Numbers 21:3-5 New English Translation
3 The Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites,[a] and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called[b] Hormah.
Fiery Serpents
4 Then they traveled from Mount Hor by the road to the Red Sea,[c] to go around the land of Edom, but the people[d] became impatient along the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread or water, and we[e] detest this worthless[f] food.”
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- Numbers 21:3 tc Smr, Greek, and Syriac add “into his hand.”
- Numbers 21:3 tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject, and so here too is made passive. The name “Hormah” is etymologically connected to the verb “utterly destroy,” forming the popular etymology (or paronomasia, a phonetic wordplay capturing the significance of the event).
- Numbers 21:4 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.
- Numbers 21:4 tn Heb “the soul of the people,” expressing the innermost being of the people as they became frustrated.
- Numbers 21:5 tn Heb “our souls.”
- Numbers 21:5 tn The Israelites’ opinion about the manna was clear enough—“worthless.” The word used is קְלֹקֵל (qeloqel, “good for nothing, worthless, miserable”).
New English Translation (NET)
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