¹ tn or “zeal.”

⁵ tn Or “your zeal.”

⁴ tn Or “what zeal.”

¹ tn Grk “they have a zeal for God.”

² tn Heb “and see my zeal for the Lord.”

¹ tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.

² tn Heb “and I will give you the blood of rage and zeal.”

¹ tn Heb “like a man of war he stirs up zeal” (NIV similar).

¹ tn Grk “zeal,” recalling God’s jealous protection of his holiness and honor (cf. Exod 20:5).

¹ tn This probably refers to his zeal for his people, which motivates him to angrily strike out against their enemies.

¹ tn Or “very zealous.” The infinitive absolute preceding the finite verb emphasizes the degree of his zeal and allegiance.

¹ tn Or “very zealous.” The infinitive absolute preceding the finite verb emphasizes the degree of his zeal and allegiance.

¹ tn Traditionally “the Lord of hosts.” In this context the Lord’s “zeal” refers to his intense devotion to and love for his people which prompts him to protect and restore them. The Qere, along with many medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions, has “the zeal of the Lord of hosts” rather than “the zeal of the Lord” (Kethib). The translation follows the Qere here.

¹ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

² tn The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.

² sn Their zeal is not in line with the truth means that the Jews’ passion for God was strong, but it ignored the true righteousness of God (v. 3; cf. also 3:21).

¹ tn Traditionally, “the Lord of hosts.” In this context the Lord’s “zeal” refers to his intense devotion to and love for his people that prompts him to protect and restore them.

⁶ sn In this context the Lord’s “zeal” refers to his intense devotion to and love for his people which prompts him to vindicate them and to fulfill his promises to David and the nation.

³ tn The term קִנְאָה (qinʾah, “envy”) refers to passionate zeal or “jealousy” (so NAB, NCV, TEV, NLT), depending on whether the object is out of bounds or within one’s rights. In the good sense one might be consumed with zeal to defend the institutions of the sanctuary. But as envy or jealousy the word describes an intense and sometimes violent excitement and desire that is never satisfied.

¹ tn The Piel participle מְקַנֵּא (m^eqanneʾ) serves as a verb here in this interrogative sentence. The word means “to be jealous; to be envious.” That can be in a good sense, such as with the translation “zeal,” or it can be in a negative sense as here. Joshua’s apparent “zeal” is questioned by Moses—was he zealous/envious for Moses sake, or for some other reason?