Numbers 4:16

4:16 “The appointed responsibility of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest is for the oil for the light, and the spiced incense, and the daily grain offering, and the anointing oil; he also has ¹  the appointed responsibility over all the tabernacle with ²  all that is in it, over the sanctuary and over all its furnishings.” ³ 

Numbers 5:15

5:15 then ⁴  the man must bring his wife to the priest, and he must bring the offering required for her, one tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he must not pour olive oil on it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of suspicion, ⁵  a grain offering for remembering, ⁶  for bringing ⁷  iniquity to remembrance.

Numbers 5:19

5:19 Then the priest will put the woman under oath and say to the her, “If no other ⁸  man has had sexual relations with you, and if you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. ⁹ 

Numbers 5:30

5:30 or when jealous feelings come over a man and he becomes suspicious of his wife; then he must have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will carry out all this law upon her.

Numbers 6:19

6:19 And the priest must take the boiled shoulder of the ram, one cake made without yeast from the basket, and one wafer made without yeast, and put them on the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated head; ¹⁰ 

Numbers 15:25

15:25 And the priest is to make atonement ¹¹  for the whole community of the Israelites, and they will be forgiven, ¹²  because it was unintentional and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their purification offering before the Lord, for their unintentional offense.

Numbers 18:28

18:28 Thus you are to offer up a raised offering to the Lord of all your tithes which you receive from the Israelites; and you must give the Lord’s raised offering from it to Aaron the priest.

Numbers 25:11

25:11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal ¹³  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. ¹⁴ 

Numbers 27:21

27:21 And he will stand before Eleazar the priest, who ¹⁵  will seek counsel ¹⁶  for him before the Lord by the decision of the Urim. ¹⁷  At his command ¹⁸  they will go out, and at his command they will come in, he and all the Israelites with him, the whole community.”

Numbers 31:12

31:12 They brought the captives and the spoils and the plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the Israelite community, to the camp on the plains ¹⁹  of Moab, along the Jordan River ²⁰  across from Jericho. ²¹ 

Numbers 31:54

31:54 So Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and commanders ²²  of hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial ²³  for the Israelites before the Lord.

Numbers 33:38

33:38 Aaron the priest ascended Mount Hor at the command ²⁴  of the Lord, and he died there in the fortieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt on the first day of the fifth month.

Numbers 35:25

35:25 The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there ²⁵  until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil.

¹ tn This is supplied to the line to clarify “appointed.”

² tn Heb “and.”

³ sn One would assume that he would prepare and wrap these items, but that the Kohathites would carry them to the next place.

⁴ tn All the conditions have been laid down now for the instruction to begin – if all this happened, then this is the procedure to follow.

⁵ tn The Hebrew word is “jealousy,” which also would be an acceptable translation here. But since the connotation is that suspicion has been raised about the other person, “suspicion” seems to be a better rendering in this context.

⁶ tn The word “remembering” is זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron); the meaning of the word here is not so much “memorial,” which would not communicate much, but the idea of bearing witness before God concerning the charges. The truth would come to light through this ritual, and so the attestation would stand. This memorial would bring the truth to light. It was a somber occasion, and so no sweet smelling additives were placed on the altar.

⁷ tn The final verbal form, מַזְכֶּרֶת (mazkeret), explains what the memorial was all about – it was causing iniquity to be remembered.

⁷ tn The word “other” is implied, since the woman would not be guilty of having sexual relations with her own husband.

⁸ sn Although there would be stress involved, a woman who was innocent would have nothing to hide, and would be confident. The wording of the priest’s oath is actually designed to enable the potion to keep her from harm and not produce the physical effects it was designed to do.

¹⁰ tn The line does not include the word “head”; it literally has “after the consecrating of himself his consecrated [head].” The infinitive construct is here functioning in the temporal clause with the suffix as the subject and the object following.

¹³ tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive (וְכִפֶּר, vÿkhipper) to continue the instruction of the passage: “the priest shall make atonement,” meaning the priest is to make atonement for the sin (thus the present translation). This verb means “to expiate,” “to atone for,” “to pacify.” It describes the ritual events by which someone who was separated from the holy Lord God could find acceptance into his presence through the sacrificial blood of the substitutionary animal. See Lev 1 and Num 17:6-15.

¹⁴ tn Or “they will be forgiven.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.

¹⁷ tn The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.

¹⁹ tn The passage simply has “and he will ask,” but Eleazar is clearly the subject now.

²⁰ tn Heb “ask.”

²¹ 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.

²² tn Heb “mouth,” meaning what he will say.

²² tn Or “steppes.”

²³ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

²⁴ tn Again this expression, “the Jordan of Jericho,” is used. It describes the intended location along the Jordan River, the Jordan next to or across from Jericho.

²⁵ tn The Hebrew text does not repeat the word “commanders” here, but it is implied.

²⁶ tn The purpose of the offering was to remind the Lord to remember Israel. But it would also be an encouragement for Israel as they remembered the great victory.

²⁸ tn Heb “mouth.”

³¹ tn Heb “in it.”