Numbers 14:42-45

14:42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not among you, and you will be ¹  defeated before your enemies. 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.”

14:44 But they dared ²  to go up to the crest of the hill, although ³  neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. 14:45 So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped ⁴  down and attacked them ⁵  as far as Hormah. ⁶ 

[14:42]  ¹ tn This verb could also be subordinated to the preceding: “that you be not smitten.”

[14:44]  ² 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]  ³ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) here introduces a circumstantial clause; the most appropriate one here would be the concessive “although.”

[14:45]  ⁴ tn Heb “came down.”

[14:45]  ⁵ tn The verb used here means “crush by beating,” or “pounded” them. The Greek text used “cut them in pieces.”

[14:45]  ⁶ tn The name “Hormah” means “destruction”; it is from the word that means “ban, devote” for either destruction or temple use.