(mouth of brass)

1. Son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron (Exodus 6:25). He is memorable for having, while quite a youth, by his zeal and energy at the critical moment of the licentious idolatry of Shittim, appeased the divine wrath, and put a stop to the plague which was destroying the nation (Numbers 25:7). For this he was rewarded by the special approbation of Jehovah and by a promise that the priesthood should remain in his family forever (Numbers 25:10-13). He was appointed to accompany as priest the expedition by which the Midianites were destroyed (Numbers 31:6). Many years later he also headed the party which was despatched from Shiloh to remonstrate against the altar which the transjordanic tribes were reported to have built near Jordan (Joshua 22:13-32). In the partition of the country he received an allotment of his own—a hill on Mount Ephraim which bore his name. After Eleazar’s death he became high priest—the third of the series. In this capacity he is introduced as giving the oracle to the nation during the whole struggle with the Benjamites on the matter of Gibeah (Judges 20:28). The verse which closes the book of Joshua is ascribed to Phinehas, as the description of the death of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy is to Joshua. The tomb of Phinehas, a place of great resort to both Jews and Samaritans, is shown at Awertah, four miles southeast of Nablus.
2. Second son of Eli (1 Samuel 1:3; 2:34; 4:4, 11, 17, 19; 14:3). Phinehas was killed with his brother by the Philistines when the ark was captured (see also Hophni
3. A Levite of Ezra’s time (Ezra 8:33) unless the meaning be that Eleazar was of the family of the great Phinehas.