hast turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, hence I
offer him My greeting of peace, for it was he who, zealous for My sake,
preserved the seed of Abraham." The reason God designated Phinehas as
the son of Eleazar and the grandson of Aaron was that He wanted to stop
the mouths of Phinehas's detractors, who pretended that he was nothing
but a grandson of the heathen priest Jethro, ignoring the fact that he
was at the same time the grandson of Aaron, the high priest before the
Lord. [800] God was not content with the greeting of peace, but bade
Moses tell Phinehas: "With thy mouth hast thou defended Israel,
therefore as thy priest's portion shalt thou receive the jawbone of
animals; with thy lance didst thou aim at the bellies of the shameless
couple, hence shalt thou receive the bellies of the animals; and as
with thy arm thou didst labor to slay the sinners, so for thy portion
shalt thou receive the shoulder of the animals. As, moreover, thou
didst strive to make peace among mankind, so shalt thou bestow the
priestly blessing upon My children, and bless them with peace." [801]
As a reward for his pious deed Phinehas was appointed by God as a
priest with all the rights of priesthood, that enabled him to lay claim
to the twenty-four tributes to priests. [802]
But the highest reward to Phinehas was that God granted him everlasting
priesthood. For Phinehas is none other than the prophet of Elijah. His
task it is to make atonement for Israel, and without tasting of death,
he constantly discharges the duties of his everlasting priesthood until
the resurrection of the dead, offering up daily two sacrifices for the
children of Israel, and upon the skins of these animals recording the
events of each day. [803] God furthermore said to Phinehas: "Thou hast
in this world established peace between Me and Israel; in the future
world also shalt thou establish peace between Me and them." He was
therefore destined to be the forerunner of the Messiah to establish
before his coming peace on earth. [804]
When Israel addicted themselves to an immoral life at shittim, the
nations of the world rejoiced greatly, for they knew that God had
distinguished Israel before all other nations, and had given them the
Torah, only because their life had been moral. "Now," said they, "the
crown has been taken from Israel's head, their pride is departed, for
now they are no better then we." God, however, raised up Israel from
their fall by sending the plague upon the sinners at Shittim, and thus
purified Israel from them, so that they could again, as of yore, be
proud of their family purity, through which they had been distinguished
from all other nations.
God therefore ordered them to take a census, to show in this way that
Israel remained true to the traditions of their ancestor Abraham by
keeping their family life pure. [805] This census showed that several
tribes had lost entire divisions since the time that passed between the
entrance of Israel into Egypt, and their entrance into the promised
land. Among the tribes that had perished were such as had already lost
their lives in Egypt, those, namely, who had died during the days of
darkness because they were such sinners that they did not want to leave
Egypt. But heaviest of all were the losses in the tribes of Benjamin
and of Simeon, for in the battle between the Levites and the other
tribes after Aaron's death, when the latter, for fear of the
Canaanites, wanted to return to Egypt, the Benjamites lost no less than
seven divisions. All of the twenty-four thousand men that died from the
plague at Shittim belonged, however, to the tribe of Simeon which, at
the end of the march through the desert, had dwindles down to less than
half its number. The tribe of Dan, on the other hand, had turned out to
be very fruitful, for whereas at the entrance of Egypt it had consisted
of only one division, it later exceeded in number all the other tribes,
except the tribe of Judah. [806]