Numbers 10:12

10:12 So the Israelites set out ¹  on their journeys from the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud settled in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers 12:16

12:16 After that the people moved from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers 13:3

13:3 So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command ²  of the Lord. All of them were leaders ³  of the Israelites.

Numbers 13:26

The Spies’ Reports

13:26 They came back ⁴  to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. ⁵  They reported ⁶  to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land.

Numbers 13:1

Spies Sent Out

13:1 ⁷ The Lord spoke ⁸  to Moses:

Numbers 25:1

Israel’s Sin with the Moabite Women

25:1 ⁹ When ¹⁰  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ¹¹  with the daughters of Moab.

[10:12]  ¹ sn The verb is the same as the noun: “they journeyed on their journeyings.” This underscores the point of their continual traveling.

[13:3]  ² tn Heb “mouth.”

[13:3]  ³ tn Heb “heads.”

[13:26]  ⁴ tn The construction literally has “and they went and they entered,” which may be smoothed out as a verbal hendiadys, the one verb modifying the other.

[13:26]  ⁵ sn Kadesh is Ain Qadeis, about 50 miles (83 km) south of Beer Sheba. It is called Kadesh-barnea in Num 32:8.

[13:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “They brought back word”; the verb is the Hiphil preterite of שׁוּב (shuv).

[13:1]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn The verse starts with the vav (ו) consecutive on the verb: “and….”

[25:1]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.