Discovery BoxNumbers 11:2-3
Context11:2 When the people cried to Moses, he 1 prayed to the Lord, and the fire died out. 2 11:3 So he called the name of that place Taberah 3 because there the fire of the Lord burned among them.
Numbers 16:35
Context16:35 Then a fire 4 went out from the Lord and devoured the 250 men who offered incense.
Numbers 31:10
Context31:10 They burned 5 all their towns 6 where they lived and all their encampments.
[11:2] 2 sn Here is the pattern that will become in the wilderness experience so common – the complaining turns to a cry to Moses, which is then interpreted as a prayer to the
[11:3] 3 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.
[16:35] 5 tn For a discussion of the fire of the
[31:10] 7 tn Heb “burned with fire.”
[31:10] 8 tn The ban applied to the encampments and forts of this group of Midianite tribes living in the region of Moab.
