6:9 “‘If anyone dies very suddenly 6 beside him and he defiles 7 his consecrated head, 8 then he must shave his head on the day of his purification – on the seventh day he must shave it.
14:40 And early 12 in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, 13 saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, 14 for we have sinned.” 15
14:44 But they dared 16 to go up to the crest of the hill, although 17 neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.
23:14 So Balak brought Balaam 18 to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, 19 where 20 he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
1 tn The construction is literally “lift up the head[s],” (שְׂאוּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ, sÿ’u ’et-ro’sh). This idiom for taking a census occurs elsewhere (Exod 30:12; Lev 5:24; Num 1:24; etc.). The idea is simply that of counting heads to arrive at the base for the standing army. This is a different event than the one recorded in Exod 30:11-16, which was taken for a different purpose altogether. The verb is plural, indicating that Moses had help in taking the census.
2 tc Smr lacks the Hebrew word “all” here.
3 tn Heb “the congregation of Israel.”
4 tn The tribe (מַטֶּה, matteh or שֵׁבֶט, shevet) is the main category. The family groups or clans (מִשְׁפְּחֹת, mishpÿkhot) and the households or families (בֵּית אֲבֹת, bet ’avot) were sub-divisions of the tribe.
5 tn This clause simply has “in/with the number of the names of every male with respect to their skulls [individually].” Counting heads, or every skull, simply meant that each person was to be numbered in the census. Except for the Levites, no male was exempt from the count.
6 tn The construction uses the imperfect tense followed by the infinitive absolute, יָמוּת מֵת (yamut met). Because the verb is in a conditional clause, the emphasis that is to be given through the infinitive must stress the contingency. The point is “if someone dies – unexpectedly.” The next words underscore the suddenness of this.
7 tn The verb is the Piel perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea within the conditional clause.
8 sn The expression is figurative for the vow that he took; the figure is the metonymy because the reference to the head is a reference to the long hair that symbolizes the oath.
11 tn The clause begins with a vav (ו) on the noun “the Levites,” indicating a disjunctive clause. Here it is clearly a subordinate clause prior to the instruction for Moses, and so translated as a circumstantial clause of time.
12 tn The imperative is from the verb “to do; to make,” but in the sentence it clearly means to sacrifice the animals.
13 sn The “purification offering” cleansed the tabernacle from impurity, and the burnt offering atoned by nullifying and removing the effects of sin in the Levites.
16 tn The verb וַיַּשְׁכִּמוּ (vayyashkimu) is often found in a verbal hendiadys construction: “They rose early…and they went up” means “they went up early.”
17 tn The Hebrew text says literally “the top of the hill,” but judging from the location and the terrain it probably means the heights of the hill country.
18 tn The verb is simply “said,” but it means the place that the
19 sn Their sin was unbelief. They could have gone and conquered the area if they had trusted the
21 tn N. H. Snaith compares Arabic ’afala (“to swell”) and gafala (“reckless, headstrong”; Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 248). The wordעֹפֶל (’ofel) means a “rounded hill” or a “tumor.” The idea behind the verb may be that of “swelling,” and so “act presumptuously.”
22 tn The disjunctive vav (ו) here introduces a circumstantial clause; the most appropriate one here would be the concessive “although.”
26 tn Heb “he brought him”; the referents (Balak and Balaam) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
27 tn Some scholars do not translate this word as “Pisgah,” but rather as a “lookout post” or an “elevated place.”
28 tn Heb “and he built.”
31 tn Heb “head.”
32 sn The passage makes it clear that this individual was a leader, one who was supposed to be preventing this thing from happening. The judgment was swift and severe, because the crime was so great, and the danger of it spreading was certain. Paul refers to this horrible incident when he reminds Christians not to do similar things (1 Cor 10:6-8).
36 tn Heb “house of their fathers.”
37 tn Heb “everyone who goes out in the army in Israel.”
41 tn The idiom here is “take up the head,” meaning take a census, or count the totals.
46 tn Heb “to Moses”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
47 tn Heb “lifted up the head.”
48 tn Heb “in our hand.”