Numbers 24:6

24:6 They are like ¹  valleys ²  stretched forth,

like gardens by the river’s side,

like aloes ³  that the Lord has planted,

and like cedar trees beside the waters.

Numbers 14:27

14:27 “How long must I bear ⁴  with this evil congregation ⁵  that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me.

Numbers 21:17

21:17 Then Israel sang ⁶  this song:

“Spring up, O well, sing to it!

Numbers 11:13

11:13 From where shall I get ⁷  meat to give to this entire people, for they cry to me, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat!’ ⁸ 

Numbers 14:29

14:29 Your dead bodies ⁹  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 14:35

14:35 I, the Lord, have said, “I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!”’”

Numbers 11:11

11:11 And Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you afflicted ¹⁰  your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that ¹¹  you lay the burden of this entire people on me?

Numbers 22:30

22:30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am not I your donkey that you have ridden ever since I was yours until this day? Have I ever attempted ¹²  to treat you this way?” ¹³  And he said, “No.”

[24:6]  ¹ tn Heb “as valleys they spread forth.”

[24:6]  ² tn Or “rows of palms.”

[24:6]  ³ 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).

[14:27]  ⁴ tn The figure is aposiopesis, or sudden silence. The main verb is deleted from the line, “how long…this evil community.” The intensity of the emotion is the reason for the ellipsis.

[14:27]  ⁵ sn It is worth mentioning in passing that this is one of the Rabbinic proof texts for having at least ten men to form a congregation and have prayer. If God called ten men (the bad spies) a “congregation,” then a congregation must have ten men. But here the word “community/congregation” refers in this context to the people of Israel as a whole, not just to the ten spies.

[21:17]  ⁷ tn After the adverb “then” the prefixed conjugation has the preterite force. For the archaic constructions, see D. N. Freedman, “Archaic Forms in Early Hebrew Poetry,” ZAW 72 (1960): 101-7. The poem shows all the marks of being ancient.

[11:13]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text simply has “from where to me flesh?” which means “from where will I have meat?”

[11:13]  ¹¹ tn The cohortative coming after the imperative stresses purpose (it is an indirect volitive).

[14:29]  ¹³ tn Or “your corpses” (also in vv. 32, 33).

[11:11]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is the Hiphil of רָעַע (ra’a’, “to be evil”). Moses laments (with the rhetorical question) that God seems to have caused him evil.

[11:11]  ¹⁷ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition is expressing the result of not finding favor with God (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 12-13, §57). What Moses is claiming is that because he has been given this burden God did not show him favor.

[22:30]  ¹⁹ tn Here the Hiphil perfect is preceded by the Hiphil infinitive absolute for emphasis in the sentence.

[22:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to do thus to you.”