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 6:3

6:3 he must separate ⁴  himself from wine and strong drink, he must drink neither vinegar ⁵  made from wine nor vinegar made from strong drink, nor may he drink any juice ⁶  of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. ⁷ 

Numbers 7:88

7:88 All the animals for the sacrifice for the peace offering were 24 young bulls, 60 rams, 60 male goats, and 60 lambs in their first year. These were the dedication offerings for the altar after it was anointed. ⁸ 

Numbers 8:20

8:20 So Moses and Aaron and the entire community of the Israelites did this with the Levites. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, this is what the Israelites did with them.

Numbers 13:32

13:32 Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging ⁹  report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through ¹⁰  to investigate is a land that devours ¹¹  its inhabitants. ¹²  All the people we saw there ¹³  are of great stature.

Numbers 30:4

30:4 and her father hears of her vow or the obligation to which she has pledged herself, and her father remains silent about her, ¹⁴  then all her vows will stand, ¹⁵  and every obligation to which she has pledged herself will stand.

Numbers 31:19

Purification After Battle

31:19 “Any of you who has killed anyone or touched any of the dead, remain outside the camp for seven days; purify yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.

Numbers 31:23

31:23 everything that may stand the fire, you are to pass through the fire, ¹⁶  and it will be ceremonially clean, but it must still be purified with the water of purification. Anything that cannot withstand the fire you must pass through the water.

Numbers 36:8

36:8 And every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any of the tribes of the Israelites must become the wife of a man from any family in her father’s tribe, so that every Israelite ¹⁷  may retain the inheritance of his fathers.

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 The operative verb now will be the Hiphil of נָזַר (nazar); the consecration to the Lord meant separation from certain things in the world. The first will be wine and strong drink – barley beer (from Akkadian sikaru, a fermented beer). But the second word may be somewhat wider in its application than beer. The Nazirite, then, was to avoid all intoxicants as a sign of his commitment to the Lord. The restriction may have proved a hardship in the daily diet of the one taking the vow, but it spoke a protest to the corrupt religious and social world that used alcohol to excess.

⁵ tn The “vinegar” (חֹמֶץ, homets) is some kind of drink preparation that has been allowed to go sour.

⁶ tn This word occurs only here. It may come from the word “to water, to be moist,” and so refer to juice.

⁷ tn Heb “dried” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

⁷ sn Even though the chapter seems wearisome and repetitious to the modern reader, it is a significant document. A. Rainey shows how it matches the exact ledgers of ancient sanctuaries (see ZPEB 5:202). The recording would have been done by the priestly scribes. Of the many points that can be observed here, it should not be missed that each tribe, regardless of its size or relative importance, was on equal footing before the Lord. Each tribe shared in the work of the Lord equally. Each tribe approached the sanctuary in precisely the same way on this memorable occasion. All such devotion to the work of the Lord was to receive the blessing of God.

¹⁰ tn Or “an evil report,” i.e., one that was a defamation of the grace of God.

¹¹ tn Heb “which we passed over in it”; the pronoun on the preposition serves as a resumptive pronoun for the relative, and need not be translated literally.

¹² tn The verb is the feminine singular participle from אָכַל (’akhal); it modifies the land as a “devouring land,” a bold figure for the difficulty of living in the place.

¹³ sn The expression has been interpreted in a number of ways by commentators, such as that the land was infertile, that the Canaanites were cannibals, that it was a land filled with warlike dissensions, or that it denotes a land geared for battle. It may be that they intended the land to seem infertile and insecure.

¹⁴ tn Heb “in its midst.”

¹³ tn The intent of this expression is that he does not object to the vow.

¹⁴ tn The verb קוּם (qum) is best translated “stand” here, but the idea with it is that what she vows is established as a genuine oath with the father’s approval (or acquiescence).

¹⁶ sn Purification by fire is unique to this event. Making these metallic objects “pass through the fire” was not only a way of purifying (burning off impurities), but it seems to be a dedicatory rite as well to the Lord and his people. The aspect of passing through the fire is one used by these pagans for child sacrifice.

¹⁹ tn The subject is “Israelites” and the verb is plural to agree with it, but the idea is collective as the word for “man” indicates: “so that the Israelites may possess – [each] man the inheritance of his fathers.”