13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up 2 and occupy it, 3 for we are well able to conquer it.” 4
21:16 And from there they traveled 5 to Beer; 6 that is the well where the Lord spoke to Moses, “Gather the people and I will give them water.”
21:18 The well which the princes 7 dug,
which the leaders of the people opened
with their scepters and their staffs.”
And from the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;
1 tn Heb “and it shall be.”
2 tn The construction is emphatic, using the cohortative with the infinitive absolute to strengthen it: עָלֹה נַעֲלֶה (’aloh na’aleh, “let us go up”) with the sense of certainty and immediacy.
3 tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive brings the cohortative idea forward: “and let us possess it”; it may also be subordinated to form a purpose or result idea.
4 tn Here again the confidence of Caleb is expressed with the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense: יָכוֹל נוּכַל (yakhol nukhal), “we are fully able” to do this. The verb יָכַל (yakhal) followed by the preposition lamed means “to prevail over, to conquer.”
5 tn The words “they traveled” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied here because of English style. The same phrase is supplied at the end of v. 18.
6 sn Isa 15:8 mentions a Moabite Beerelim, which Simons suggests is Wadi Ettemed.
7 sn The brief song is supposed to be an old workers’ song, and so the mention of leaders and princes is unusual. Some think they are given credit because they directed where the workers were to dig. The scepter and staff might have served some symbolic or divining custom.