14:1 8 Then all the community raised a loud cry, 9 and the people wept 10 that night.
23:6 So he returned to him, and he was still 16 standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.
24:24 Ships will come from the coast of Kittim, 17
and will afflict Asshur, 18 and will afflict Eber,
and he will also perish forever.” 19
35:16 “But if he hits someone with an iron tool so that he dies, 21 he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.
1 tn Heb “and with you.”
2 tn The construction uses the noun in a distributive sense: “a man, a man for a tribe,” meaning a man for each tribe.
3 tn The clause expresses a distributive function, “a man” means “each man.”
4 sn See J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word ראשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.
5 tn Heb “the house of his fathers.”
6 tn Heb “will be free”; the words “of ill effects” have been supplied as a clarification.
11 tn The name תַּבְעֵרָה (tav’erah) is given to the spot as a commemorative of the wilderness experience. It is explained by the formula using the same verbal root, “to burn.” Such naming narratives are found dozens of times in the OT, and most frequently in the Pentateuch. The explanation is seldom an exact etymology, and so in the literature is called a popular etymology. It is best to explain the connection as a figure of speech, a paronomasia, which is a phonetic wordplay that may or may not be etymologically connected. Usually the name is connected to the explanation by a play on the verbal root – here the preterite explaining the noun. The significance of commemorating the place by such a device is to “burn” it into the memory of Israel. The narrative itself would be remembered more easily by the name and its motif. The namings in the wilderness wanderings remind the faithful of unbelief, and warn us all not to murmur as they murmured. See further A. P. Ross, “Paronomasia and Popular Etymologies in the Naming Narrative of the Old Testament,” Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1982.
16 sn This chapter forms part of the story already begun. There are three major sections here: dissatisfaction with the reports (vv. 1-10), the threat of divine punishment (vv. 11-38), and the defeat of the Israelites (vv. 39-45). See K. D. Sakenfeld, “The Problem of Divine Forgiveness in Num 14,” CBQ 37 (1975): 317-30; also J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word רֹאשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.
17 tn The two verbs “lifted up their voice and cried” form a hendiadys; the idiom of raising the voice means that they cried aloud.
18 tn There are a number of things that the verb “to weep” or “wail” can connote. It could reflect joy, grief, lamentation, or repentance, but here it reflects fear, hopelessness, or vexation at the thought of coming all this way and being defeated by the Canaanite armies. See Judg 20:23, 26.
21 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?”
22 tn Heb “mouth.”
26 tn Heb “came down.”
27 tn The verb used here means “crush by beating,” or “pounded” them. The Greek text used “cut them in pieces.”
28 tn The name “Hormah” means “destruction”; it is from the word that means “ban, devote” for either destruction or temple use.
31 tn The Hebrew text draws the vividness of the scene with the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) – Balaam returned, and there he was, standing there.
36 tc The MT is difficult. The Kittim refers normally to Cyprus, or any maritime people to the west. W. F. Albright proposed emending the line to “islands will gather in the north, ships from the distant sea” (“The Oracles of Balaam,” JBL 63 [1944]: 222-23). Some commentators accept that reading as the original state of the text, since the present MT makes little sense.
37 tn Or perhaps “Assyria” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
38 tn Or “it will end in utter destruction.”
41 tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of נָכָה (nakhah), a term that can mean “smite, strike, attack, destroy.”
46 tn the verb is the preterite of “die.” The sentence has :“if…he strikes him and he dies.” The vav (ו) consecutive is showing the natural result of the blow.