Numbers 27:2

27:2 And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the leaders of the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said,

Numbers 8:13

8:13 You are to have the Levites stand before Aaron ¹  and his sons, and then offer them as a wave offering to the Lord.

Numbers 27:19

27:19 set him ²  before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission ³  him publicly. ⁴ 

Numbers 27:22

27:22 So Moses did as the Lord commanded him; he took Joshua and set ⁵  him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community.

Numbers 8:22

8:22 After this, the Levites went in to do their work in the tent of meeting before Aaron and before his sons. As the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did.

Numbers 9:6

9:6 It happened that some men ⁶  who were ceremonially defiled ⁷  by the dead body of a man ⁸  could not keep ⁹  the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

Numbers 27:21

27:21 And he will stand before Eleazar the priest, who ¹⁰  will seek counsel ¹¹  for him before the Lord by the decision of the Urim. ¹²  At his command ¹³  they will go out, and at his command they will come in, he and all the Israelites with him, the whole community.”

Numbers 36:1

Women and Land Inheritance

36:1 Then the heads of the family groups ¹⁴  of the Gileadites, the descendant of Machir, the descendant of Manasseh, who were from the Josephite families, approached and spoke before Moses ¹⁵  and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families. ¹⁶ 

¹ tc The Greek text adds the Lord here: “before the Lord, before Aaron.”

¹ tn This could be translated “position him,” or “have him stand,” since it is the causative stem of the verb “to stand.”

² tn The verb is the Piel perfect of צִוָּה (tsivvah, literally “to command”). The verb has a wide range of meanings, and so here in this context the idea of instructing gives way to a more general sense of commissioning for duty. The verb in sequence is equal to the imperfect of instruction.

³ tn Heb “in their eyes.”

¹ tn Heb “stood.”

¹ tn In the Hebrew text the noun has no definite article, and so it signifies “some” or “certain” men.

² tn The meaning, of course, is to be ceremonially unclean, and therefore disqualified from entering the sanctuary.

³ tn Or “a human corpse” (so NAB, NKJV). So also in v.7; cf. v. 10.

⁴ tn This clause begins with the vav (ו) conjunction and negative before the perfect tense. Here is the main verb of the sentence: They were not able to observe the Passover. The first part of the verse provides the explanation for their problem.

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.

¹ tn The expression is “the heads of the fathers by the family of the Gileadites.”

² tn The Greek and the Syriac add “and before Eleazar the priest.”

³ tn Heb “heads of the fathers.”