Numbers 5:14

5:14 and if jealous feelings ¹  come over him and he becomes suspicious ²  of his wife, when she is defiled; ³  or if jealous feelings come over him and he becomes suspicious of his wife, when she is not defiled –

Numbers 5:30

5:30 or when jealous feelings come over a man and he becomes suspicious of his wife; then he must have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will carry out all this law upon her.

Numbers 14:2

14:2 And all the Israelites murmured ⁴  against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died ⁵  in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished ⁶  in this wilderness!

Numbers 22:18

22:18 Balaam replied ⁷  to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment ⁸  of the Lord my God ⁹  to do less or more.

Numbers 24:13

24:13 ‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ¹⁰  the commandment ¹¹  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ¹²  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

Numbers 30:2

30:2 If a man ¹³  makes a vow ¹⁴  to the Lord or takes an oath ¹⁵  of binding obligation on himself, ¹⁶  he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised. ¹⁷ 

Numbers 30:14

30:14 But if her husband remains completely silent ¹⁸  about her from day to day, he thus confirms all her vows or all her obligations which she is under; he confirms them because he remained silent about when he heard them.

¹ tn The Hebrew text has the construct case, “spirit of jealousy.” The word “spirit” here has the sense of attitude, mood, feelings. The word קִנְאָה (qin’ah) is the genitive of attribute, modifying what kind of feelings they are. The word means either “zeal” or “jealousy,” depending on the context. It is a passionate feeling to guard or protect an institution or relationship. It can also express strong emotional possessiveness such as envy and coveting. Here there is a feeling of jealousy, but no proof of infidelity.

² tn The word is now used in the Piel stem; the connotation is certainly “suspicious,” for his jealousy seems now to have some basis, even if it is merely suspicion.

³ tn The noun clause begins with the conjunction and the pronoun; here it is forming a circumstantial clause, either temporal or causal.

⁴ tn The Hebrew verb “to murmur” is לוּן (lun). It is a strong word, signifying far more than complaining or grumbling, as some of the modern translations have it. The word is most often connected to the wilderness experience. It is paralleled in the literature with the word “to rebel.” The murmuring is like a parliamentary vote of no confidence, for they no longer trusted their leaders and wished to choose a new leader and return. This “return to Egypt” becomes a symbol of their lack of faith in the Lord.

⁵ tn The optative is expressed by לוּ (lu) and then the verb, here the perfect tense מַתְנוּ (matnu) – “O that we had died….” Had they wanted to die in Egypt they should not have cried out to the Lord to deliver them from bondage. Here the people became consumed with the fear and worry of what lay ahead, and in their panic they revealed a lack of trust in God.

⁶ tn Heb “died.”

⁷ tn Heb “answered and said.”

⁸ tn Heb “mouth.”

⁹ sn In the light of subsequent events one should not take too seriously that Balaam referred to Yahweh as his God. He is referring properly to the deity for which he is acting as the agent.

¹⁰ tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”

¹¹ tn Heb “mouth.”

¹² tn Heb “from my heart.”

¹³ tn The legal construction states the class to which the law applies, and then lays down the condition: “men [man] – if….”

¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative construction to express this: “a man if he vows a vow.”

¹⁵ tn The expression is “swear an oath” (הִשָּׁבַע שְׁבֻעָה, hishava’ shÿvu’ah). The vow (נֵדֶר, neder) was a promise to donate something of oneself or one’s substance to the Lord. The solemn oath seals the vow before the Lord, perhaps with sacrifice. The vocabulary recalls Abraham’s treaty with Abimelech and the naming of Beer Sheba with the word (see Gen 21).

¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text hasלֶאְסֹר אִסָּר (le’sor ’issar), meaning “to take a binding obligation.” This is usually interpreted to mean a negative vow, i.e., the person attempts to abstain from something that is otherwise permissible. It might involve fasting, or abstaining from marital sex, but it might also involve some goal to be achieved, and the abstaining from distractions until the vow is fulfilled (see Ps 132). The נֶדֶר (neder) may have been more for religious matters, and the אִסָּר more for social concerns, but this cannot be documented with certainty.

¹⁷ tn Heb “according to all that goes out of his mouth.”

¹⁶ tn The sentence uses the infinitive absolute to strengthen the idea.