Deuteronomy 12:15

Regulations for Profane Slaughter

12:15 On the other hand, you may slaughter and eat meat as you please when the Lord your God blesses you ¹  in all your villages. ²  Both the ritually pure and impure may eat it, whether it is a gazelle or an ibex.

Genesis 31:30

31:30 Now I understand that ³  you have gone away ⁴  because you longed desperately ⁵  for your father’s house. Yet why did you steal my gods?” ⁶ 

Numbers 11:4

Complaints about Food

11:4 ⁷ Now the mixed multitude ⁸  who were among them craved more desirable foods, ⁹  and so the Israelites wept again ¹⁰  and said, “If only we had meat to eat! ¹¹ 

Numbers 11:20

11:20 but a whole month, ¹²  until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, ¹³  because you have despised ¹⁴  the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why ¹⁵  did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

Numbers 11:34

11:34 So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, ¹⁶  because there they buried the people that craved different food. ¹⁷ 

Numbers 11:2

11:2 When the people cried to Moses, he ¹⁸  prayed to the Lord, and the fire died out. ¹⁹ 

Numbers 13:1

Spies Sent Out

13:1 ²⁰ The Lord spoke ²¹  to Moses:

Numbers 23:15

23:15 And Balaam ²²  said to Balak, “Station yourself here ²³  by your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord there.

Psalms 63:1

Psalm 63 ²⁴ 

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness. ²⁵ 

63:1 O God, you are my God! I long for you! ²⁶ 

My soul thirsts ²⁷  for you,

my flesh yearns for you,

in a dry and parched ²⁸  land where there is no water.

Psalms 84:2

84:2 I desperately want to be ²⁹ 

in the courts of the Lord’s temple. ³⁰ 

My heart and my entire being ³¹  shout for joy

to the living God.

Psalms 107:9

107:9 For he has satisfied those who thirst, ³² 

and those who hunger he has filled with food. ³³ 

Psalms 119:20

119:20 I desperately long to know ³⁴ 

your regulations at all times.

Psalms 119:40

119:40 Look, I long for your precepts.

Revive me with your deliverance! ³⁵ 

Psalms 119:174

119:174 I long for your deliverance, O Lord;

I find delight in your law.

Psalms 119:2

119:2 How blessed are those who observe his rules,

and seek him with all their heart,

Colossians 1:14

1:14 in whom we have redemption, ³⁶  the forgiveness of sins.

Philippians 1:8

1:8 For God is my witness that I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 2:26

2:26 Indeed, he greatly missed all of you and was distressed because you heard that he had been ill.

[12:15]  ¹ tn Heb “only in all the desire of your soul you may sacrifice and eat flesh according to the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given to you.”

[12:15]  ² tn Heb “gates” (so KJV, NASB; likewise in vv. 17, 18).

[31:30]  ³ tn Heb “and now.” The words “I understand that” have been supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[31:30]  ⁴ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the perfect verbal form to emphasize the certainty of the action.

[31:30]  ⁵ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the perfect verbal form to emphasize the degree of emotion involved.

[31:30]  ⁶ sn Yet why did you steal my gods? This last sentence is dropped into the speech rather suddenly. See C. Mabee, “Jacob and Laban: The Structure of Judicial Proceedings,” VT 30 (1980): 192-207, and G. W. Coats, “Self-Abasement and Insult Formulas,” JBL 91 (1972): 90-92.

[11:4]  ⁷ sn The story of the sending of the quail is a good example of poetic justice, or talionic justice. God had provided for the people, but even in that provision they were not satisfied, for they remembered other foods they had in Egypt. No doubt there was not the variety of foods in the Sinai that might have been available in Egypt, but their life had been bitter bondage there as well. They had cried to the Lord for salvation, but now they forget, as they remember things they used to have. God will give them what they crave, but it will not do for them what they desire. For more information on this story, see B. J. Malina, The Palestinian Manna Tradition. For the attempt to explain manna and the other foods by natural phenomena, see F. W. Bodenheimer, “The Manna of Sinai,” BA 10 (1947): 1-6.

[11:4]  ⁸ tn The mixed multitude (or “rabble,” so NASB, NIV, NRSV; NLT “foreign rabble”) is the translation of an unusual word, הֲָאסַפְסֻף (ha’safsuf). It occurs in the Hebrew Bible only here. It may mean “a gathering of people” from the verb אָסַף (’asaf), yielding the idea of a mixed multitude (in line with Exod 12:38). But the root is different, and so no clear connection can be established. Many commentators therefore think the word is stronger, showing contempt through a word that would be equivalent to “riff-raff.”

[11:4]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew simply uses the cognate accusative, saying “they craved a craving” (הִתְאַוּוּ תַּאֲוָה, hit’avvu ta’vah), but the context shows that they had this strong craving for food. The verb describes a strong desire, which is not always negative (Ps 132:13-14). But the word is a significant one in the Torah; it was used in the garden story for Eve’s desire for the tree, and it is used in the Decalogue in the warning against coveting (Deut 5:21).

[11:4]  ¹⁰ tc The Greek and the Latin versions read “and they sat down” for “and they returned,” involving just a change in vocalization (which they did not have). This may reflect the same expression in Judg 20:26. But the change does not improve this verse.

[11:4]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew expresses the strong wish or longing idiomatically: “Who will give us flesh to eat?” It is a rhetorical expression not intended to be taken literally, but merely to give expression to the longing they had. See GKC 476 §151.a.1.

[11:20]  ¹² tn Heb “a month of days.” So also in v. 21.

[11:20]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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?”

[11:34]  ¹⁶ sn The name “the graves of the ones who craved” is again explained by a wordplay, a popular etymology. In Hebrew קִבְרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה (qivrot hatta’avah) is the technical name. It is the place that the people craved the meat, longing for the meat of Egypt, and basically rebelled against God. The naming marks another station in the wilderness where the people failed to accept God’s good gifts with grace and to pray for their other needs to be met.

[11:34]  ¹⁷ tn The words “different food” are implied, and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[11:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Moses.”

[11:2]  ¹⁹ sn Here is the pattern that will become in the wilderness experience so common – the complaining turns to a cry to Moses, which is then interpreted as a prayer to the Lord, and there is healing. The sequence presents a symbolic lesson, an illustration of the intercession of the Holy Spirit. The NT will say that in times of suffering Christians do not know how to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for them, changing their cries into the proper prayers (Rom 8).

[13:1]  ²⁰ sn Chapter 13 provides the names of the spies sent into the land (vv. 1-16), their instructions (vv. 17-20), their activities (vv. 21-25), and their reports (vv. 26-33). It is a chapter that serves as a good lesson on faith, for some of the spies walked by faith, and some by sight.

[13:1]  ²¹ tn The verse starts with the vav (ו) consecutive on the verb: “and….”

[23:15]  ²² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:15]  ²³ tn The verse uses כֹּה (koh) twice: “Station yourself here…I will meet [the Lord] there.”

[63:1]  ²⁴ sn Psalm 63. The psalmist expresses his intense desire to be in God’s presence and confidently affirms that God will judge his enemies.

[63:1]  ²⁵ sn According to the psalm superscription David wrote the psalm while in the “wilderness of Judah.” Perhaps this refers to the period described in 1 Sam 23-24 or to the incident mentioned in 2 Sam 15:23.

[63:1]  ²⁶ tn Or “I will seek you.”

[63:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “I thirst.”

[63:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” This may picture the land as “faint” or “weary,” or it may allude to the effect this dry desert has on those who are forced to live in it.

[84:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “my soul longs, it even pines for.”

[84:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the courts of the Lord” (see Ps 65:4).

[84:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “my flesh,” which stands for his whole person and being.

[107:9]  ³² tn Heb “[the] longing throat.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), which frequently refers to one’s very being or soul, here probably refers to one’s parched “throat” (note the parallelism with נֶפֱשׁ רְעֵבָה, nefesh rÿ’evah, “hungry throat”).

[107:9]  ³³ tn Heb “and [the] hungry throat he has filled [with] good.”

[119:20]  ³⁴ tn Heb “my soul languishes for longing for.”

[119:40]  ³⁵ tn Or “righteousness.”

[1:14]  ³⁶ tc διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ (dia tou {aimato" autou, “through his blood”) is read at this juncture by several minuscule mss (614 630 1505 2464 al) as well as a few, mostly secondary, versional and patristic witnesses. But the reading was prompted by the parallel in Eph 1:7 where the wording is solid. If these words had been in the original of Colossians, why would scribes omit them here but not in Eph 1:7? Further, the testimony on behalf of the shorter reading is quite overwhelming: {א A B C D F G Ψ 075 0150 6 33 1739 1881 Ï latt co as well as several other versions and fathers}. The conviction that “through his blood” is not authentic in Col 1:14 is as strong as the conviction that these words are authentic in Eph 1:7.