Numbers 8:4

8:4 This is how the lampstand was made: ¹  It was beaten work in gold; ²  from its shaft to its flowers it was beaten work. According to the pattern which the Lord had shown Moses, so he made the lampstand.

Numbers 11:20

11:20 but a whole month, ³  until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, ⁴  because you have despised ⁵  the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why ⁶  did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

¹ tn The Hebrew text literally has “and this is the work of the lampstand,” but that rendering does not convey the sense that it is describing how it was made.

² sn The idea is that it was all hammered from a single plate of gold.

³ tn Heb “a month of days.” So also in v. 21.

⁴ tn The expression לְזָרָה (lÿzarah) has been translated “ill” or “loathsome.” It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek text interprets it as “sickness.” It could be nausea or vomiting (so G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 112) from overeating.

⁵ sn The explanation is the interpretation of their behavior – it is in reality what they have done, even though they would not say they despised the Lord. They had complained and shown a lack of faith and a contempt for the program, which was in essence despising the Lord.

⁶ tn The use of the demonstrative pronoun here (“why is this we went out …”) is enclitic, providing emphasis to the sentence: “Why in the world did we ever leave Egypt?”