Genesis 37:29-34

37:29 Later Reuben returned to the cistern to find that Joseph was not in it! ¹  He tore his clothes, 37:30 returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy isn’t there! And I, where can I go?” 37:31 So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a young goat, ²  and dipped the tunic in the blood. 37:32 Then they brought the special tunic to their father ³  and said, “We found this. Determine now whether it is your son’s tunic or not.”

37:33 He recognized it and exclaimed, “It is my son’s tunic! A wild animal has eaten him! ⁴  Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” 37:34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, ⁵  and mourned for his son many days.

Numbers 14:6

14:6 And Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of those who had investigated the land, tore their garments.

Numbers 14:2

14:2 And all the Israelites murmured ⁶  against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died ⁷  in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished ⁸  in this wilderness!

Numbers 1:2

1:2 “Take a census ⁹  of the entire ¹⁰  Israelite community ¹¹  by their clans and families, ¹²  counting the name of every individual male. ¹³ 

Numbers 1:11

1:11 from Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni;

Numbers 13:19

13:19 and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or fortified cities,

[37:29]  ¹ tn Heb “and look, Joseph was not in the cistern.” By the use of וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and look”), the narrator invites the reader to see the situation through Reuben’s eyes.

[37:31]  ² sn It was with two young goats that Jacob deceived his father (Gen 27:9); now with a young goat his sons continue the deception that dominates this family.

[37:32]  ³ tn Heb “and they sent the special tunic and they brought [it] to their father.” The text as it stands is problematic. It sounds as if they sent the tunic on ahead and then came and brought it to their father. Some emend the second verb to a Qal form and read “and they came.” In this case, they sent the tunic on ahead.

[37:33]  ⁴ sn A wild animal has eaten him. Jacob draws this conclusion on his own without his sons actually having to lie with their words (see v. 20). Dipping the tunic in the goat’s blood was the only deception needed.

[37:34]  ⁵ tn Heb “and put sackcloth on his loins.”

[14:2]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew verb “to murmur” is לוּן (lun). It is a strong word, signifying far more than complaining or grumbling, as some of the modern translations have it. The word is most often connected to the wilderness experience. It is paralleled in the literature with the word “to rebel.” The murmuring is like a parliamentary vote of no confidence, for they no longer trusted their leaders and wished to choose a new leader and return. This “return to Egypt” becomes a symbol of their lack of faith in the Lord.

[14:2]  ⁷ tn The optative is expressed by לוּ (lu) and then the verb, here the perfect tense מַתְנוּ (matnu) – “O that we had died….” Had they wanted to die in Egypt they should not have cried out to the Lord to deliver them from bondage. Here the people became consumed with the fear and worry of what lay ahead, and in their panic they revealed a lack of trust in God.

[14:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “died.”

[1:2]  ⁹ tn The construction is literally “lift up the head[s],” (שְׂאוּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ, sÿ’u ’et-ro’sh). This idiom for taking a census occurs elsewhere (Exod 30:12; Lev 5:24; Num 1:24; etc.). The idea is simply that of counting heads to arrive at the base for the standing army. This is a different event than the one recorded in Exod 30:11-16, which was taken for a different purpose altogether. The verb is plural, indicating that Moses had help in taking the census.

[1:2]  ¹⁰ tc Smr lacks the Hebrew word “all” here.

[1:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the congregation of Israel.”

[1:2]  ¹² tn The tribe (מַטֶּה, matteh or שֵׁבֶט, shevet) is the main category. The family groups or clans (מִשְׁפְּחֹת, mishpÿkhot) and the households or families (בֵּית אֲבֹת, bet ’avot) were sub-divisions of the tribe.

[1:2]  ¹³ tn This clause simply has “in/with the number of the names of every male with respect to their skulls [individually].” Counting heads, or every skull, simply meant that each person was to be numbered in the census. Except for the Levites, no male was exempt from the count.