Numbers 11:20

11:20 but a whole month, ¹  until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, ²  because you have despised ³  the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why ⁴  did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

Numbers 14:18

14:18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, ⁵  forgiving iniquity and transgression, ⁶  but by no means clearing ⁷  the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’ ⁸ 

Numbers 22:22

God Opposes Balaam

22:22 Then God’s anger was kindled ⁹  because he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose ¹⁰  him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him.

Numbers 24:10

24:10 Then Balak became very angry at Balaam, and he struck his hands together. ¹¹  Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have done nothing but bless ¹²  them these three times!

Numbers 25:4

God’s Punishment

25:4 The Lord said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders ¹³  of the people, and hang them up ¹⁴  before the Lord in broad daylight, ¹⁵  so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.”

[11:20]  ¹ tn Heb “a month of days.” So also in v. 21.

[11:20]  ² tn The expression לְזָרָה (lÿzarah) has been translated “ill” or “loathsome.” It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek text interprets it as “sickness.” It could be nausea or vomiting (so G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 112) from overeating.

[11:20]  ³ sn The explanation is the interpretation of their behavior – it is in reality what they have done, even though they would not say they despised the Lord. They had complained and shown a lack of faith and a contempt for the program, which was in essence despising the Lord.

[11:20]  ⁴ tn The use of the demonstrative pronoun here (“why is this we went out …”) is enclitic, providing emphasis to the sentence: “Why in the world did we ever leave Egypt?”

[14:18]  ⁵ tn The expression is רַב־חֶסֶד (rav khesed) means “much of loyal love,” or “faithful love.” Some have it “totally faithful,” but that omits the aspect of his love.

[14:18]  ⁶ tn Or “rebellion.”

[14:18]  ⁷ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the verbal activity of the imperfect tense, which here serves as a habitual imperfect. Negated it states what God does not do; and the infinitive makes that certain.

[14:18]  ⁸ sn The Decalogue adds “to those who hate me.” The point of the line is that the effects of sin, if not the sinful traits themselves, are passed on to the next generation.

[22:22]  ⁹ sn God’s anger now seems to contradict the permission he gave Balaam just before this. Some commentators argue that God’s anger is a response to Balaam’s character in setting out – which the Bible does not explain. God saw in him greed and pleasure for the riches, which is why he was so willing to go.

[22:22]  ¹⁰ tn The word is שָׂטָן (satan, “to be an adversary, to oppose”).

[24:10]  ¹³ sn This is apparently a sign of contempt or derision (see Job 27:23; and Lam 2:15).

[24:10]  ¹⁴ tn The construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the perfect tense for “bless.”

[25:4]  ¹⁷ sn The meaning must be the leaders behind the apostasy, for they would now be arrested. They were responsible for the tribes’ conformity to the Law, but here they had not only failed in their duty, but had participated. The leaders were executed; the rest of the guilty died by the plague.

[25:4]  ¹⁸ sn The leaders who were guilty were commanded by God to be publicly exposed by hanging, probably a reference to impaling, but possibly some other form of harsh punishment. The point was that the swaying of their executed bodies would be a startling warning for any who so blatantly set the Law aside and indulged in apostasy through pagan sexual orgies.

[25:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in the sun.” This means in broad daylight.