Text -- Numbers 14:41-45 (NET)

14:41 But Moses said, “Why are you now transgressing the commandment of the Lord? It will not succeed! 14:42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be defeated before your enemies. 14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.” 14:44 But they dared to go up to the crest of the hill, although neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. 14:45 So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped down and attacked them as far as Hormah.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Num 14:41

¹ tn The line literally has, “Why is this [that] you are transgressing….” The demonstrative pronoun is enclitic; it brings the force of “why in the world are you doing this now?”

² tn Heb “mouth.”

NET Notes: Num 14:42

¹ tn This verb could also be subordinated to the preceding: “that you be not smitten.”

NET Notes: Num 14:44

¹ tn N. H. Snaith compares Arabic ’afala (“to swell”) and gafala (“reckless, headstrong”; Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 248). The wordעֹפֶל (’ofel) means a “rounded hill” or a “tumor.” The idea behind the verb may be that of “swelling,” and so “act presumptuously.”

² tn The disjunctive vav (ו) here introduces a circumstantial clause; the most appropriate one here would be the concessive “although.”

NET Notes: Num 14:45

¹ tn Heb “came down.”

² tn The verb used here means “crush by beating,” or “pounded” them. The Greek text used “cut them in pieces.”

³ tn The name “Hormah” means “destruction”; it is from the word that means “ban, devote” for either destruction or temple use.