The meaning of Zimri (1) in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
zim'-ri (zimri, "wild sheep" or "wild goat"; in 1 Maccabees, with the King James Version, has Zambri; Codex Sinaiticus has Zambrei):
(1) A Simeonite prince (Numbers 25:14; 1 Macc 2:26), slain by Phinehas, Aaron's grandson. Numbers 25:1-5 records how the Israelites, while they were at Shittim, began to consort with Moabite women and "they (i.e. the Moabite women) called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods" (Numbers 25:2), i.e. as explained by Numbers 25:5 to take part in the immoral rites of the god Baal-peor. Moses is bidden to have the offenders punished. The next paragraph (Numbers 25:6-9) relates how the people engage in public mourning; but while they do this Zimri brings in among his brethren a Midianitess. Phinehas sees this and goes after Zimri into the qubbah, where he slays the two together, and thus the plague is stayed (Numbers 25:6-9).
The connection between these two paragraphs is difficult; Moabite women are mentioned in the first, a Midianitess in the second; the plague of Numbers 25:8 f. is not previously referred to, although it seems clear that the plague is the cause of the weeping in Numbers 25:6. The sequel, Numbers 25:16-18, makes the second paragraph have something to do with Baal-peor. Critics assign Numbers 25:1-5 to J-E, Numbers 25:6-18 to P.
It seems, however, that the two accounts refer to similar circumstances. This is evident if the meaning of qubbah in Numbers 25:8 be as the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 AD) renders it, lupinar, "a house of ill-repute." The difficulty is that the word only occurs here in the Old Testament, but it has that meaning in New Heb. (see Gray, Nu, 385; BDB, however, translates it "a large vaulted tent." While one narrative says the women were Moabitesses and the other Midianitesses, the latter section presupposes something like the account in the former; and the point is that Zimri, at the very time that the rest of the people publicly mourned because of a plague that was due to their own dealings with foreign women, brought a Midianite woman among the people, possibly to be his wife, for he was a prince or chief, and she was the daughter of a Midianite chief. It may be urged that if this be the case, there was nothing wrong in it; but according to Hebrew ideas there was, and we only need to remember the evil influence of such marriages as those entered into by Solomon, or especially that of Ahab with Jezebel, to see at any rate a Hebrew justification for Zimri's death.
Numbers 31 describes the extermination of the Midianites at the bidding of Moses. All the males are slain by the Israelites (Numbers 31:7), but the women are spared. Moses is angry at this: "Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh" (Numbers 31:15 f.). Here we find, although the chapter is a Midrash (see Gray, Numbers, 417 ff.), that the Hebrews themselves connected the two events of Numbers 25, but in addition the name of Balaam is also introduced, as again in Numbers 31:8, where he is said to have been slain along with the kings of Midian. See further Deuteronomy 4:3, and Driver's note on the verse.
See BAAL-PEOR; BALAAM; PEOR.
(2) A king of Israel (I Kings 16:8-20). See special article.
(3) A Judahite "son" of Zerah (I Chronicles 2:6) = "Zabdi" of Joshua 7:1, Joshua 7:17 f.
See ZABDI, (1).
(4) A Benjamite, descendant of King Saul (I Chronicles 8:36; I Chronicles 9:42).
(5) In Jeremiah 25:25, where "all the kings of Zimri" are mentioned along with those of Arabia (Jeremiah 25:24) and Elam and the Medes. The name is as yet unidentified, although thought to be that of a people called ZIMRAN (which see) in Genesis 25:2.
David Francis Roberts
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