Numbers 25:12

25:12 Therefore, announce: ¹  ‘I am going to give ²  to him my covenant of peace. ³ 

Numbers 16:11

16:11 Therefore you and all your company have assembled together against the Lord! And Aaron – what is he that you murmur against him?” ⁴ 

Numbers 20:12

The Lord’s Judgment

20:12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough ⁵  to show me as holy ⁶  before ⁷  the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.” ⁸ 

[25:12]  ¹ tn Heb “say.”

[25:12]  ² tn Here too the grammar expresses an imminent future by using the particle הִנְנִי (hinni) before the participle נֹתֵן (noten) – “here I am giving,” or “I am about to give.”

[25:12]  ³ tn Or “my pledge of friendship” (NAB), or “my pact of friendship” (NJPS). This is the designation of the leadership of the priestly ministry. The terminology is used again in the rebuke of the priests in Mal 2.

[16:11]  ⁴ sn The question indicates that they had been murmuring against Aaron, that is, expressing disloyalty and challenging his leadership. But it is actually against the Lord that they had been murmuring because the Lord had put Aaron in that position.

[20:12]  ⁷ tn Or “to sanctify me.”

[20:12]  ⁸ 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.

[20:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[20:12]  ¹⁰ tn There is debate as to exactly what the sin of Moses was. Some interpreters think that the real sin might have been that he refused to do this at first, but that fact has been suppressed from the text. Some think the text was deliberately vague to explain why they could not enter the land without demeaning them. Others simply, and more likely, note that in Moses there was unbelief, pride, anger, impatience – disobedience.