Exodus 32:19-20

32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. ¹  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. ²  32:20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it ³  to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. ⁴ 

Numbers 25:6-11

25:6 Just then ⁵  one of the Israelites came and brought to his brothers ⁶  a Midianite woman in the plain view of Moses and of ⁷  the whole community of the Israelites, while they ⁸  were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 25:7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, ⁹  he got up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand, 25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent ¹⁰  and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. ¹¹  So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. ¹²  25:9 Those that died in the plague were 24,000.

The Aftermath

25:10 The Lord spoke to Moses: 25:11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal ¹³  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. ¹⁴ 

Numbers 25:1

Israel’s Sin with the Moabite Women

25:1 ¹⁵ When ¹⁶  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ¹⁷  with the daughters of Moab.

Numbers 19:10

19:10 The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer must wash his clothes and be ceremonially unclean until evening. This will be a permanent ordinance both for the Israelites and the resident foreigner who lives among them.

Numbers 19:14

19:14 “‘This is the law: When a man dies ¹⁸  in a tent, anyone who comes into the tent and all who are in the tent will be ceremonially unclean seven days.

Job 32:2-3

32:2 Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry. ¹⁹  He was angry ²⁰  with Job for justifying ²¹  himself rather than God. ²²  32:3 With Job’s ²³  three friends he was also angry, because they could not find ²⁴  an answer, and so declared Job guilty. ²⁵ 

Job 32:18-20

32:18 For I am full of words,

and the spirit within me ²⁶  constrains me. ²⁷ 

32:19 Inside I am like wine which has no outlet, ²⁸ 

like new wineskins ²⁹  ready to burst!

32:20 I will speak, ³⁰  so that I may find relief;

I will open my lips, so that I may answer.

Psalms 69:9

69:9 Certainly ³¹  zeal for ³²  your house ³³  consumes me;

I endure the insults of those who insult you. ³⁴ 

Psalms 119:136

119:136 Tears stream down from my eyes, ³⁵ 

because people ³⁶  do not keep your law.

Psalms 119:158

119:158 I take note of the treacherous and despise them,

because they do not keep your instructions. ³⁷ 

Jeremiah 20:9

20:9 Sometimes I think, “I will make no mention of his message.

I will not speak as his messenger ³⁸  any more.”

But then ³⁹  his message becomes like a fire

locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. ⁴⁰ 

I grow weary of trying to hold it in;

I cannot contain it.

Micah 3:8

3:8 But I ⁴¹  am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives,

and have a strong commitment to justice. ⁴² 

This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion,

and Israel with its sin. ⁴³ 

Mark 3:5

3:5 After looking around ⁴⁴  at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, ⁴⁵  he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁴⁶ 

John 2:13

2:13 Now the Jewish feast of Passover ⁴⁷  was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ 

John 2:2

2:2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. ⁴⁹ 

John 2:7

2:7 Jesus told the servants, ⁵⁰  “Fill the water jars with water.” So they filled them up to the very top.

[32:19]  ¹ tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”

[32:19]  ² sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.

[32:20]  ³ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

[32:20]  ⁴ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

[25:6]  ⁵ tn The verse begins with the deictic particle וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh), pointing out the action that was taking place. It stresses the immediacy of the action to the reader.

[25:6]  ⁶ tn Or “to his family”; or “to his clan.”

[25:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of.”

[25:6]  ⁸ tn The vav (ו) at the beginning of the clause is a disjunctive because it is prefixed to the nonverbal form. In this context it is best interpreted as a circumstantial clause, stressing that this happened “while” people were weeping over the sin.

[25:7]  ⁹ tn The first clause is subordinated to the second because both begin with the preterite verbal form, and there is clearly a logical and/or chronological sequence involved.

[25:8]  ¹⁰ tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).

[25:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.

[25:8]  ¹² sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the Lord himself had had the guilty put to death. And there was already some plague breaking out in the camp that had to be stopped. And so in his zeal he dramatically put an end to this incident, that served to stop the rest and end the plague.

[25:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.

[25:11]  ¹⁴ tn The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.

[25:1]  ¹⁵ sn Chapter 25 tells of Israel’s sins on the steppes of Moab, and God’s punishment. In the overall plan of the book, here we have another possible threat to God’s program, although here it comes from within the camp (Balaam was the threat from without). If the Moabites could not defeat them one way, they would try another. The chapter has three parts: fornication (vv. 1-3), God’s punishment (vv. 4-9), and aftermath (vv. 10-18). See further G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 105-21; and S. C. Reif, “What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 (1971): 200-206.

[25:1]  ¹⁶ tn This first preterite is subordinated to the next as a temporal clause; it is not giving a parallel action, but the setting for the event.

[25:1]  ¹⁷ sn The account apparently means that the men were having sex with the Moabite women. Why the men submitted to such a temptation at this point is hard to say. It may be that as military heroes the men took liberties with the women of occupied territories.

[19:14]  ¹⁸ tn The word order gives the classification and then the condition: “a man, when he dies….”

[32:2]  ¹⁹ tn The verse begins with וַיִּחַר אַף (vayyikhar ’af, “and the anger became hot”), meaning Elihu became very angry.

[32:2]  ²⁰ tn The second comment about Elihu’s anger comes right before the statement of its cause. Now the perfect verb is used: “he was angry.”

[32:2]  ²¹ tn The explanation is the causal clause עַל־צַדְּקוֹ נַפְשׁוֹ (’al-tsaddÿqo nafsho, “because he justified himself”). It is the preposition with the Piel infinitive construct with a suffixed subjective genitive.

[32:2]  ²² tc The LXX and Latin versions soften the expression slightly by saying “before God.”

[32:3]  ²³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Job) has been specified in the translation to indicate whose friends they were.

[32:3]  ²⁴ tn The perfect verb should be given the category of potential perfect here.

[32:3]  ²⁵ tc This is one of the eighteen “corrections of the scribes” (tiqqune sopherim); it originally read, “and they declared God [in the wrong].” The thought was that in abandoning the debate they had conceded Job’s point.

[32:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the spirit of my belly.”

[32:18]  ²⁷ tn The verb צוּק (tsuq) means “to constrain; to urge; to press.” It is used in Judg 14:17; 16:16 with the sense of wearing someone down with repeated entreaties. Elihu cannot withhold himself any longer.

[32:19]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in my belly I am like wine that is not opened” (a Niphal imperfect), meaning sealed up with no place to escape.

[32:19]  ²⁹ tc The Hebrew text has כְּאֹבוֹת חֲדָשִׁים (kÿ’ovot khadashim), traditionally rendered “like new wineskins.” But only here does the phrase have this meaning. The LXX has “smiths” for “new,” thus “like smith’s bellows.” A. Guillaume connects the word with an Arabic word for a wide vessel for wine shaped like a cup (“Archaeological and philological note on Job 32:19,” PEQ 93 [1961]: 147-50). Some have been found in archaeological sites. The poor would use skins, the rich would use jars. The key to putting this together is the verb at the end of the line, יִבָּקֵעַ (yibbaqea’, “that are ready to burst”). The point of the statement is that Elihu is bursting to speak, and until now has not had the opening.

[32:20]  ³⁰ tn The cohortative expresses Elihu’s resolve to speak.

[69:9]  ³¹ tn Or “for.” This verse explains that the psalmist’s suffering is due to his allegiance to God.

[69:9]  ³² tn Or “devotion to.”

[69:9]  ³³ sn God’s house, the temple, here represents by metonymy God himself.

[69:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the insults of those who insult you fall upon me.”

[119:136]  ³⁵ tn Heb “[with] flowing streams my eyes go down.”

[119:136]  ³⁶ tn Heb “they”; even though somewhat generic, the referent (people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[119:158]  ³⁷ tn Heb “your word.”

[20:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “speak in his name.” This idiom occurs in passages where someone functions as the messenger under the authority of another. See Exod 5:23; Deut 18:19, 29:20; Jer 14:14. The antecedent in the first line is quite commonly misidentified as being “him,” i.e., the Lord. Comparison, however, with the rest of the context, especially the consequential clause “then it becomes” (וְהָיָה, vÿhayah), and Jer 23:36 shows that it is “the word of the Lord.”

[20:9]  ³⁹ tn The English sentence has again been restructured for the sake of English style. The Hebrew construction involves two vav consecutive perfects in a condition and consequence relation, “If I say to myself…then it [his word] becomes.” See GKC 337 §112.kk for the construction.

[20:9]  ⁴⁰ sn Heb “It is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones.” In addition to standing as part for the whole, the “bones” for the person (e.g., Ps 35:10), the bones were associated with fear (e.g., Job 4:14) and with pain (e.g., Job 33:19, Ps 102:3 [102:4 HT]) and joy or sorrow (e.g., Ps 51:8 [51:10 HT]). As has been mentioned several times, the heart was connected with intellectual and volitional concerns.

[3:8]  ⁴¹ sn The prophet Micah speaks here and contrasts himself with the mercenaries just denounced by the Lord in the preceding verses.

[3:8]  ⁴² tn Heb “am full of power, the Spirit of the Lord, and justice and strength.” The appositional phrase “the Spirit of the Lord” explains the source of the prophet’s power. The phrase “justice and strength” is understood here as a hendiadys, referring to the prophet’s strong sense of justice.

[3:8]  ⁴³ tn Heb “to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin.” The words “this enables me” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:5]  ⁴⁴ tn The aorist participle περιβλεψάμενος (peribleyameno") has been translated as antecedent (prior) to the action of the main verb. It could also be translated as contemporaneous (“Looking around…he said”).

[3:5]  ⁴⁵ tn This term is a collective singular in the Greek text.

[3:5]  ⁴⁶ sn The passive was restored points to healing by God. Now the question became: Would God exercise his power through Jesus, if what Jesus was doing were wrong? Note also Jesus’ “labor.” He simply spoke and it was so.

[2:13]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “the Passover of the Jews.” This is first of at least three (and possibly four) Passovers mentioned in John’s Gospel. If it is assumed that the Passovers appear in the Gospel in their chronological order (and following a date of a.d. 33 for the crucifixion), this would be the Passover of the spring of a.d. 30, the first of Jesus’ public ministry. There is a clear reference to another Passover in 6:4, and another still in 11:55, 12:1, 13:1, 18:28, 39, and 19:14. The latter would be the Passover of a.d. 33. There is a possibility that 5:1 also refers to a Passover, in which case it would be the second of Jesus’ public ministry (a.d. 31), while 6:4 would refer to the third (a.d. 32) and the remaining references would refer to the final Passover at the time of the crucifixion. It is entirely possible, however, that the Passovers occurring in the Fourth Gospel are not intended to be understood as listed in chronological sequence. If the material of the Fourth Gospel originally existed in the form of homilies or sermons by the Apostle John on the life and ministry of Jesus, the present arrangement would not have to be in strict chronological order (it does not explicitly claim to be). In this case the Passover mentioned in 2:13, for example, might actually be later in Jesus’ public ministry than it might at first glance appear. This leads, however, to a discussion of an even greater problem in the passage, the relationship of the temple cleansing in John’s Gospel to the similar account in the synoptic gospels.

[2:13]  ⁴⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:2]  ⁴⁹ sn There is no clue to the identity of the bride and groom, but in all probability either relatives or friends of Jesus’ family were involved, since Jesus’ mother and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the celebration. The attitude of Mary in approaching Jesus and asking him to do something when the wine ran out also suggests that familial obligations were involved.

[2:7]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “them” (it is clear from the context that the servants are addressed).