Numbers 32:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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מִקָּדֵ֥שׁ

Qâdêsh Barnêaʻ

H6947

“from · Kadesh-barnea”

Preposition + Noun, Proper

Appears 20× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from the same as H6946 and an otherwise unused word (apparently compounded of a correspondent to H1251 and a derivative of H5128 ) meaning desert of a fugitive

TWOT: None

Kadesh-barnea = "holy" - a city in the extreme south of Judah - same as 'Kedesh' and 'Kadesh'

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

10: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מִקָּדֵ֥שׁ Kadesh-barnea H6947 — appearing just 20 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

מִקָּדֵ֥שׁ Kadesh-barnea H6947

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מִקָּדֵ֥שׁ Kadesh-barnea H6947 occurs in 10 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
4 nouns
1 adverb
2 particles

Verb forms

עָשׂ֖וּ Qal · Perfect
בְּשָׁלְחִ֥י Qal · Infinitive Construct
לִרְא֥וֹת Qal · Infinitive Construct

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

מִקָּדֵ֥שׁ Kadesh-barnea H6947 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 14 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 10 Hebrew tokens and 15 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 32:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Numbers 13:2–26 Send you men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, everyone a prince among them.
Numbers 14:2 All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!
Deuteronomy 1:19–25 We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill-country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.
Joshua 14:6–7 Then the children of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, You know the thing that Yahweh spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh-barnea.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Numbers 32:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

כֹּ֥ה עָשׂ֖וּ אֲבֹתֵיכֶ֑ם בְּשָׁלְחִ֥י אֹתָ֛ם מִקָּדֵ֥שׁ בַּרְנֵ֖עַ לִרְא֥וֹת אֶת הָאָֽרֶץ

Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 32:8 Septuagint · lemma form

οὐ οὕτως ποιέω ὁ πατήρ σύ ὅτε ἀποστέλλω αὐτός ἐκ καδης βαρνη κατανοέω ὁ γῆ

Did not your fathers thus, when I sent them from Cades Barne to spy out the land?

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

כְּדֵין עֲבָדוּ אֲבָהַתְכוֹן כַּד שְׁלָחִית יָתְהוֹן מֵרְקַם גֵיאָה לְמֶחֱזֵי יָת אַרְעָא

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

הֵיכְדֵין עָבָדוּ אַבְהַתְכוֹן כַּד שְׁלָחִית יַתְהוֹן מֵרְקָם גֵיאָה לְמֶיחֱמֵי יַת אַרְעָא

So did your fathers when I sent them from Rekem Giah to survey the land:

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 32:8 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

8–13. Moses refers to the narrative of the spies in chs. 13 f. In the preliminary note to ch. 13 it is shewn that that narrative is a combination of the traditions of J E and of P ; and both of these supply material to the present passage. The starting-point and the destination of the spies (Kadesh and Eshcol) are from the former, and the mention of Joshua from the latter.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol,.... That is, when they went up the hill, for they were bid to go up into the mountain, and proceeded on into the country, until they came to the valley or brook, of Eshcol, so called from the cluster of grapes they there cut down, and brought along with them, Num 13:17.

and saw the land; searching it for the space of forty days:

they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel; by telling them that there were giants in the land, and that the people in common were strong, and their cities walled, and that they were not able to go up against them and overcome them; and by this means they disheartened the people:

that they should not go, into the land which the Lord had given them; and this Moses feared, and suggests would be the consequence of the request the two tribes now made.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Your fathers - The generation of the Exodus was now substantially extinct. Compare Num 26:64-65.

Kadesh-barnea - See Num 13:26.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

8. Kadesh-barnea — The pivot of Israel’s destiny. Chap. 14, introductory note. The punishment inflicted on the disobedient fathers should deter their sons from repeating their fathers’ sin in not wholly following Jehovah.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Thus did your fathers. It is impossible not to see that this mode of address is in striking contrast to that used in the Book of. Deuteronomy. (e.g., in Num_1:22, 27 5:3, 23) At the same time it is obviously the more natural, and the more in accordance with facts, because there was not a man left of all those who had rebelled at Kadesh. At Kadesh-Barnea. This mode of writing the name forms a link between the closing chapters of Numbers (here and in Num_34:4) and the two following books. In Deuteronomy it occurs four times, and "Kadesh" twice. In Joshua "Kadesh-Barnea" occurs exclusively. In the later books "Kadesh" only is used, as in Genesis and in the previous chapters of Numbers. The meaning of the combination is uncertain, and the etymology of "Barnea" altogether obscure. It may be an old name attaching to the place before it became known as a sanctuary. The Septuagint has Kadhv tou Barnh in one place, as though it were the name of a man.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

General Information:

Moses continues speaking to the people of Reuben and Gad.

Valley of Eshkol

This is the name of a place. See how you translated this in Numbers 13:23. (See: How to Translate Names)

They saw the land

This refers to seeing what was in the land. AT: "They saw the strong people and cities in the land" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

discouraged the hearts of the people of Israel

Here the word "hearts" represents the people themselves and refers to the seat of their emotions. See how you translated this in Numbers 32:7. AT: "discouraged the people of Israel" (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

ancestor

Kadesh

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

מקדש ברנע FROM KADESH-BARNEA — this was its name. There were two places called Kadesh (therefore this one is distinguished from the other by being called Kadesh-Barnea).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 10 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Qâdêsh Barnêaʻ (“Kadesh-barnea”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Qâdêsh Barnêaʻ carries the sense “Kadesh-barnea.” How does it shape the verse?
This is the first place “Kadesh-barnea” appears in Scripture (first appears here). What does its debut here establish?
How does Numbers 34:4, which shares the word «Kadesh-barnea», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “Kadesh-barnea” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«עָשׂ֖וּ» is a Qal Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 10 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
“Kadesh-barnea” occurs 2× in this single verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.