26:1 10 After the plague the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, 11
27:22 So Moses did as the Lord commanded him; he took Joshua and set 12 him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community.
31:6 So Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from every tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge 13 of the holy articles 14 and the signal trumpets.
31:21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone into the battle, “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded Moses:
32:28 So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua son of Nun, and to the heads of the families of the Israelite tribes.
1 tn Heb “say to.”
2 tn The verb is the jussive with a vav (ו) coming after the imperative; it may be subordinated to form a purpose clause (“that he may pick up”) or the object of the imperative.
3 tn The Hebrew text just has “fire,” but it would be hard to conceive of this action apart from the idea of coals of fire.
4 tc The clause is a little ambiguous. It reads “and he shall slaughter it before him.” It sounds as if someone else will kill the heifer in the priest’s presence. Since no one is named as the subject, it may be translated as a passive. Some commentators simply interpret that Eleazar was to kill the animal personally, but that is a little forced for “before him.” The Greek text gives a third person plural sense to the verb; the Vulgate follows that reading.
7 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it functions here as the equivalent of the imperfect of instruction.
8 sn Seven is a number with religious significance; it is often required in sacrificial ritual for atonement or for purification.
10 tn The word “priestly” is supplied in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “will be gathered”; this is a truncated form of the usual expression “gathered to his ancestors,” found in v. 24. The phrase “to his ancestors” is supplied in the translation here.
13 tn The first clause is subordinated to the second because both begin with the preterite verbal form, and there is clearly a logical and/or chronological sequence involved.
16 sn The breakdown of ch. 26 for outlining purposes will be essentially according to the tribes of Israel. The format and structure is similar to the first census, and so less comment is necessary here.
17 tc The MT has also “saying.”
19 tn Heb “stood.”
22 tn The Hebrew text uses the idiom that these “were in his hand,” meaning that he had the responsibility over them.
23 sn It is not clear what articles from the sanctuary were included. Tg. Ps.-J. adds (interpretively) “the Urim and Thummim.”
25 tn The verb can be translated simply as “divide,” but it has more the idea of allocate as an inheritance, the related noun being “inheritance.”