Bilangan 11:3

11:3 So he called the name of that place Taberah ¹  because there the fire of the Lord burned among them.

Bilangan 14:1

The Israelites Respond in Unbelief

14:1 ² Then all the community raised a loud cry, ³  and the people wept ⁴  that night.

Bilangan 14:45

14:45 So the Amalekites and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country swooped ⁵  down and attacked them ⁶  as far as Hormah. ⁷ 

[11:3]  ¹ tn The name תַּבְעֵרָה (tav’erah) is given to the spot as a commemorative of the wilderness experience. It is explained by the formula using the same verbal root, “to burn.” Such naming narratives are found dozens of times in the OT, and most frequently in the Pentateuch. The explanation is seldom an exact etymology, and so in the literature is called a popular etymology. It is best to explain the connection as a figure of speech, a paronomasia, which is a phonetic wordplay that may or may not be etymologically connected. Usually the name is connected to the explanation by a play on the verbal root – here the preterite explaining the noun. The significance of commemorating the place by such a device is to “burn” it into the memory of Israel. The narrative itself would be remembered more easily by the name and its motif. The namings in the wilderness wanderings remind the faithful of unbelief, and warn us all not to murmur as they murmured. See further A. P. Ross, “Paronomasia and Popular Etymologies in the Naming Narrative of the Old Testament,” Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1982.

[14:1]  ² sn 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 רֹאשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.

[14:1]  ³ tn The two verbs “lifted up their voice and cried” form a hendiadys; the idiom of raising the voice means that they cried aloud.

[14:1]  ⁴ tn There are a number of things that the verb “to weep” or “wail” can connote. It could reflect joy, grief, lamentation, or repentance, but here it reflects fear, hopelessness, or vexation at the thought of coming all this way and being defeated by the Canaanite armies. See Judg 20:23, 26.

[14:45]  ⁵ tn Heb “came down.”

[14:45]  ⁶ tn The verb used here means “crush by beating,” or “pounded” them. The Greek text used “cut them in pieces.”

[14:45]  ⁷ tn The name “Hormah” means “destruction”; it is from the word that means “ban, devote” for either destruction or temple use.