Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Numbers 4:20 - 4:20

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Numbers 4:20 - 4:20


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כְּבַלַּע, “like a swallow, a gulp,” is probably a proverbial expression, according to the analogy of Job 7:19, for “a single instant,” of which the Arabic also furnishes examples (see A. Schultens on Job 7:19). The Sept. rendering, ἐξάπινα, conveys the actual sense. A historical illustration of Num 4:20 is furnished by 1Sa 6:19.

(Note: According to Knobel, Num 4:17-20 have been interpolated by the Jehovist into the Elohistic text. But the reasons for this assumption are weak throughout. Neither the peculiar use of the word shebet, to which there is no corresponding parallel in the whole of the Old Testament, nor the construction of נָגַשׁ with אֵת, which is only met with in 1Sa 9:18 and 1Sa 30:21, nor the Hiphil הִכְרִית, can be regarded as criteria of a Jehovistic usage. And the assertion, that the Elohist lays the emphasis upon approaching and touching the holy things (Num 4:15; Num 8:19; Num 18:3, Num 18:22), and not upon seeing or looking at them, rests upon an antithesis which is arbitrarily forced upon the text, since not only seeing (Num 4:20), but touching also (Num 4:19), is described as causing death; so that seeing and touching form no antithesis at all.)