Daniel 4:9

4:9 saying, “Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, in whom I know there to be a spirit of the holy gods and whom no mystery baffles, consider ¹  my dream that I saw and set forth its interpretation!

Daniel 4:18

4:18 “This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare its ²  interpretation, for none of the wise men in ³  my kingdom are able to make known to me the interpretation. But you can do so, for a spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

Daniel 2:11

2:11 What the king is asking is too difficult, and no one exists who can disclose it to the king, except for the gods – but they don’t live among mortals!” ⁴ 

Daniel 5:11

5:11 There is a man in your kingdom who has within him a spirit of the holy gods. In the days of your father, he proved to have ⁵  insight, discernment, and wisdom like that ⁶  of the gods. ⁷  King Nebuchadnezzar your father appointed him chief of the magicians, astrologers, wise men, and diviners. ⁸ 

Daniel 5:14

5:14 I have heard about you, how there is a spirit of the gods in you, and how you have ⁹  insight, discernment, and extraordinary wisdom.

Numbers 11:17-30

11:17 Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take part of the spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it ¹⁰  all by yourself.

11:18 “And say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves ¹¹  for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing ¹²  of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat, ¹³  for life ¹⁴  was good for us in Egypt?” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat. 11:19 You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, 11:20 but a whole month, ¹⁵  until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, ¹⁶  because you have despised ¹⁷  the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why ¹⁸  did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

11:21 Moses said, “The people around me ¹⁹  are 600,000 on foot; ²⁰  but you say, ‘I will give them meat, ²¹  that they may eat ²²  for a whole month.’ 11:22 Would they have enough if the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” 11:23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? ²³  Now you will see whether my word to you will come true ²⁴  or not!”

11:24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He then gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and had them stand around the tabernacle. 11:25 And the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to them, and he took some of the Spirit that was on Moses ²⁵  and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, ²⁶  they prophesied, ²⁷  but did not do so again. ²⁸ 

Eldad and Medad

11:26 But two men remained in the camp; one’s name was Eldad, and the other’s name was Medad. And the spirit rested on them. (Now they were among those in the registration, ²⁹  but had not gone to the tabernacle.) So they prophesied in the camp. 11:27 And a ³⁰  young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!” 11:28 Joshua son of Nun, the servant ³¹  of Moses, one of his choice young men, ³²  said, ³³  “My lord Moses, stop them!” ³⁴  11:29 Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? ³⁵  I wish that ³⁶  all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” 11:30 Then Moses returned to the camp along with the elders of Israel.

Isaiah 63:11

63:11 His people remembered the ancient times. ³⁷ 

Where is the one who brought them up out of the sea,

along with the shepherd of ³⁸  his flock?

Where is the one who placed his holy Spirit among them, ³⁹ 

[4:9]  ¹ tc The present translation assumes the reading חֲזִי (khazi, “consider”) rather than the MT חֶזְוֵי (khezvey, “visions”). The MT implies that the king required Daniel to disclose both the dream and its interpretation, as in chapter 2. But in the following verses Nebuchadnezzar recounts his dream, while Daniel presents only its interpretation.

[4:18]  ² tc The present translation reads פִּשְׁרֵהּ (pishreh, “its interpretation”) with the Qere and many medieval Hebrew MSS; the Kethib is פִּשְׁרָא (pishra’, “the interpretation”); so also v. 16.

[4:18]  ³ tn Aram “of.”

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Aram “whose dwelling is not with flesh.”

[5:11]  ⁵ tn Aram “[there were] discovered to be in him.”

[5:11]  ⁶ tn Aram “wisdom like the wisdom.” This would be redundant in terms of English style.

[5:11]  ⁷ tc Theodotion lacks the phrase “and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods.”

[5:11]  ⁸ tc The MT includes a redundant reference to “your father the king” at the end of v. 11. None of the attempts to explain this phrase as original are very convincing. The present translation deletes the phrase, following Theodotion and the Syriac.

[5:14]  ⁹ tn Aram “there has been found in you.”

[11:17]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect tense here is to be classified as a final imperfect, showing the result of this action by God. Moses would be relieved of some of the responsibility when these others were given the grace to understand and to resolve cases.

[11:18]  ¹¹ tn The Hitpael is used to stress that they are to prepare for a holy appearance. The day was going to be special and so required their being set apart for it. But it is a holy day in the sense of the judgment that was to follow.

[11:18]  ¹² tn Heb “in the ears.”

[11:18]  ¹³ tn Possibly this could be given an optative translation, to reflect the earlier one: “O that someone would give….” But the verb is not the same; here it is the Hiphil of the verb “to eat” – “who will make us eat” (i.e., provide meat for us to eat).

[11:18]  ¹⁴ tn The word “life” is not in the text. The expression is simply “it was for us,” or “we had good,” meaning “we had it good,” or “life was good.”

[11:20]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a month of days.” So also in v. 21.

[11:20]  ¹⁶ 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.

[11:20]  ¹⁷ 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.

[11:20]  ¹⁸ 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?”

[11:21]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the people who I am in their midst,” i.e., among whom I am.

[11:21]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew sentence stresses the number. The sentence begins “600,000….”

[11:21]  ²¹ tn The word order places the object first here: “Meat I will give them.” This adds to the contrast between the number and the statement of the Lord.

[11:21]  ²² tn The verb is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the sequence from the preceding imperfect tense. However, this verb may be subordinated to the preceding to express a purpose clause.

[11:23]  ²³ 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.

[11:23]  ²⁴ tn Or “will happen” (TEV); KJV “shall come to pass unto thee.”

[11:25]  ²⁵ tn Heb “on him”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:25]  ²⁶ tn The temporal clause is introduced by the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), which need not be translated. It introduces the time of the infinitive as past time narrative. The infinitive construct is from נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”). The figurative expression of the Spirit resting upon them indicates the temporary indwelling and empowering by the Spirit in their lives.

[11:25]  ²⁷ tn The text may mean that these men gave ecstatic utterances, much like Saul did when the Spirit came upon him and he made the same prophetic utterances (see 1 Sam 10:10-13). But there is no strong evidence for this (see K. L. Barker, “Zechariah,” EBC 7:605-6). In fact there is no consensus among scholars as to the origin and meaning of the verb “prophesy” or the noun “prophet.” It has something to do with speech, being God’s spokesman or spokeswoman or making predictions or authoritative utterances or ecstatic utterances. It certainly does mean that the same Holy Spirit, the same divine provision that was for Moses to enable him to do the things that God had commanded him to do, was now given to them. It would have included wisdom and power with what they were saying and doing – in a way that was visible and demonstrable to the people! The people needed to know that the same provision was given to these men, authenticating their leadership among the clans. And so it could not simply be a change in their understanding and wisdom.

[11:25]  ²⁸ tn The final verb of the clause stresses that this was not repeated: “they did not add” is the literal rendering of וְלֹא יָסָפוּ (vÿlo’ yasafu). It was a one-time spiritual experience associated with their installation.

[11:26]  ²⁹ tn The form of the word is the passive participle כְּתֻבִים (kÿtuvim, “written”). It is normally taken to mean “among those registered,” but it is not clear if that means they were to be among the seventy or not. That seems unlikely since there is no mention of the seventy being registered, and vv. 24-25 says all seventy went out and prophesied. The registration may be to eldership, or the role of the officer.

[11:27]  ³⁰ tn The article indicates that the “young man” was definite in the mind of the writer, but indefinite in English.

[11:28]  ³¹ tn The form is the Piel participle מְשָׁרֵת (mÿsharet), meaning “minister, servant, assistant.” The word has a loftier meaning than the ordinary word for slave.

[11:28]  ³² tn The verb is בָּחַר (bakhar, “to choose”); here the form is the masculine plural participle with a suffix, serving as the object of the preposition מִן (min). It would therefore mean “[one of] his chosen men,” or “[one of] his choice men.”

[11:28]  ³³ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[11:28]  ³⁴ sn The effort of Joshua is to protect Moses’ prerogative as leader by stopping these men in the camp from prophesying. Joshua did not understand the significance in the Lord’s plan to let other share the burden of leadership.

[11:29]  ³⁵ tn The Piel participle מְקַנֵּא (mÿqanne’) serves as a verb here in this interrogative sentence. The word means “to be jealous; to be envious.” That can be in a good sense, such as with the translation “zeal,” or it can be in a negative sense as here. Joshua’s apparent “zeal” is questioned by Moses – was he zealous/envious for Moses sake, or for some other reason?

[11:29]  ³⁶ tn The optative is expressed by the interrogative clause in Hebrew, “who will give….” Moses expresses here the wish that the whole nation would have that portion of the Spirit. The new covenant, of course, would turn Moses’ wish into a certainty.

[63:11]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and he remembered the days of antiquity, Moses, his people.” The syntax of the statement is unclear. The translation assumes that “his people” is the subject of the verb “remembered.” If original, “Moses” is in apposition to “the days of antiquity,” more precisely identifying the time period referred to. However, the syntactical awkwardness suggests that “Moses” may have been an early marginal note (perhaps identifying “the shepherd of his flock” two lines later) that has worked its way into the text.

[63:11]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew text has a plural form, which if retained and taken as a numerical plural, would probably refer to Moses, Aaron, and the Israelite tribal leaders at the time of the Exodus. Most prefer to emend the form to the singular (רָעָה, ra’ah) and understand this as a reference just to Moses.

[63:11]  ³⁹ sn See the note at v. 10.