Numbers 19:17

19:17 “‘For a ceremonially unclean person you must take ¹  some of the ashes of the heifer ²  burnt for purification from sin and pour ³  fresh running ⁴  water over them in a vessel.

Numbers 20:2

20:2 And there was no water for the community, and so they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron.

Numbers 24:6-7

24:6 They are like ⁵  valleys ⁶  stretched forth,

like gardens by the river’s side,

like aloes ⁷  that the Lord has planted,

and like cedar trees beside the waters.

24:7 He will pour the water out of his buckets, ⁸ 

and their descendants will be like abundant ⁹  water; ¹⁰ 

their king will be greater than Agag, ¹¹ 

and their kingdom will be exalted.

Numbers 33:14

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

[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.

[24:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “as valleys they spread forth.”

[24:6]  ⁶ tn Or “rows of palms.”

[24:6]  ⁷ sn The language seems to be more poetic than precise. N. H. Snaith notes that cedars do not grow beside water; he also connects “aloes” to the eaglewood that is more exotic, and capable of giving off an aroma (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 298).

[24:7]  ⁹ tc For this colon the LXX has “a man shall come out of his seed.” Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and Targum.

[24:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “many.”

[24:7]  ¹¹ sn These two lines are difficult, but the general sense is that of irrigation buckets and a well-watered land. The point is that Israel will be prosperous and fruitful.

[24:7]  ¹² sn Many commentators see this as a reference to Agag of 1 Sam 15:32-33, the Amalekite king slain by Samuel, for that is the one we know. But that is by no means clear, for this text does not identify this Agag. If it is that king, then this poem, or this line in this poem, would have to be later, unless one were to try to argue for a specific prophecy. Whoever this Agag is, he is a symbol of power.