Bilangan 11:23

11:23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? ¹  Now you will see whether my word to you will come true ²  or not!”

Bilangan 14:28

14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live, ³  says ⁴  the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. ⁵ 

Bilangan 25:4

God’s Punishment

25:4 The Lord said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders ⁶  of the people, and hang them up ⁷  before the Lord in broad daylight, ⁸  so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.”

[11:23]  ¹ sn This anthropomorphic expression concerns the power of God. The “hand of the Lord” is idiomatic for his power, what he is able to do. The question is rhetorical; it is affirming that his hand is not shortened, i.e., that his power is not limited. Moses should have known this, and so this is a rebuke for him at this point. God had provided the manna, among all the other powerful acts they had witnessed. Meat would be no problem. But the lack of faith by the people was infectious.

[11:23]  ² tn Or “will happen” (TEV); KJV “shall come to pass unto thee.”

[14:28]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “in my ears.”

[14:28]  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).

[25:4]  ⁶ sn The meaning must be the leaders behind the apostasy, for they would now be arrested. They were responsible for the tribes’ conformity to the Law, but here they had not only failed in their duty, but had participated. The leaders were executed; the rest of the guilty died by the plague.

[25:4]  ⁷ sn The leaders who were guilty were commanded by God to be publicly exposed by hanging, probably a reference to impaling, but possibly some other form of harsh punishment. The point was that the swaying of their executed bodies would be a startling warning for any who so blatantly set the Law aside and indulged in apostasy through pagan sexual orgies.

[25:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the sun.” This means in broad daylight.