Numbers 27:21

27:21 And he will stand before Eleazar the priest, who ¹  will seek counsel ²  for him before the Lord by the decision of the Urim. ³  At his command ⁴  they will go out, and at his command they will come in, he and all the Israelites with him, the whole community.”

Joshua 9:14

9:14 The men examined ⁵  some of their provisions, but they failed to ask the Lord’s advice. ⁶ 

Joshua 9:1

The Gibeonites Deceive Israel

9:1 When the news reached all the kings on the west side of the Jordan ⁷  – in the hill country, the lowlands, ⁸  and all along the Mediterranean coast ⁹  as far as ¹⁰  Lebanon (including the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites) –

Joshua 22:7

22:7 (Now to one half-tribe of Manasseh, Moses had assigned land in Bashan; and to the other half Joshua had assigned land on the west side of the Jordan with their fellow Israelites.) When Joshua sent them home, ¹¹  he rewarded ¹²  them,

Jeremiah 21:2

21:2 “Please ask the Lord to come and help us, ¹³  because King Nebuchadnezzar ¹⁴  of Babylon is attacking us. Maybe the Lord will perform one of his miracles as in times past and make him stop attacking us and leave.” ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 42:2

42:2 They said to him, “Please grant our request ¹⁶  and pray to the Lord your God for all those of us who are still left alive here. ¹⁷  For, as you yourself can see, there are only a few of us left out of the many there were before. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 42:20

42:20 You are making a fatal mistake. ¹⁹  For you sent me to the Lord your God and asked me, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us. Tell us what the Lord our God says and we will do it.’ ²⁰ 

¹ tn The passage simply has “and he will ask,” but Eleazar is clearly the subject now.

² tn Heb “ask.”

³ sn The new leader would not have the privilege that Moses had in speaking to God face to face. Rather, he would have to inquire of the Lord through the priest, and the priest would seek a decision by means of the Urim. The Urim and the Thummim were the sacred lots that the priest had in his pouch, the “breastplate” as it has traditionally been called. Since the Law had now been fully established, there would be fewer cases that the leader would need further rulings. Now it would simply be seeking the Lord’s word for matters such as whether to advance or not. The size, shape or substance of these objects is uncertain. See further C. Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim.

⁴ tn Heb “mouth,” meaning what he will say.

⁵ tn Heb “took.” This probably means they tasted some of the food to make sure it was stale.

⁶ tn Heb “but they did not ask the mouth of the Lord.” This refers to seeking the Lord’s will and guidance through an oracle.

⁷ tn Heb “When all the kings who were beyond the Jordan heard.”

⁸ tn Or “foothills”; Heb “the Shephelah.”

⁹ tn Heb “all the coast of the Great Sea.” The “Great Sea” was the typical designation for the Mediterranean Sea.

¹⁰ tn Heb “in front of.”

¹¹ tn Heb “to their tents.”

¹² tn Heb “blessed.”

¹³ tn The verb used here is often used of seeking information through a prophet (e.g., 2 Kgs 1:16; 8:8) and hence many translate “inquire of the Lord for us.” However, it is obvious from the following that they were not seeking information but help. The word is also used for that in Pss 34:4 (34:5 HT); 77:2 (77:3 HT).

¹⁴ tn The dominant spelling of this name is actually Nebuchadrezzar which is closer to his Babylonian name Nebu kudduri uzzur. An alternate spelling which is found 6 times in the book of Jeremiah and 17 times elsewhere is Nebuchadnezzar which is the form of the name that is usually used in English versions.

¹⁵ tn Heb “Perhaps the Lord will do according to his miracles that he may go up from against us.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “please let our petition fall before you.” For the idiom here see 37:20 and the translator’s note there.

¹⁷ tn Heb “on behalf of us, [that is] on behalf of all this remnant.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “For we are left a few from the many as your eyes are seeing us.” The words “used to be” are not in the text but are implicit. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness of English style.

¹⁹ tn Heb “you are erring at the cost of your own lives” (BDB 1073 s.v. תָּעָה Hiph.3 and HALOT 1626 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4, and cf. BDB 90 s.v. בְּ 3 and see parallels in 1 Kgs 2:23; 2 Sam 23:17 for the nuance of “at the cost of your lives”). This fits the context better than “you are deceiving yourselves” (KBL 1035 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4). The reading here follows the Qere הִתְעֵיתֶם (hit’etem) rather than the Kethib which has a metathesis of י (yod) and ת (tav), i.e., הִתְעֵתֶים. The Greek text presupposes הֲרֵעֹתֶם (hare’otem, “you have done evil”), but that reading is generally rejected as secondary.

²⁰ tn Heb “According to all which the Lord our God says so tell us and we will do.” The restructuring of the sentence is intended to better reflect contemporary English style.