(Phinʹe·has).

1. Son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron. His mother was a daughter of Putiel, and his son’s name was Abishua. (Ex 6:25; 1Ch 6:4) It was young Phinehas’ quick action that halted the scourge from Jehovah after 24,000 Israelites had died on the Plains of Moab because of fornication and because they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor. When he spotted Zimri taking the Midianitess Cozbi into his tent, he pierced them both through with a lance, “the woman through her genital parts.” This zeal in “tolerating no rivalry at  all” toward Jehovah was “counted to him as righteousness,” and God made a covenant for the priesthood to remain in his line “to time indefinite.”​—Nu 25:1-3, 6-15; Ps 106:30, 31.

During his lifetime Phinehas served in various capacities. He was the priestly representative in the army that executed Jehovah’s vengeance upon Midian. (Nu 31:3, 6) When it was thought that three tribes were forsaking Jehovah’s worship, he headed a group of investigators. (Jos 22:9-33) He was chief of the tabernacle gatekeepers. (1Ch 9:20) After the burial of his father in the Hill of Phinehas, he served in the office of high priest. (Jos 24:33; Jg 20:27, 28) His name is prominent in several postexilic genealogies.​—1Ch 6:4, 50; Ezr 7:5; 8:2.

2. The younger of the two “good-for-nothing” sons of priest Eli. (1Sa 1:3; 2:12) While serving as priests, he and his brother Hophni cohabited with women at the sanctuary and “treated the offering of Jehovah with disrespect.” (1Sa 2:13-17, 22) When feebly reprimanded by their father, they refused to hear. For their wickedness God pronounced judgment against them. This was fulfilled when they were both killed on the same day in battle with the Philistines. (1Sa 2:23-25, 34; 3:13; 4:11) News about the capture of the Ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband was too much for Phinehas’ wife. She was thrown into shock and died giving birth to Ichabod.​—1Sa 4:17-21.

3. A Levite, whose son Eleazar helped inventory the temple treasures in the time of Ezra, 468 B.C.E.​—Ezr 8:33, 34.