Discovery BoxPsalms 106:13-33
Context106:13 They quickly forgot what he had done; 1
they did not wait for his instructions. 2
106:14 In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving 3 for meat; 4
they challenged God 5 in the desert.
106:15 He granted their request,
then struck them with a disease. 6
106:16 In the camp they resented 7 Moses,
and Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest. 8
106:17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it engulfed 9 the group led by Abiram. 10
106:18 Fire burned their group;
the flames scorched the wicked. 11
106:19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb,
and worshiped a metal idol.
106:20 They traded their majestic God 12
for the image of an ox that eats grass.
106:21 They rejected 13 the God who delivered them,
the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,
106:22 amazing feats in the land of Ham,
mighty 14 acts by the Red Sea.
106:23 He threatened 15 to destroy them,
but 16 Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him 17
and turned back his destructive anger. 18
106:24 They rejected the fruitful land; 19
they did not believe his promise. 20
106:25 They grumbled in their tents; 21
they did not obey 22 the Lord.
106:26 So he made a solemn vow 23
that he would make them die 24 in the desert,
106:27 make their descendants 25 die 26 among the nations,
and scatter them among foreign lands. 27
106:28 They worshiped 28 Baal of Peor,
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. 29
106:29 They made the Lord angry 30 by their actions,
and a plague broke out among them.
106:30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened, 31
and the plague subsided.
106:31 This brought him a reward,
an eternal gift. 32
106:32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,
and Moses suffered 33 because of them,
106:33 for they aroused 34 his temper, 35
and he spoke rashly. 36
[106:13] 1 tn Heb “his works.”
[106:13] 2 tn Heb “his counsel.”
[106:14] 3 sn They had an insatiable craving. This is described in Num 11:4-35.
[106:14] 4 tn Heb “they craved [with] a craving.”
[106:14] 5 tn Heb “they tested God.”
[106:15] 6 tn Heb “and he sent leanness into their being.”
[106:16] 8 tn Heb “the holy one of the
[106:17] 10 tn Or “the assembly of Abiram.”
[106:18] 11 sn Verses 16-18 describe the events of Num 16:1-40.
[106:20] 12 tn Heb “their glory.” According to an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition, the text originally read “his glory” or “my glory.” In Jer 2:11 the
[106:22] 14 tn Or “awe-inspiring.”
[106:23] 15 tn Heb “and he said.”
[106:23] 16 tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”
[106:23] 17 tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”
[106:23] 18 tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”
[106:24] 19 tn Heb “a land of delight” (see also Jer 3:19; Zech 7:14).
[106:24] 20 tn Heb “his word.”
[106:25] 21 sn They grumbled in their tents. See Deut 1:27.
[106:25] 22 tn Heb “did not listen to the voice of.”
[106:26] 23 tn Heb “and he lifted his hand to [or “concerning”] them.” The idiom “to lift a hand” here refers to swearing an oath. One would sometimes solemnly lift one’s hand when making such a vow (see Ezek 20:5-6, 15).
[106:26] 24 tn Heb “to cause them to fall.”
[106:27] 25 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
[106:27] 26 tn Heb “and to cause their offspring to fall.” Some emend the verb to “scatter” to form tighter parallelism with the following line (cf. NRSV “disperse”).
[106:27] 27 tn Heb “among the lands.” The word “foreign” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[106:28] 28 tn Heb “joined themselves to.”
[106:28] 29 tn Here “the dead” may refer to deceased ancestors (see Deut 26:14). Another option is to understand the term as a derogatory reference to the various deities which the Israelites worshiped at Peor along with Baal (see Num 25:2 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 49).
[106:29] 30 tn Heb “They made angry [him].” The pronominal suffix is omitted here, but does appear in a few medieval Hebrew
[106:30] 31 sn The intervention of Phinehas is recounted in Num 25:7-8.
[106:31] 32 tn Heb “and it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to a generation and a generation forever.” The verb חָשַׁב (khashav, “to reckon”) is collocated with צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) only in Ps 106:31 and Gen 15:6, where God rewards Abram’s faith with a land grant.
[106:32] 33 tn Heb “there was harm to Moses.”
[106:33] 34 tn The Hebrew text vocalizes the form as הִמְרוּ (himru), a Hiphil from מָרָה (marah, “to behave rebelliously”), but the verb fits better with the object (“his spirit”) if it is revocalized as הֵמֵרוּ (hemeru), a Hiphil from מָרַר (marar, “to be bitter”). The Israelites “embittered” Moses’ “spirit” in the sense that they aroused his temper with their complaints.
[106:33] 35 tn Heb “his spirit.”
[106:33] 36 tn The Hebrew text adds “with his lips,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
