Numbers 25:11

“Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, etc.] His descent and genealogy is observed as before, partly to show that he was not a private person, but a man of public authority that did the above fact; perhaps one of the judges that Moses ordered to slay every man his man, and therefore what he did by the order of the supreme magistrate; and partly to show that he was heir apparent to the office of high priest, who in course was to succeed in it; nor should this action of his hinder it, but rather serve to secure and confirm it to him: hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel; caused the effects of it to cease, by slaying the two persons, as before related: while…”

“Phinehas . . . hath turned my wrath away--This assurance was a signal mark of honor that the stain of blood, instead of defiling, confirmed him in office and that his posterity should continue as long as the national existence of Israel.”

“Hath turned my wrath away - The signal example thus made of a leading offender by Phinehas was accepted by God as an expiation (literally in Numbers 25:13 “covering;” see the note at the typical significance Leviticus 1:4), and the exterminating wrath which had gone forth against the whole people was arrested Psalms 106:30. The act of Phinehas must be regarded as exceptional. It was an extraordinary deed of vengeance, justified by the singular atrocity of the crime which provoked it; but it does not confer the right to every man to punish summarily any gross and flagrant breach of divine law committed in his presence. Compare the act of Mattathias (1 Macc. 2:24-26). The act was its own…”

“turned my: Jos 7:25, Jos 7:26; Sa2 21:14; Psa 106:23; Joh 3:36 for my sake: Heb. with my zeal, Co2 11:2 that I: Exo 22:5, Exo 34:14; Deu 4:24, Deu 29:20, Deu 32:16, Deu 32:21; Jos 24:19; Kg1 14:22; Psa 78:58; Eze 16:38; Nah 1:2; Zep 1:18, Zep 3:8; Co1 10:22 Numbers 25:12”