Numbers 25:12

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

Numbers 23:30

23:30 So Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Numbers 14:28

14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live, ⁴  says ⁵  the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. ⁶ 

Numbers 14:40

14:40 And early ⁷  in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, ⁸  saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, ⁹  for we have sinned.” ¹⁰ 

Numbers 16:37

16:37 “Tell ¹¹  Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick up ¹²  the censers out of the flame, for they are holy, and then scatter the coals of fire ¹³  at a distance.

Numbers 20:14

Rejection by the Edomites

20:14 ¹⁴ Moses ¹⁵  sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: ¹⁶  “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardships we have experienced, ¹⁷ 

Numbers 21:16

21:16 And from there they traveled ¹⁸  to Beer; ¹⁹  that is the well where the Lord spoke to Moses, “Gather the people and I will give them water.”

Numbers 22:16

22:16 And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak son of Zippor: ‘Please do not let anything hinder you from coming ²⁰  to me.

Numbers 23:19

23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie,

nor a human being, ²¹  that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? ²² 

Numbers 10:29

The Appeal to Hobab

10:29 ²³ Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel, the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, ²⁴  “We are journeying to the place about which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us and we will treat you well, ²⁵  for the Lord has promised good things ²⁶  for Israel.”

Numbers 26:65

26:65 For the Lord had said of them, “They will surely die in the wilderness.” And there was not left a single man of them, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

[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.

[14:28]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “in my ears.”

[14:40]  ⁷ tn The verb וַיַּשְׁכִּמוּ (vayyashkimu) is often found in a verbal hendiadys construction: “They rose early…and they went up” means “they went up early.”

[14:40]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text says literally “the top of the hill,” but judging from the location and the terrain it probably means the heights of the hill country.

[14:40]  ⁹ tn The verb is simply “said,” but it means the place that the Lord said to go up to in order to fight.

[14:40]  ¹⁰ sn Their sin was unbelief. They could have gone and conquered the area if they had trusted the Lord for their victory. They did not, and so they were condemned to perish in the wilderness. Now, thinking that by going they can undo all that, they plan to go. But this is also disobedience, for the Lord said they would not now take the land, and yet they think they can. Here is their second sin, presumption.

[16:37]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “say to.”

[16:37]  ¹¹ tn The verb is the jussive with a vav (ו) coming after the imperative; it may be subordinated to form a purpose clause (“that he may pick up”) or the object of the imperative.

[16:37]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text just has “fire,” but it would be hard to conceive of this action apart from the idea of coals of fire.

[20:14]  ¹³ sn For this particular section, see W. F. Albright, “From the Patriarchs to Moses: 2. Moses out of Egypt,” BA 36 (1973): 57-58; J. R. Bartlett, “The Land of Seir and the Brotherhood of Edom,” JTS 20 (1969): 1-20, and “The Rise and Fall of the Kingdom of Edom,” PEQ 104 (1972): 22-37, and “The Brotherhood of Edom,” JSOT 4 (1977): 2-7.

[20:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And Moses sent.”

[20:14]  ¹⁵ sn Some modern biblical scholars are convinced, largely through arguments from silence, that there were no unified kingdoms in Edom until the 9th century, and no settlements there before the 12th century, and so the story must be late and largely fabricated. The evidence is beginning to point to the contrary. But the cities and residents of the region would largely be Bedouin, and so leave no real remains.

[20:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “found.”

[21:16]  ¹⁶ tn The words “they traveled” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied here because of English style. The same phrase is supplied at the end of v. 18.

[21:16]  ¹⁷ sn Isa 15:8 mentions a Moabite Beerelim, which Simons suggests is Wadi Ettemed.

[22:16]  ¹⁹ tn The infinitive construct is the object of the preposition.

[23:19]  ²² tn Heb “son of man.”

[23:19]  ²³ tn The verb is the Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “to cause to rise; to make stand”). The meaning here is more of the sense of fulfilling the promises made.

[10:29]  ²⁵ sn For additional bibliography for this short section, see W. F. Albright, “Jethro, Hobab, and Reuel in Early Hebrew Tradition,” CBQ 25 (1963): 1-11; G. W. Coats, “Moses in Midian,” JBL 92 (1973): 3-10; B. Mazar, “The Sanctuary of Arad and the Family of Hobab the Kenite,” JNES 24 (1965): 297-303; and T. C. Mitchell, “The Meaning of the Noun h£tn in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 93-112.

[10:29]  ²⁶ sn There is a problem with the identity of Hobab. The MT says that he is the son of Reuel, making him the brother-in-law of Moses. But Judg 4:11 says he is the father-in-law. In Judg 1:16; 4:11 Hobab is traced to the Kenites, but in Exod 3:1 and 18:1 Jethro (Reuel) is priest of Midian. Jethro is identified with Reuel on the basis of Exod 2:18 and 3:1, and so Hobab becomes Moses’ חֹתֵן (khoten), a relative by marriage and perhaps brother-in-law. There is not enough information to decide on the identity and relationships involved here. Some suggest that there is one person with the three names (G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 93); others suggest Hobab is a family name (R. F. Johnson, IDB 2:615), and some suggest that the expression “the son of Reuel the Midianite” had dropped out of the genealogy of Judges, leading to the conflict (J. Crichton, ISBE 2:1055). If Hobab is the same as Jethro, then Exod 18:27 does not make much sense, for Jethro did go home. On this basis many conclude Hobab is a brother-in-law. This would mean that after Jethro returned home, Moses conversed with Hobab, his brother-in-law. For more discussion, see the articles and the commentaries.

[10:29]  ²⁷ tn The verb is the Hiphil of the root “to be good” (יָטַב, yatav); it may be translated “treat well, deal favorably, generously with.” Here it is a perfect tense with vav (ו) following the imperative, showing a sequence in the verbal ideas.

[10:29]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew text simply has “has spoken good” for Israel.