Numbers 11:20

11:20 but a whole month, ¹  until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, ²  because you have despised ³  the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why ⁴  did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

Numbers 11:2

11:2 When the people cried to Moses, he ⁵  prayed to the Lord, and the fire died out. ⁶ 

Numbers 12:9-10

12:9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he departed. 12:10 When ⁷  the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became ⁸  leprous ⁹  as snow. Then Aaron looked at ¹⁰  Miriam, and she was leprous!

Malachi 2:8-9

2:8 You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; ¹¹  you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” ¹²  says the Lord who rules over all. 2:9 “Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your ¹³  instruction.”

¹ tn Heb “a month of days.” So also in v. 21.

² tn The expression לְזָרָה (lÿzarah) has been translated “ill” or “loathsome.” It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek text interprets it as “sickness.” It could be nausea or vomiting (so G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 112) from overeating.

³ sn The explanation is the interpretation of their behavior – it is in reality what they have done, even though they would not say they despised the Lord. They had complained and shown a lack of faith and a contempt for the program, which was in essence despising the Lord.

⁴ tn The use of the demonstrative pronoun here (“why is this we went out …”) is enclitic, providing emphasis to the sentence: “Why in the world did we ever leave Egypt?”

⁵ tn Heb “Moses.”

⁶ sn Here is the pattern that will become in the wilderness experience so common – the complaining turns to a cry to Moses, which is then interpreted as a prayer to the Lord, and there is healing. The sequence presents a symbolic lesson, an illustration of the intercession of the Holy Spirit. The NT will say that in times of suffering Christians do not know how to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for them, changing their cries into the proper prayers (Rom 8).

⁷ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) is here introducing a circumstantial clause of time.

⁸ tn There is no verb “became” in this line. The second half of the line is introduced with the particle הִנֵה (hinneh, “look, behold”) in its archaic sense. This deictic use is intended to make the reader focus on Miriam as well.

⁹ sn The word “leprosy” and “leprous” covers a wide variety of skin diseases, and need not be limited to the actual disease of leprosy known today as Hansen’s disease. The description of it here has to do with snow, either the whiteness or the wetness. If that is the case then there would be open wounds and sores – like Job’s illness (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 95-96).

¹⁰ tn Heb “turned to.”

¹¹ tn The definite article embedded within בַּתּוֹרָה (battorah) may suggest that the Torah is in mind and not just “ordinary” priestly instruction, though it might refer to the instruction previously mentioned (v. 7).

¹² tn Or “the Levitical covenant.”

¹³ tn Heb “in the instruction” (so NASB). The Hebrew article is used here as a possessive pronoun (cf. NRSV, NLT).