Numbers 3:28

3:28 Counting every male from a month old and upward, there were 8,600. They were responsible for the care ¹  of the sanctuary.

Numbers 3:31

3:31 Their responsibilities included the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, and the utensils of the sanctuary with which they ministered, ²  the curtain, and all their service. ³ 

Numbers 3:50

3:50 From the firstborn males of the Israelites he collected the money, 1,365 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.

Numbers 7:85-86

7:85 Each silver platter weighed 130 shekels, and each silver sprinkling bowl weighed 70 shekels. All the silver of the vessels weighed 2,400 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel. 7:86 The twelve gold pans full of incense weighed 10 shekels each, according to the sanctuary shekel; all the gold of the pans weighed 120 shekels.

Numbers 18:5

18:5 You will be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the care of the altar, so that there will be ⁴  no more wrath on the Israelites.

Numbers 18:16

18:16 And those that must be redeemed you are to redeem when they are a month old, according to your estimation, for five shekels of silver according to the sanctuary shekel (which is twenty gerahs).

Numbers 31:6

Campaign Against the Midianites

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 ⁵  of the holy articles ⁶  and the signal trumpets.

¹ tn The construction here is a little different. The Hebrew text uses the participle in construct plural: שֹׁמְרֵי (shomÿrey, literally “keepers of”). The form specifies the duties of the 8,600 Kohathites. The genitive that follows this participle is the cognate מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret) that has been used before. So the expression indicates that they were responsible for the care of this part of the cult center. There is no reason to delete one of the forms (as does J. A. Paterson, Numbers, 42), for the repetition stresses the central importance of their work.

² tn The verb is יְשָׁרְתוּ (yÿsharÿtu, “they will serve/minister”). The imperfect tense in this place, however, probably describes what the priests would do, what they used to do. The verb is in a relative clause: “which they would serve with them,” which should be changed to read “with which they would serve.”

³ tn The word is literally “its [their] service.” It describes all the implements that were there for the maintenance of these things.

³ tn The clause is a purpose clause, and the imperfect tense a final imperfect.

⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the idiom that these “were in his hand,” meaning that he had the responsibility over them.

⁵ sn It is not clear what articles from the sanctuary were included. Tg. Ps.-J. adds (interpretively) “the Urim and Thummim.”