Numbers 14:38-40

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Numbers 14:38 tn The Hebrew text uses the preposition “from,” “some of”—“from those men.” The relative pronoun is added to make a smoother reading.
2. Numbers 14:39 tn The preterite here is subordinated to the next preterite to form a temporal clause.
3. Numbers 14:39 tn The word אָבַל (ʾaval) is rare, used mostly for mourning over deaths, but it is used here of mourning over bad news (see also Exod 33:4; 1 Sam 15:35; 16:1; etc.).
4. Numbers 14:40 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.”
5. Numbers 14:40 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.
6. Numbers 14:40 tn The verb is simply “said,” but it means the place that the Lord said to go up to in order to fight.
7. Numbers 14:40 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.