Exodus 24:13

24:13 So Moses set out ¹  with ²  Joshua his attendant, and Moses went up the mountain of God.

Numbers 11:28

11:28 Joshua son of Nun, the servant ³  of Moses, one of his choice young men, ⁴  said, ⁵  “My lord Moses, stop them!” ⁶ 

Numbers 11:1

The Israelites Complain

11:1 ⁷ When the people complained, ⁸  it displeased ⁹  the Lord. When the Lord heard ¹⁰  it, his anger burned, ¹¹  and so ¹²  the fire of the Lord ¹³  burned among them and consumed some of the outer parts of the camp.

Numbers 19:16

19:16 And whoever touches the body of someone killed with a sword in the open fields, ¹⁴  or the body of someone who died of natural causes, ¹⁵  or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean seven days. ¹⁶ 

Numbers 19:2

19:2 “This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord has commanded: ‘Instruct ¹⁷  the Israelites to bring ¹⁸  you a red ¹⁹  heifer ²⁰  without blemish, which has no defect ²¹  and has never carried a yoke.

Numbers 3:11

3:11 Then the Lord spoke to Moses:

Numbers 4:27-29

4:27 “All the service of the Gershonites, whether ²²  carrying loads ²³  or for any of their work, will be at the direction of ²⁴  Aaron and his sons. You will assign them all their tasks ²⁵  as their responsibility. 4:28 This is the service of the families of the Gershonites concerning the tent of meeting. Their responsibilities will be under the authority ²⁶  of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. ²⁷ 

The Service of the Merarites

4:29 “As for the sons of Merari, you are to number them by their families and by their clans.

Numbers 5:25-27

5:25 The priest will take the grain offering of suspicion from the woman’s hand, wave the grain offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar. 5:26 Then the priest will take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water. 5:27 When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness – her abdomen will swell, her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

Matthew 20:26-27

20:26 It must not be this way among you! Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, 20:27 and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave ²⁸  –

Luke 16:10

16:10 “The one who is faithful in a very little ²⁹  is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

[24:13]  ¹ tn Heb “and he arose” meaning “started to go.”

[24:13]  ² tn Heb “and.”

[11:28]  ³ tn The form is the Piel participle מְשָׁרֵת (mÿsharet), meaning “minister, servant, assistant.” The word has a loftier meaning than the ordinary word for slave.

[11:28]  ⁴ tn The verb is בָּחַר (bakhar, “to choose”); here the form is the masculine plural participle with a suffix, serving as the object of the preposition מִן (min). It would therefore mean “[one of] his chosen men,” or “[one of] his choice men.”

[11:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[11:28]  ⁶ sn The effort of Joshua is to protect Moses’ prerogative as leader by stopping these men in the camp from prophesying. Joshua did not understand the significance in the Lord’s plan to let other share the burden of leadership.

[11:1]  ⁷ sn The chapter includes the initial general complaints (vv. 1-3), the complaints about food (vv. 4-9), Moses’ own complaint to the Lord (vv. 10-15), God’s response to Moses (vv. 16-25), Eldad and Medad (vv. 26-29), and the quail (vv. 30-35). The first part records the burning of the camp, named Taberah. Here is one of the several naming narratives in the wilderness experience. The occasion for divine judgment is the complaining of the people. The passages serve to warn believers of all ages not to murmur as the Israelites did, for such complaining reveals a lack of faith in the power and goodness of God. For additional literature, see W. Brueggemann, “From Hurt to Joy, from Death to Life,” Int 28 (1974): 3-19; B. S. Childs, “The Etiological Tale Re-examined,” VT 24 (1974): 387-97; G. W. Coats, Rebellion in the Wilderness; and A. C. Tunyogi, “The Rebellions of Israel,” JBL 81 (1962): 385-90.

[11:1]  ⁸ tn The temporal clause uses the Hitpoel infinitive construct from אָנַן (’anan). It is a rare word, occurring in Lam 3:39. With this blunt introduction the constant emphasis of obedience to the word of the Lord found throughout the first ten chapters suddenly comes to an end. It is probable that the people were tired of moving for several days, the excitement of the new beginning died out quickly in the “great and terrible wilderness.” Resentment, frustration, discomfort – whatever it all involved – led to complaining and not gratitude.

[11:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “it was evil in the ears of the Lord.” The word רַע (ra’) is a much stronger word than “displeased” would suggest. The bold anthropomorphism shows that what the Lord heard was painful to him.

[11:1]  ¹⁰ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next verb as a temporal clause.

[11:1]  ¹¹ tn The common Hebrew expression uses the verb חָרָה (harah, “to be hot, to burn, to be kindled”). The subject is אַפּוֹ (’appo), “his anger” or more literally, his nose, which in this anthropomorphic expression flares in rage. The emphasis is superlative – “his anger raged.”

[11:1]  ¹² tn The vav (ו) consecutive does not simply show sequence in the verbs, but here expresses the result of the anger of the Lord for their complaining. With such a response to the complaining, one must conclude that it was unreasonable. There had been no long deprivation or endured suffering; the complaining was early and showed a rebellious spirit.

[11:1]  ¹³ sn The “fire of the Lord” is supernatural, for it is said to come from the Lord and not from a natural source. God gave them something to complain about – something to fear. The other significant place where this “fire of the Lord” destroyed was in the case of Nadab and Abihu who brought strange fire to the altar (Lev 10:2).

[19:16]  ¹⁴ tn The expression for “in the open field” is literally “upon the face of the field” (עַל־פְּנֵי הַשָּׂדֶה, ’al pÿne hassadeh). This ruling is in contrast now to what was contacted in the tent.

[19:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a dead body”; but in contrast to the person killed with a sword, this must refer to someone who died of natural causes.

[19:16]  ¹⁶ sn See Matt 23:27 and Acts 23:3 for application of this by the time of Jesus.

[19:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “speak to.”

[19:2]  ¹⁸ tn The line literally reads, “speak to the Israelites that [and] they bring [will bring].” The imperfect [or jussive] is subordinated to the imperative either as a purpose clause, or as the object of the instruction – speak to them that they bring, or tell them to bring.

[19:2]  ¹⁹ tn The color is designated as red, although the actual color would be a tanned red-brown color for the animal (see the usage in Isa 1:18 and Song 5:10). The reddish color suggested the blood of ritual purification; see J. Milgrom, “The Paradox of the Red Cow (Num 19),” VT 31 (1981): 62-72.

[19:2]  ²⁰ sn Some modern commentators prefer “cow” to “heifer,” thinking that the latter came from the influence of the Greek. Young animals were usually prescribed for the ritual, especially here, and so “heifer” is the better translation. A bull could not be given for this purification ritual because that is what was given for the high priests or the community according to Lev 4.

[19:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “wherein there is no defect.”

[4:27]  ²² tn The term “whether” is supplied to introduce the enumerated parts of the explanatory phrase.

[4:27]  ²³ tn Here again is the use of the noun “burden” in the sense of the loads they were to carry (see the use of carts in Num 7:7).

[4:27]  ²⁴ tn The expression is literally “upon/at the mouth of” (עַל־פִּי, ’al-pi); it means that the work of these men would be under the direct orders of Aaron and his sons.

[4:27]  ²⁵ tn Or “burden.”

[4:28]  ²⁶ tn Or “the direction” (NASB, TEV); Heb “under/by the hand of.” The word “hand” is often used idiomatically for “power” or “authority.” So also in vv. 33, 37, 45, 48.

[4:28]  ²⁷ sn The material here suggests that Eleazar had heavier responsibilities than Ithamar, Aaron’s fourth and youngest son. It is the first indication that the Zadokite Levites would take precedence over the Ithamar Levites (see 1 Chr 24:3-6).

[20:27]  ²⁸ tn See the note on the word “slave” in 8:9.

[16:10]  ²⁹ sn The point of the statement faithful in a very little is that character is shown in how little things are treated.