Numbers 9:7

9:7 And those men said to him, “We are ceremonially defiled by the dead body of a man; why are we kept back from offering the Lord’s offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?”

Numbers 12:14

12:14 The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only spit ¹  in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again.”

Numbers 13:26

The Spies’ Reports

13:26 They came back ²  to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. ³  They reported ⁴  to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land.

Numbers 17:10

The Memorial

17:10 The Lord said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s staff back before the testimony to be preserved for a sign to the rebels, so that you may bring their murmurings to an end ⁵  before me, that they will not die.” ⁶ 

Numbers 22:8

22:8 He replied to them, “Stay ⁷  here tonight, and I will bring back to you whatever word the Lord may speak to me.” So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.

Numbers 22:34

22:34 Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. ⁸  So now, if it is evil in your sight, ⁹  I will go back home.” ¹⁰ 

Numbers 24:14

24:14 And now, I am about to go ¹¹  back to my own people. Come now, and I will advise you as to what this people will do to your people in the future.” ¹² 

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¹ tn The form is intensified by the infinitive absolute, but here the infinitive strengthens not simply the verbal idea but the conditional cause construction as well.

² tn The construction literally has “and they went and they entered,” which may be smoothed out as a verbal hendiadys, the one verb modifying the other.

³ sn Kadesh is Ain Qadeis, about 50 miles (83 km) south of Beer Sheba. It is called Kadesh-barnea in Num 32:8.

⁴ tn Heb “They brought back word”; the verb is the Hiphil preterite of שׁוּב (shuv).

⁵ tn The verb means “to finish; to complete” and here “to bring to an end.” It is the imperfect following the imperative, and so introduces a purpose clause (as a final imperfect).

⁶ tn This is another final imperfect in a purpose clause.

⁷ tn The verb לִין (lin) means “to lodge, spend the night.” The related noun is “a lodge” – a hotel of sorts. Balaam needed to consider the offer. And after darkness was considered the best time for diviners to consult with their deities. Balaam apparently knows of the Lord; he testifies to this effect in 22:18.

⁸ sn Balaam is not here making a general confession of sin. What he is admitting to is a procedural mistake. The basic meaning of the word is “to miss the mark.” He now knows he took the wrong way, i.e., in coming to curse Israel.

⁹ sn The reference is to Balaam’s way. He is saying that if what he is doing is so perverse, so evil, he will turn around and go home. Of course, it did not appear that he had much of a chance of going forward.

¹⁰ tn The verb is the cohortative from “return”: I will return [me].

¹¹ tn The construction is the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) suffixed followed by the active participle. This is the futur instans use of the participle, to express something that is about to happen: “I am about to go.”

¹² tn Heb “in the latter days.” For more on this expression, see E. Lipinski, “באחרית הימים dans les textes préexiliques,” VT 20 (1970): 445-50.