Jeremiah 32:5

32:5 Zedekiah will be carried off to Babylon and will remain there until I have fully dealt with him. ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it! ²  Even if you ³  continue to fight against the Babylonians, ⁴  you cannot win.’”

Numbers 14:41

14:41 But Moses said, “Why ⁵  are you now transgressing the commandment ⁶  of the Lord? It will not succeed!

Numbers 14:2

14:2 And all the Israelites murmured ⁷  against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died ⁸  in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished ⁹  in this wilderness!

Numbers 13:12

13:12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;

[32:5]  ¹ tn This is the verb (פָּקַד, paqad) that has been met with several times in the book of Jeremiah, most often in the ominous sense of “punish” (e.g., 6:15; 11:22; 23:24) but also in the good sense of “resume concern for” (e.g., 27:22; 29:10). Here it is obviously in the ominous sense referring to his imprisonment and ultimate death (52:11).

[32:5]  ² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[32:5]  ³ sn The pronouns are plural here, referring to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Jeremiah had counseled that they surrender (cf. 27:12; 21:8-10) because they couldn’t succeed against the Babylonian army even under the most favorable circumstances (37:3-10).

[32:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[14:41]  ⁵ tn The line literally has, “Why is this [that] you are transgressing….” The demonstrative pronoun is enclitic; it brings the force of “why in the world are you doing this now?”

[14:41]  ⁶ tn Heb “mouth.”

[14:2]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew verb “to murmur” is לוּן (lun). It is a strong word, signifying far more than complaining or grumbling, as some of the modern translations have it. The word is most often connected to the wilderness experience. It is paralleled in the literature with the word “to rebel.” The murmuring is like a parliamentary vote of no confidence, for they no longer trusted their leaders and wished to choose a new leader and return. This “return to Egypt” becomes a symbol of their lack of faith in the Lord.

[14:2]  ⁸ tn The optative is expressed by לוּ (lu) and then the verb, here the perfect tense מַתְנוּ (matnu) – “O that we had died….” Had they wanted to die in Egypt they should not have cried out to the Lord to deliver them from bondage. Here the people became consumed with the fear and worry of what lay ahead, and in their panic they revealed a lack of trust in God.

[14:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “died.”