Bilangan 9:21-22

9:21 And when ¹  the cloud remained only ²  from evening until morning, when the cloud was taken up ³  the following morning, then they traveled on. Whether by day or by night, when the cloud was taken up they traveled. 9:22 Whether it was for two days, or a month, or a year, ⁴  that the cloud prolonged its stay ⁵  over the tabernacle, the Israelites remained camped without traveling; ⁶  but when it was taken up, they traveled on.

Bilangan 19:12

19:12 He must purify himself ⁷  with water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and the seventh day, then he will not be clean.

Bilangan 27:3

27:3 “Our father died in the wilderness, although ⁸  he was not part of ⁹  the company of those that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but he died for his own sin, ¹⁰  and he had no sons.

[9:21]  ¹ tn The construction is the same in the preceding verse.

[9:21]  ² tn “Only” is supplied to reflect the contrast between the two verses.

[9:21]  ³ tn The construction in this half of the verse uses two vav (ו) consecutive clauses. The first is subordinated to the second as a temporal clause: “when…then….”

[9:22]  ⁴ tn The MT has אוֹ־יָמִים (’o-yamim). Most translators use “or a year” to interpret this expression in view of the sequence of words leading up to it, as well as in comparison with passages like Judg 17:10 and 1 Sam 1:3 and 27:7. See also the uses in Gen 40:4 and 1 Kgs 17:15. For the view that it means four months, see F. S. North, “Four Month Season of the Hebrew Bible,” VT 11 (1961): 446-48.

[9:22]  ⁵ tn In the Hebrew text this sentence has a temporal clause using the preposition with the Hiphil infinitive construct of אָרַךְ (’arakh) followed by the subjective genitive, “the cloud.” But this infinitive is followed by the infinitive construct לִשְׁכֹּן (lishkon), the two of them forming a verbal hendiadys: “the cloud made long to stay” becomes “the cloud prolonged its stay.”

[9:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “and they would not journey”; the clause can be taken adverbially, explaining the preceding verbal clause.

[19:12]  ⁷ tn The verb is the Hitpael of חָטָא (khata’), a verb that normally means “to sin.” But the Piel idea in many places is “to cleanse; to purify.” This may be explained as a privative use (“to un-sin” someone, meaning cleanse) or denominative (“make a sin offering for someone”). It is surely connected to the purification offering, and so a sense of purify is what is wanted here.

[27:3]  ⁸ tn This clause begins with a vav (ו) on a pronoun, marking it out as a disjunctive vav. In this context it fits best to take it as a circumstantial clause introducing concession.

[27:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “in the midst of.”

[27:3]  ¹⁰ tn The word order is emphatic: “but in/on account of his own sins he died.”