Bilangan 21:2-3
Konteks21:2 So Israel made a vow 1 to the Lord and said, “If you will indeed deliver 2 this people into our 3 hand, then we will utterly destroy 4 their cities.” 21:3 The Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, 5 and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called 6 Hormah.
Bilangan 21:1
Konteks21:1 7 When the Canaanite king of Arad 8 who lived in the Negev 9 heard that Israel was approaching along the road to Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoner.
1 Samuel 15:18-23
Konteks15:18 The Lord sent you on a campaign 10 saying, ‘Go and exterminate those sinful Amalekites! Fight against them until you 11 have destroyed them.’ 15:19 Why haven’t you obeyed 12 the Lord? Instead you have greedily rushed upon the plunder! You have done what is wrong in the Lord’s estimation.” 13
15:20 Then Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed 14 the Lord! I went on the campaign 15 the Lord sent me on. I brought back King Agag of the Amalekites after exterminating the Amalekites. 15:21 But the army took from the plunder some of the sheep and cattle – the best of what was to be slaughtered – to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
15:22 Then Samuel said,
“Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as he does in obedience? 16
Certainly, 17 obedience 18 is better than sacrifice;
paying attention is better than 19 the fat of rams.
15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and presumption is like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has rejected you as 20 king.”
[21:2] 1 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.
[21:2] 2 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.”
[21:2] 4 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.
[21:3] 5 tc Smr, Greek, and Syriac add “into his hand.”
[21:3] 6 tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject, and so here too is made passive. The name “Hormah” is etymologically connected to the verb “utterly destroy,” forming the popular etymology (or paronomasia, a phonetic wordplay capturing the significance of the event).
[21:1] 7 sn This chapter has several events in it: the victory over Arad (vv. 1-3), the plague of serpents (vv. 4-9), the approach to Moab (vv. 10-20), and the victory over Sihon and Og (vv. 21-35). For information, see D. M. Gunn, “The ‘Battle Report’: Oral or Scribal Convention.” JBL 93 (1974): 513-18; and of the extensive literature on the archaeological site, see EAEHL 1:74-89.
[21:1] 8 sn The name Arad probably refers to a place a number of miles away from Tel Arad in southern Israel. The name could also refer to the whole region (like Edom).
[21:1] 9 tn Or “the south”; “Negev” has become a technical name for the southern desert region and is still in use in modern times.
[15:18] 11 tc The translation follows the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Targum in reading the second person singular suffix (“you”) rather than the third person plural suffix of the MT (“they”).
[15:19] 12 tn Heb “listened to the voice of the
[15:19] 13 tn Heb “you have done what is evil in the eyes of the
[15:20] 14 tn Heb “listened to the voice of the
[15:22] 16 tn Heb “as [in] listening to the voice of the
[15:22] 18 tn Heb “listening.”
[15:22] 19 tn The expression “is better” is understood here by ellipsis (see the immediately preceding statement).
