Numbers 11:23

11:23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? ¹  Now you will see whether my word to you will come true ²  or not!”

Numbers 12:10

12:10 When ³  the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became ⁴  leprous ⁵  as snow. Then Aaron looked at ⁶  Miriam, and she was leprous!

Numbers 15:26

15:26 And the whole community ⁷  of the Israelites and the resident foreigner who lives among them will be forgiven, since all the people were involved in the unintentional offense.

Numbers 16:42

16:42 When the community assembled ⁸  against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the tent of meeting – and ⁹  the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared.

¹ sn This anthropomorphic expression concerns the power of God. The “hand of the Lord” is idiomatic for his power, what he is able to do. The question is rhetorical; it is affirming that his hand is not shortened, i.e., that his power is not limited. Moses should have known this, and so this is a rebuke for him at this point. God had provided the manna, among all the other powerful acts they had witnessed. Meat would be no problem. But the lack of faith by the people was infectious.

² tn Or “will happen” (TEV); KJV “shall come to pass unto thee.”

³ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) is here introducing a circumstantial clause of time.

⁴ 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.

⁵ 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).

⁶ tn Heb “turned to.”

⁵ tn Again, rather than translate literally “and it shall be forgiven [to] them” (all the community), one could say, “they (all the community) will be forgiven.” The meaning is the same.

⁷ tn The temporal clause is constructed with the temporal indicator (“and it was”) followed by the Niphal infinitive construct and preposition.

⁸ tn The verse uses וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and behold”). This is the deictic particle – it is used to point things out, suddenly calling attention to them, as if the reader were there. The people turned to look toward the tent – and there is the cloud!