Numbers 1:53

1:53 But the Levites must camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that the Lord’s anger ¹  will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are responsible for the care ²  of the tabernacle of the testimony.”

Numbers 5:8

5:8 But if the individual has no close relative ³  to whom reparation can be made for the wrong, the reparation for the wrong must be paid to the Lord ⁴  for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for him.

Numbers 12:14

12:14 The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only spit ⁵  in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again.”

Numbers 14:24

14:24 Only my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and has followed me fully – I will bring him into the land where he had gone, and his descendants ⁶  will possess it.

Numbers 18:23

18:23 But the Levites must perform the service ⁷  of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. ⁸  It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites ⁹  have no inheritance. ¹⁰ 

Numbers 24:1

Balaam Prophesies Yet Again

24:1 ¹¹ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, ¹²  he did not go as at the other times ¹³  to seek for omens, ¹⁴  but he set his face ¹⁵  toward the wilderness.

Numbers 30:14

30:14 But if her husband remains completely silent ¹⁶  about her from day to day, he thus confirms all her vows or all her obligations which she is under; he confirms them because he remained silent about when he heard them.

Numbers 35:28

35:28 because the slayer ¹⁷  should have stayed in his town of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer may return to the land of his possessions.

¹ tc Instead of “wrath” the Greek text has “sin,” focusing the emphasis on the human error and not on the wrath of God. This may have been a conscious change to explain the divine wrath.

² tn The main verb of the clause is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, וְשָׁמְרוּ (vÿshamÿru) meaning they “shall guard, protect, watch over, care for.” It may carry the same obligatory nuance as the preceding verbs because of the sequence. The object used with this is the cognate noun מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret): “The Levites must care for the care of the tabernacle.” The cognate intensifies the construction to stress that they are responsible for this care.

³ sn For more information on the word, see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of גאל,” VTSup 1 (1953): 67-77.

⁴ tc The editors of BHS prefer to follow the Greek, Syriac, and Latin and not read “for the Lord” here, but read a form of the verb “to be” instead. But the text makes more sense as it stands: The payment is to be made to the Lord for the benefit of the priests.

⁵ tn The form is intensified by the infinitive absolute, but here the infinitive strengthens not simply the verbal idea but the conditional cause construction as well.

⁷ tn Heb “seed.”

⁹ tn The verse begins with the perfect tense of עָבַד (’avad) with vav (ו) consecutive, making the form equal to the instructions preceding it. As its object the verb has the cognate accusative “service.”

¹⁰ sn The Levites have the care of the tent of meeting, and so they are responsible for any transgressions against it.

¹¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Levites) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹² tn The Hebrew text uses both the verb and the object from the same root to stress the point: They will not inherit an inheritance. The inheritance refers to land.

¹¹ sn For a thorough study of the arrangement of this passage, see E. B. Smick, “A Study of the Structure of the Third Balaam Oracle,” The Law and the Prophets, 242-52. He sees the oracle as having an introductory strophe (vv. 3, 4), followed by two stanzas (vv. 5, 6) that introduce the body (vv. 7b-9b) before the final benediction (v. 9b).

¹² tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord.”

¹³ tn Heb “as time after time.”

¹⁴ tn The word נְחָשִׁים (nÿkhashim) means “omens,” or possibly “auguries.” Balaam is not even making a pretense now of looking for such things, because they are not going to work. God has overruled them.

¹⁵ tn The idiom signifies that he had a determination and resolution to look out over where the Israelites were, so that he could appreciate more their presence and use that as the basis for his expressing of the oracle.

¹³ tn The sentence uses the infinitive absolute to strengthen the idea.

¹⁵ tn Heb “he.”