Bilangan 13:21--14:10
Konteks13:21 So they went up and investigated the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, 1 at the entrance of Hamath. 2 13:22 When they went up through the Negev, they 3 came 4 to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, 5 descendants of Anak, were living. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan 6 in Egypt.) 13:23 When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a staff 7 between two men, as well as some of the pomegranates and the figs. 13:24 That place was called 8 the Eshcol Valley, 9 because of the cluster 10 of grapes that the Israelites cut from there. 13:25 They returned from investigating the land after forty days.
13:26 They came back 11 to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. 12 They reported 13 to the whole community and showed the fruit of the land. 13:27 They told Moses, 14 “We went to the land where you sent us. 15 It is indeed flowing with milk and honey, 16 and this is its fruit. 13:28 But 17 the inhabitants 18 are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. Moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. 13:29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea and along the banks 19 of the Jordan.” 20
13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up 21 and occupy it, 22 for we are well able to conquer it.” 23 13:31 But the men 24 who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against these people, because they are stronger than we are!” 13:32 Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging 25 report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through 26 to investigate is a land that devours 27 its inhabitants. 28 All the people we saw there 29 are of great stature. 13:33 We even saw the Nephilim 30 there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed liked grasshoppers both to ourselves 31 and to them.” 32
14:1 33 Then all the community raised a loud cry, 34 and the people wept 35 that night. 14:2 And all the Israelites murmured 36 against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died 37 in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished 38 in this wilderness! 14:3 Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” 14:4 So they said to one another, 39 “Let’s appoint 40 a leader 41 and return 42 to Egypt.”
14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell down with their faces to the ground 43 before the whole assembled community 44 of the Israelites. 14:6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of those who had investigated the land, tore their garments. 14:7 They said to the whole community of the Israelites, “The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly 45 good land. 14:8 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. 46 14:9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. 47 Their protection 48 has turned aside from them, but the Lord is with us. Do not fear them!”
14:10 However, the whole community threatened to stone them. 49 But 50 the glory 51 of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent 52 of meeting.
[13:21] 1 sn Zin is on the southern edge of the land, but Rehob is far north, near Mount Hermon. The spies covered all the land.
[13:21] 2 tn The idiom uses the infinitive construct: “to enter Hamath,” meaning, “on the way that people go to Hamath.”
[13:22] 3 tc The MT has the singular, but the ancient versions and Smr have the plural.
[13:22] 4 tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the following clause. The first verse gave the account of their journey over the whole land; this section focuses on what happened in the area of Hebron, which would be the basis for the false report.
[13:22] 5 sn These names are thought to be three clans that were in the Hebron area (see Josh 15:14; Judg 1:20). To call them descendants of Anak is usually taken to mean that they were large or tall people (2 Sam 21:18-22). They were ultimately driven out by Caleb.
[13:22] 6 sn The text now provides a brief historical aside for the readers. Zoan was probably the city of Tanis, although that is disputed today by some scholars. It was known in Egypt in the New Kingdom as “the fields of Tanis,” which corresponded to the “fields of Zoar” in the Hebrew Bible (Ps 78:12, 43).
[13:23] 7 tn The word is related etymologically to the verb for “slip, slide, bend, totter.” This would fit the use very well. A pole that would not bend would be hard to use to carry things, but a pole or stave that was flexible would serve well.
[13:24] 8 tn The verb is rendered as a passive because there is no expressed subject.
[13:24] 9 tn Or “Wadi Eshcol.” The translation “brook” is too generous; the Hebrew term refers to a river bed, a ravine or valley through which torrents of rain would rush in the rainy season; at other times it might be completely dry.
[13:24] 10 tn The word “Eshcol” is drawn from the Hebrew expression concerning the “cluster of grapes.” The word is probably retained in the name Burj Haskeh, two miles north of Damascus.
[13:26] 11 tn The construction literally has “and they went and they entered,” which may be smoothed out as a verbal hendiadys, the one verb modifying the other.
[13:26] 12 sn Kadesh is Ain Qadeis, about 50 miles (83 km) south of Beer Sheba. It is called Kadesh-barnea in Num 32:8.
[13:26] 13 tn Heb “They brought back word”; the verb is the Hiphil preterite of שׁוּב (shuv).
[13:27] 14 tn Heb “told him and said.” The referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[13:27] 15 tn The relative clause modifies “the land.” It is constructed with the relative and the verb: “where you sent us.”
[13:27] 16 sn This is the common expression for the material abundance of the land (see further, F. C. Fensham, “An Ancient Tradition of the Fertility of Palestine,” PEQ 98 [1966]: 166-67).
[13:28] 17 tn The word (אֶפֶס, ’efes) forms a very strong adversative. The land was indeed rich and fruitful, but….”
[13:28] 18 tn Heb “the people who are living in the land.”
[13:29] 19 tn Heb “by the side [hand] of.”
[13:29] 20 sn For more discussion on these people groups, see D. J. Wiseman, ed., Peoples of Old Testament Times.
[13:30] 21 tn The construction is emphatic, using the cohortative with the infinitive absolute to strengthen it: עָלֹה נַעֲלֶה (’aloh na’aleh, “let us go up”) with the sense of certainty and immediacy.
[13:30] 22 tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive brings the cohortative idea forward: “and let us possess it”; it may also be subordinated to form a purpose or result idea.
[13:30] 23 tn Here again the confidence of Caleb is expressed with the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense: יָכוֹל נוּכַל (yakhol nukhal), “we are fully able” to do this. The verb יָכַל (yakhal) followed by the preposition lamed means “to prevail over, to conquer.”
[13:31] 24 tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.
[13:32] 25 tn Or “an evil report,” i.e., one that was a defamation of the grace of God.
[13:32] 26 tn Heb “which we passed over in it”; the pronoun on the preposition serves as a resumptive pronoun for the relative, and need not be translated literally.
[13:32] 27 tn The verb is the feminine singular participle from אָכַל (’akhal); it modifies the land as a “devouring land,” a bold figure for the difficulty of living in the place.
[13:32] 28 sn The expression has been interpreted in a number of ways by commentators, such as that the land was infertile, that the Canaanites were cannibals, that it was a land filled with warlike dissensions, or that it denotes a land geared for battle. It may be that they intended the land to seem infertile and insecure.
[13:32] 29 tn Heb “in its midst.”
[13:33] 30 tc The Greek version uses gigantes (“giants”) to translate “the Nephilim,” but it does not retain the clause “the sons of Anak are from the Nephilim.”
[13:33] sn The Nephilim are the legendary giants of antiquity. They are first discussed in Gen 6:4. This forms part of the pessimism of the spies’ report.
[13:33] 31 tn Heb “in our eyes.”
[13:33] 32 tn Heb “in their eyes.”
[14:1] 33 sn This chapter forms part of the story already begun. There are three major sections here: dissatisfaction with the reports (vv. 1-10), the threat of divine punishment (vv. 11-38), and the defeat of the Israelites (vv. 39-45). See K. D. Sakenfeld, “The Problem of Divine Forgiveness in Num 14,” CBQ 37 (1975): 317-30; also J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word רֹאשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.
[14:1] 34 tn The two verbs “lifted up their voice and cried” form a hendiadys; the idiom of raising the voice means that they cried aloud.
[14:1] 35 tn There are a number of things that the verb “to weep” or “wail” can connote. It could reflect joy, grief, lamentation, or repentance, but here it reflects fear, hopelessness, or vexation at the thought of coming all this way and being defeated by the Canaanite armies. See Judg 20:23, 26.
[14:2] 36 tn The Hebrew verb “to murmur” is לוּן (lun). It is a strong word, signifying far more than complaining or grumbling, as some of the modern translations have it. The word is most often connected to the wilderness experience. It is paralleled in the literature with the word “to rebel.” The murmuring is like a parliamentary vote of no confidence, for they no longer trusted their leaders and wished to choose a new leader and return. This “return to Egypt” becomes a symbol of their lack of faith in the
[14:2] 37 tn The optative is expressed by לוּ (lu) and then the verb, here the perfect tense מַתְנוּ (matnu) – “O that we had died….” Had they wanted to die in Egypt they should not have cried out to the
[14:4] 39 tn Heb “a man to his brother.”
[14:4] 40 tn The verb is נָתַן (natan, “to give”), but this verb has quite a wide range of meanings in the Bible. Here it must mean “to make,” “to choose,” “to designate” or the like.
[14:4] 41 tn The word “head” (רֹאשׁ, ro’sh) probably refers to a tribal chief who was capable to judge and to lead to war (see J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word רֹאשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 [1969]: 1-10).
[14:4] 42 tn The form is a cohortative with a vav (ו) prefixed. After the preceding cohortative this could also be interpreted as a purpose or result clause – in order that we may return.
[14:5] 43 sn This action of Moses and Aaron is typical of them in the wilderness with the Israelites. The act shows self-abasement and deference before the sovereign
[14:5] 44 tn Heb “before all the assembly of the congregation.”
[14:7] 45 tn The repetition of the adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od) is used to express this: “very, very [good].”
[14:8] 46 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).
[14:9] 47 sn The expression must indicate that they could destroy the enemies as easily as they could eat bread.
[14:9] 48 tn Heb “their shade.” The figure compares the shade from the sun with the protection from the enemy. It is also possible that the text is alluding to their deities here.
[14:10] 49 tn Heb “said to stone them with stones.” The verb and the object are not from the same root, but the combination nonetheless forms an emphasis equal to the cognate accusative.
[14:10] 50 tn The vav (ו) on the noun “glory” indicates a strong contrast, one that interrupts their threatened attack.
[14:10] 51 sn The glory of the
[14:10] 52 tc The Greek, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in the cloud over the tent.”
