Bilangan 14:40

14:40 And early ¹  in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, ²  saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, ³  for we have sinned.” ⁴ 

Bilangan 18:2

18:2 “Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join ⁵  with you and minister to you while ⁶  you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

Bilangan 21:4

Fiery Serpents

21:4 Then they traveled from Mount Hor by the road to the Red Sea, ⁷  to go around the land of Edom, but the people ⁸  became impatient along the way.

Bilangan 22:34

22:34 Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. ⁹  So now, if it is evil in your sight, ¹⁰  I will go back home.” ¹¹ 

Bilangan 24:14

24:14 And now, I am about to go ¹²  back to my own people. Come now, and I will advise you as to what this people will do to your people in the future.” ¹³ 

Bilangan 30:3

Vows Made by Single Women

30:3 “If a young ¹⁴  woman who is still living ¹⁵  in her father’s house makes a vow to the Lord or places herself under an obligation,

Bilangan 36:6

36:6 This is what ¹⁶  the Lord has commanded for Zelophehad’s daughters: ‘Let them marry ¹⁷  whomever they think best, ¹⁸  only they must marry within the family of their father’s tribe.

[14:40]  ¹ tn The verb וַיַּשְׁכִּמוּ (vayyashkimu) is often found in a verbal hendiadys construction: “They rose early…and they went up” means “they went up early.”

[14:40]  ² tn 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.

[14:40]  ³ tn The verb is simply “said,” but it means the place that the Lord said to go up to in order to fight.

[14:40]  ⁴ sn 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.

[18:2]  ⁵ sn The verb forms a wordplay on the name Levi, and makes an allusion to the naming of the tribe Levi by Leah in the book of Genesis. There Leah hoped that with the birth of Levi her husband would be attached to her. Here, with the selection of the tribe to serve in the sanctuary, there is the wordplay again showing that the Levites will be attached to Aaron and the priests. The verb is יִלָּווּ (yillavu), which forms a nice wordplay with Levi (לֵוִי). The tribe will now be attached to the sanctuary. The verb is the imperfect with a vav (ו) that shows volitive sequence after the imperative, here indicating a purpose clause.

[18:2]  ⁶ tn The clause is a circumstantial clause because the disjunctive vav (ו) is on a nonverb to start the clause.

[21:4]  ⁷ tn The “Red Sea” is the general designation for the bodies of water on either side of the Sinai peninsula, even though they are technically gulfs from the Red Sea.

[21:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “the soul of the people,” expressing the innermost being of the people as they became frustrated.

[22:34]  ⁹ sn Balaam is not here making a general confession of sin. What he is admitting to is a procedural mistake. The basic meaning of the word is “to miss the mark.” He now knows he took the wrong way, i.e., in coming to curse Israel.

[22:34]  ¹⁰ sn The reference is to Balaam’s way. He is saying that if what he is doing is so perverse, so evil, he will turn around and go home. Of course, it did not appear that he had much of a chance of going forward.

[22:34]  ¹¹ tn The verb is the cohortative from “return”: I will return [me].

[24:14]  ¹² tn The construction is the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) suffixed followed by the active participle. This is the futur instans use of the participle, to express something that is about to happen: “I am about to go.”

[24:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “in the latter days.” For more on this expression, see E. Lipinski, “באחרית הימים dans les textes préexiliques,” VT 20 (1970): 445-50.

[30:3]  ¹⁴ tn The qualification comes at the end of the verse, and simply says “in her youth.”

[30:3]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text just has “in her father’s house” and not “who is still living,” but that is the meaning of the line.

[36:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the word that.”

[36:6]  ¹⁷ tn The idiom again is “let them be for wives for….”

[36:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to the one who is good in their eyes.”