Numbers 13:2

13:2 “Send out men to investigate ¹  the land of Canaan, which I am giving ²  to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, ³  each one a leader among them.”

Numbers 17:8

17:8 On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony – and ⁴  the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded almonds! ⁵ 

Numbers 17:10

The Memorial

17:10 The Lord said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s staff back before the testimony to be preserved for a sign to the rebels, so that you may bring their murmurings to an end ⁶  before me, that they will not die.” ⁷ 

Numbers 20:8

20:8 “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and then speak ⁸  to the rock before their eyes. It will pour forth ⁹  its water, and you will bring water out of the rock for them, and so you will give the community and their beasts water to drink.”

Numbers 33:54

33:54 You must divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families. To a larger group you must give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group you must give a smaller inheritance. Everyone’s inheritance must be in the place where his lot falls. You must inherit according to your ancestral ¹⁰  tribes.

Numbers 36:3

36:3 Now if they should be married to one of the men ¹¹  from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance would be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. ¹²  As a result, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

¹ tn The imperfect tense with the conjunction is here subordinated to the preceding imperative to form the purpose clause. It can thus be translated “send…to investigate.”

² tn The participle here should be given a future interpretation, meaning “which I am about to give” or “which I am going to give.”

³ tn Heb “one man one man of the tribe of his fathers.”

⁴ tn Here too the deictic particle (“and behold”) is added to draw attention to the sight in a vivid way.

⁵ sn There is no clear answer why the tribe of Levi had used an almond staff. The almond tree is one of the first to bud in the spring, and its white blossoms are a beautiful sign that winter is over. Its name became a name for “watcher”; Jeremiah plays on this name for God’s watching over his people (1:11-12).

⁷ tn The verb means “to finish; to complete” and here “to bring to an end.” It is the imperfect following the imperative, and so introduces a purpose clause (as a final imperfect).

⁸ tn This is another final imperfect in a purpose clause.

¹⁰ tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive, following the two imperatives in the verse. Here is the focus of the instruction for Moses.

¹¹ tn Heb “give.” The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, as are the next two in the verse. These are not now equal to the imperatives, but imperfects, showing the results of speaking to the rock: “speak…and it will…and so you will….”

¹³ tn Heb “of your fathers.”

¹⁶ tn “Men” is understood; it says “to one from the sons of the tribes of the Israelites for a wife,” or if he has her for a wife.

¹⁷ tn Heb “which they will be to them,” meaning, to those who have them, i.e., the marriages.