Numbers 14:32

14:32 But as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this wilderness,

Numbers 16:4

16:4 When Moses heard it he fell down with his face to the ground. ¹ 

Numbers 14:5

14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell down with their faces to the ground ²  before the whole assembled community ³  of the Israelites.

Numbers 16:45

16:45 “Get away from this community, so that I can consume them in an instant!” But they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground. ⁴ 

Numbers 24:4

24:4 the oracle of the one who hears the words of God,

who sees a vision from the Almighty,

although falling flat on the ground ⁵  with eyes open: ⁶ 

Numbers 5:22

5:22 and this water that causes the curse will go ⁷  into your stomach, and make your abdomen swell and your thigh rot.” ⁸  Then the woman must say, “Amen, amen.” ⁹ 

Numbers 6:12

6:12 He must rededicate ¹⁰  to the Lord the days of his separation and bring a male lamb in its first year as a reparation offering, ¹¹  but the former days will not be counted ¹²  because his separation ¹³  was defiled.

Numbers 14:3

14:3 Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”

Numbers 14:29

14:29 Your dead bodies ¹⁴  will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.

Numbers 14:43

14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the Lord, the Lord will not be with you.”

Numbers 16:22

16:22 Then they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground ¹⁵  and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all people, ¹⁶  will you be angry with the whole community when only one man sins?” ¹⁷ 

Numbers 20:6

Moses Responds

20:6 So Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting. They then threw themselves down with their faces to the ground, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.

Numbers 24:16

24:16 the oracle of the one who hears the words of God,

and who knows the knowledge of the Most High,

who sees a vision from the Almighty,

although falling flat on the ground with eyes open:

Numbers 35:23

35:23 or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm,

Numbers 5:21

5:21 Then the priest will put the woman under the oath of the curse ¹⁸  and will say ¹⁹  to the her, “The Lord make you an attested curse ²⁰  among your people, ²¹  if the Lord makes ²²  your thigh fall away ²³  and your abdomen swell; ²⁴ 

Numbers 5:27

5:27 When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness – her abdomen will swell, her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

Numbers 34:2

34:2 “Give these instructions ²⁵  to the Israelites, and tell them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that has been assigned to you as an inheritance, ²⁶  the land of Canaan with its borders,

[16:4]  ¹ tn Heb “fell on his face.”

[14:5]  ¹ sn This action of Moses and Aaron is typical of them in the wilderness with the Israelites. The act shows self-abasement and deference before the sovereign Lord. They are not bowing before the people here, but in front of the people they bow before God. According to Num 17:6-15 this prostration is for the purpose of intercessory prayer. Here it prevents immediate wrath from God.

[14:5]  ² tn Heb “before all the assembly of the congregation.”

[16:45]  ¹ tn Heb “they fell on their faces.”

[24:4]  ¹ tn The phrase “flat on the ground” is supplied in the translation for clarity. The Greek version interprets the line to mean “falling asleep.” It may mean falling into a trance.

[24:4]  ² tn The last colon simply has “falling, but opened eyes.” The falling may simply refer to lying prone; and the opened eyes may refer to his receiving a vision. See H. E. Freeman, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets, 37-41.

[5:22]  ¹ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. It could be taken as a jussive following the words of the priest in the previous section, but it is more likely to be a simple future.

[5:22]  ² tn Heb “fall away.”

[5:22]  ³ tn The word “amen” carries the idea of “so be it,” or “truly.” The woman who submits to this test is willing to have the test demonstrate the examination of God.

[6:12]  ¹ tn The same idea is to be found now in the use of the word נָזַר (nazar), which refers to a recommitment after the vow was interrupted.

[6:12]  ² tn The necessity of bringing the reparation offering was due to the reinstatement into the vow that had been interrupted.

[6:12]  ³ tn Heb “will fall”; KJV “shall be lost”; ASV, NASB, NRSV “shall be void.”

[6:12]  ⁴ tc The similar expression in v. 9 includes the word “head” (i.e., “his consecrated head”). The LXX includes this word in v. 12 as well.

[14:29]  ¹ tn Or “your corpses” (also in vv. 32, 33).

[16:22]  ¹ sn It is Moses and Aaron who prostrate themselves; they have the good of the people at heart.

[16:22]  ² tn The expression “the God of the spirits of all humanity [flesh]” is somewhat difficult. The Hebrew text says אֱלֹהֵי הָרוּחֹת לְכָל־בָּשָׂר (’elohey harukhot lÿkhol-basar). This expression occurs in Num 27:16 again. It also occurs in some postbiblical texts, a fact which has prompted some scholars to conclude that it is a late addition. The words clearly show that Moses is interceding for the congregation. The appeal in the verse is that it is better for one man to die for the whole nation than the whole nation for one man (see also John 11:50).

[16:22]  ³ tn The verb is the Qal imperfect יֶחֱטָא (yekheta’); it refers to the sinful rebellion of Korah, but Moses is stating something of a principle: “One man sins, and will you be angry….” A past tense translation would assume that this is a preterite use of the imperfect (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[5:21]  ¹ sn For information on such curses, see M. R. Lehmann, “Biblical Oaths,” ZAW 81 (1969): 74-92; A. C. Thiselton, “The Supposed Power of Words in the Biblical Writings,” JTS 25 (1974): 283-99; and F. C. Fensham, “Malediction and Benediction in Ancient Vassal Treaties and the Old Testament,” ZAW 74 (1962): 1-9.

[5:21]  ² tn Heb “the priest will say.”

[5:21]  ³ tn This interpretation takes the two nouns as a hendiadys. The literal wording is “the Lord make you a curse and an oath among the people.” In what sense would she be an oath? The point of the whole passage is that the priest is making her take an oath to see if she has been sinful and will be cursed.

[5:21]  ⁴ sn The outcome of this would be that she would be quoted by people in such forms of expression as an oath or a curse (see Jer 29:22).

[5:21]  ⁵ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with the preposition to form an adverbial clause: “in the giving of the Lord…,” meaning, “if and when the Lord makes such and such to happen.”

[5:21]  ⁶ tn TEV takes the expression “your thigh” as a euphemism for the genitals: “cause your genital organs to shrink.”

[5:21]  ⁷ sn Most commentators take the expressions to be euphemisms of miscarriage or stillbirth, meaning that there would be no fruit from an illegitimate union. The idea of the abdomen swelling has been reinterpreted by NEB to mean “fall away.” If this interpretation stands, then the idea is that the woman has become pregnant, and that has aroused the suspicion of the husband for some reason. R. K. Harrison (Numbers [WEC], 111-13) discusses a variety of other explanations for diseases and conditions that might be described by these terms. He translates it with “miscarriage,” but leaves open what the description might actually be. Cf. NRSV “makes your uterus drop, your womb discharge.”

[34:2]  ¹ tn Or “command.”

[34:2]  ² tn Heb “this is the land that will fall to you as an inheritance.”