Exodus 32:26

32:26 So Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come ¹  to me.” ²  All the Levites gathered around him,

Exodus 32:29

32:29 Moses said, “You have been consecrated ³  today for the Lord, for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today.” ⁴ 

Numbers 25:5

25:5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you must execute those of his men ⁵  who were joined to Baal-peor.”

Numbers 25:7-12

25:7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, ⁶  he got up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand, 25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent ⁷  and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. ⁸  So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. ⁹  25:9 Those that died in the plague were 24,000.

The Aftermath

25:10 The Lord spoke to Moses: 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 ¹⁰  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. ¹¹  25:12 Therefore, announce: ¹²  ‘I am going to give ¹³  to him my covenant of peace. ¹⁴ 

Deuteronomy 33:8-9

Blessing on Levi

33:8 Of Levi he said:

Your Thummim and Urim ¹⁵  belong to your godly one, ¹⁶ 

whose authority you challenged at Massah, ¹⁷ 

and with whom you argued at the waters of Meribah. ¹⁸ 

33:9 He said to his father and mother, “I have not seen him,” ¹⁹ 

and he did not acknowledge his own brothers

or know his own children,

for they kept your word,

and guarded your covenant.

Luke 14:26

14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate ²⁰  his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, ²¹  he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:2

14:2 There ²²  right ²³  in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. ²⁴ 

Colossians 1:16

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, ²⁵  whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

[32:26]  ¹ tn “come” is not in the text, but has been supplied.

[32:26]  ² tn S. R. Driver suggests that the command was tersely put: “Who is for Yahweh? To me!” (Exodus, 354).

[32:29]  ³ tn Heb “Your hand was filled.” The phrase “fill your hands” is a familiar expression having to do with commissioning and devotion to a task that is earlier used in 28:41; 29:9, 29, 33, 35. This has usually been explained as a Qal imperative. S. R. Driver explains it “Fill your hand today,” meaning, take a sacrifice to God and be installed in the priesthood (Exodus, 355). But it probably is a Piel perfect, meaning “they have filled your hands today,” or, “your hand was filled today.” This was an expression meant to say that they had been faithful to God even though it turned them against family and friends – but God would give them a blessing.

[32:29]  ⁴ tn The text simply has “and to give on you today a blessing.” Gesenius notes that the infinitive construct seems to be attached with a vav (ו; like the infinitive absolute) as the continuation of a previous finite verb. He reads the verb “fill” as an imperative: “fill your hand today…and that to bring a blessing on you, i.e., that you may be blessed” (see GKC 351 §114.p). If the preceding verb is taken as perfect tense, however, then this would also be perfect – “he has blessed you today.”

[25:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “slay – a man his men.” The imperative is plural, and so “man” is to be taken collectively as “each of you men.”

[25:7]  ⁶ tn The first clause is subordinated to the second because both begin with the preterite verbal form, and there is clearly a logical and/or chronological sequence involved.

[25:8]  ⁷ tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).

[25:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.

[25:8]  ⁹ sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the Lord himself had had the guilty put to death. And there was already some plague breaking out in the camp that had to be stopped. And so in his zeal he dramatically put an end to this incident, that served to stop the rest and end the plague.

[25:11]  ¹⁰ 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.

[25:11]  ¹¹ 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.

[25:12]  ¹² tn Heb “say.”

[25:12]  ¹³ tn Here too the grammar expresses an imminent future by using the particle הִנְנִי (hinni) before the participle נֹתֵן (noten) – “here I am giving,” or “I am about to give.”

[25:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “my pledge of friendship” (NAB), or “my pact of friendship” (NJPS). This is the designation of the leadership of the priestly ministry. The terminology is used again in the rebuke of the priests in Mal 2.

[33:8]  ¹⁵ sn Thummim and Urim. These terms, whose meaning is uncertain, refer to sacred stones carried in a pouch on the breastplate of the high priest and examined on occasion as a means of ascertaining God’s will or direction. See Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8; Num 27:21; 1 Sam 28:6. See also C. Van Dam, NIDOTTE 1:329-31.

[33:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “godly man.” The reference is probably to Moses as representative of the whole tribe of Levi.

[33:8]  ¹⁷ sn Massah means “testing” in Hebrew; the name is a wordplay on what took place there. Cf. Exod 17:7; Deut 6:16; 9:22; Ps 95:8-9.

[33:8]  ¹⁸ sn Meribah means “contention, argument” in Hebrew; this is another wordplay on the incident that took place there. Cf. Num 20:13, 24; Ps 106:32.

[33:9]  ¹⁹ sn This statement no doubt alludes to the Levites’ destruction of their own fellow tribesmen following the golden calf incident (Exod 32:25-29).

[14:26]  ²⁰ tn This figurative use operates on a relative scale. God is to be loved more than family or self.

[14:26]  ²¹ tn Grk “his own soul,” but ψυχή (yuch) is frequently used of one’s physical life. It clearly has that meaning in this context.

[14:2]  ²² tn Grk “And there.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[14:2]  ²³ tn Grk “behold.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1). Here it has been translated as “right” in the phrase “right in front of him,” giving a similar effect of vividness in the translation.

[14:2]  ²⁴ sn The condition called dropsy involves swollen limbs resulting from the accumulation of fluid in the body’s tissues, especially the legs.

[1:16]  ²⁵ tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.