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PHINEHAS
1. Eleazer’s son, grandson of Aaron (Ex 6:25), and Abishua’s father (1 Chr 6:4, 50). During the high priesthood of Eleazer, Phinehas had charge over the gatekeepers of the tabernacle (9:20), as did Eleazer his father, when Aaron served as chief priest (cf. Nm 3:32). Phinehas, grieved by Israel’s sin with Baal of Peor at Shittim, killed an Israelite man and a Midianite woman for their licentious behavior (25:7). Following this act, the Lord turned away his anger toward Israel and made a covenant of peace with Phinehas, which was a covenant of a perpetual priesthood for him and his descendants (vv 11-13); his deed was reckoned to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever (Ps 106:30). Except for the brief interval when Eli acted as high priest (cf. 1 Sm 1–3; 14:3), Phinehas and his posterity officiated at the high priestly position until the destruction of the Jerusalem temple by the Romans in AD 70.
Following the Baal of Peor incident, Phinehas joined Israel in defeating the Midianites in war (Nm 31:6). After Israel took possession of the land of Canaan, Phinehas was given the town of Gibeah in the hill country of Ephraim for an inheritance (Jos 24:33). He was sent with a small delegation of Israelite leaders to question the building of an altar on the west bank of the Jordan River by the tribes of Israel living east of the Jordan (Jos 22:13, 30-32). Later, at Bethel, Phinehas promised Israel victory over Benjamin’s tribe in battle (Jgs 20:28). His descendants Ezra the scribe (Ezr 7:5) and Gershom (8:2) returned with their families to Jerusalem following the exile.
2. One of Eli’s two sons, who served as a priest at Shiloh (1 Sm 1:3). According to 1 Samuel, Phinehas was a despicable priest, who, along with Hophni his brother, profaned the offered sacrifices (2:12-17) and the sanctuary (v 22), and scorned Eli (v 25). His death was foretold to his father by a man of God (v 34). In a subsequent war with the Philistines, Phinehas was killed on the same day his wife bore him a son, named Ichabod (4:11, 17-19; 14:3).
3. Eleazer’s father. Eleazer helped Meremoth and the Levites, Jozabad and Noadiah, take inventory of the temple’s precious metals and vessels during the postexilic era (Ezr 8:33).