Bilangan 5:20

5:20 But if you ¹  have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has had sexual relations with you….” ² 

Bilangan 13:31

13:31 But the men ³  who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!”

Bilangan 14:13

14:13 Moses said to the Lord, “When the Egyptians hear ⁴  it – for you brought up this people by your power from among them –

Bilangan 14:40

14:40 And early ⁵  in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, ⁶  saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, ⁷  for we have sinned.” ⁸ 

[5:20]  ¹ tn The pronoun is emphatic – “but you, if you have gone astray.”

[5:20]  ² tn This is an example of the rhetorical device known as aposiopesis, or “sudden silence.” The sentence is broken off due to the intensity or emphasis of the moment. The reader is left to conclude what the sentence would have said.

[13:31]  ³ tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.

[14:13]  ⁴ tn The construction is unusual in that we have here a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive with no verb before it to establish the time sequence. The context requires that this be taken as a vav (ו) consecutive. It actually forms the protasis for the next verse, and would best be rendered “when…then they will say.”

[14:40]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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.