Numbers 11:3

11:3 So he called the name of that place Taberah ¹  because there the fire of the Lord burned among them.

Numbers 20:4

20:4 Why ²  have you brought up the Lord’s community into this wilderness? So that ³  we and our cattle should die here?

Numbers 21:32

21:32 Moses sent spies to reconnoiter ⁴  Jaazer, and they captured its villages ⁵  and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

Numbers 32:26

32:26 Our children, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead,

Numbers 33:14

33:14 They traveled from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

[11:3]  ¹ 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.

[20:4]  ² tn Heb “and why….” The conjunction seems to be recording another thing that the people said in their complaint against Moses.

[20:4]  ³ tn The clause uses the infinitive construct with the lamed (ל) preposition. The clause would be a result clause in this sentence: “Why have you brought us here…with the result that we will all die?”

[21:32]  ³ tn Heb “Moses sent to spy out.”

[21:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “daughters.”