The name of the slain Midianite woman was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, a tribal head of an ancestral house in Midian.

For they attacked you with the treachery that they used against you in the Peor incident. They did the same in the case involving their sister Cozbi, daughter of the Midianite leader who was killed the day the plague came at Peor.”

Jokim, the men of Cozeba; and Joash and Saraph, who married Moabites and returned to Lehem. These names are from ancient records.

I have heard the gossip of many;
terror is on every side.
When they conspired against me,
they plotted to take my life.

A gossip goes around revealing a secret,
but a trustworthy person keeps a confidence.

A contrary man spreads conflict,
and a gossip separates close friends.

A gossip’s words are like choice food
that goes down to one’s innermost being.

The one who reveals secrets is a constant gossip;
avoid someone with a big mouth.

Without wood, fire goes out;
without a gossip, conflict dies down.

A gossip’s words are like choice food
that goes down to one’s innermost being.

For I have heard the gossip of many people,
“Terror is on every side!
Report him; let’s report him!”
Everyone I trusted watches for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived
so that we might prevail against him
and take our vengeance on him.”

therefore, prophesy and say: This is what the Lord God says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you from every side, so that you became a possession for the rest of the nations and an object of people’s gossip and slander,

For I fear that perhaps when I come I will not find you to be what I want, and I may not be found by you to be what you want; there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.