Discovery BoxNumbers 10:30 
Context10:30 But Hobab 1 said to him, “I will not go, but I will go instead to my own land and to my kindred.”
Numbers 14:27-28
Context14:27 “How long must I bear 2 with this evil congregation 3 that murmurs against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites that they murmured against me. 14:28 Say to them, ‘As I live, 4 says 5 the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. 6
Numbers 15:41
Context15:41 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God.”
Numbers 17:5
Context17:5 And the staff of the man whom I choose will blossom; so I will rid myself of the complaints of the Israelites, which they murmur against you.”
Numbers 22:17
Context22:17 For I will honor you greatly, 7 and whatever you tell me I will do. So come, put a curse on this nation for me.’”
Numbers 22:29
Context22:29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “You have made me look stupid; I wish 8 there were a sword in my hand, for I would kill you right now.”
Numbers 23:4
Context23:4 Then God met Balaam, who 9 said to him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”
Numbers 23:8
Context23:8 How 10 can I curse 11 one whom God has not cursed,
or how can I denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced?
Numbers 24:11
Context24:11 So now, go back where you came from! 12 I said that I would greatly honor you; but now the Lord has stood in the way of your honor.”
Numbers 35:34
Context35:34 Therefore do not defile the land that you will inhabit, in which I live, for I the Lord live among the Israelites.”
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Hobab) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn The figure is aposiopesis, or sudden silence. The main verb is deleted from the line, “how long…this evil community.” The intensity of the emotion is the reason for the ellipsis.
3 sn It is worth mentioning in passing that this is one of the Rabbinic proof texts for having at least ten men to form a congregation and have prayer. If God called ten men (the bad spies) a “congregation,” then a congregation must have ten men. But here the word “community/congregation” refers in this context to the people of Israel as a whole, not just to the ten spies.
4 sn Here again is the oath that God swore in his wrath, an oath he swore by himself, that they would not enter the land. “As the
5 tn The word נְאֻם (nÿ’um) is an “oracle.” It is followed by the subjective genitive: “the oracle of the
6 tn Heb “in my ears.”
sn They had expressed the longing to have died in the wilderness, and not in war. God will now give them that. They would not say to God “your will be done,” so he says to them, “your will be done” (to borrow from C. S. Lewis).
7 tn The construction uses the Piel infinitive כַּבֵּד (kabbed) to intensify the verb, which is the Piel imperfect/cohortative אֲכַבֶּדְךָ (’akhabbedkha). The great honor could have been wealth, prestige, or position.
8 tn The optative clause is introduced with the particle לוּ (lu).
9 tn The relative pronoun is added here in place of the conjunction to clarify that Balaam is speaking to God and not vice versa.
10 tn The figure is erotesis, a rhetorical question. He is actually saying he cannot curse them because God has not cursed them.
11 tn The imperfect tense should here be classified as a potential imperfect.
12 tn Heb “flee to your place.”
