15:30 “‘But the person 1 who acts defiantly, 2 whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults 3 the Lord. 4 That person 5 must be cut off 6 from among his people.
35:30 “Whoever kills any person, the murderer must be put to death by the testimony 8 of witnesses; but one witness cannot 9 testify against any person to cause him to be put to death.
1 tn Heb “soul.”
2 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
3 tn The verb occurs only in the Piel; it means “to blaspheme,” “to revile.”
4 tn The word order in the Hebrew text places “Yahweh” first for emphasis – it is the
5 tn Heb “soul.”
6 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.
7 sn Here again we encounter one of the difficulties of the book, the use of the large numbers. Only twelve thousand soldiers fought the Midianites, but they brought back this amount of plunder, including 32,000 girls. Until a solution for numbers in the book can be found, or the current translation confirmed, one must remain cautious in interpretation.
13 tn Heb “ at the mouth of”; the metonymy stresses it is at their report.
14 tn The verb should be given the nuance of imperfect of potentiality.