The place was called Shittim, and the Targum explains the name: it derives from shetutha, meaning foolishness and depravity. The Targum's version of (Numbers 25) describes Moabite women who "brought out the image of Peor, concealed under their bundles"—the idol was literally smuggled in beneath their clothing. Israel's attachment to the idol is compared to "the nail in the wood, which is not separated but by breaking up the wood." You could not pull them free without destroying them.
When Zimri brought the Midianite woman Kosbi before the congregation, the Targum gives him a speaking role the Torah omits. He confronted Moses directly: "What is it that is wrong to have company with her? If you say it is forbidden, did you not yourself take a Midianite, the daughter of Jethro?" When Moses heard this, "he trembled and swooned." The leader of Israel fainted. The people wept and cried "Listen!" but no one acted.
Then Phinehas rose and shouted: "He who ought to kill, let him kill! Where are the lions of the tribe of Judah?" Silence. "When they saw, they were quiet." So Phinehas took the lance himself.
What follows is the Targum's most extraordinary list: twelve miracles that sustained Phinehas during the killing. He tried to separate them but could not. Their mouths were sealed so they could not scream for rescue. The lance pierced both bodies. It stayed fixed in the wound. The lintel lifted itself so he could carry them out. He bore them through the entire camp—six miles—without fatigue. He held them aloft with his right arm while their kinsmen watched, powerless. The lance did not break under the weight. The iron pierced but did not withdraw. An angel came and stripped the corpses bare for all to see. They stayed alive throughout the entire procession so the priest would not be defiled by the dead. Only after Phinehas had carried them through every corner of the camp did their blood flow and they died.
The Targum also reveals that Kosbi was actually Balak's daughter—"daughter of Zur, who was called Shelonae, a daughter of Balak." And God's reward for Phinehas was staggering: "I decree to him My covenant of peace, and will make him an angel of the covenant, that he may ever live, to announce the Redemption at the end of the days." Phinehas did not just receive priesthood. He became immortal.