Discovery BoxNumbers 3:51 
Context3:51 Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the word of the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Numbers 5:4
Context5:4 So the Israelites did so, and expelled them outside the camp. As the Lord had spoken 1 to Moses, so the Israelites did.
Numbers 9:1
Context9:1 2 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out 3 of the land of Egypt:
Numbers 11:4
Context11:4 4 Now the mixed multitude 5 who were among them craved more desirable foods, 6 and so the Israelites wept again 7 and said, “If only we had meat to eat! 8
Numbers 13:31
Context13:31 But the men 9 who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!”
Numbers 14:6
Context14:6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of those who had investigated the land, tore their garments.
Numbers 16:33
Context16:33 They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community.
Numbers 16:39
Context16:39 So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers presented by those who had been burned up, and they were hammered out as a covering for the altar.
Numbers 22:33
Context22:33 The donkey saw me and turned from me these three times. If 10 she had not turned from me, I would have killed you but saved her alive.”
Numbers 23:2
Context23:2 So Balak did just as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam then offered on each 11 altar a bull and a ram.
Numbers 26:33
Context26:33 Now Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons, but only daughters; and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
Numbers 27:4
Context27:4 Why should the name of our father be lost from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession 12 among the relatives 13 of our father.”
Numbers 31:14
Context31:14 But Moses was furious with the officers of the army, the commanders over thousands and commanders over hundreds, who had come from service in the war.
Numbers 31:21
Context31:21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone into the battle, “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded Moses:
Numbers 33:4
Context33:4 Now the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had killed among them; the Lord also executed judgments on their gods.
1 tn The perfect tense is here given a past perfect nuance to stress that the word of the
2 sn The chapter has just the two sections, the observance of the Passover (vv. 1-14) and the cloud that led the Israelites in the wilderness (vv. 15-23). It must be remembered that the material in vv. 7-9 is chronologically earlier than vv. 1-6, as the notices in the text will make clear. The two main discussions here are the last major issues to be reiterated before dealing with the commencement of the journey.
3 tn The temporal clause is formed with the infinitive construct of יָצָא (yatsa’, “to go out; to leave”). This verse indicates that a full year had passed since the exodus and the original Passover; now a second ruling on the Passover is included at the beginning of the second year. This would have occurred immediately after the consecration of the tabernacle, in the month before the census at Sinai.
4 sn The story of the sending of the quail is a good example of poetic justice, or talionic justice. God had provided for the people, but even in that provision they were not satisfied, for they remembered other foods they had in Egypt. No doubt there was not the variety of foods in the Sinai that might have been available in Egypt, but their life had been bitter bondage there as well. They had cried to the
5 tn The mixed multitude (or “rabble,” so NASB, NIV, NRSV; NLT “foreign rabble”) is the translation of an unusual word, הֲָאסַפְסֻף (ha’safsuf). It occurs in the Hebrew Bible only here. It may mean “a gathering of people” from the verb אָסַף (’asaf), yielding the idea of a mixed multitude (in line with Exod 12:38). But the root is different, and so no clear connection can be established. Many commentators therefore think the word is stronger, showing contempt through a word that would be equivalent to “riff-raff.”
6 tn The Hebrew simply uses the cognate accusative, saying “they craved a craving” (הִתְאַוּוּ תַּאֲוָה, hit’avvu ta’vah), but the context shows that they had this strong craving for food. The verb describes a strong desire, which is not always negative (Ps 132:13-14). But the word is a significant one in the Torah; it was used in the garden story for Eve’s desire for the tree, and it is used in the Decalogue in the warning against coveting (Deut 5:21).
7 tc The Greek and the Latin versions read “and they sat down” for “and they returned,” involving just a change in vocalization (which they did not have). This may reflect the same expression in Judg 20:26. But the change does not improve this verse.
tn The Hebrew text uses a verbal hendiadys here, one word serving as an adverb for the other. It literally reads “and they returned and they wept,” which means they wept again. Here the weeping is put for the complaint, showing how emotionally stirred up the people had become by the craving. The words throughout here are metonymies. The craving is a metonymy of cause, for it would have then led to expressions (otherwise the desires would not have been known). And the weeping is either a metonymy of effect, or of adjunct, for the actual complaints follow.
8 tn The Hebrew expresses the strong wish or longing idiomatically: “Who will give us flesh to eat?” It is a rhetorical expression not intended to be taken literally, but merely to give expression to the longing they had. See GKC 476 §151.a.1.
9 tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.
10 tc Many commentators consider אוּלַי (’ulay, “perhaps”) to be a misspelling in the MT in place of לוּלֵי (luley, “if not”).
11 tn The Hebrew text has “on the altar,” but since there were seven of each animal and seven altars, the implication is that this means on each altar.
12 tn That is, the possession of land, or property, among the other families of their tribe.
13 tn The word is “brothers,” but this can be interpreted more loosely to relatives. So also in v. 7.
