Cozbi

COZBI (kŏz'bī). A Midianite woman killed by Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, because through her the plague had come on Israel in the wilderness (Num.25.16-Num.25.18).

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COZBI kŏz’ bĭ, כָּזְבִּ֣י, Akkad. kuzbu, “voluptuousness.” This woman was the daughter of Zur, one of the chiefs of the Midianites, a group of camel-riding nomads who poured into Pal. during the Judges period and seriously disrupted the Israelite economy. Cozbi was slain with her Israelite husband (Num 25:15; 31:8; Josh 13:21) because through her the Israelites had been plagued in the wilderness. Her death was followed by war against Midian.

Bibliography

M. Noth, Die israelitischen Personennamen (1928), 37, 156.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

A Midianite woman, distinguished as the daughter of Zur, "head of the people of a fathers’ house in Midian." She was slain by Phinehas at Shittim in company with "Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers’ house among the Simeonites" (Nu 25:6-18).