9:6 It happened that some men 6 who were ceremonially defiled 7 by the dead body of a man 8 could not keep 9 the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.
11:1 10 When the people complained, 11 it displeased 12 the Lord. When the Lord heard 13 it, his anger burned, 14 and so 15 the fire of the Lord 16 burned among them and consumed some of the outer parts of the camp.
19:17 “‘For a ceremonially unclean person you must take 18 some of the ashes of the heifer 19 burnt for purification from sin and pour 20 fresh running 21 water over them in a vessel.
21:1 22 When the Canaanite king of Arad 23 who lived in the Negev 24 heard that Israel was approaching along the road to Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoner.
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 pronoun is emphatic – “but you, if you have gone astray.”
5 tn This is an example of the rhetorical device known as aposiopesis, or “sudden silence.” The sentence is broken off due to the intensity or emphasis of the moment. The reader is left to conclude what the sentence would have said.
6 tn In the Hebrew text the noun has no definite article, and so it signifies “some” or “certain” men.
7 tn The meaning, of course, is to be ceremonially unclean, and therefore disqualified from entering the sanctuary.
8 tn Or “a human corpse” (so NAB, NKJV). So also in v.7; cf. v. 10.
9 tn This clause begins with the vav (ו) conjunction and negative before the perfect tense. Here is the main verb of the sentence: They were not able to observe the Passover. The first part of the verse provides the explanation for their problem.
10 sn The chapter includes the initial general complaints (vv. 1-3), the complaints about food (vv. 4-9), Moses’ own complaint to the
11 tn The temporal clause uses the Hitpoel infinitive construct from אָנַן (’anan). It is a rare word, occurring in Lam 3:39. With this blunt introduction the constant emphasis of obedience to the word of the
12 tn Heb “it was evil in the ears of the
13 tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next verb as a temporal clause.
14 tn The common Hebrew expression uses the verb חָרָה (harah, “to be hot, to burn, to be kindled”). The subject is אַפּוֹ (’appo), “his anger” or more literally, his nose, which in this anthropomorphic expression flares in rage. The emphasis is superlative – “his anger raged.”
15 tn The vav (ו) consecutive does not simply show sequence in the verbs, but here expresses the result of the anger of the
16 sn The “fire of the
17 tn The word is related etymologically to the verb for “slip, slide, bend, totter.” This would fit the use very well. A pole that would not bend would be hard to use to carry things, but a pole or stave that was flexible would serve well.
18 tn The verb is the perfect tense, third masculine plural, with a vav (ו) consecutive. The verb may be worded as a passive, “ashes must be taken,” but that may be too awkward for this sentence. It may be best to render it with a generic “you” to fit the instruction of the text.
19 tn The word “heifer” is not in the Hebrew text, but it is implied.
20 tn Here too the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; rather than make this passive, it is here left as a direct instruction to follow the preceding one. For the use of the verb נָתַן (natan) in the sense of “pour,” see S. C. Reif, “A Note on a Neglected Connotation of ntn,” VT 20 (1970): 114-16.
21 tn The expression is literally “living water.” Living water is the fresh, flowing spring water that is clear, life-giving, and not the collected pools of stagnant or dirty water.
22 sn This chapter has several events in it: the victory over Arad (vv. 1-3), the plague of serpents (vv. 4-9), the approach to Moab (vv. 10-20), and the victory over Sihon and Og (vv. 21-35). For information, see D. M. Gunn, “The ‘Battle Report’: Oral or Scribal Convention.” JBL 93 (1974): 513-18; and of the extensive literature on the archaeological site, see EAEHL 1:74-89.
23 sn The name Arad probably refers to a place a number of miles away from Tel Arad in southern Israel. The name could also refer to the whole region (like Edom).
24 tn Or “the south”; “Negev” has become a technical name for the southern desert region and is still in use in modern times.