Numbers 20:14-16 New English Translation

Rejection by the Edomites

¹⁴^[a] Moses^[b] sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom:^[c] “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardships we have experienced,^[d] ¹⁵how our ancestors went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time,^[e] and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors badly.^[f] ¹⁶So when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent a messenger,^[g] and has brought us up out of Egypt. Now^[h] we are here in Kadesh, a town on the edge of your country.^[i]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Numbers 20:14 sn For this particular section, see W. F. Albright, “From the Patriarchs to Moses: 2. Moses out of Egypt,” BA 36 (1973): 57-58; J. R. Bartlett, “The Land of Seir and the Brotherhood of Edom,” JTS 20 (1969): 1-20, and “The Rise and Fall of the Kingdom of Edom,” PEQ 104 (1972): 22-37, and “The Brotherhood of Edom,” JSOT 4 (1977): 2-7.
Numbers 20:14 tn Heb “And Moses sent.”
Numbers 20:14 sn Some modern biblical scholars are convinced, largely through arguments from silence, that there were no unified kingdoms in Edom until the 9th century, and no settlements there before the 12th century, and so the story must be late and largely fabricated. The evidence is beginning to point to the contrary. But the cities and residents of the region would largely be Bedouin, and so leave no real remains.
Numbers 20:14 tn Heb “found.”
Numbers 20:15 tn Heb “many days.”
Numbers 20:15 tn The verb רָעַע (raʿaʿ) means “to act or do evil.” Evil here is in the sense of causing pain or trouble. So the causative stem in our passage means “to treat wickedly.”
Numbers 20:16 tn The word could be rendered “angel” or “messenger.” Some ambiguity may be intended in this report.
Numbers 20:16 tn The Hebrew text uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) to emphasize the “here and now” aspect of the report to Edom.
Numbers 20:16 tn Heb “your border.”

New English Translation (NET)