Numbers 25:6

Verse Numbers 25:6. One of the children of Israel] Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief family in the tribe of Simeon, Numbers 25:14, brought a Midianitish woman, Cozbi, daughter of Zur, head over a people of one of the chief families in Midian, Numbers 25:15. The condition of these two persons plainly proves it to have been a matrimonial alliance, the one was a prince, the other a princess; therefore I must conclude that fornication or whoredom, in the common sense of the word, was not practised on this occasion. The matter was bad enough, as the marriage was in flat opposition to the law of God; and we need not make it worse by representing the woman as a common prostitute, as the Vulgate and several others have done. In such a case this is absolutely inadmissible. Josephus positively says that Zimri had married Cozbi, Antiq., 1. iv., cap. 6; and if he had not said so, still the thing is nearly self-evident. Numbers 24:25, Numbers 24:25.

The children of Israel, who were weeping] This aggravated the crime, because the people were then in a state of great humiliation, because of the late impure and illegal transactions.