90 JOSEPH BLENKINSOPP considerations of promiscuous sexual activity and orgiastic goings on, cultic or otherwise. What is happening can be restated as follows: These Israelites are engaged in accepting an offer extended by the host society of incorporation into their lineages or – and I will suggest that this is the more likely option – reinforcing a bond already in existence, the kind of bond referred to elsewhere as “a covenant of kinship” (berît ’aḥîm, Amos 1,9). An exchange of women or, in other words, intermarriage, is the most prominent feature of this type of contractual social bonding, and tradition requires that it be sealed by sharing in sacrifice and a sacrificial meal of the kind referred to in vv. 1-5. The episode has been assigned a place, the last place, in the wilderness itinerary, but it reflects a situation in which Israelites were settled in Moab rather than just passing through 7. If this reading is correct, the transition between the first and the second narratives, vv. 1-5 and vv. 6-18 respectively, is not as abrupt as it is generally thought to be. In order to emphasize the seriousness of intermarriage, and specifically intermarriage with Midianites, the author presents the case history of two high-status individuals identified in a footnote to the account (vv. 14-15) as Zimri, a Shimeonite tribal head, and Cozbi, daughter of Sur, probably one of the five Midianite “kings” (i.e. sheiks) of that name who were killed in the course of the Israelite war with Midian (Num 31,8) 8. The issue was not therefore the irresistible sexual appeal of Moabite women but the reaffirmation or reinforcement of a kinship bond by means of matrimonial alliance between distinguished members of the two ethnic groups involved, which see themselves as sharing a kinship relationship and a history. The Israelite man introduces the Midianite woman to his kin (’aḥîm), as no doubt was customary, and the union is solemnized in the tent- shrine (qubbâ, 25,8), probably a cult tent like the pre-Islamic qubba (qubbatun). But the comparison which comes to mind is the tent in which Jethro the Midianite priest and Moses reaffirmed their bond in the Yahweh cult assembly, a bond also validated and reinforced by sacrifice and a sacrificial meal (Exod 18,5-12), an episode to which we will return. In order to attach his edifying story to vv. 1-5, the author of vv. 6-18, who was perhaps also the redactor of the final form, simply omitted the carrying out of the original punishment and substituted it with the plague (maggēpâ), the punishment of choice for Priestly and post-Priestly writers. The presence of a Midianite rather than a Moabite woman is the most intriguing variation in this addition to the original episode. The reason is not far to seek. In the course of its transmission, Num 25,1-18 has been 7 That Israelites settled in and around Heshbon in Moab is explicitly stated (Num 21, 25. 31), and the Moabite king Balak is not very happy that they have settled in his territory (Num 22, 5). 8 These sheiks ruled over the five members of the Midianite tribal con- federacy, cf. the five “sons” of Midian in Gen 25, 4. See E.A. KNAUF, Midian (Wiesbaden 1988) 165-168; Id., “Zur (Person),” ABD VI, 1175-1176.