Numbers 25:8-9

25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent ¹  and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. ²  So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. ³  25:9 Those that died in the plague were 24,000.

Numbers 25:18

25:18 because they bring trouble to you by their treachery with which they have deceived ⁴  you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, ⁵  their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague that happened as a result of Peor.”

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¹ tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).

² tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.

³ sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the Lord himself had had the guilty put to death. And there was already some plague breaking out in the camp that had to be stopped. And so in his zeal he dramatically put an end to this incident, that served to stop the rest and end the plague.

⁴ tn This is the same word as that translated “treachery.”

⁵ sn Cozbi’s father, Zur, was one of five Midianite kings who eventually succumbed to Israel (Num 31:8). When the text gives the name and family of a woman, it is asserting that she is important, at least for social reasons, among her people.