¹sn This chapter forms part of the story already begun. There are three major sections here: dissatisfaction with the reports (vv. 1-10), the threat of divine punishment (vv. 11-38), and the defeat of the Israelites (vv. 39-45). See K. D. Sakenfeld, “The Problem of Divine Forgiveness in Num 14,” CBQ 37 (1975): 317-30; also J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word var) as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.
²tn The two verbs “lifted up their voice and cried” form a hendiadys; the idiom of raising the voice means that they cried aloud.
³tn There are a number of things that the verb “to weep” or “wail” can connote. It could reflect joy, grief, lamentation, repentance; but here it reflects fear, hopelessness, vexation at the thought of coming all this way and being defeated by the Canaanite armies. See Judg 20:23, 26.
⁴tn The Hebrew verb “to murmur” is lun (/Wl). It is a strong word, signifying far more than complaining or grumbling, as some of the modern translations have it. The word is most often connected to the wilderness experience. It is paralleled in the literature with the word “to rebel.” The murmuring is like a parliamentary vote of no confidence, for they no longer trusted their leaders and wished to choose a new leader and return. This “return to Egypt” becomes a symbol of their lack of faith in the Lord.
⁵tn The optative is expressed by lu (Wl) and then the verb, here the perfect tense matnu (Wnt=m^)—“O that we had died….” Had they wanted to die in Egypt they should not have cried out to the Lord to deliver them from bondage. Here the people became consumed with the fear and worry of what lay ahead, and in their panic they revealed a lack of trust in God.
⁶tn Heb “died.”
⁷tn Heb “a man to his brother.”
⁸tn The verb is natan (/tn), “to give,” but this verb has quite a wide range of meanings in the Bible. Here it must mean “to make,” “to choose,” “to designate” or the like.
⁹tn The word “head” (ro’s [var)]) probably refers to a tribal chief who was capable to judge and to lead to war (see J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word ‘var)’”).
¹⁰tn The form is a cohortative with a vav prefixed. After the preceding cohortative this could also be interpreted as a purpose or result clause—in order that we may return.
¹¹sn This action of Moses and Aaron is typical of them in the wilderness with the Israelites. The act shows self-abasement and deference before the sovereign Lord. They are not bowing before the people here, but in front of the people they bow before God. According to Num 17:6-15 this prostration is for the purpose of intercessory prayer. Here it prevents immediate wrath from God.
¹²tn The repetition of the adverb m^e’od (da)m=) is used to express this: “very, very [good].”
¹³tn The subjective genitives “milk and honey” are symbols of the wealth of the land, second only to bread. Milk was a sign of such abundance (Gen 49:12; Isa 7:21,22). Because of the climate the milk would thicken quickly and become curds, eaten with bread or turned into butter. The honey mentioned here is the wild honey (see Deut 32:13; Judg 14:8-9). It signified sweetness, or the finer things of life (Ezek 3:3).
¹⁴sn The expression must indicate that they could destroy the enemies as easily as they could eat bread.
¹⁵tn Heb “their shade.” The figure compares the shade from the sun with the protection from the enemy. It is also possible that the text is alluding to their deities here (see the commentaries of Noth, Binn, and Sturdy).
¹⁶tn Heb “said to stone them with stones.” The verb and the object are not from the same root, but the combination nonetheless forms an emphasis equal to the cognate accusative.
¹⁷tn The vav on the noun “glory” indicates a strong contrast, one that interrupts their threatened attack.
¹⁸sn The glory of the Lord refers to the reality of the Lord’s presence in a manifestation of his power and splendor. It showed to all that God was a living God. The appearance of the glory indicated blessing for obedient folk, but disaster for the disobedient.
¹⁹tc The Greek, Syriac, and Targum Ps. Jonathan have “in the cloud over the tent.”
²⁰tn The verb na’as (Jan) means “to condemn,” “spurn” (BDB), “despise,” “treat without respect” (KBL). Coats suggests that in some contexts the word means actual rejection or renunciation (Rebellion, 146,7). This would include the idea of distaste.
²¹tn The verb “to believe” (root ’aman [/ma]) has the basic idea of support, dependability for the root. The Hiphil has a declarative sense, namely, to consider something reliable or dependable and to act on it. The people did not trust what the Lord said.
²²tc The Greek version has “death.”
²³tn The construction is unusual in that we have here a perfect tense with a vav consecutive with no verb before it to establish the time sequence. The context requires that this be taken as a vav consecutive. It actually forms the protasis for the next verse, and would best be rendered “when…then they will say.”
²⁴tn The singular participle is to be taken here as a collective, representing all the inhabitants of the land.
²⁵tn “Face to face” is literally “eye to eye.” It only occurs elsewhere in Isa 52:8. This expresses the closest communication possible.
²⁶tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of mut (tWm), w^ehemattah (hT*m^h@w+). The vav consecutive makes this also a future time sequence verb, but again in a conditional clause.
²⁷tn Heb “as one man.”
²⁸tc The form in the text is ‘adonay (ynd)a&), the word that is usually used in place of the tetragrammaton. It is the plural form with the pronominal suffix, and so must refer to God.
²⁹tn The expression is rab hesed (ds#j#-br~) means “much of loyal love,” or “faithful love.” Some have it “totally faithful,” but that omits the aspect of his love.
³⁰tn Or “rebellion.”
³¹tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the verbal activity of the imperfect tense, which here serves as a habitual imperfect. Negated it states what God does not do; and the infinitive makes that certain.
³²sn The Decalogue adds “to those who hate me.” The point of the line is that the effects of sin, if not the sinful traits themselves, are passed on to the next generation.
³³tn The verb selah-na’ (an`-jl^s=), the imperative form, means “forgive” (see Ps 130:4), “pardon,” “excuse.” The imperative is of course a prayer, a desire, and not a command.
³⁴tn The construct unit is “the greatness of your loyal love.” This is the genitive of specification, the first word being the modifier.
³⁵tn Heb “forgiven according to your word.” The direct object, “them,” is implied.
³⁶sn This is the oath formula; but in the Pentateuch it occurs here and in v. 28.
³⁷tn The verb nasah (hsn) means “to test; to tempt; to prove.” It can be used in contexts to indicate things are tried or proven, or in contexts for testing in a good sense, or tempting in the bad sense, i.e., putting God to the test. In all uses there is uncertainty or doubt about the outcome. So if God tests Abraham in Genesis 22:1, it is because there is uncertainty whether he fears the Lord or not. If people like Gideon put out the fleece and test the Lord, it is done by faith but in order to be certain of the Lord’s presence. But here, when these people put God to the test ten times, it was because they doubted the goodness and ability of God, and this was a major weakness. They had proof to the contrary, but chose to challenge God.
³⁸tn “Ten” is here a round figure, emphasizing the complete testing. But see F. V. Winnett, The Mosaic Tradition (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1949), 121-54.
³⁹tn Heb “listened to my voice.”
⁴⁰tn The word ’im (<a!) indicates a negative oath formula: “if” means “they will not.” It is elliptical. In a human oath one would be saying: “The Lord do to me if they see…,” meaning “they will by no means see.” Here God is swearing that they will not see the land.
⁴¹tn Heb “seed.”
⁴²sn The judgment on Israel is that they turn back to the desert and not attack the tribes in the land. So a parenthetical clause is inserted to state who was living there. They would surely block the entrance to the land from the south—unless God removed them. And he is not going to do that for Israel.
⁴³tn 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.
⁴⁴sn 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 to the people as a whole, not just to the ten spies.
⁴⁵sn 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.
⁴⁶tn The word n^e’um (<a%n+) is an “oracle.” It is followed by the subjective genitive: “the oracle of the Lord” is equal to saying “the Lord says.”
⁴⁷tn Heb “in my ears.”
sn They had expressed the longing to have died in the wilderness, and not in war. God will now give them that. They would not say to God “your will be done,” so he says to them, “your will be done” (to borrow from C. S. Lewis).
⁴⁸tn Or “your corpses” (also in vv. 32, 33).
⁴⁹tn The relative pronoun “which” is joined with the resumptive pronoun “in it” to form a smoother reading “where.”
⁵⁰tn The Hebrew text uses the anthropomorphic expression “I raised my hand” in taking an oath.
⁵¹tn Heb “to cause you to dwell; to cause you to settle.”
⁵²tn Or “plunder.”
⁵³tn Heb “know.”
⁵⁴tn The word is “shepherds.” It means that the people would be wilderness nomads, grazing their flock on available land.
⁵⁵tn Heb “you shall bear your whoredoms.” The imagery of prostitution is used throughout the Bible to reflect spiritual unfaithfulness, leaving the covenant relationship and following after false gods. Here it is used generally for their rebellion in the wilderness, but not for following other gods.
⁵⁶tn The infinitive is from tamam (<mT), which means “to be complete.” The word is often used to express completeness in a good sense—whole, blameless, or the like. Here and in v. 35 it seems to mean “until your deaths have been completed.” See also Gen 47:15; Deut 2:15.
⁵⁷tn Heb “you shall bear.”
⁵⁸tn The phrase refers to the consequences of open hostility to God, or perhaps abandonment of God. The noun t^enu’ah (ha*WnT=) occurs in Job 33:10 (perhaps). The related verb occurs in Num 30:6 HT (30:5 ET) and 32:7 with the sense of “disallow, discourage.” The sense of the expression adopted in this translation comes from the meticulous study of R. Loewe, “Divine Frustration Exegetically Frustrated,” in Words and Meanings, ed. by Peter Ackroyd and B. Lindars (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), 137-58.
⁵⁹tn The verb is the Hiphil infinitive construct with a lamed preposition from the root yasa’ (axy), “to bring out.” The use of the infinitive here is epexegetical, that is, explaining how they caused the people to murmur.
⁶⁰tn The Hebrew text uses the preposition “from,” “some of”—“from those men.” The relative pronoun is added to make a smoother reading.
⁶¹tn The preterite here is subordinated to the next preterite to form a temporal clause.
⁶²tn The word ‘abal (lba) is rare, used mostly for mourning over deaths, but it is used here of mourning over bad news (see also Exod 33:4; 1 Sam 15:35; 16:1; etc.).
⁶³tn The verb wayyaskimu (WmK!v=Y~w~) is often found in a verbal hendiadys construction: they rose early…and they went up” means “they went up early.”
⁶⁴tn 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.
⁶⁵tn The verb is simply “said,” but it means the place that the Lord said to go up to in order to fight.
⁶⁶sn 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.
⁶⁷tn The line literally has, “Why is this [that] you are transgressing….” The demonstrative pronoun is enclitic; it brings the force of “why in the world are you doing this now?”
⁶⁸tn Heb “mouth.”
⁶⁹tn This verb could also be subordinated to the preceding: “that you be not smitten.”
⁷⁰tn N. H. Snaith compares Arabic ‘afala, “to swell,” and gafala, “reckless, headstrong” (Numbers, 248). The word ‘opel (lp#u)) means a “rounded hill” or a “tumor.” The idea behind the verb may be that of “swelling,” and so “act presumptuously.”
⁷¹tn The disjunctive vav here introduces a circumstantial clause; the most appropriate one here would be the concessive “although.”
⁷²tn Heb “came down.”
⁷³tn The verb used here means “crush by beating,” or “pounded” them. The Greek text used “cut them in pieces.”
⁷⁴tn The name “Hormah” means “destruction”; it is from the word that means “ban, devote” for either destruction or temple use.