Bilangan 11:2

11:2 When the people cried to Moses, he ¹  prayed to the Lord, and the fire died out. ² 

Bilangan 11:14

11:14 I am not able to bear this entire people alone, ³  because it ⁴  is too heavy for me!

Bilangan 11:35

11:35 The people traveled from Kibroth Hattaavah to Hazeroth, and they stayed at Hazeroth.

Bilangan 12:15

12:15 So Miriam was shut outside of the camp for seven days, and the people did not journey on until Miriam was brought back in. ⁵ 

Bilangan 14:39

14:39 When Moses told ⁶  these things to all the Israelites, the people mourned ⁷  greatly.

Bilangan 22:3

22:3 And the Moabites were greatly afraid of the people, because they were so numerous. The Moabites were sick with fear because of the Israelites.

Bilangan 25:1

Israel’s Sin with the Moabite Women

25:1 ⁸ When ⁹  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ¹⁰  with the daughters of Moab.

Bilangan 33:14

33:14 They traveled from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

[11:2]  ¹ tn Heb “Moses.”

[11:2]  ² sn Here is the pattern that will become in the wilderness experience so common – the complaining turns to a cry to Moses, which is then interpreted as a prayer to the Lord, and there is healing. The sequence presents a symbolic lesson, an illustration of the intercession of the Holy Spirit. The NT will say that in times of suffering Christians do not know how to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for them, changing their cries into the proper prayers (Rom 8).

[11:14]  ³ tn The word order shows the emphasis: “I am not able, I by myself, to bear all this people.” The infinitive לָשֵׂאת (lase’t) serves as the direct object of the verb. The expression is figurative, for bearing or carrying the people means being responsible for all their needs and cares.

[11:14]  ⁴ tn The subject of the verb “heavy” is unstated; in the context it probably refers to the people, or the burden of caring for the people. This responsibility was turning out to be a heavier responsibility than Moses anticipated. Alone he was totally inadequate.

[12:15]  ⁵ tn The clause has the Niphal infinitive construct after a temporal preposition.

[14:39]  ⁶ tn The preterite here is subordinated to the next preterite to form a temporal clause.

[14:39]  ⁷ tn The word אָבַל (’aval) 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.).

[25:1]  ⁸ sn Chapter 25 tells of Israel’s sins on the steppes of Moab, and God’s punishment. In the overall plan of the book, here we have another possible threat to God’s program, although here it comes from within the camp (Balaam was the threat from without). If the Moabites could not defeat them one way, they would try another. The chapter has three parts: fornication (vv. 1-3), God’s punishment (vv. 4-9), and aftermath (vv. 10-18). See further G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 105-21; and S. C. Reif, “What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 (1971): 200-206.

[25:1]  ⁹ tn This first preterite is subordinated to the next as a temporal clause; it is not giving a parallel action, but the setting for the event.

[25:1]  ¹⁰ sn The account apparently means that the men were having sex with the Moabite women. Why the men submitted to such a temptation at this point is hard to say. It may be that as military heroes the men took liberties with the women of occupied territories.