15:30 “‘But the person 6 who acts defiantly, 7 whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults 8 the Lord. 9 That person 10 must be cut off 11 from among his people.
21:16 And from there they traveled 15 to Beer; 16 that is the well where the Lord spoke to Moses, “Gather the people and I will give them water.”
21:33 Then they turned and went up by the road to Bashan. And King Og of Bashan and all his forces 17 marched out against them to do battle at Edrei.
1 tn Heb “told him and said.” The referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn The relative clause modifies “the land.” It is constructed with the relative and the verb: “where you sent us.”
3 sn This is the common expression for the material abundance of the land (see further, F. C. Fensham, “An Ancient Tradition of the Fertility of Palestine,” PEQ 98 [1966]: 166-67).
4 tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.
7 tn The subjective genitives “milk and honey” are symbols of the wealth of the land, second only to bread. Milk was a sign of such abundance (Gen 49:12; Isa 7:21,22). Because of the climate the milk would thicken quickly and become curds, eaten with bread or turned into butter. The honey mentioned here is the wild honey (see Deut 32:13; Judg 14:8-9). It signified sweetness, or the finer things of life (Ezek 3:3).
10 tn Heb “soul.”
11 tn The sin is described literally as acting “with a high hand” – בְּיָד רָמָה (bÿyad ramah). The expression means that someone would do something with deliberate defiance, with an arrogance in spite of what the
12 tn The verb occurs only in the Piel; it means “to blaspheme,” “to revile.”
13 tn The word order in the Hebrew text places “Yahweh” first for emphasis – it is the
14 tn Heb “soul.”
15 tn The clause begins with “and” because the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. As discussed with Num 9:13, to be cut off could mean excommunication from the community, death by the community, or death by divine intervention.
13 sn The question indicates that they had been murmuring against Aaron, that is, expressing disloyalty and challenging his leadership. But it is actually against the
16 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it functions as the equivalent of the imperfect of permission.
19 tn The verb is the Hitpael of חָטָא (khata’), a verb that normally means “to sin.” But the Piel idea in many places is “to cleanse; to purify.” This may be explained as a privative use (“to un-sin” someone, meaning cleanse) or denominative (“make a sin offering for someone”). It is surely connected to the purification offering, and so a sense of purify is what is wanted here.
22 tn The words “they traveled” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied here because of English style. The same phrase is supplied at the end of v. 18.
23 sn Isa 15:8 mentions a Moabite Beerelim, which Simons suggests is Wadi Ettemed.
25 tn Heb “people.”
28 tn The two verbs are negated imperfects; they have the nuance of prohibition: You must not go and you must not curse.
29 tn The word בָּרוּךְ (barukh) is the Qal passive participle, serving here as the predicate adjective after the supplied verb “to be.” The verb means “enrich,” in any way, materially, spiritually, physically. But the indication here is that the blessing includes the promised blessing of the patriarchs, a blessing that gave Israel the land. See further, C. Westermann, Blessing in the Bible and the Life of the Church (OBT).
31 tn Heb “head.”
32 sn The passage makes it clear that this individual was a leader, one who was supposed to be preventing this thing from happening. The judgment was swift and severe, because the crime was so great, and the danger of it spreading was certain. Paul refers to this horrible incident when he reminds Christians not to do similar things (1 Cor 10:6-8).