This is the line of Aaron's descendants: Eleazar, Phinehas, Abishua,

Phinehas son of Eleazar---may the LORD be with him!---had supervised them at one time.

Eleazar, Aaron's son, married one of Putiel's daughters, who bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the families and the clans of the tribe of Levi.

One of the Israelites took a Midianite woman into his tent in the sight of Moses and the whole community, while they were mourning at the entrance of the Tent of the LORD's presence.

followed the man and the woman into the tent, and drove the spear through both of them. In this way the epidemic that was destroying Israel was stopped,

The LORD said to Moses,

Moses sent them to war under the command of Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who took charge of the sacred objects and the trumpets for giving signals.

Then the people of Israel sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh in the land of Gilead.

Phinehas the priest and the ten leading men of the community who were with him, the heads of families of the western tribes, heard what the people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh had to say, and they were satisfied.

Then Phinehas and the leaders left the people of Reuben and Gad in the land of Gilead and went back to Canaan, to the people of Israel, and reported to them.

Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, the town in the hill country of Ephraim which had been given to his son Phinehas.

(SEE 20:27)

Gershom, of the clan of Phinehas; Daniel, of the clan of Ithamar; Hattush son of Shecaniah, of the clan of David; Zechariah, of the clan of Parosh, with 150 men of his clan (there were records of their family lines); Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, of the clan of Pahath Moab, with 200 men; Shecaniah son of Jahaziel, of the clan of Zattu, with 300 men; Ebed son of Jonathan, of the clan of Adin, with 50 men; Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, of the clan of Elam, with 70 men; Zebadiah son of Michael, of the clan of Shephatiah, with 80 men; Obadiah son of Jehiel, of the clan of Joab, with 218 men; Shelomith son of Josiphiah, of the clan of Bani, with 160 men; Zechariah son of Bebai, of the clan of Bebai, with 28 men; Johanan son of Hakkatan, of the clan of Azgad, with 110 men; Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah, of the clan of Adonikam, with 60 men (they returned at a later date); Uthai and Zaccur, of the clan of Bigvai, with 70 men

But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty, and the plague was stopped.

This has been remembered in his favor ever since and will be for all time to come.

Many years later, when Artaxerxes was emperor of Persia, there was a man named Ezra. He traced his ancestors back to Aaron, the High Priest, as follows: Ezra was the son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah,

son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth,

son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron.