Numbers 14 · Kingdoms of Scripture

1The whole congregation lifted their voice and gave it, and the people wept that night.

2All the sons of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness.

3Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?

4They said to one another, Let us set a head over us and go back to Egypt.

5Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the whole assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.

6Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, from those who scouted the land, tore their clothes.

7They said to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, The land we passed through to scout is a very, very good land.

8If Yahweh delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land oozing milk and honey.

9Only do not rebel against Yahweh, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their shade has turned from over them, and Yahweh is with us. Do not fear them.

Notes (1)

Translation
“They are our bread” is the Hebrew. It means the speakers expect to consume them. A smoother “we can devour them” is not printed. Tzillam is their shade, their cover.

10The whole congregation said to stone them with stones. And the glory of Yahweh appeared at the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.

11Yahweh said to Moses, How long will this people treat me with contempt, and how long will they not trust me, for all the signs I have done in their midst?

12I will strike them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.

Notes (1)

Translation
Dever is pestilence, as in Exodus. Orishennu is “I will dispossess them.”

13Moses said to Yahweh, Egypt will hear, for by your strength you brought this people up from their midst,

14and they will say to the inhabitant of this land. They have heard that you, Yahweh, are in the midst of this people, that you, Yahweh, are seen eye to eye, and that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

15If you put this people to death as one man, then the nations who have heard the report of you will say,

16It is because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land he swore to them that he slaughtered them in the wilderness.

17Now, please, let my Lord’s strength be great, as you have spoken, saying,

18Yahweh, slow to anger and great in loyalty, carrying guilt and rebellion, and clearing, he does not clear, calling the guilt of fathers to account on sons, on the thirds and on the fourths.

Notes (1)

Translation
Chesed is loyalty. See the glossary. This is its first use in the book. Venakke lo yenakke is “and clearing, he does not clear.” The line is shorter than the one in Exodus 34. What is written here is printed.

19Forgive, please, the guilt of this people, according to the greatness of your loyalty, and as you have carried this people from Egypt until now.

20Yahweh said, I have forgiven, according to your word.

21But as I live, and as the glory of Yahweh fills the whole earth,

22none of the men who saw my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and tested me these ten times, and did not listen to my voice,

23shall see the land I swore to their fathers. None who treated me with contempt shall see it.

Notes (1)

Translation
Im yiru is an oath, “if they see,” and it means they shall not see. The same oath form is in verses 28, 30, and 35.

24But my servant Caleb, because a different spirit was with him and he followed fully after me, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his seed will take possession of it.

Notes (1)

Translation
Vaymale acharai is “he filled after me,” he went after me completely.

25The Amalekite and the Canaanite live in the valley. Tomorrow, turn and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Sea of Reeds.

Notes (1)

Translation
Yam suf is the Sea of Reeds, as in Exodus. “Red Sea” is not printed.

26Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

27How long for this evil congregation, who are complaining against me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they complain against me.

28Say to them, As I live, utterance of Yahweh, I will do to you just as you have spoken in my ears.

Notes (1)

Translation
Ne’um Yahweh is Yahweh’s utterance. Im lo is the oath “if I do not,” and it means he will do it.

29In this wilderness your corpses will fall, all your numbered men, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, you who have complained against me.

30You shall not come into the land where I lifted my hand to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

Notes (1)

Translation
Nasa’ti et yadi is “I lifted my hand,” the gesture of an oath. Leshakken is to settle you there.

31Your little ones, of whom you said, They will become plunder, I will bring them in, and they will know the land that you rejected.

32But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.

33Your children will be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and they will carry your unfaithfulness until your corpses come to an end in the wilderness.

Notes (1)

Translation
Ro’im is shepherds. Zenut is unfaithfulness, the word also used when someone strays from a spouse. Here it is the people’s turning from Yahweh.

34By the number of the days you scouted the land, forty days, a day for the year, a day for the year, you shall carry your guilt forty years, and you shall know my opposition.

Notes (1)

Translation
Tenu’ati is my opposition, the resistance I set against you. “My breach” is not the word.

35I am Yahweh. I have spoken. I will do this to all this evil congregation who gathered against me. In this wilderness they will come to an end, and there they will die.

36The men whom Moses sent to scout the land, who returned and made the whole congregation complain against him by bringing out a bad report against the land,

Notes (1)

Text
The written consonants are וילונו, with a vav. The Masoretic reading is וילינו, “and they made them complain,” with a yod where the written form has a vav. The written consonants are printed. The line takes them as setting the congregation complaining, because the congregation is the object.

37those men who brought out a bad report of the land died in the plague before Yahweh.

Notes (1)

Translation
Maggefah is the plague, the striking. It is not the same word as the pestilence in verse 12.

38Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh lived, of those men who went to scout the land.

39Moses told these words to all the sons of Israel, and the people mourned greatly.

40They rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the hill country, saying, Look, here we are, and we will go up to the place Yahweh said, for we have sinned.

41Moses said, Why are you crossing Yahweh’s mouth? It will not succeed.

Notes (1)

Translation
Overim et pi Yahweh is crossing the mouth of Yahweh, going past what he said. The “it” is the going up.

42Do not go up, for Yahweh is not in your midst, so that you are not struck down before your enemies.

43For the Amalekite and the Canaanite are there before you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned from following Yahweh, Yahweh will not be with you.

44They forced their way up to the top of the hill country. The chest of the covenant of Yahweh, and Moses, did not move from the midst of the camp.

Notes (1)

Translation
Vayya’pilu is they forced their way up, a rare word for going when told not to. Aron berit Yahweh is the chest of the covenant of Yahweh.

45The Amalekite and the Canaanite who lived in that hill country came down and struck them and crushed them, as far as Hormah.

Notes (1)

Translation
Hormah is the place name. The same consonants can mean a thing devoted to destruction. The place is printed.