What Does Numbers 25:15 Mean?
And the name of the Midianite woman who was struck down was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur. He was head over a people, and of the house of the fathers in Midian.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian.THE KEY
Cozbi’s name echoes the Hebrew root for falsehood, yet the verse’s claim about her is that she was slain.
THE MEANING
The verse keeps Cozbi present as a named person whose life has been taken, and names the father whose rank places her within a powerful household. It holds identity, violence, and power together without explaining her death away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that a woman in a violent account is only an anonymous casualty: Cozbi’s name remains.
THE ROOT
כָּזְבִּי
Kozbi
GROWS FROM
כזב
k-z-b
To lie or be false; as a noun, falsehood.
Cozbi’s name is commonly connected to כזב, the root for lying and falsehood, and is often glossed “my falsehood.” The verse gives no warrant to turn that name into a judgment about her character; it names her as the woman who was slain.
ALSO GROWS
kazav: Lie, falsehood.
כָּזָב
This noun from the same root appears as “lies” in Proverbs 30:8, connecting the name to the language of what is false.
kazav: To lie, be false, or fail.
כָּזַב
The verbal branch shows the root describing falseness in action or state, but the name alone does not say what Cozbi did.
הַמֻּכָּה
hammukkah
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
To strike or smite.
“struck down” in this verse is hammukkah. The Hebrew identifies her as the one who has been struck; “slain” gives the outcome while the root retains the blow behind it. The wording keeps the physical violence visible instead of making the death abstract.
ALSO GROWS
nakah: To strike, smite.
נָכָה
This verb names the force behind the description of the woman as slain.
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
This noun from the same root makes the physical impact explicit.
THE PATTERN
Violent accounts can keep the victim named and relationally situated even as they describe the act that kills them.
And Cain said to Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.And he sent, and cut John's head away in the guardhouse.And when Abner had turned back to Hebron, Joab bent him aside in the gate, to speak with him in wholeness, and struck him there under the fifth rib, and he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.THE THREAD
Remove far from me emptiness and the way of lying. Give me neither need nor plenty. Feed me the bread measured out for me.Cozbi’s name is commonly traced to כזב (k-z-b), the root for lying and falsehood; that same root appears as “lies” here. The shared root opens the name’s sound and sense, while the proverb says nothing about Cozbi’s character.
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