Preparing Context
Loading the book, timeline, map, and study notes.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Opening Book
Loading the overview, historical setting, map, timeline, and chapter structure.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Opening Chapter
Loading the chapter, structure, timeline, and Scripture reader.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Opening Passage
Loading the passage, surrounding structure, questions, and study notes.
Book
World Stage
Structure
Historical Setting
Numbers 25:14-15
The account pauses to identify the Israelite man and Midianite woman, highlighting their family status to frame the offense’s public weight.
Meaning in context
The account pauses to identify the Israelite man and Midianite woman, highlighting their family status to frame the offense’s public weight.
Section 6 of 7
The Slain Pair Are Named
The account pauses to identify the Israelite man and Midianite woman, highlighting their family status to frame the offense’s public weight.
Movement
From Sinai toward the promised land
Artifact
Camp, journey, and census records
Biblical Timeline
Exodus & Settlement
Numbers context: 1500 BC - 1000 BC
Biblical Timeline
Exodus & Settlement
Numbers context
Exodus & Settlement / 1500 BC - 1000 BC
Numbers context is set in the exodus and settlement period, where Moses, the exodus, wilderness, covenant instruction, conquest, and judges.
Scripture Text
Thesis
The account pauses to identify the Israelite man and Midianite woman, highlighting their family status to frame the offense’s public weight.
Verse by Verse
The Israelite man is identified The text states that the Israelite man who was killed (and killed “with” the Midianite woman) was named Zimri. It adds his father’s name, Salu, and then stresses Zimri’s standing: he was a “prince,” a leader connected to a Simeonite clan.
The Midianite woman is identified The text then identifies the Midianite woman who was killed as Cozbi. It gives her father’s name, Zur, and emphasizes Zur’s authority: he is described as the head over a people-group tied to an ancestral household in Midian.
Parallel naming and status markers Both verses use a similar pattern—name, parentage, and leadership status—so the reader links the two deaths to high-status households on both sides. The repeated emphasis on “name” (name) and lineage underlines public identity and communal consequence.
Literary Context
These verses sit inside the narrative of Israel’s crisis at Peor, where Israel is drawn into relations with Moabite/Midianite women and the community suffers a deadly outbreak (Numbers 25:1–9). After Phinehas kills an Israelite man and a foreign woman in public view, the outbreak stops (Numbers 25:7–8). Verses 14–15 function as a narrative follow-up: they supply identities and social standing for the two slain individuals. Immediately after, the story continues with instructions about hostility toward Midian, keeping the focus on the broader conflict, not only the personal act (Numbers 25:16–18).
Historical Context
The scene assumes Israel is camped near Midianite and Moabite populations in the Transjordan region shortly before entering Canaan. Social identity is presented through tribal affiliation and family leadership (“father’s house”), reflecting how authority and reputation were tied to kin groups and clan heads. Midian appears as a network of related groups with recognized leaders, not merely a vague outsider label. By naming both individuals and noting their rank, the text frames the episode as involving people whose actions carried political and communal weight, with implications for intergroup relations and leadership legitimacy.
Questions
Keep Studying
Theological Significance
Numbers 25:14–15 slows the story down to identify the two people killed in the previous scene by name: Zimri (an Israelite) and Cozbi (a Midianite woman). The text also gives their parentage and stresses that both belonged to prominent households. This turns the event from an anonymous scandal into something tied to leadership lines and public identity.
The passage explicitly presents the deaths as a paired killing: the Israelite man was slain “with” the Midianite woman. It also explicitly locates each person socially through “father’s house,” showing how group belonging and authority were organized through kin networks.
Some interpreters differ on what “with the Midianite woman” most strongly implies. Many read it as pointing back to the public sexual offense already narrated just before, so the phrase mainly identifies the pair involved in that act. Others think the wording could be read more generally as “together with her” (as a paired execution), without adding further detail about the setting beyond their joint involvement.
There is also some difference on how official the leadership titles are. Some read “prince” and “head of a people” as formal offices; others as broader language for high social rank within a clan network.
The text uses brief social and political labels (“prince,” “head,” “father’s house”) without defining their exact scope. It also uses a compact phrase (“slain with the Midianite woman”) that can either echo the earlier narrative context or be taken as a simple pairing formula.
father (’āḇ)