Discovery BoxNumbers 5:28 
Context5:28 But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she will be free of ill effects 1 and will be able to bear children.
Numbers 10:4
Context10:4 “But if they blow with one trumpet, then the leaders, the heads of the thousands of Israel, must come to you. 2
Numbers 10:32
Context10:32 And if you come with us, it is certain 3 that whatever good things the Lord will favor us with, we will share with you as well.”
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 14:8
Context14:8 If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us – a land that is flowing with milk and honey. 9
Numbers 16:34
Context16:34 All the Israelites 10 who were around them fled at their cry, 11 for they said, “What if 12 the earth swallows us too?”
Numbers 21:2
Context21:2 So Israel made a vow 13 to the Lord and said, “If you will indeed deliver 14 this people into our 15 hand, then we will utterly destroy 16 their cities.”
Numbers 22:33
Context22:33 The donkey saw me and turned from me these three times. If 17 she had not turned from me, I would have killed you but saved her alive.”
Numbers 27:8
Context27:8 And you must tell the Israelites, ‘If a man dies 18 and has no son, then you must transfer his inheritance to his daughter;
Numbers 30:3
Context30:3 “If a young 19 woman who is still living 20 in her father’s house makes a vow to the Lord or places herself under an obligation,
Numbers 30:6
Context30:6 “And if she marries a husband while under a vow, 21 or she uttered 22 anything impulsively by which she has pledged herself,
Numbers 32:15
Context32:15 For if you turn away from following him, he will once again abandon 23 them in the wilderness, and you will be the reason for their destruction.” 24
Numbers 32:21
Context32:21 and if all your armed men cross the Jordan before the Lord until he drives out his enemies from his presence
Numbers 32:23
Context32:23 “But if you do not do this, then look, you will have sinned 25 against the Lord. And know that your sin will find you out.
Numbers 35:16
Context35:16 “But if he hits someone with an iron tool so that he dies, 26 he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.
1 tn Heb “will be free”; the words “of ill effects” have been supplied as a clarification.
2 tn Heb “they shall assemble themselves.”
3 tn Heb “and it shall be.”
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 subjective genitives “milk and honey” are symbols of the wealth of the land, second only to bread. Milk was a sign of such abundance (Gen 49:12; Isa 7:21,22). Because of the climate the milk would thicken quickly and become curds, eaten with bread or turned into butter. The honey mentioned here is the wild honey (see Deut 32:13; Judg 14:8-9). It signified sweetness, or the finer things of life (Ezek 3:3).
10 tn Heb “all Israel.”
11 tn Heb “voice.”
12 tn Heb “lest.”
13 tn The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative with the verb: They vowed a vow. The Israelites were therefore determined with God’s help to defeat Arad.
14 tn The Hebrew text has the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense of נָתַן (natan) to stress the point – if you will surely/indeed give.”
15 tn Heb “my.”
16 tn On the surface this does not sound like much of a vow. But the key is in the use of the verb for “utterly destroy” – חָרַם (kharam). Whatever was put to this “ban” or “devotion” belonged to God, either for his use, or for destruction. The oath was in fact saying that they would take nothing from this for themselves. It would simply be the removal of what was alien to the faith, or to God’s program.
17 tc Many commentators consider אוּלַי (’ulay, “perhaps”) to be a misspelling in the MT in place of לוּלֵי (luley, “if not”).
18 tn Heb “a man, if he dies.”
19 tn The qualification comes at the end of the verse, and simply says “in her youth.”
20 tn The Hebrew text just has “in her father’s house” and not “who is still living,” but that is the meaning of the line.
21 tn Heb “and her vows are upon her.” It may be that the woman gets married while her vows are still unfulfilled.
22 tn The Hebrew text indicates that this would be some impetuous vow that she uttered with her lips, a vow that her husband, whether new or existing, would not approve of. Several translate it “a binding obligation rashly uttered.”
23 tn The construction uses a verbal hendiadys with the verb “to add” serving to modify the main verb.
24 tn Heb “and you will destroy all this people.”
25 tn The nuance of the perfect tense here has to be the future perfect.
26 tn the verb is the preterite of “die.” The sentence has :“if…he strikes him and he dies.” The vav (ו) consecutive is showing the natural result of the blow.
