1 Chronicles 15:2-14

15:2 Then David said, “Only the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord and to serve before him perpetually. 15:3 David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem ¹  to bring the ark of the Lord up to the place he had prepared for it. 15:4 David gathered together the descendants of Aaron and the Levites:

15:5 From the descendants of Kohath: Uriel the leader and 120 of his relatives.

15:6 From the descendants of Merari: Asaiah the leader and 220 of his relatives.

15:7 From the descendants of Gershom: ²  Joel the leader and 130 of his relatives.

15:8 From the descendants of Elizaphan: Shemaiah the leader and 200 of his relatives.

15:9 From the descendants of Hebron: Eliel the leader and 80 of his relatives.

15:10 From the descendants of Uzziel: Amminadab the leader and 112 of his relatives.

15:11 David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar, along with the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. 15:12 He told them: “You are the leaders of the Levites’ families. You and your relatives must consecrate yourselves and bring the ark of the Lord God of Israel up to the place I have prepared for it. 15:13 The first time you did not carry it; that is why the Lord God attacked us, because we did not ask him about the proper way to carry it.” ³  15:14 The priests and Levites consecrated themselves so they could bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel.

Numbers 4:4-20

4:4 This is the service of the Kohathites in the tent of meeting, relating to the most holy things. ⁴  4:5 When it is time for the camp to journey, ⁵  Aaron and his sons must come and take down the screening curtain and cover the ark of the testimony with it. 4:6 Then they must put over it a covering of fine leather ⁶  and spread over that a cloth entirely of blue, and then they must insert its poles.

4:7 “On the table of the presence ⁷  they must spread a blue ⁸  cloth, and put on it the dishes, the pans, the bowls, and the pitchers for pouring, and the Bread of the Presence must be on it continually. 4:8 They must spread over them a scarlet cloth, and cover the same with a covering of fine leather; and they must insert its poles.

4:9 “They must take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand of the light, with its lamps, its wick-trimmers, its trays, and all its oil vessels, with which they service it. 4:10 Then they must put it with all its utensils in a covering of fine leather, and put it on a carrying beam. ⁹ 

4:11 “They must spread a blue cloth on the gold altar, and cover it with a covering of fine leather; and they must insert its poles. 4:12 Then they must take all the utensils of the service, with which they serve in the sanctuary, put them in a blue cloth, cover them with a covering of fine leather, and put them on a carrying beam. 4:13 Also, they must take away the ashes from the altar ¹⁰  and spread a purple cloth over it. 4:14 Then they must place on it all its implements with which they serve there – the trays, the meat forks, the shovels, the basins, and all the utensils of the altar – and they must spread on it a covering of fine leather, and then insert its poles. ¹¹ 

4:15 “When Aaron and his sons have finished ¹²  covering ¹³  the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is ready to journey, then ¹⁴  the Kohathites will come to carry them; ¹⁵  but they must not touch ¹⁶  any ¹⁷  holy thing, or they will die. ¹⁸  These are the responsibilities ¹⁹  of the Kohathites with the tent of meeting.

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 ²⁰  the appointed responsibility over all the tabernacle with ²¹  all that is in it, over the sanctuary and over all its furnishings.” ²² 

4:17 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 4:18 “Do not allow the tribe of the families of the Kohathites to be cut off ²³  from among the Levites; 4:19 but in order that they will live ²⁴  and not die when they approach the most holy things, do this for them: Aaron and his sons will go in and appoint ²⁵  each man ²⁶  to his service and his responsibility. 4:20 But the Kohathites ²⁷  are not to go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, or they will die.”

Numbers 4:2

4:2 “Take a census ²⁸  of the Kohathites from among the Levites, by their families and by their clans,

Numbers 31:4-21

31:4 You must send to the battle a thousand men from every tribe throughout all the tribes of Israel.” ²⁹  31:5 So a thousand from every tribe, twelve thousand armed for battle in all, were provided out of the thousands of Israel.

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 ³⁰  of the holy articles ³¹  and the signal trumpets. 31:7 They fought against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they killed every male. ³²  31:8 They killed the kings of Midian in addition to those slain – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – five Midianite kings. ³³  They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. ³⁴ 

31:9 The Israelites took the women of Midian captives along with their little ones, and took all their herds, all their flocks, and all their goods as plunder. 31:10 They burned ³⁵  all their towns ³⁶  where they lived and all their encampments. 31:11 They took all the plunder and all the spoils, both people and animals. 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 ³⁷  of Moab, along the Jordan River ³⁸  across from Jericho. ³⁹  31:13 Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the community went out to meet them outside the camp.

The Death of the Midianite Women

31:14 But Moses was furious with the officers of the army, the commanders over thousands and commanders over hundreds, who had come from service in the war. 31:15 Moses said to them, “Have you allowed all the women to live? ⁴⁰  31:16 Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord! 31:17 Now therefore kill every boy, ⁴¹  and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man. ⁴²  31:18 But all the young women ⁴³  who have not had sexual intercourse with a man ⁴⁴  will be yours. ⁴⁵ 

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. 31:20 You must purify each garment and everything that is made of skin, everything made of goat’s hair, and everything made of wood.” ⁴⁶ 

31:21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone into the battle, “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded Moses:

[15:3]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[15:7]  ² sn Gershom is a variant spelling of the name Gershon.

[15:13]  ³ tn Heb “because for what was at first [i.e., formerly] you [were] not, the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him concerning the procedure.”

[4:4]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text simply has “the holy of holies,” or “the holy of the holy things” (קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים, qodesh haqqodashim). The context indicates that this refers to all the sacred furnishings.

[4:5]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive construct in an adverbial clause of time; literally it says “in the journeying of the camp.” The genitive in such constructions is usually the subject. Here the implication is that people would be preparing to transport the camp and its equipment.

[4:6]  ⁶ tn The exact meaning of the Hebrew word here is difficult to determine. The term תַּחַשׁ (takhash) has been translated “badgers’ [skins]” by KJV. ASV has “sealskin” while RSV uses “goatskin”; NEB and NASB have “porpoise skin,” and NIV has “hides of sea cows.” This is close to “porpoise,” and seems influenced by the Arabic. The evidence is not strong for any of these meanings, and some of the suggestions would be problematic. It is possible the word is simply used for “fine leather,” based on the Egyptian ths. This has been followed by NRSV (“fine leather”) and NLT (“fine goatskin leather”) along with the present translation. See further HALOT 1720-21 s.v. תַּחַשׁ.

[4:7]  ⁷ sn The Hebrew actually has the “table of faces,” and this has been traditionally rendered “table of shewbread.”

[4:7]  ⁸ tn The Greek has “violet” instead of blue. This is also the case in vv. 8, 10, and 14.

[4:10]  ⁹ tn The “pole” or “bar” (מוֹט, mot) is of a different style than the poles used for transporting the ark. It seems to be a flexible bar carried by two men with the implements being transported tied to the bar. The NEB suggests the items were put in a bag and slung over the bar, but there is no indication of the manner.

[4:13]  ¹⁰ tc The Greek text has “and he must place the cover upon the altar” instead of “and they must take away the ashes from the altar.” The verb is the Piel form; its nuance seems to be privative, i.e., stating that the object is deprived of the material – the ashes are removed. This is the main altar in the courtyard.

[4:14]  ¹¹ tc For this passage the Greek and Smr have a substantial addition concerning the purple cloth for the laver and its base, and a further covering of skin (see D. W. Gooding, “On the Use of the LXX for Dating Midrashic Elements in the Targums,” JTS 25 [1974]: 1-11).

[4:15]  ¹² tn The verb form is the Piel perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the future sequence, but in this verse forms a subordinate clause to the parallel sequential verb to follow.

[4:15]  ¹³ tn The Piel infinitive construct with the preposition serves as the direct object of the preceding verbal form, answering the question of what it was that they finished.

[4:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “after this.”

[4:15]  ¹⁵ tn The form is the Qal infinitive construct from נָשָׂא (nasa’, “to lift, carry”); here it indicates the purpose clause after the verb “come.”

[4:15]  ¹⁶ tn The imperfect tense may be given the nuance of negated instruction (“they are not to”) or negated obligation (“they must not”).

[4:15]  ¹⁷ tn Here the article expresses the generic idea of any holy thing (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 19, §92).

[4:15]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, following the imperfect tense warning against touching the holy thing. The form shows the consequence of touching the holy thing, and so could be translated “or they will die” or “lest they die.” The first is stronger.

[4:15]  ¹⁹ tn The word מַשָּׂא (massa’) is normally rendered “burden,” especially in prophetic literature. It indicates the load that one must carry, whether an oracle, or here the physical responsibility.

[4:16]  ²⁰ tn This is supplied to the line to clarify “appointed.”

[4:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “and.”

[4:16]  ²² sn One would assume that he would prepare and wrap these items, but that the Kohathites would carry them to the next place.

[4:18]  ²³ sn The verb is simply the Qal, “do not cut off.” The context calls for a permissive nuance – “do not let them be cut off.” It was a difficult task to be handling the holy things correctly; Moses and Aaron were to see to it that they did it right and did not handle the objects, that is, Moses and Aaron were to safeguard their lives by making certain that proper procedures were followed.

[4:19]  ²⁴ tn The word order is different in the Hebrew text: Do this…and they will live. Consequently, the verb “and they will live” is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive to express the future consequence of “doing this” for them.

[4:19]  ²⁵ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive continues the instruction for Aaron.

[4:19]  ²⁶ tn The distributive sense is obtained by the repetition, “a man” and “a man.”

[4:20]  ²⁷ tn In the Hebrew text the verse has as the subject “they,” but to avoid confusion the antecedent has been clarified in the translation.

[4:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “lift up the head.” The form נָשֹׂא (naso’) is the Qal infinitive absolute functioning here as a pure verb form. This serves to emphasize the basic verbal root idea (see GKC 346 §113.bb).

[31:4]  ²⁹ sn Some commentators argue that given the size of the nation (which they reject) the small number for the army is a sign of the unrealistic character of the story. The number is a round number, but it is also a holy war, and God would give them the victory. They are beginning to learn here, and at Jericho, and later against these Midianites under Gideon, that God does not want or need a large army in order to obtain victory.

[31:6]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew text uses the idiom that these “were in his hand,” meaning that he had the responsibility over them.

[31:6]  ³¹ sn It is not clear what articles from the sanctuary were included. Tg. Ps.-J. adds (interpretively) “the Urim and Thummim.”

[31:7]  ³² sn Many modern biblical scholars assume that this passage is fictitious. The text says that they killed every male, but Judges accounts for the Midianites. The texts can be harmonized rather simply – they killed every Midianite who was in the battle. Midianite tribes and cities dotted the whole region, but that does not mean Israel went and killed every single one of them. There apparently was a core of Midianites whom Balaam had influenced to pervert Israel.

[31:8]  ³³ sn Here again we see that there was no unified empire, but Midianite tribal groups.

[31:8]  ³⁴ sn And what was Balaam doing among the Midianites? The implication is strong. This pagan diviner had to submit to the revealed will of God in the oracles, but he nonetheless could be hired. He had been a part of the attempt to destroy Israel that failed; he then apparently became part of the plan, if not the adviser, to destroy them with sexual immorality and pagan ritual.

[31:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “burned with fire.”

[31:10]  ³⁶ tn The ban applied to the encampments and forts of this group of Midianite tribes living in the region of Moab.

[31:12]  ³⁷ tn Or “steppes.”

[31:12]  ³⁸ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[31:12]  ³⁹ 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.

[31:15]  ⁴⁰ tn The verb is the Piel perfect of the word חָיָה (khayah, “to live”). In the Piel stem it must here mean “preserve alive,” or “allow to live,” rather than make alive.

[31:17]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “every male among the little ones.”

[31:17]  ⁴² tn Heb “every woman who has known [a] man by lying with a man.”

[31:18]  ⁴³ tn Or “girls.” The Hebrew indicates they would be female children, making the selection easy.

[31:18]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “who have not known [a] man by lying with a man.”

[31:18]  ⁴⁵ sn Many contemporary scholars see this story as fictitious, composed by the Jews during the captivity. According to this interpretation, the spoils of war here indicate the wealth of the Jews in captivity, which was to be given to the Levites and priests for the restoration of the sanctuary in Jerusalem. The conclusion drawn from this interpretation is that returning Jews had the same problem as the earlier ones: to gain a foothold in the land. Against this interpretation of the account is a lack of hard evidence, a lack which makes this interpretation appear contrived and subjective. If this was the intent of a later writer, he surely could have stated this more clearly than by making up such a story.

[31:20]  ⁴⁶ sn These verses are a reminder that taking a life, even if justified through holy war, still separates one from the holiness of God. It is part of the violation of the fallen world, and only through the ritual of purification can one be once again made fit for the presence of the Lord.