Numbers 11:20

11:20 but a whole month, 1  until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, 2  because you have despised 3  the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why 4  did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

Numbers 14:40

14:40 And early 5  in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, 6  saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, 7  for we have sinned.” 8 

1 tn Heb “a month of days.” So also in v. 21.

2 tn The expression לְזָרָה (lÿzarah) has been translated “ill” or “loathsome.” It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek text interprets it as “sickness.” It could be nausea or vomiting (so G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 112) from overeating.

3 sn The explanation is the interpretation of their behavior – it is in reality what they have done, even though they would not say they despised the Lord. They had complained and shown a lack of faith and a contempt for the program, which was in essence despising the Lord.

4 tn The use of the demonstrative pronoun here (“why is this we went out …”) is enclitic, providing emphasis to the sentence: “Why in the world did we ever leave Egypt?”

5 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.”

6 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.

7 tn The verb is simply “said,” but it means the place that the Lord said to go up to in order to fight.

8 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.