Leviticus 10:3

10:3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke: ‘Among the ones close to me I will show myself holy, ¹  and in the presence of all the people I will be honored.’” ²  So Aaron kept silent.

Numbers 20:12

The Lord’s Judgment

20:12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough ³  to show me as holy ⁴  before ⁵  the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.” ⁶ 

Numbers 20:24

20:24 “Aaron will be gathered to his ancestors, ⁷  for he will not enter into the land I have given to the Israelites because both of you ⁸  rebelled against my word ⁹  at the waters of Meribah.

Numbers 20:1

The Israelites Complain Again

20:1 ¹⁰ Then the entire community of Israel ¹¹  entered the wilderness of Zin in the first month, ¹²  and the people stayed in Kadesh. ¹³  Miriam died and was buried there. ¹⁴ 

Numbers 4:18

4:18 “Do not allow the tribe of the families of the Kohathites to be cut off ¹⁵  from among the Levites;

Numbers 13:13-14

13:13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; 13:14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vopshi;

Numbers 15:19

15:19 and you eat ¹⁶  some of the food of the land, you must offer up a raised offering ¹⁷  to the Lord.

Numbers 15:22-24

Rules for Unintentional Offenses

15:22 ¹⁸ “‘If you ¹⁹  sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses – 15:23 all that the Lord has commanded you by the authority ²⁰  of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses and continuing through your future generations – 15:24 then if anything is done unintentionally ²¹  without the knowledge of ²²  the community, the whole community must prepare one young bull for a burnt offering – for a pleasing aroma to the Lord – along with its grain offering and its customary drink offering, and one male goat for a purification offering.

Numbers 15:2

15:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land where you are to live, ²³  which I am giving you, ²⁴ 

Numbers 6:7

6:7 He must not defile himself even ²⁵  for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister if they die, ²⁶  because the separation ²⁷  for ²⁸  his God is on his head.

Numbers 6:2

6:2 “Speak to the Israelites, and tell them, ‘When either a man or a woman ²⁹  takes a special vow, ³⁰  to take a vow ³¹  as a Nazirite, ³²  to separate ³³  himself to the Lord,

Numbers 12:9-11

12:9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he departed. 12:10 When ³⁴  the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became ³⁵  leprous ³⁶  as snow. Then Aaron looked at ³⁷  Miriam, and she was leprous!

The Intercession of Moses

12:11 So Aaron said to Moses, “O my lord, ³⁸  please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned!

Numbers 24:13

24:13 ‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ³⁹  the commandment ⁴⁰  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ⁴¹  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

Revelation 3:19

3:19 All those ⁴²  I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent!

[10:3]  ¹ tn The Niphal verb of the Hebrew root קָדַשׁ (qadash) can mean either “to be treated as holy” (so here, e.g., BDB 873 s.v. קָּדַשׁ, LXX, NASB, and NEB) or “to show oneself holy” (so here, e.g., HALOT 1073 s.v. קדשׁnif.1, NIV, NRSV, NLT; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:595, 601-3; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 133-34). The latter rendering seems more likely here since, in the immediate context, the Lord himself had indeed shown himself to be holy by the way he responded to the illegitimate incense offering of Nadab and Abihu. They had not treated the Lord as holy, so the Lord acted on his own behalf to show that he was indeed holy.

[10:3]  ² tn In this context the Niphal of the Hebrew root כָּבֵד (kaved) can mean “to be honored” (e.g., NASB and NIV here), “be glorified” (ASV, NRSV and NLT here), or “glorify oneself, show one’s glory” (cf. NAB; e.g., specifically in this verse HALOT 455 s.v. כבדnif.3; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:595, 603-4; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 126, 134). Comparing this clause with the previous one (see the note above), the point may be that when the Lord shows himself to be holy as he has done in 10:1-2, this results in him being honored (i.e., reverenced, feared, treated with respect) among the people. This suggests the passive rendering. It is possible, however, that one should use the reflexive rendering here as in the previous clause. If so, the passage means that the Lord showed both his holiness and his glory in one outbreak against Nadab and Abihu.

[20:12]  ³ tn Or “to sanctify me.”

[20:12]  ⁴ sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.

[20:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[20:12]  ⁶ tn There is debate as to exactly what the sin of Moses was. Some interpreters think that the real sin might have been that he refused to do this at first, but that fact has been suppressed from the text. Some think the text was deliberately vague to explain why they could not enter the land without demeaning them. Others simply, and more likely, note that in Moses there was unbelief, pride, anger, impatience – disobedience.

[20:24]  ⁷ sn This is the standard poetic expression for death. The bones would be buried, often with the bones of relatives in the same tomb, giving rise to the expression.

[20:24]  ⁸ tn The verb is in the second person plural form, and so it is Moses and Aaron who rebelled, and so now because of that Aaron first and then Moses would die without going into the land.

[20:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “mouth.”

[20:1]  ¹⁰ sn This chapter is the account of how Moses struck the rock in disobedience to the Lord, and thereby was prohibited from entering the land. For additional literature on this part, see E. Arden, “How Moses Failed God,” JBL 76 (1957): 50-52; J. Gray, “The Desert Sojourn of the Hebrews and the Sinai Horeb Tradition,” VT 4 (1954): 148-54; T. W. Mann, “Theological Reflections on the Denial of Moses,” JBL 98 (1979): 481-94; and J. R. Porter, “The Role of Kadesh-Barnea in the Narrative of the Exodus,” JTS 44 (1943): 130-43.

[20:1]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text stresses this idea by use of apposition: “the Israelites entered, the entire community, the wilderness.”

[20:1]  ¹² sn The text does not indicate here what year this was, but from comparing the other passages about the itinerary, this is probably the end of the wanderings, the fortieth year, for Aaron died some forty years after the exodus. So in that year the people come through the wilderness of Zin and prepare for a journey through the Moabite plains.

[20:1]  ¹³ sn The Israelites stayed in Kadesh for some time during the wandering; here the stop at Kadesh Barnea may have lasted several months. See the commentaries for the general itinerary.

[20:1]  ¹⁴ sn The death of Miriam is recorded without any qualifications or epitaph. In her older age she had been self-willed and rebellious, and so no doubt humbled by the vivid rebuke from God. But she had made her contribution from the beginning.

[4:18]  ¹⁵ 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.

[15:19]  ¹⁶ tn The verse has a temporal clause that actually continues or supplements the temporal clause of the preceding verse. It is made up of the temporal indicator, the infinitive construct with the preposition, and the suffixed subjective genitive: “and it shall be when you eat.” Here it is translated simply “and eat” since the temporal element was introduced in the last verse.

[15:19]  ¹⁷ tn This is the תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah), the “raised offering” or “heave offering” (cf. KJV, ASV). It may simply be called a “contribution” (so NAB). The verb of the sentence is from the same root: “you shall lift up/raise up.” It was to be an offering separated from the rest and raised up to the Lord in the sight of all. It was designed to remind the Israelites that the produce and the land belonged to God.

[15:22]  ¹⁸ sn These regulations supplement what was already ruled on in the Levitical code for the purification and reparation offerings. See those rulings in Lev 4-7 for all the details. Some biblical scholars view the rules in Leviticus as more elaborate and therefore later. However, this probably represents a misunderstanding of the purpose of each collection.

[15:22]  ¹⁹ tn The verb is the plural imperfect; the sin discussed here is a sin committed by the community, or the larger part of the community.

[15:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “hand.”

[15:24]  ²¹ tn The idea of לִשְׁגָגָה (lishgagah) seems to be that of “inadvertence” or “without intent.” The text gives no indication of how this offense might be committed, or what it might include. It probably describes any transgressions done in ignorance of the Law that involved a violation of tabernacle procedure or priestly protocol or social misdemeanor. Even though it was done unintentionally, it was still a violation and called for ritual purification.

[15:24]  ²² tn Heb “[away] from the eyes of the community.”

[15:2]  ²³ tn Heb “the land of your habitations.”

[15:2]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew participle here has the futur instans use of the participle, expressing that something is going to take place. It is not imminent, but it is certain that God would give the land to Israel.

[6:7]  ²⁵ tn The vav (ו) conjunction at the beginning of the clause specifies the cases of corpses that are to be avoided, no matter how painful it might be.

[6:7]  ²⁶ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffixed subjective genitive – “in the dying of them” – to form the adverbial clause of time.

[6:7]  ²⁷ tn The word “separation” here is metonymy of adjunct – what is on his head is long hair that goes with the vow.

[6:7]  ²⁸ tn The genitive could perhaps be interpreted as possession, i.e., “the vow of his God,” but it seems more likely that an objective genitive would be more to the point.

[6:2]  ²⁹ tn The formula is used here again: “a man or a woman – when he takes.” The vow is open to both men and women.

[6:2]  ³⁰ tn The vow is considered special in view of the use of the verb יַפְלִא (yafli’), the Hiphil imperfect of the verb “to be wonderful, extraordinary.”

[6:2]  ³¹ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct followed by the cognate accusative: “to vow a vow.” This intensifies the idea that the vow is being taken carefully.

[6:2]  ³² tn The name of the vow is taken from the verb that follows; נָזַר (nazar) means “to consecrate oneself,” and so the Nazirite is a consecrated one. These are folks who would make a decision to take an oath for a time or for a lifetime to be committed to the Lord and show signs of separation from the world. Samuel was to be a Nazirite, as the fragment of the text from Qumran confirms – “he will be a נָזִיר (nazir) forever” (1 Sam 1:22).

[6:2]  ³³ tn The form of the verb is an Hiphil infinitive construct, forming the wordplay and explanation for the name Nazirite. The Hiphil is here an internal causative, having the meaning of “consecrate oneself” or just “consecrate to the Lord.”

[12:10]  ³⁴ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) is here introducing a circumstantial clause of time.

[12:10]  ³⁵ tn There is no verb “became” in this line. The second half of the line is introduced with the particle הִנֵה (hinneh, “look, behold”) in its archaic sense. This deictic use is intended to make the reader focus on Miriam as well.

[12:10]  ³⁶ sn The word “leprosy” and “leprous” covers a wide variety of skin diseases, and need not be limited to the actual disease of leprosy known today as Hansen’s disease. The description of it here has to do with snow, either the whiteness or the wetness. If that is the case then there would be open wounds and sores – like Job’s illness (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 95-96).

[12:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “turned to.”

[12:11]  ³⁸ tn The expression בִּי אֲדֹנִי (bi ’adoni, “O my lord”) shows a good deal of respect for Moses by Aaron. The expression is often used in addressing God.

[24:13]  ³⁹ tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”

[24:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “mouth.”

[24:13]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “from my heart.”

[3:19]  ⁴² tn The Greek pronoun ὅσος (Josos) means “as many as” and can be translated “All those” or “Everyone.”