19:21 “‘So this will be a perpetual ordinance for them: The one who sprinkles 4 the water of purification must wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water of purification will be unclean until evening. 5
24:7 He will pour the water out of his buckets, 6
and their descendants will be like abundant 7 water; 8
their king will be greater than Agag, 9
and their kingdom will be exalted.
1 tn This is probably water taken from the large bronze basin in the courtyard. It is water set apart for sacred service. “Clean water” (so NEB) does not capture the sense very well, but it does have the support of the Greek that has “pure running water.” That pure water would no doubt be from the bronze basin anyway.
2 tn Heb “from.” The preposition is used here with a partitive sense.
3 sn The dust may have come from the sanctuary floor, but it is still dust, and therefore would have all the pollutants in it.
4 tn The form has the conjunction with it: וּמַזֵּה (umazzeh). The conjunction subordinates the following as the special law. It could literally be translated “and this shall be…that the one who sprinkles.”
5 sn This gives the indication of the weight of the matter, for “until the evening” is the shortest period of ritual uncleanness in the Law. The problem of contamination had to be taken seriously, but this was a relatively simple matter to deal with – if one were willing to obey the Law.
6 tc For this colon the LXX has “a man shall come out of his seed.” Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and Targum.
7 tn Heb “many.”
8 sn These two lines are difficult, but the general sense is that of irrigation buckets and a well-watered land. The point is that Israel will be prosperous and fruitful.
9 sn Many commentators see this as a reference to Agag of 1 Sam 15:32-33, the Amalekite king slain by Samuel, for that is the one we know. But that is by no means clear, for this text does not identify this Agag. If it is that king, then this poem, or this line in this poem, would have to be later, unless one were to try to argue for a specific prophecy. Whoever this Agag is, he is a symbol of power.
10 tn The preposition on the relative pronoun has the force of “because of the fact that.”
11 tn The verb is the second masculine plural form.
12 tn Heb “mouth.”
13 sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.