Exodus 14:25

14:25 He jammed ¹  the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving, ²  and the Egyptians said, “Let’s flee ³  from Israel, for the Lord fights ⁴  for them against Egypt!”

Numbers 23:8

23:8 How ⁵  can I curse ⁶  one whom God has not cursed,

or how can I denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced?

Numbers 23:23

23:23 For there is no spell against ⁷  Jacob,

nor is there any divination against Israel.

At this time ⁸  it must be said ⁹  of Jacob

and of Israel, ‘Look at ¹⁰  what God has done!’

Numbers 23:1

Balaam Blesses Israel

23:1 ¹¹ Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

Numbers 2:2

2:2 “Every one ¹²  of the Israelites must camp ¹³  under his standard with the emblems of his family; ¹⁴  they must camp at some distance ¹⁵  around the tent of meeting. ¹⁶ 

Numbers 4:8

4:8 They must spread over them a scarlet cloth, and cover the same with a covering of fine leather; and they must insert its poles.

Ezra 1:3

1:3 Anyone from ¹⁷  his people among you (may his God be with him!) may go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and may build the temple of the Lord God of Israel – he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

Ezra 6:9-12

6:9 Whatever is needed – whether oxen or rams or lambs or burnt offerings for the God of heaven or wheat or salt or wine or oil, as required by ¹⁸  the priests who are in Jerusalem – must be given to them daily without any neglect, 6:10 so that they may be offering incense to the God of heaven and may be praying for the good fortune of the king and his family. ¹⁹ 

6:11 “I hereby give orders that if anyone changes this directive a beam is to be pulled out from his house and he is to be raised up and impaled ²⁰  on it, and his house is to be reduced ²¹  to a rubbish heap ²²  for this indiscretion. ²³  6:12 May God who makes his name to reside there overthrow any king or nation ²⁴  who reaches out ²⁵  to cause such change so as to destroy this temple of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given orders. Let them be carried out with precision!”

Ezra 7:20-21

7:20 The rest of the needs for the temple of your God that you may have to supply, ²⁶  you may do so from the royal treasury.

7:21 “I, King Artaxerxes, hereby issue orders to all the treasurers of ²⁷  Trans-Euphrates, that you precisely execute all that Ezra the priestly scribe of the law of the God of heaven may request of you –

Jeremiah 40:3

40:3 Now he has brought it about. The Lord has done just as he threatened to do. This disaster has happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. ²⁸ 

Daniel 2:47

2:47 The king replied to Daniel, “Certainly your God is a God of gods and Lord of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery!”

Daniel 3:29

3:29 I hereby decree ²⁹  that any people, nation, or language group that blasphemes ³⁰  the god of Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego will be dismembered and his home reduced to rubble! For there exists no other god who can deliver in this way.”

Daniel 6:26-27

6:26 I have issued an edict that throughout all the dominion of my kingdom people are to revere and fear the God of Daniel.

“For he is the living God;

he endures forever.

His kingdom will not be destroyed;

his authority is forever. ³¹ 

6:27 He rescues and delivers

and performs signs and wonders

in the heavens and on the earth.

He has rescued Daniel from the power ³²  of the lions!”

[14:25]  ¹ tn The word in the text is וַיָּסַר (vayyasar), which would be translated “and he turned aside” with the sense perhaps of removing the wheels. The reading in the LXX, Smr, and Syriac suggests a root אָסַר (’asar, “to bind”). The sense here might be “clogged – presumably by their sinking in the wet sand” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 120).

[14:25]  ² tn The clause is וַיְנַהֲגֵהוּ בִּכְבֵדֻת (vaynahagehu bikhvedut). The verb means “to drive a chariot”; here in the Piel it means “cause to drive.” The suffix is collective, and so the verbal form can be translated “and caused them to drive.” The idea of the next word is “heaviness” or “hardship”; it recalls the previous uses of related words to describe Pharaoh’s heart. Here it indicates that the driving of the crippled chariots was with difficulty.

[14:25]  ³ tn The cohortative has the hortatory use here, “Let’s flee.” Although the form is singular, the sense of it is plural and so hortatory can be used. The form is singular to agree with the singular subject, “Egypt,” which obviously means the Egyptian army. The word for “flee” is used when someone runs from fear of immanent danger and is a different word than the one used in 14:5.

[14:25]  ⁴ tn The form is the Niphal participle; it is used as the predicate here, that is, the verbal use: “the Lord is fighting.” This corresponds to the announcement in v. 14.

[23:8]  ⁵ tn The figure is erotesis, a rhetorical question. He is actually saying he cannot curse them because God has not cursed them.

[23:8]  ⁶ tn The imperfect tense should here be classified as a potential imperfect.

[23:23]  ⁷ tn Or “in Jacob.” But given the context the meaning “against” is preferable. The words describe two techniques of consulting God; the first has to do with observing omens in general (“enchantments”), and the second with casting lots or arrows of the like (“divinations” [Ezek 21:26]). See N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NCB), 295-96.

[23:23]  ⁸ tn The form is the preposition “like, as” and the word for “time” – according to the time, about this time, now.

[23:23]  ⁹ tn The Niphal imperfect here carries the nuance of obligation – one has to say in amazement that God has done something marvelous or “it must be said.”

[23:23]  ¹⁰ tn The words “look at” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.

[23:1]  ¹¹ sn The first part of Balaam’s activity ends in disaster for Balak – he blesses Israel. The chapter falls into four units: the first prophecy (vv. 1-10), the relocation (vv. 11-17), the second prophecy (vv. 18-24), and a further location (vv. 25-30).

[2:2]  ¹² tn Heb “a man by his own standard.”

[2:2]  ¹³ tn The imperfect tense is to be taken in the nuance of instruction.

[2:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “of/for the house of their fathers.”

[2:2]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew expression מִנֶּגֶד (minneged) means “from before” or “opposite; facing” and “at some distance” or “away from the front of” (see BDB 617 s.v. נֶגֶד 2.c.a; DCH 5:603-4 s.v. 3.b).

[2:2]  ¹⁶ sn The Israelites were camping as a military camp, each tribe with the standards and emblems of the family. The standard was the symbol fastened to the end of a pole and carried to battle. It served to rally the tribe to the battle. The Bible nowhere describes these, although the serpent emblem of Numbers 21:8-9 may give a clue. But they probably did not have shapes of animals in view of the prohibition in the Decalogue. The standards may have been smaller for the families than the ones for the tribes. See further K. A. Kitchen, “Some Egyptian Background to the Old Testament,” TynBul 5 (1960): 11; and T. W. Mann, Divine Presence and Guidance in Israelite Tradition, 169-73.

[1:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from all.”

[6:9]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “according to the word of.”

[6:10]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “for the life of the king and his sons.”

[6:11]  ²⁰ sn The practice referred to in v. 11 has been understood in various ways: hanging (cf. 1 Esd 6:32 and KJV); flogging (cf. NEB, NLT); impalement (BDB 1091 s.v. זְקַף; HALOT 1914 s.v. מחא hitpe; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV). The latter seems the most likely.

[6:11]  ²¹ tn Aram “made.”

[6:11]  ²² tn Aram “a dunghill.”

[6:11]  ²³ tn Aram “for this.”

[6:12]  ²⁴ tn Aram “people.”

[6:12]  ²⁵ tn Aram “who sends forth his hand.”

[7:20]  ²⁶ tn Aram “may fall to you to give.”

[7:21]  ²⁷ tn Aram “who are in.”

[40:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Because you [masc. pl.] sinned against the Lord and did not hearken to his voice [a common idiom for “obey him”], this thing has happened to you [masc. pl.].”

[3:29]  ²⁹ tn Aram “from me is placed an edict.”

[3:29]  ³⁰ tn Aram “speaks negligence.”

[6:26]  ³¹ tn Aram “until the end.”

[6:27]  ³² tn Aram “hand.”