Discovery BoxPsalms 106:14-33 
Context106:14 In the wilderness they had an insatiable craving 1 for meat; 2
they challenged God 3 in the desert.
106:15 He granted their request,
then struck them with a disease. 4
106:16 In the camp they resented 5 Moses,
and Aaron, the Lord’s holy priest. 6
106:17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;
it engulfed 7 the group led by Abiram. 8
106:18 Fire burned their group;
the flames scorched the wicked. 9
106:19 They made an image of a calf at Horeb,
and worshiped a metal idol.
106:20 They traded their majestic God 10
for the image of an ox that eats grass.
106:21 They rejected 11 the God who delivered them,
the one who performed great deeds in Egypt,
106:22 amazing feats in the land of Ham,
mighty 12 acts by the Red Sea.
106:23 He threatened 13 to destroy them,
but 14 Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him 15
and turned back his destructive anger. 16
106:24 They rejected the fruitful land; 17
they did not believe his promise. 18
106:25 They grumbled in their tents; 19
they did not obey 20 the Lord.
106:26 So he made a solemn vow 21
that he would make them die 22 in the desert,
106:27 make their descendants 23 die 24 among the nations,
and scatter them among foreign lands. 25
106:28 They worshiped 26 Baal of Peor,
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. 27
106:29 They made the Lord angry 28 by their actions,
and a plague broke out among them.
106:30 Phinehas took a stand and intervened, 29
and the plague subsided.
106:31 This brought him a reward,
an eternal gift. 30
106:32 They made him angry by the waters of Meribah,
and Moses suffered 31 because of them,
106:33 for they aroused 32 his temper, 33
and he spoke rashly. 34
1 sn They had an insatiable craving. This is described in Num 11:4-35.
2 tn Heb “they craved [with] a craving.”
3 tn Heb “they tested God.”
4 tn Heb “and he sent leanness into their being.”
sn Disease. See Num 11:33-34, where this plague is described.
5 tn Or “envied.”
6 tn Heb “the holy one of the
7 tn Or “covered.”
8 tn Or “the assembly of Abiram.”
9 sn Verses 16-18 describe the events of Num 16:1-40.
10 tn Heb “their glory.” According to an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition, the text originally read “his glory” or “my glory.” In Jer 2:11 the
11 tn Heb “forgot.”
12 tn Or “awe-inspiring.”
13 tn Heb “and he said.”
14 tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”
15 tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”
16 tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”
sn Verses 19-23 describe the events of Exod 32:1-35.
17 tn Heb “a land of delight” (see also Jer 3:19; Zech 7:14).
18 tn Heb “his word.”
19 sn They grumbled in their tents. See Deut 1:27.
20 tn Heb “did not listen to the voice of.”
21 tn Heb “and he lifted his hand to [or “concerning”] them.” The idiom “to lift a hand” here refers to swearing an oath. One would sometimes solemnly lift one’s hand when making such a vow (see Ezek 20:5-6, 15).
22 tn Heb “to cause them to fall.”
23 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
24 tn Heb “and to cause their offspring to fall.” Some emend the verb to “scatter” to form tighter parallelism with the following line (cf. NRSV “disperse”).
25 tn Heb “among the lands.” The word “foreign” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
26 tn Heb “joined themselves to.”
sn They worshiped Baal of Peor. See Num 25:3, 5. Baal of Peor was a local manifestation of the Canaanite deity Baal located at Peor.
27 tn Here “the dead” may refer to deceased ancestors (see Deut 26:14). Another option is to understand the term as a derogatory reference to the various deities which the Israelites worshiped at Peor along with Baal (see Num 25:2 and L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 49).
28 tn Heb “They made angry [him].” The pronominal suffix is omitted here, but does appear in a few medieval Hebrew
29 sn The intervention of Phinehas is recounted in Num 25:7-8.
30 tn Heb “and it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to a generation and a generation forever.” The verb חָשַׁב (khashav, “to reckon”) is collocated with צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) only in Ps 106:31 and Gen 15:6, where God rewards Abram’s faith with a land grant.
sn Brought him a reward. See Num 25:12-13.
31 tn Heb “there was harm to Moses.”
32 tn The Hebrew text vocalizes the form as הִמְרוּ (himru), a Hiphil from מָרָה (marah, “to behave rebelliously”), but the verb fits better with the object (“his spirit”) if it is revocalized as הֵמֵרוּ (hemeru), a Hiphil from מָרַר (marar, “to be bitter”). The Israelites “embittered” Moses’ “spirit” in the sense that they aroused his temper with their complaints.
33 tn Heb “his spirit.”
34 tn The Hebrew text adds “with his lips,” but this has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
sn Verses 32-33 allude to the events of Num 20:1-13.
