Who was Cozbi in the Book of Numbers?

       Cozbi (Num. 25:15, 18), a Midianitish woman slain at Shittim by Phinehas, son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron. Phinehas was commended for the act in Psalms 106:30, 31. He thrust a javelin through Cozbi's stomach after Moses had given orders publicly to execute chiefs of the people, guilty of whoredoms in Baal-peor worship.
       Cozbi was a princess, daughter of Zur, head of a chief house in Midian. And she had influenced Zimri, son of Salu, prince of a chief house among the Simeonites. Her influence for evil was greater because of her prominence and because she had beguiled a Hebrew of prominence.
       At the same time that Phinehas slew her, he also slew Salu. Together they had entered the camp where the Israelites were worshiping and praying to Yahweh, because of a plague sent down upon them. Phinehas, zealous as he was, believed that his act of doing away  with the wicked pair would terminate a plague then raging as a judgment against the idolatries and impurities into which the Midianitish women were leading the Hebrews.
       The slaying of Cozbi and her accomplice Salu is thought to have stayed the plague of whoredom and idolatry with foreign daughters. But 23,000 died from the plague caused by this evil (I Cor. 10:8).
       Cozbi's name means deceitful. She is the only woman in the Bible of whom it is written that a javelin was thrust "through her belly" (Num. 25:8).