Numbers 1:4

1:4 And to help you ¹  there is to be a man from each ²  tribe, each man ³  the head ⁴  of his family. ⁵ 

Numbers 5:28

5:28 But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she will be free of ill effects ⁶  and will be able to bear children.

Numbers 11:3

11:3 So he called the name of that place Taberah ⁷  because there the fire of the Lord burned among them.

Numbers 14:1

The Israelites Respond in Unbelief

14:1 ⁸ Then all the community raised a loud cry, ⁹  and the people wept ¹⁰  that night.

Numbers 14:41

14:41 But Moses said, “Why ¹¹  are you now transgressing the commandment ¹²  of the Lord? It will not succeed!

Numbers 14:45

14:45 So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped ¹³  down and attacked them ¹⁴  as far as Hormah. ¹⁵ 

Numbers 19:15

19:15 And every open container that has no covering fastened on it is unclean.

Numbers 23:6

23:6 So he returned to him, and he was still ¹⁶  standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

Numbers 24:24

24:24 Ships will come from the coast of Kittim, ¹⁷ 

and will afflict Asshur, ¹⁸  and will afflict Eber,

and he will also perish forever.” ¹⁹ 

Numbers 32:4

32:4 the land that the Lord subdued ²⁰  before the community of Israel, is ideal for cattle, and your servants have cattle.”

Numbers 33:40

33:40 The king of Arad, the Canaanite king who lived in the south of the land of Canaan, heard about the approach of the Israelites.

Numbers 35:16

35:16 “But if he hits someone with an iron tool so that he dies, ²¹  he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

Numbers 35:31

35:31 Moreover, you must not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; he must surely be put to death.

[1:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and with you.”

[1:4]  ² tn The construction uses the noun in a distributive sense: “a man, a man for a tribe,” meaning a man for each tribe.

[1:4]  ³ tn The clause expresses a distributive function, “a man” means “each man.”

[1:4]  ⁴ sn See J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word ראשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “the house of his fathers.”

[5:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “will be free”; the words “of ill effects” have been supplied as a clarification.

[11:3]  ¹¹ tn The name תַּבְעֵרָה (tav’erah) is given to the spot as a commemorative of the wilderness experience. It is explained by the formula using the same verbal root, “to burn.” Such naming narratives are found dozens of times in the OT, and most frequently in the Pentateuch. The explanation is seldom an exact etymology, and so in the literature is called a popular etymology. It is best to explain the connection as a figure of speech, a paronomasia, which is a phonetic wordplay that may or may not be etymologically connected. Usually the name is connected to the explanation by a play on the verbal root – here the preterite explaining the noun. The significance of commemorating the place by such a device is to “burn” it into the memory of Israel. The narrative itself would be remembered more easily by the name and its motif. The namings in the wilderness wanderings remind the faithful of unbelief, and warn us all not to murmur as they murmured. See further A. P. Ross, “Paronomasia and Popular Etymologies in the Naming Narrative of the Old Testament,” Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1982.

[14:1]  ¹⁶ sn This chapter forms part of the story already begun. There are three major sections here: dissatisfaction with the reports (vv. 1-10), the threat of divine punishment (vv. 11-38), and the defeat of the Israelites (vv. 39-45). See K. D. Sakenfeld, “The Problem of Divine Forgiveness in Num 14,” CBQ 37 (1975): 317-30; also J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word רֹאשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.

[14:1]  ¹⁷ tn The two verbs “lifted up their voice and cried” form a hendiadys; the idiom of raising the voice means that they cried aloud.

[14:1]  ¹⁸ tn There are a number of things that the verb “to weep” or “wail” can connote. It could reflect joy, grief, lamentation, or repentance, but here it reflects fear, hopelessness, or vexation at the thought of coming all this way and being defeated by the Canaanite armies. See Judg 20:23, 26.

[14:41]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Heb “mouth.”

[14:45]  ²⁶ tn Heb “came down.”

[14:45]  ²⁷ tn The verb used here means “crush by beating,” or “pounded” them. The Greek text used “cut them in pieces.”

[14:45]  ²⁸ tn The name “Hormah” means “destruction”; it is from the word that means “ban, devote” for either destruction or temple use.

[23:6]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew text draws the vividness of the scene with the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) – Balaam returned, and there he was, standing there.

[24:24]  ³⁶ tc The MT is difficult. The Kittim refers normally to Cyprus, or any maritime people to the west. W. F. Albright proposed emending the line to “islands will gather in the north, ships from the distant sea” (“The Oracles of Balaam,” JBL 63 [1944]: 222-23). Some commentators accept that reading as the original state of the text, since the present MT makes little sense.

[24:24]  ³⁷ tn Or perhaps “Assyria” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[24:24]  ³⁸ tn Or “it will end in utter destruction.”

[32:4]  ⁴¹ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of נָכָה (nakhah), a term that can mean “smite, strike, attack, destroy.”

[35:16]  ⁴⁶ tn the verb is the preterite of “die.” The sentence has :“if…he strikes him and he dies.” The vav (ו) consecutive is showing the natural result of the blow.