Numbers 24:23

24:23 Then he uttered this oracle:

“O, who will survive when God does this! ¹ 

Numbers 5:23-24

5:23 “‘Then the priest will write these curses on a scroll and then scrape them off into the bitter water. ²  5:24 He will make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness.

Numbers 20:13

20:13 These are the waters of Meribah, because the Israelites contended with the Lord, and his holiness was maintained ³  among them.

Numbers 22:9

22:9 And God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?”

Numbers 24:9

24:9 They crouch and lie down like a lion,

and as a lioness, ⁴  who can stir him?

Blessed is the one who blesses you,

and cursed is the one who curses you!’”

Numbers 8:7

8:7 And do this ⁵  to them to purify them: Sprinkle water of purification ⁶  on them; then have them shave ⁷  all their body ⁸  and wash ⁹  their clothes, and so purify themselves. ¹⁰ 

Numbers 11:4

Complaints about Food

11:4 ¹¹ Now the mixed multitude ¹²  who were among them craved more desirable foods, ¹³  and so the Israelites wept again ¹⁴  and said, “If only we had meat to eat! ¹⁵ 

Numbers 19:21

19:21 “‘So this will be a perpetual ordinance for them: The one who sprinkles ¹⁶  the water of purification must wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water of purification will be unclean until evening. ¹⁷ 

Numbers 21:22

21:22 “Let us ¹⁸  pass through your land; ¹⁹  we will not turn aside into the fields or into the vineyards, nor will we drink water from any well, but we will go along the King’s Highway until we pass your borders.”

Numbers 23:10

23:10 Who ²⁰  can count ²¹  the dust ²²  of Jacob,

Or number ²³  the fourth part of Israel?

Let me ²⁴  die the death of the upright, ²⁵ 

and let the end of my life ²⁶  be like theirs.” ²⁷ 

Numbers 27:14

27:14 For ²⁸  in the wilderness of Zin when the community rebelled against me, you ²⁹  rebelled against my command ³⁰  to show me as holy ³¹  before their eyes over the water – the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.”

Numbers 5:18

5:18 Then the priest will have the woman stand before the Lord, uncover the woman’s head, and put the grain offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of suspicion. The priest will hold in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. ³² 

Numbers 11:18

11:18 “And say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves ³³  for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing ³⁴  of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat, ³⁵  for life ³⁶  was good for us in Egypt?” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat.

Numbers 19:13

19:13 Anyone who touches the corpse of any dead person and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. And that person must be cut off from Israel, ³⁷  because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

Numbers 19:20

19:20 But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person must be cut off from among the community, because he has polluted the sanctuary of the Lord; the water of purification was not sprinkled on him, so he is unclean.

Numbers 20:17

20:17 Please let us pass through ³⁸  your country. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, nor will we drink water from any well. We will go by the King’s Highway; ³⁹  we will not turn to the right or the left until we have passed through your region.’” ⁴⁰ 

[24:23]  ¹ tc Because there is no parallel line, some have thought that it dropped out (see de Vaulx, Les Nombres, 296).

[5:23]  ² sn The words written on the scroll were written with a combination of ingredients mixed into an ink. The idea is probably that they would have been washed or flaked off into the water, so that she drank the words of the curse – it became a part of her being.

[20:13]  ³ tn The form is unusual – it is the Niphal preterite, and not the normal use of the Piel/Pual stem for “sanctify/sanctified.” The basic idea of “he was holy” has to be the main idea, but in this context it refers to the fact that through judging Moses God was making sure people ensured his holiness among them. The word also forms a wordplay on the name Kadesh.

[24:9]  ⁴ tn On the usage of this word see HALOT 517 s.v. לָבִיא.

[8:7]  ⁵ tn Or, more literally, “and thus you shall do.” The verb is the imperfect tense of instruction or legislation. Here it introduces the procedures to be followed.

[8:7]  ⁶ tn The genitive in this expression indicates the purpose of the water – it is for their purification. The expression is literally “the waters of sin.” The word “purification” is the same as for the “sin/purification offering” – חַטָּאת (khatta’at). This water seems to have been taken from the main laver and is contrasted with the complete washing of the priests in Lev 8:6.

[8:7]  ⁷ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) of sequence. This verb, and those to follow, has the force of a jussive since it comes after the imperative. Here the instruction is for them to remove the hair from their bodies (“flesh”). There is no indication that this was repeated (as the Egyptian priests did every few days). It seems to have been for this special occasion only. A similar requirement was for the leper (Lev 14:7-9).

[8:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “flesh.”

[8:7]  ⁹ tn Or “let/have them wash”; the priests were given new clothes (Lev 8:13), but the Levites simply washed their own.

[8:7]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is a reflexive (or possibly passive) in this verse, indicating the summary of the process. The ritual steps that have been prescribed will lead to this conclusion. The verb could be treated as a final imperfect (being a perfect with vav [ו] consecutive), and so translated “that they may….” The major difference here is that the ritual made the Levites “clean,” whereas the ritual for the priests made them “holy” or “sanctified” (Lev 8:12).

[11:4]  ⁶ sn The story of the sending of the quail is a good example of poetic justice, or talionic justice. God had provided for the people, but even in that provision they were not satisfied, for they remembered other foods they had in Egypt. No doubt there was not the variety of foods in the Sinai that might have been available in Egypt, but their life had been bitter bondage there as well. They had cried to the Lord for salvation, but now they forget, as they remember things they used to have. God will give them what they crave, but it will not do for them what they desire. For more information on this story, see B. J. Malina, The Palestinian Manna Tradition. For the attempt to explain manna and the other foods by natural phenomena, see F. W. Bodenheimer, “The Manna of Sinai,” BA 10 (1947): 1-6.

[11:4]  ⁷ tn The mixed multitude (or “rabble,” so NASB, NIV, NRSV; NLT “foreign rabble”) is the translation of an unusual word, הֲָאסַפְסֻף (ha’safsuf). It occurs in the Hebrew Bible only here. It may mean “a gathering of people” from the verb אָסַף (’asaf), yielding the idea of a mixed multitude (in line with Exod 12:38). But the root is different, and so no clear connection can be established. Many commentators therefore think the word is stronger, showing contempt through a word that would be equivalent to “riff-raff.”

[11:4]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew simply uses the cognate accusative, saying “they craved a craving” (הִתְאַוּוּ תַּאֲוָה, hit’avvu ta’vah), but the context shows that they had this strong craving for food. The verb describes a strong desire, which is not always negative (Ps 132:13-14). But the word is a significant one in the Torah; it was used in the garden story for Eve’s desire for the tree, and it is used in the Decalogue in the warning against coveting (Deut 5:21).

[11:4]  ⁹ tc The Greek and the Latin versions read “and they sat down” for “and they returned,” involving just a change in vocalization (which they did not have). This may reflect the same expression in Judg 20:26. But the change does not improve this verse.

[11:4]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew expresses the strong wish or longing idiomatically: “Who will give us flesh to eat?” It is a rhetorical expression not intended to be taken literally, but merely to give expression to the longing they had. See GKC 476 §151.a.1.

[19:21]  ⁷ tn The form has the conjunction with it: וּמַזֵּה (umazzeh). The conjunction subordinates the following as the special law. It could literally be translated “and this shall be…that the one who sprinkles.”

[19:21]  ⁸ sn This gives the indication of the weight of the matter, for “until the evening” is the shortest period of ritual uncleanness in the Law. The problem of contamination had to be taken seriously, but this was a relatively simple matter to deal with – if one were willing to obey the Law.

[21:22]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text uses the singular in these verses to match the reference to “Israel.”

[21:22]  ⁹ tc Smr has “by the King’s way I will go. I will not turn aside to the right or the left.”

[23:10]  ⁹ tn The question is again rhetorical; it means no one can count them – they are innumerable.

[23:10]  ¹⁰ tn The perfect tense can also be classified as a potential nuance. It does not occur very often, but does occur several times.

[23:10]  ¹¹ sn The reference in the oracle is back to Gen 13:16, which would not be clear to Balaam. But God had described their growth like the dust of the earth. Here it is part of the description of the vast numbers.

[23:10]  ¹² tn Heb “and as a number, the fourth part of Israel.” The noun in the MT is not in the construct state, and so it should be taken as an adverbial accusative, forming a parallel with the verb “count.” The second object of the verse then follows, “the fourth part of Israel.” Smr and the LXX have “and who has numbered” (וּמִסְפָּר, umispar), making this colon more parallel to the preceding one. The editor of BHS prefers this reading.

[23:10]  ¹³ tn The use of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) for the subject of the verb stresses the personal nature – me.

[23:10]  ¹⁴ sn Here the seer’s words link with the promise of Gen 12:3, that whoever blesses Israel will be blessed. Since the blessing belongs to them, the upright (and not Balak), Balaam would like his lot to be with them.

[23:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my latter end.”

[23:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his.”

[27:14]  ¹⁰ tn The preposition on the relative pronoun has the force of “because of the fact that.”

[27:14]  ¹¹ tn The verb is the second masculine plural form.

[27:14]  ¹² tn Heb “mouth.”

[27:14]  ¹³ sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.

[5:18]  ¹¹ tn The expression has been challenged. The first part, “bitter water,” has been thought to mean “water of contention” (so NEB), but this is not convincing. It has some support in the versions which read “contention” and “testing,” no doubt trying to fit the passage better. N. H. Snaith (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 129) suggests from an Arabic word that it was designed to cause an abortion – but that would raise an entirely different question, one of who the father of a child was. And that has not been introduced here. The water was “bitter” in view of the consequences it held for her if she was proven to be guilty. That is then enforced by the wordplay with the last word, the Piel participle הַמְאָרֲרִים (ham’ararim). The bitter water, if it convicted her, would pronounce a curse on her. So she was literally holding her life in her hands.

[11:18]  ¹² tn The Hitpael is used to stress that they are to prepare for a holy appearance. The day was going to be special and so required their being set apart for it. But it is a holy day in the sense of the judgment that was to follow.

[11:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “in the ears.”

[11:18]  ¹⁴ tn Possibly this could be given an optative translation, to reflect the earlier one: “O that someone would give….” But the verb is not the same; here it is the Hiphil of the verb “to eat” – “who will make us eat” (i.e., provide meat for us to eat).

[11:18]  ¹⁵ tn The word “life” is not in the text. The expression is simply “it was for us,” or “we had good,” meaning “we had it good,” or “life was good.”

[19:13]  ¹³ sn It is in passages like this that the view that being “cut off” meant the death penalty is the hardest to support. Would the Law prescribe death for someone who touches a corpse and fails to follow the ritual? Besides, the statement in this section that his uncleanness remains with him suggests that he still lives on.

[20:17]  ¹⁴ tn The request is expressed by the use of the cohortative, “let us pass through.” It is the proper way to seek permission.

[20:17]  ¹⁵ sn This a main highway running from Damascus in the north to the Gulf of Aqaba, along the ridge of the land. Some scholars suggest that the name may have been given by the later Assyrians (see B. Obed, “Observations on Methods of Assyrian Rule in Transjordan after the Palestinian Campaign of Tiglathpileser III,” JNES 29 [1970]: 177-86). Bronze Age fortresses have been discovered along this highway, attesting to its existence in the time of Moses. The original name came from the king who developed the highway, probably as a trading road (see S. Cohen, IDB 3:35-36).

[20:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “borders.”