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20 but a whole month,[a] until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick,[b] because you have despised[c] the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why[d] did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

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Footnotes

  1. Numbers 11:20 tn Heb “a month of days.” So also in v. 21.
  2. Numbers 11:20 tn The expression לְזָרָה (lezarah) has been translated “ill” or “loathsome.” It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek text interprets it as “sickness.” It could be nausea or vomiting (so G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 112) from overeating.
  3. Numbers 11:20 sn The explanation is the interpretation of their behavior—it is in reality what they have done, even though they would not say they despised the Lord. They had complained and shown a lack of faith and a contempt for the program, which was in essence despising the Lord.
  4. Numbers 11:20 tn The use of the demonstrative pronoun here (“why is this we went out…”) is enclitic, providing emphasis to the sentence: “Why in the world did we ever leave Egypt?”