Numbers 16:48

16:48 He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.

Numbers 14:21

14:21 But truly, as I live, ¹  all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.

Numbers 19:17

19:17 “‘For a ceremonially unclean person you must take ²  some of the ashes of the heifer ³  burnt for purification from sin and pour ⁴  fresh running ⁵  water over them in a vessel.

Numbers 35:3

35:3 Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals.

Numbers 14:28

14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live, ⁶  says ⁷  the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. ⁸ 

Numbers 16:33

16:33 They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community.

Numbers 16:30

16:30 But if the Lord does something entirely new, ⁹  and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up ¹⁰  along with all that they have, and they ¹¹  go down alive to the grave, ¹²  then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

[14:21]  ¹ sn This is the oath formula, but in the Pentateuch it occurs here and in v. 28.

[19:17]  ¹ tn The verb is the perfect tense, third masculine plural, with a vav (ו) consecutive. The verb may be worded as a passive, “ashes must be taken,” but that may be too awkward for this sentence. It may be best to render it with a generic “you” to fit the instruction of the text.

[19:17]  ² tn The word “heifer” is not in the Hebrew text, but it is implied.

[19:17]  ³ tn Here too the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; rather than make this passive, it is here left as a direct instruction to follow the preceding one. For the use of the verb נָתַן (natan) in the sense of “pour,” see S. C. Reif, “A Note on a Neglected Connotation of ntn,” VT 20 (1970): 114-16.

[19:17]  ⁴ tn The expression is literally “living water.” Living water is the fresh, flowing spring water that is clear, life-giving, and not the collected pools of stagnant or dirty water.

[14:28]  ¹ sn Here again is the oath that God swore in his wrath, an oath he swore by himself, that they would not enter the land. “As the Lord lives,” or “by the life of the Lord,” are ways to render it.

[14:28]  ² tn The word נְאֻם (nÿ’um) is an “oracle.” It is followed by the subjective genitive: “the oracle of the Lord” is equal to saying “the Lord says.”

[14:28]  ³ tn Heb “in my ears.”

[16:30]  ¹ tn The verb בָּרָא (bara’) is normally translated “create” in the Bible. More specifically it means to fashion or make or do something new and fresh. Here the verb is joined with its cognate accusative to underscore that this will be so different everyone will know it is of God.

[16:30]  ² tn The figures are personifications. But they vividly describe the catastrophe to follow – which was very much like a mouth swallowing them.

[16:30]  ³ tn The word is “life” or “lifetime”; it certainly means their lives – they themselves. But the presence of this word suggest more. It is an accusative specifying the state of the subject – they will go down alive to Sheol.

[16:30]  ⁴ tn The word “Sheol” in the Bible can be used four different ways: the grave, the realm of the departed [wicked] spirits or Hell, death in general, or a place of extreme danger (one that will lead to the grave if God does not intervene). The usage here is certainly the first, and very likely the second as well. A translation of “pit” would not be inappropriate. Since they will go down there alive, it is likely that they will sense the deprivation and the separation from the land above. See H. W. Robinson, Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament; N. J. Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Netherworld in the Old Testament (BibOr 21), 21-23; and A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic, especially ch. 3.