Discovery BoxNumbers 13:22 
Context13:22 When they went up through the Negev, they 1 came 2 to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, 3 descendants of Anak, were living. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan 4 in Egypt.)
Numbers 20:19
Context20:19 Then the Israelites said to him, “We will go along the highway, and if we 5 or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else.”
Numbers 21:23
Context21:23 But Sihon did not permit Israel to pass through his border; he 6 gathered all his forces 7 together and went out against Israel into the wilderness. When 8 he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel.
Numbers 24:8
Context24:8 God brought them out of Egypt.
They have, as it were, the strength of a young bull;
they will devour hostile people 9
and will break their bones
and will pierce them through with arrows.
Numbers 25:8
Context25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent 10 and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. 11 So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. 12
Numbers 31:16
Context31:16 Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord!
Numbers 33:8
Context33:8 They traveled from Pi-hahiroth, 13 and passed through the middle of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham, and camped in Marah.
Numbers 36:13
Context36:13 These are the commandments and the decisions that the Lord commanded the Israelites through the authority 14 of Moses, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River 15 opposite Jericho. 16
1 tc The MT has the singular, but the ancient versions and Smr have the plural.
2 tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the following clause. The first verse gave the account of their journey over the whole land; this section focuses on what happened in the area of Hebron, which would be the basis for the false report.
3 sn These names are thought to be three clans that were in the Hebron area (see Josh 15:14; Judg 1:20). To call them descendants of Anak is usually taken to mean that they were large or tall people (2 Sam 21:18-22). They were ultimately driven out by Caleb.
4 sn The text now provides a brief historical aside for the readers. Zoan was probably the city of Tanis, although that is disputed today by some scholars. It was known in Egypt in the New Kingdom as “the fields of Tanis,” which corresponded to the “fields of Zoar” in the Hebrew Bible (Ps 78:12, 43).
5 tn The Hebrew text uses singular pronouns, “I” and “my,” but it is the people of Israel that are intended, and so it may be rendered in the plural. Similarly, Edom speaks in the first person, probably from the king. But it too could be rendered “we.”
6 tn Heb “Sihon.”
7 tn Heb “people.”
8 tn The clause begins with a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive, but may be subordinated to the next preterite as a temporal clause.
9 tn Heb “they will devour nations,” their adversaries.
10 tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).
11 tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.
12 sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the
13 tc So many medieval Hebrew manuscripts, Smr, Syriac, and Latin Vulgate. Other witnesses have “from before Hahiroth.”
14 tn Heb “by the hand.”
15 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
16 map For the location of Jericho see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.
