Numbers 25:12
10 The Lord spoke to Moses: 11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. 12 Therefore, announce: ‘I am going to give to him my covenant of peace. 13 So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God, and has made atonement for the Israelites.’” 14 Now the name of the Israelite who was stabbed—the one who was stabbed with the Midianite woman—was Zimri son of Salu, a leader of a clan of the Simeonites.
Pseudo Jonathan Numbers 25:12
And the number who died by the pestilence was twenty and four thousand. AND the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Phinehas the zealous, the son of Elazar bar Aharon, the priest, hath turned away mine anger from the children of Israel, in that, when zealous with My zeal, he hath slain the sinners who were among them; and for his sake I have not destroyed the children of Israel in My indignation. Swearing by My Name, I say to him, Behold, I decree to him My covenant of peace, and will make him an angel of the covenant, that he may ever live, to announce the Redemption at the end of the days. And because they defamed him, saying, Is he not the son of Phuti, the Midianite? behold, I will make him to possess the high priesthood; and because he took the lance with his arm, and struck the Midianitess in her body, and prayed with his mouth for the people of the house of Israel, the priests shall be held worthy of the three gifts of the shoulder, the cheek‑bone, and the inwards; and it shall be to him, and to his sons after him, an everlasting covenant of consecration, because he was zealous for the Lord, and propitiated for the children of Israel.
Notes and References
"... And yet some targumic traditions bear out the resemblance between angels and the righteous. According to Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 28:12, the angels on high have relations with the angels down below (when they speak about the image of the pious Jacob, engraved upon the throne of glory). Both the "myriads of holy angels" and the Israelites are called "holy ones" in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Deuteronomy 33:2, but even in Targum Onkelos: "and with him were myriads of holy ones ... yea, he loved them, the tribes; all his holy ones, the house of Israel." This description is not coincidental, as may be inferred from Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Numbers 25:12 where Enoch ascended to the firmament and was called Metatron the Great Scholar according to Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis 5:24, a statement mitigated or flatly denied in other Targums ..."
Smelik, Willem F. On Mystical Transformation of the Righteous into Light in Judaism (pp. 122-144) Journal for the Study of Judaism, Vol. 26, 1995