Numbers 13:17

The Spies’ Instructions

13:17 When Moses sent ¹  them to investigate the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev, ²  and then go up into the hill country

Numbers 14:40

14:40 And early ³  in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, ⁴  saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, ⁵  for we have sinned.” ⁶ 

Numbers 14:44

14:44 But they dared ⁷  to go up to the crest of the hill, although ⁸  neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.

Numbers 20:23

20:23 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom. He said:

Numbers 21:4

Fiery Serpents

21:4 Then they traveled from Mount Hor by the road to the Red Sea, ⁹  to go around the land of Edom, but the people ¹⁰  became impatient along the way.

[13:17]  ¹ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next verb of the same formation to express a temporal clause.

[13:17]  ² tn The instructions had them first go up into the southern desert of the land, and after passing through that, into the hill country of the Canaanites. The text could be rendered “into the Negev” as well as “through the Negev.”

[14:40]  ³ tn The verb וַיַּשְׁכִּמוּ (vayyashkimu) is often found in a verbal hendiadys construction: “They rose early…and they went up” means “they went up early.”

[14:40]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text says literally “the top of the hill,” but judging from the location and the terrain it probably means the heights of the hill country.

[14:40]  ⁵ tn The verb is simply “said,” but it means the place that the Lord said to go up to in order to fight.

[14:40]  ⁶ sn Their sin was unbelief. They could have gone and conquered the area if they had trusted the Lord for their victory. They did not, and so they were condemned to perish in the wilderness. Now, thinking that by going they can undo all that, they plan to go. But this is also disobedience, for the Lord said they would not now take the land, and yet they think they can. Here is their second sin, presumption.

[14:44]  ⁵ tn N. H. Snaith compares Arabic ’afala (“to swell”) and gafala (“reckless, headstrong”; Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 248). The wordעֹפֶל (’ofel) means a “rounded hill” or a “tumor.” The idea behind the verb may be that of “swelling,” and so “act presumptuously.”

[14:44]  ⁶ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) here introduces a circumstantial clause; the most appropriate one here would be the concessive “although.”

[21:4]  ⁷ tn The “Red Sea” is the general designation for the bodies of water on either side of the Sinai peninsula, even though they are technically gulfs from the Red Sea.

[21:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “the soul of the people,” expressing the innermost being of the people as they became frustrated.