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Twelve Miracles Kept Phinehas Alive and Ritually Pure During the Kill

Phinehas entered a tent with a single lance against two people. God deployed twelve miracles in sequence to keep him alive, successful, and ritually clean.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. What He Walked Into
  2. Holding the Pair Together, Sealing Their Mouths
  3. The Lance and the Miracles That Followed It
  4. The Targum's Version of Zimri's Challenge

What He Walked Into

He took a lance from the hand of a bystander and walked into the tent. There was no deliberation at this point, no further consultation. He had confirmed the ruling with Moses. He had identified the only grounds on which the act was halachically permitted: the zealot's right required that the transgression be caught in progress, in public, not completed and past. The tent flap was still moving. He went in.

The tradition preserved in Legends of the Jews, drawing from the Talmud Bavli's tractate Sanhedrin and from Numbers Rabbah (5th-century Palestine), lists twelve miracles that occurred during the act itself. They are not miracles of the spectacular, horizon-splitting kind. They are miracles of precision, each one addressing a specific legal or physical problem that would have stopped Phinehas, or gotten him killed, or rendered the act legally void, or left him ritually contaminated and unable to complete what he had started.

Holding the Pair Together, Sealing Their Mouths

The first miracle: an angel prevented Zimri and Cozbi from separating when Phinehas entered. This was the foundational one, the miracle on which every subsequent miracle depended. The act Phinehas had come to stop had to be in progress when the lance struck. If the couple had simply separated, become two individuals standing in a room rather than one transgressive unit, the entire legal basis for what Phinehas was about to do would have dissolved. The act would not have been caught in progress. He would have had no halachic ground to stand on. God sent an angel to hold them in place long enough for the lance to arrive.

The second miracle: another angel sealed both their mouths. Zimri's tribe was furious. The tribe of Simeon had been following their prince into the sin at Shittim, and the tribe's loyalty was to Zimri. If Zimri had called out - if Cozbi had screamed - the tribal response would have been immediate and overwhelming. A single priest with a lance against a tribe of armed men who had reason to protect the man he was killing was not a contest with a predictable outcome. The mouths were sealed. No cry reached the Simeonite camp.

The Lance and the Miracles That Followed It

The third miracle: the lance struck both of them simultaneously, the man and the woman, through their midsections, in precisely the way that established the legal proof of what they had been doing. The precision required was not incidental. The act had to be documented, in a sense, by the manner of the killing: the positions, the sequence, the physical evidence of the transgression. The third miracle arranged all of it correctly.

The fourth: the lance extended, so that Phinehas could carry both bodies out of the tent on the single shaft without them separating or falling. He needed to display what he had done to the assembly outside. The fifth: the bodies remained connected to the lance rather than falling. The sixth: the opening of the tent enlarged to allow Phinehas to carry them through without dropping them. The seventh: an angel held the tent up so it did not collapse. The eighth and ninth addressed the immediate threat from Simeon's tribe: God caused the tribesmen to fall into confusion, and the plague continued to strike them, occupying them with their own dying while Phinehas walked through with his lance. The tenth: Phinehas was not contaminated by the deaths. Ritual impurity from contact with a corpse was a serious matter for a priest, and he had just killed two people while touching them. The miracle preserved his priestly purity intact. The eleventh and twelfth addressed his safety as he left the tent and faced the assembly.

The Targum's Version of Zimri's Challenge

The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic translation of the Torah that likely reached its final form in the 7th century CE, gives Zimri a speech the Hebrew text omits. Before he walked past the Tabernacle with Cozbi, Zimri confronted Moses directly: what is wrong with being with her? If you say it is forbidden, did you not yourself take a Midianite, the daughter of Jethro? When Moses heard this challenge, the tradition records that he forgot the ruling about zealotry entirely. The halakhah fled from him. He wept and could not answer. And it was at that moment that Phinehas remembered what Moses had forgotten, took his lance, and went.

The twelve miracles that followed were God's answer to the question Zimri had raised with his body and his challenge: is there anyone here whose hands are clean enough to enforce the standard? The miracles did not perform the act for Phinehas. They kept him alive and legally and ritually intact while he performed it himself. The answer to Zimri's challenge was human, delivered by a human hand. The twelve miracles were the divine guarantee that the human answer would reach its destination.

PhinehasZimriCozbiMiraclesNumbersPurityAngels
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From the tradition

Sources

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Legends of the Jews 6:65Legends of the Jews

Legends of the Jews turns to Phinehas and the Angels.

The text says that Phinehas feared retaliation. Makes sense. But God, it seems, was totally on Phinehas's side. No less than twelve miracles, the story goes, were performed to protect him and demonstrate divine approval of his actions. Twelve! It’s almost comical in its extravagance.

First, an angel supposedly prevented the sinful couple from separating when Phinehas surprised them. Like some divine stage manager, ensuring they were in position for the big scene. Second, this angel also silenced them, so they couldn't cry out for help. No escape for them.

Then comes the really… graphic part. The third miracle was that Phinehas's lance struck the man's and the woman's… well, their private parts. The fourth miracle? The lance extended, piercing both of them with a single thrust. One-hit wonder. Except it gets even more unbelievable.

The fifth miracle was that Phinehas's arm was strong enough to lift both bodies on his lance. Sixth, the wooden shaft of the lance held their combined weight. Seventh, the bodies stayed put, refusing to fall off. Eighth, an angel rotated the impaled pair, giving everyone a clear view of what Phinehas had interrupted. Talk about public shaming!

Now, you might be thinking about the mess, the gore, the potential ritual impurity. But miracle number nine? No blood flowed. Otherwise, Phinehas would have been defiled. Tenth, the couple didn't die immediately, because their corpses would also have defiled him. It’s a gruesome dance of divine intervention, all to maintain Phinehas's purity.

Miracle eleven is maybe the most absurd: the angel raised the doorposts so Phinehas could carry the impaled couple through. Because apparently, doorway height is a concern even when you're performing a divinely sanctioned execution.

Finally, the twelfth miracle: when the tribe of Simeon, angered by the death of Zimri, planned to avenge him, God sent a plague to incapacitate them. Talk about sending a message!

So, what are we to make of this? It’s a story filled with violence, zealotry, and frankly, bizarre miracles. It paints a picture of a God deeply invested in the details, micromanaging every aspect of Phinehas's actions. Whether you view it as a evidence of divine justice or a cautionary tale about religious extremism, it’s undeniable that the story of Phinehas leaves a lasting impression. It certainly leaves one wondering about the nature of zealotry, divine endorsement, and the lengths to which stories will go to justify actions taken in the name of faith.

Full source
Targum Jonathan on Numbers 25Targum Jonathan

The place was called Shittim, and the Targum explains the name: it derives from shetutha, meaning foolishness and depravity. The Targum's version of (Numbers 25) describes Moabite women who "brought out the image of Peor, concealed under their bundles", the idol was literally smuggled in beneath their clothing. Israel's attachment to the idol is compared to "the nail in the wood, which is not separated but by breaking up the wood." You could not pull them free without destroying them.

When Zimri brought the Midianite woman Kosbi before the congregation, the Targum gives him a speaking role the Torah omits. He confronted Moses directly: "What is it that is wrong to have company with her? If you say it is forbidden, did you not yourself take a Midianite, the daughter of Jethro?" When Moses heard this, "he trembled and swooned." The leader of Israel fainted. The people wept and cried "Listen!" but no one acted.

Then Phinehas rose and shouted: "He who ought to kill, let him kill! Where are the lions of the tribe of Judah?" Silence. "When they saw, they were quiet." So Phinehas took the lance himself.

What follows is the Targum's most extraordinary list: twelve miracles that sustained Phinehas during the killing. He tried to separate them but could not. Their mouths were sealed so they could not scream for rescue. The lance pierced both bodies. It stayed fixed in the wound. The lintel lifted itself so he could carry them out. He bore them through the entire camp, six miles, without fatigue. He held them aloft with his right arm while their kinsmen watched, powerless. The lance did not break under the weight. The iron pierced but did not withdraw. An angel came and stripped the corpses bare for all to see. They stayed alive throughout the entire procession so the priest would not be defiled by the dead. Only after Phinehas had carried them through every corner of the camp did their blood flow and they died.

The Targum also reveals that Kosbi was actually Balak's daughter, "daughter of Zur, who was called Shelonae, a daughter of Balak." And God's reward for Phinehas was staggering: "I decree to him My covenant of peace, and will make him an angel of the covenant, that he may ever live, to announce the Redemption at the end of the days." Phinehas did not just receive priesthood. He became immortal.

Full source