9:13 “You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You provided them with just judgments, true laws, and good statutes and commandments. 9:14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath; you issued commandments, statutes, and law to them through 9 Moses your servant. 9:15 You provided bread from heaven for them in their time of hunger, and you brought forth water from the rock for them in their time of thirst. You told them to enter in order to possess the land that you had sworn 10 to give them.
9:16 “But they – our ancestors 11 – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled 12 and did not obey your commandments. 9:17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. 13 But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. 14 You did not abandon them, 9:18 even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious 15 blasphemies.
9:19 “Due to your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert. The pillar of cloud did not stop guiding them in the path by day, 16 nor did the pillar of fire stop illuminating for them by night the path on which they should travel. 9:20 You imparted your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths; you provided water for their thirst. 9:21 For forty years you sustained them. Even in the desert they never lacked anything. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
95:9 where your ancestors challenged my authority, 17
and tried my patience, even though they had seen my work.
95:10 For forty years I was continually disgusted 18 with that generation,
and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray; 19
they do not obey my commands.’ 20
1 tn Heb “all the nation, the men of war who went out from Egypt, who did not listen to the voice of the
2 tn Some Hebrew
3 tn Heb “flowing with.”
4 tn The word is “shepherds.” It means that the people would be wilderness nomads, grazing their flock on available land.
5 tn Heb “you shall bear your whoredoms.” The imagery of prostitution is used throughout the Bible to reflect spiritual unfaithfulness, leaving the covenant relationship and following after false gods. Here it is used generally for their rebellion in the wilderness, but not for following other gods.
6 tn The infinitive is from תָּמַם (tamam), which means “to be complete.” The word is often used to express completeness in a good sense – whole, blameless, or the like. Here and in v. 35 it seems to mean “until your deaths have been completed.” See also Gen 47:15; Deut 2:15.
7 tn Heb “you shall bear.”
8 tn The phrase refers to the consequences of open hostility to God, or perhaps abandonment of God. The noun תְּנוּאָה (tÿnu’ah) occurs in Job 33:10 (perhaps). The related verb occurs in Num 30:6 HT (30:5 ET) and 32:7 with the sense of “disallow, discourage.” The sense of the expression adopted in this translation comes from the meticulous study of R. Loewe, “Divine Frustration Exegetically Frustrated,” Words and Meanings, 137-58.
9 tn Heb “by the hand of.”
10 tn Heb “had lifted your hand.”
11 tn Heb “and our fathers.” The vav is explicative.
12 tn Heb “they stiffened their neck” (so also in the following verse).
13 tc The present translation follows a few medieval Hebrew
14 tc The translation follows the Qere reading חֶסֶד (khesed, “loyal love”) rather than the Kethib reading וְחֶסֶד (vÿkhesed, “and loyal love”) of the MT.
15 tn Heb “great.”
16 tn Heb “did not turn from them by day to guide them in the path.”
17 tn Heb “where your fathers tested me.”
18 tn The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite or an imperfect. If the latter, it emphasizes the ongoing nature of the condition in the past. The translation reflects this interpretation of the verbal form.
19 tn Heb “a people, wanderers of heart [are] they.”
20 tn Heb “and they do not know my ways.” In this context the
21 tn Or “people of Israel.”
22 tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
23 tn That is, in both numbers and in power. The implication of greatness in both numbers and in power is found in BDAG 1046 s.v. ὑψόω 2.
24 tn Or “as resident aliens.”
25 tn Or “land.”
26 sn Here uplifted arm is a metaphor for God’s power by which he delivered the Israelites from Egypt. See Exod 6:1, 6; 32:11; Deut 3:24; 4:34; Ps 136:11-12.
27 tn Grk “And for.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.
28 tn For this verb, see BDAG 1017 s.v. τροποφορέω (cf. also Deut 1:31; Exod 16:35; Num 14:34).
29 tn Or “desert.”
30 tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
31 sn An allusion to God’s judgment pronounced in Num 14:29, 32.