PHINEES. - Son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, third high priest of Israel. His mother was a daughter of Phutiel, whom the Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan identifies with Jethro the Midianite (Ex. 6:25). While still young, P. distinguished himself by the zeal he showed in punishing the unfaithful Jews who at Shittim took part in the licentious worship of Beelphegor (v.) or idol of Phegor, a foul Moabite deity. Moses in the name of God commanded that the guilty be put to death, and P., seeing that "a man of the children of Israel," Zimri son of Salu, had brought "into the midst of his brethren the Midianite woman Cozbi in the sight of Moses and in the presence of all the congregation... went into the tent and pierced them both through" (Num. 25:6-8).
In consequence, the high priesthood was promised to him and to his descendants. His zeal was glorified from age to age (Ps. 105 [106]:30 ff.; Eccl. 45:23-25). Mattathias, the father of the Maccabees, was inspired by this example to undertake the war against Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Macc. 2:26-54). In the struggle against the Midianites, Moses sent a thousand men per tribe and with them P., "who took with him the sacred vessels and the sounding trumpets" (Num. 31:6). He was invited, along with ten elders, to settle a religious question with the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the eastern half of Manasseh, who had erected an altar near the Jordan (Josh. 22:11-33). In the division of the territory he was assigned the city of Gibeon on Mount Ephraim. In the war against the Benjaminites he remained at Bethel to exercise the high priesthood (Judg. 20:28). He was furthermore the ancestor of the descendants of Korah (v.).
Vincenzo M. Jacono