20:3 But God appeared 1 to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead 2 because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” 3
17:12 The Israelites said to Moses, “We are bound to die! 4 We perish, we all perish! 17:13 (17:28) 5 Anyone who even comes close to the tabernacle of the Lord will die! Are we all to die?” 6
1 tn Heb “came.”
2 tn Heb “Look, you [are] dead.” The Hebrew construction uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with a second person pronominal particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with by the participle. It is a highly rhetorical expression.
3 tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.
4 tn The use of הֵן (hen) and the perfect tense in the nuance of a prophetic perfect expresses their conviction that they were bound to die – it was certain (see GKC 312-13 §106.n).
5 sn Num 17:13 in the English Bible is 17:28 in the Hebrew text (BHS). See also the note on 16:36.
6 tn The verse stresses the completeness of their death: “will we be consumed by dying” (הַאִם תַּמְנוּ לִגְוֹעַ, ha’im tamnu ligvoa’).