Genesis 20:3

20:3 But God appeared ¹  to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead ²  because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” ³ 

Numbers 17:12-13

17:12 The Israelites said to Moses, “We are bound to die! ⁴  We perish, we all perish! 17:13 (17:28) ⁵  Anyone who even comes close to the tabernacle of the Lord will die! Are we all to die?” ⁶ 

[20:3]  ¹ tn Heb “came.”

[20:3]  ² tn Heb “Look, you [are] dead.” The Hebrew construction uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with a second person pronominal particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with by the participle. It is a highly rhetorical expression.

[20:3]  ³ tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.

[17:12]  ⁴ tn The use of הֵן (hen) and the perfect tense in the nuance of a prophetic perfect expresses their conviction that they were bound to die – it was certain (see GKC 312-13 §106.n).

[17:13]  ⁵ sn Num 17:13 in the English Bible is 17:28 in the Hebrew text (BHS). See also the note on 16:36.

[17:13]  ⁶ tn The verse stresses the completeness of their death: “will we be consumed by dying” (הַאִם תַּמְנוּ לִגְוֹעַ, ha’im tamnu ligvoa’).