The Lord now commanded Moses to show hostility (צָרַר to the Midianites, and smite them, on account of the stratagem which they had practised upon the Israelites by tempting them to idolatry, “in order that the practical zeal of Phinehas against sin, by which expiation had been made for the guilt, might be adopted by all the nation” (Baumgarten). The inf. abs. צָרֹור, instead of the imperative, as in Exo 20:8, etc. עַל־דְּבַרף, in consideration of Peor, and indeed, or especially, in consideration of Cozbi. The repetition is emphatic. The wickedness of the Midianites culminated in the shameless wantonness of Cozbi the Midianitish princess. “Their sister,” i.e., one of the members of their tribe. - The 19th verse belongs to the following chapter, and forms the introduction to Num 26:1.
(Note: In the English version this division is adopted. - Tr.)