Numbers 35:20

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

If he thrust him of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

3 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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בִּצְדִיָּ֖ה

tsᵉdîyâh

H6660

“in/at · ambush”

Preposition + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 2× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H6658

TWOT: 1877a

lying in wait, ambushing

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 →

8: words
8: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is בִּצְדִיָּ֖ה ambush H6660 — appearing just 2 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

These words make their first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

בְּשִׂנְאָ֖ה hatred H8135
יֶהְדָּפֶ֑נּוּ to drive out H1920
בִּצְדִיָּ֖ה ambush H6660

Shared distinctive vocabulary

בִּצְדִיָּ֖ה ambush H6660 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Numbers 35:22

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
2 nouns
1 preposition
2 conjunctions

Verb forms

יֶהְדָּפֶ֑נּוּ Qal · Imperfect
הִשְׁלִ֥יךְ Hiphil · Perfect
וַיָּמֹֽת Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 22 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 35:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 21:14 If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
Deuteronomy 19:11 But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and strike him mortally so that he dies, and he flee into one of these cities;
Genesis 4:8 Cain said to Abel, his brother, "Let's go into the field." It happened, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.
2 Samuel 3:27 When Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him quietly, and struck him there in the body, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.
2 Samuel 20:10 But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand: so he struck him therewith in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn't strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.
Genesis 4:5 but he didn't respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell.
1 Samuel 18:10–11 It happened on the next day, that an evil spirit from God came mightily on Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand;
1 Samuel 18:25 Saul said, Thus shall you tell David, The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies. Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

1 Samuel 19:9–12 An evil spirit from Yahweh was on Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing with his hand.
1 Samuel 20:1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my iniquity?" and "What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?"
1 Samuel 23:7–9 It was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. Saul said, God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that has gates and bars.
1 Samuel 24:11 Moreover, my father, behold, yes, see the skirt of your robe in my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of your robe, and didn't kill you, know you and see that there is neither evil nor disobedience in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you hunt after my life to take it.
2 Samuel 13:22 Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad; for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.
2 Samuel 13:28–29 Absalom commanded his servants, saying, Mark you now, when Amnon's heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, Smite Amnon, then kill him; don't be afraid; haven't I commanded you? be courageous, and be valiant.
1 Kings 2:5–6 Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his sash that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.
1 Kings 2:31–33 The king said to him, Do as he has said, and fall on him, and bury him; that you may take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father's house.

Psalms 10:7–10 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
Psalms 11:2 For, behold, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrows on the strings, That they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
Psalms 35:7–8 For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me. Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul.
Psalms 57:4–6 My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, And their tongue a sharp sword.
Proverbs 1:18–19 But these lay wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives.
Proverbs 26:24 A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, But he harbors evil in his heart.
Proverbs 28:17 A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; No one will support him.
Mark 6:19 Herodias set herself against him, and desired to kill him, but she couldn't,

Mark 6:24–26 She went out, and said to her mother, "What shall I ask?" She said, "The head of John the Baptizer."
Luke 4:29 They rose up, threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff.
Acts 20:3 When he had spent three months there, and a plot was made against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return through Macedonia.
Acts 23:21 Therefore don't yield to them, for more than forty men lie in wait for him, who have bound themselves under a curse neither to eat nor to drink until they have killed him. Now they are ready, looking for the promise from you."

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 35:20 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאִם בְּשִׂנְאָ֖ה יֶהְדָּפֶ֑נּוּ אֽוֹ הִשְׁלִ֥יךְ עָלָ֛יו בִּצְדִיָּ֖ה וַיָּמֹֽת

If he thrust him of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 35:20 Septuagint · lemma form

ἐάν δέ διά ἔχθρα ὠθέω αὐτός καί ἐπιῥίπτω ἐπί αὐτός πᾶς σκεῦος ἐκ ἔνεδρον καί ἀποθνήσκω

And if he should thrust him through enmity, or cast any thing upon him from an ambuscade, and the man should die,

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

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)

וְאִם בְּסַנְאָה דְחָהִי אוֹ רְמָא עֲלוֹהִי בְּכַמְנָא וְקַטְלֵהּ

(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)

וְאִין בִּסְנָא הֲדוֹף וְאִיתְכַוִין וְדַחְיֵיהּ אוֹ טְלַק עֲלוֹי כְּלוֹנְסַן וְשַׁרְוָותָא וְגַלְגִיל עֲלוֹי כֵּיפִין בְּכַוָונוּת לִבָּא וְקַטְלֵיהּ

But if (the manslayer) had assaulted in enmity and intentionally with a club or staff, or thrown stones upon him with purpose of heart, and killed him;

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 35:20 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 →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) But if he thrust him . . . —Better, And if . . .

That he die.—Better, that he died. So in Num_35:21-23.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

20. thrust him] i.e. pushed him, in such a way as to cause his death; e.g. over a cliff, or off the roof of a house.

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

But if he thrust him of hatred,.... Or, "and if" (r), since the Scripture is still speaking of such that shall die for murder, though in another instance, without having the privilege of a city of refuge; if he thrusts him with a sword or knife, or rather, since, if anything of that kind is included in the first instance of smiting with an instrument of iron, push him down from an high place, as Aben Ezra; so the men of Nazareth intended to have dispatched Christ in that way, Luk 4:29.

or hurl at him by lying in wait, that he die; as a bowing wall, as the same writer instances in, push down that upon him as he passes along, lying in wait for him; or throws anything at him, with an intention to kill him, and does; or casts down anything upon him, a large stone, or anything else, by which he dies.

(r) "et si", Pagninus, Montanus.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

But if. Rather, "and if" ( The consideration of willful murder is continued in these two verses, although chiefly with reference to the motive. It is to be understood that the deliberate intent was present in the former cases, and a new case is added, viz., if he smite him with his fist with fatal consequences.

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

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

And so also the man who hit another in hatred, or threw at him by lying in wait, or struck him with the hand in enmity, so that he died. And if a murderer of this kind fled into a free city, the elders of his city were to have him fetched out and delivered up to the avenger of blood (Deu 19:11-12). Then follow, in Num 35:22-28, the proceedings to be taken with an unintentional manslayer, viz., if any one hit another "in the moment," i.e., suddenly, unawares (Num 6:9), without enmity, or by throwing anything upon him, without lying in wait, or by letting a stone, by which a man might be killed, fall upon him without seeing him, so that he died in consequence, but without being his enemy, or watching to do him harm. In using the expression בּכל־אבן, the writer had probably השׁליך still in his mind; but he dropped this word, and wrote ויּפּל in the form of a fresh sentence. The thing intended is explained still more clearly in Deu 19:4-5. Instead of בּפתע, we find there בּבלי־דעת, without knowing unintentionally. The words, "without being his enemy," are paraphrased there by, "without hating him from yesterday and the day before yesterday" (i.e., previously), and are explained by an example taken from the life: "When a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree, and the iron slippeth (נשׁל Niphal of שׁלל) from the wood (handle), and lighteth upon his neighbour."

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

בצדיה — Understand this as the Targum does: בכמנא, BY LAYING IN WAIT.

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.

Ibn Ezra

Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra

If he pushes [his victim] from a high place

or throws at him something like a leaning wall, or a utensil that will kill him.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). 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 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is tsᵉdîyâh (“ambush”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word tsᵉdîyâh carries the sense “ambush.” How does it shape the verse?
3 words here appear for the first time in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Numbers 35:22 shares the word «ambush» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «יֶהְדָּפֶ֑נּוּ» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

3 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
These translations choose different wording for 11 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.