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 6:5

6:5 “‘All the days of the vow ¹  of his separation no razor may be used on his head ²  until the time ³  is fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He will be holy, ⁴  and he must let ⁵  the locks of hair on his head grow long.

Numbers 13:32

13:32 Then they presented the Israelites with a discouraging ⁶  report of the land they had investigated, saying, “The land that we passed through ⁷  to investigate is a land that devours ⁸  its inhabitants. ⁹  All the people we saw there ¹⁰  are of great stature.

Numbers 21:23

21:23 But Sihon did not permit Israel to pass through his border; he ¹¹  gathered all his forces ¹²  together and went out against Israel into the wilderness. When ¹³  he came to Jahaz, he fought against Israel.

Numbers 22:18

22:18 Balaam replied ¹⁴  to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment ¹⁵  of the Lord my God ¹⁶  to do less or more.

Numbers 24:13

24:13 ‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ¹⁷  the commandment ¹⁸  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ¹⁹  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

Numbers 32:29

32:29 Moses said to them: “If the Gadites and the Reubenites cross the Jordan with you, each one equipped for battle in the Lord’s presence, and you conquer the land, ²⁰  then you must allot them the territory of Gilead as their possession.

¹ tc The parallel expression in v. 8 (“all the days of his separation”) lacks the word “vow.” This word is also absent in v. 5 in a few medieval Hebrew manuscripts. The presence of the word in v. 5 may be due to dittography.

² sn There is an interesting parallel between this prohibition and the planting of trees. They could not be pruned or trimmed for three years, but allowed to grow free (Lev 20:23). Only then could the tree be cut and the fruit eaten. The natural condition was to be a sign that it was the Lord’s. It was to be undisturbed by humans. Since the Nazirite was to be consecrated to the Lord, that meant his whole person, hair included. In the pagan world the trimming of the beard and the cutting of the hair was often a sign of devotion to some deity.

³ tn Heb “days.”

⁴ tn The word “holy” here has the sense of distinct, different, set apart.

⁵ tn The Piel infinitive absolute functions as a verb in this passage; the Piel carries the sense of “grow lengthy” or “let grow long.”

¹ tn Or “an evil report,” i.e., one that was a defamation of the grace of God.

² 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.

³ 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.

⁴ 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.

⁵ tn Heb “in its midst.”

¹ tn Heb “Sihon.”

² tn Heb “people.”

³ tn The clause begins with a preterite with vav (ו) consecutive, but may be subordinated to the next preterite as a temporal clause.

¹ tn Heb “answered and said.”

² tn Heb “mouth.”

³ sn In the light of subsequent events one should not take too seriously that Balaam referred to Yahweh as his God. He is referring properly to the deity for which he is acting as the agent.

¹ tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”

² tn Heb “mouth.”

³ tn Heb “from my heart.”

¹ tn Heb “and the land is subdued before you.”