21:4 Then they traveled from Mount Hor by the road to the Red Sea, 5 to go around the land of Edom, but the people 6 became impatient along the way.
1 tn The disjunctive vav (ו) is here introducing a circumstantial clause of time.
2 tn There is no verb “became” in this line. The second half of the line is introduced with the particle הִנֵה (hinneh, “look, behold”) in its archaic sense. This deictic use is intended to make the reader focus on Miriam as well.
3 sn The word “leprosy” and “leprous” covers a wide variety of skin diseases, and need not be limited to the actual disease of leprosy known today as Hansen’s disease. The description of it here has to do with snow, either the whiteness or the wetness. If that is the case then there would be open wounds and sores – like Job’s illness (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 95-96).
4 tn Heb “turned to.”
5 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.
6 tn Heb “the soul of the people,” expressing the innermost being of the people as they became frustrated.