Translating the book of Numbers, I came across a curious story that I’ve never paid much attention to before (Num 25:1-18). The setting is the infamous sin at Peor — of Israelites hooking up with Midianite women and taking part in their religious practices. One gets the impression that the Israelites were bored out of their minds, waiting and waiting to enter the Promised Land. The men wandered off and found some excitement among the Midians. Perhaps they fell in love. Whatever the case, they accepted invitations to church events with the Midianites, and as far as the story is concerned, things went south from there. That is, God was furious for this religious infidelity (worshiping foreign gods) and determined that the Israelite leaders should be publicly impaled for it. Embedded in the episode is another dramatic bloodletting whereby a priest of single-minded Yahwistic devotion bursts into the tent of a man caught, we are led to believe, in flagrante having sex with a Midianite woman. After all the priest successfully stabs drives a spear through the both of them in one thrust. Ok, lots about this story is striking; but for our purposes here: Both the man and the woman are named. She (Cozbi) is actually named twice, and in both cases, the narrator explains that she’s the daughter of a leader within the community. Why do you think that is? Was it a set-up? Love? Is there more to the story that we no longer have? Is it simply that “as the leader goes, so go the people,” therefore, be careful what your leaders do? Something else, again?
