11:16 1 The Lord said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials 2 over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you.
13:26 They came back 3 to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. 4 They reported 5 to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land.
20:12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough 6 to show me as holy 7 before 8 the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.” 9
24:10 Then Balak became very angry at Balaam, and he struck his hands together. 14 Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have done nothing but bless 15 them these three times!
1 sn The
2 tn The “officials” (שֹׁטְּרִים, shottÿrim) were a group of the elders who seem to have had some administrative capacities. The LXX used the word “scribes.” For further discussion, see R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 69-70.
3 tn The construction literally has “and they went and they entered,” which may be smoothed out as a verbal hendiadys, the one verb modifying the other.
4 sn Kadesh is Ain Qadeis, about 50 miles (83 km) south of Beer Sheba. It is called Kadesh-barnea in Num 32:8.
5 tn Heb “They brought back word”; the verb is the Hiphil preterite of שׁוּב (shuv).
5 tn Or “to sanctify me.”
6 sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.
7 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
8 tn There is debate as to exactly what the sin of Moses was. Some interpreters think that the real sin might have been that he refused to do this at first, but that fact has been suppressed from the text. Some think the text was deliberately vague to explain why they could not enter the land without demeaning them. Others simply, and more likely, note that in Moses there was unbelief, pride, anger, impatience – disobedience.
7 sn This is the standard poetic expression for death. The bones would be buried, often with the bones of relatives in the same tomb, giving rise to the expression.
8 tn The verb is in the second person plural form, and so it is Moses and Aaron who rebelled, and so now because of that Aaron first and then Moses would die without going into the land.
9 tn Heb “mouth.”
9 tn The verb is the Hiphil jussive with a vav (ו) consecutive from the verb סוּר (sur); after the imperative this form may be subordinated to become a purpose clause.
11 sn This is apparently a sign of contempt or derision (see Job 27:23; and Lam 2:15).
12 tn The construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the perfect tense for “bless.”
13 tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).
14 tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.
15 sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the