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Cozbi
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The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi daughter of Zur; he was the tribal head of an ancestral house in Midian.
Numbers 25:15
And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Kosbi, daughter of Zur, who was called Shelonae, a daughter of Balak, the prince of the people of Moab, whose dwelling-place was in Midian.
Targum Jonathan on Numbers 25:15
I have found support for my theory in
Tanchuma Mattot
4 where it is claimed that Tzur, one of the kings slain in the punitive expedition against Midian was Balak; he had been demoted because he had allowed his daughter to cheapen herself by sleeping with an Israelite. According to our theory that Kosbi was Balak's daughter this all makes sense seeing that there had been only a single Midianite woman who had been described as a seductress. It is more than likely that the one Midianite woman who had reason enough to do this was a daughter of Balak. She followed Bileam's wicked advice…
Or HaChaim on Numbers 25:15:2
It is stated:
“And Moses said to the judges of Israel:
Each of you shall slay his men who have adhered unto Ba’al-Peor” (Numbers 25:5).
The tribe of Simeon went to Zimri, son of Salu,
their leader, and
said to him: They are judging
cases of
capital law
and executing us
and you are sitting and are silent? What did
Zimri
do? He arose and gathered twenty-four thousand
people
from
the children of
Israel, and went to Cozbi,
daughter of Zur, princess of Midian, and
said to her: Submit to me
and engage in intercourse with me…
Sanhedrin 82a:11-82b:10
וידקר את שניהם
, He stabbed them both.
We can understand that Pinchas had a legal excuse to kill the Israelite who indulged in sex with a Gentile woman; however, what right did he have to kill the woman? There is no known
halachah
which excuses such a deed! If Pinchas suspected that Kosbi was married and as such had made herself guilty of adultery, who has ever heard of executing someone on the basis of such an assumption? Perhaps Pinchas applied the law applicable to animals to Kosbi…
Or HaChaim on Numbers 25:8:1
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ראו גם
Zimri
Pinchas
Midian
Parashat Pinchas
Opposed
מתנגדים
Pinchas
Story
קורות
Sin of Peor
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