Discovery BoxNumbers 10:11
Context10:11 1 On the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the testimony. 2
Numbers 12:10
Context12:10 When 3 the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became 4 leprous 5 as snow. Then Aaron looked at 6 Miriam, and she was leprous!
Numbers 21:3
Context21:3 The Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, 7 and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called 8 Hormah.
[10:11] 1 sn This section is somewhat mechanical: It begins with an introduction (vv. 11, 12), and then begins with Judah (vv. 13-17), followed by the rest of the tribes (vv. 18-27), and finally closes with a summary (v. 28). The last few verses (vv. 29-36) treat the departure of Hobab.
[10:11] 2 tc Smr inserts a lengthy portion from Deut 1:6-8, expressing the command for Israel to take the land from the Amorites.
[12:10] 3 tn The disjunctive vav (ו) is here introducing a circumstantial clause of time.
[12:10] 4 tn There is no verb “became” in this line. The second half of the line is introduced with the particle הִנֵה (hinneh, “look, behold”) in its archaic sense. This deictic use is intended to make the reader focus on Miriam as well.
[12:10] 5 sn The word “leprosy” and “leprous” covers a wide variety of skin diseases, and need not be limited to the actual disease of leprosy known today as Hansen’s disease. The description of it here has to do with snow, either the whiteness or the wetness. If that is the case then there would be open wounds and sores – like Job’s illness (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 95-96).
[21:3] 5 tc Smr, Greek, and Syriac add “into his hand.”
[21:3] 6 tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject, and so here too is made passive. The name “Hormah” is etymologically connected to the verb “utterly destroy,” forming the popular etymology (or paronomasia, a phonetic wordplay capturing the significance of the event).
