Numbers 27:19-23

27:19 set him ¹  before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission ²  him publicly. ³  27:20 Then you must delegate ⁴  some of your authority ⁵  to him, so that the whole community of the Israelites will be obedient. ⁶  27:21 And he will stand before Eleazar the priest, who ⁷  will seek counsel ⁸  for him before the Lord by the decision of the Urim. ⁹  At his command ¹⁰  they will go out, and at his command they will come in, he and all the Israelites with him, the whole community.”

27:22 So Moses did as the Lord commanded him; he took Joshua and set ¹¹  him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community. 27:23 He laid his hands on him and commissioned him, just as the Lord commanded, ¹²  by the authority ¹³  of Moses.

Numbers 27:1

Special Inheritance Laws

27:1 ¹⁴ Then the daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh of the families of Manasseh, ¹⁵  the son Joseph came forward. Now these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

Numbers 28:9-10

Weekly Offerings

28:9 “‘On the Sabbath day, you must offer ¹⁶  two unblemished lambs a year old, and two-tenths of an ephah ¹⁷  of finely ground flour as a grain offering, mixed with olive oil, along with its drink offering. 28:10 This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, ¹⁸  besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.

Numbers 28:20

28:20 And their grain offering is to be of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil. For each bull you must offer three-tenths of an ephah, and two-tenths for the ram.

Numbers 28:1

Daily Offerings

28:1 ¹⁹ The Lord spoke to Moses:

Numbers 5:21

5:21 Then the priest will put the woman under the oath of the curse ²⁰  and will say ²¹  to the her, “The Lord make you an attested curse ²²  among your people, ²³  if the Lord makes ²⁴  your thigh fall away ²⁵  and your abdomen swell; ²⁶ 

Numbers 6:13

Fulfilling the Vows

6:13 “‘Now this is the law of the Nazirite: When the days of his separation are fulfilled, he must be brought ²⁷  to the entrance of the tent of meeting,

Numbers 6:2

6:2 “Speak to the Israelites, and tell them, ‘When either a man or a woman ²⁸  takes a special vow, ²⁹  to take a vow ³⁰  as a Nazirite, ³¹  to separate ³²  himself to the Lord,

Numbers 2:14

2:14 Next will be ³³  the tribe of Gad. The leader of the people of Gad is Eliasaph son of Deuel. ³⁴ 

[27:19]  ¹ tn This could be translated “position him,” or “have him stand,” since it is the causative stem of the verb “to stand.”

[27:19]  ² tn The verb is the Piel perfect of צִוָּה (tsivvah, literally “to command”). The verb has a wide range of meanings, and so here in this context the idea of instructing gives way to a more general sense of commissioning for duty. The verb in sequence is equal to the imperfect of instruction.

[27:19]  ³ tn Heb “in their eyes.”

[27:20]  ⁴ tn The verb is simply “give,” but in this context giving some of Moses’ honor to Joshua in the presence of the people is essentially passing the leadership to him, or delegating the authority to him with the result that people would follow him.

[27:20]  ⁵ tc The Greek, Syriac, and Vulgate read “glory” for this form that occurs only here in the Pentateuch. Elsewhere it is rendered “majesty, splendor” (see Ps 96:6). It could even be “vitality” here. The authority being transferred here is both spiritual and civil.

[27:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “hear.”

[27:21]  ⁷ tn The passage simply has “and he will ask,” but Eleazar is clearly the subject now.

[27:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “ask.”

[27:21]  ⁹ sn The new leader would not have the privilege that Moses had in speaking to God face to face. Rather, he would have to inquire of the Lord through the priest, and the priest would seek a decision by means of the Urim. The Urim and the Thummim were the sacred lots that the priest had in his pouch, the “breastplate” as it has traditionally been called. Since the Law had now been fully established, there would be fewer cases that the leader would need further rulings. Now it would simply be seeking the Lord’s word for matters such as whether to advance or not. The size, shape or substance of these objects is uncertain. See further C. Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim.

[27:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “mouth,” meaning what he will say.

[27:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “stood.”

[27:23]  ¹² tn Heb “spoke.”

[27:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “hand.”

[27:1]  ¹⁴ sn For additional information on this section, see N. H. Snaith, “The Daughters of Zelophehad,” VT 16 (1966): 124-27; and J. Weingreen, “The Case of the Daughters of Zelophehad,” VT 16 (1966): 518-22.

[27:1]  ¹⁵ tc The phrase “of the families of Manasseh” is absent from the Latin Vulgate.

[28:9]  ¹⁶ tn The words “you must offer” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied. They have been supplied in the translation to make a complete English sentence.

[28:9]  ¹⁷ sn That is, about 4 quarts.

[28:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the burnt offering of the Sabbath by its Sabbath.”

[28:1]  ¹⁹ sn For additional reading on these chapters, see G. B. Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament; A. F. Rainey, “The Order of Sacrifices in the Old Testament Ritual Texts,” Bib 51 (1970): 485-98; N. H. Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival.

[5:21]  ²⁰ sn For information on such curses, see M. R. Lehmann, “Biblical Oaths,” ZAW 81 (1969): 74-92; A. C. Thiselton, “The Supposed Power of Words in the Biblical Writings,” JTS 25 (1974): 283-99; and F. C. Fensham, “Malediction and Benediction in Ancient Vassal Treaties and the Old Testament,” ZAW 74 (1962): 1-9.

[5:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “the priest will say.”

[5:21]  ²² tn This interpretation takes the two nouns as a hendiadys. The literal wording is “the Lord make you a curse and an oath among the people.” In what sense would she be an oath? The point of the whole passage is that the priest is making her take an oath to see if she has been sinful and will be cursed.

[5:21]  ²³ sn The outcome of this would be that she would be quoted by people in such forms of expression as an oath or a curse (see Jer 29:22).

[5:21]  ²⁴ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with the preposition to form an adverbial clause: “in the giving of the Lord…,” meaning, “if and when the Lord makes such and such to happen.”

[5:21]  ²⁵ tn TEV takes the expression “your thigh” as a euphemism for the genitals: “cause your genital organs to shrink.”

[5:21]  ²⁶ sn Most commentators take the expressions to be euphemisms of miscarriage or stillbirth, meaning that there would be no fruit from an illegitimate union. The idea of the abdomen swelling has been reinterpreted by NEB to mean “fall away.” If this interpretation stands, then the idea is that the woman has become pregnant, and that has aroused the suspicion of the husband for some reason. R. K. Harrison (Numbers [WEC], 111-13) discusses a variety of other explanations for diseases and conditions that might be described by these terms. He translates it with “miscarriage,” but leaves open what the description might actually be. Cf. NRSV “makes your uterus drop, your womb discharge.”

[6:13]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text has “he/one shall bring him”; since there is no expressed subject, this verb should be taken in the passive sense – “he shall be brought.” Since the context suggests an obligatory nuance, the translation “he must be brought” has been used. Some scholars solve the problem by emending the Hebrew text here, but there is no manuscript evidence to support the emendation.

[6:2]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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.”

[2:14]  ³³ tn The Hebrew text simply has “and the tribe of Gad.”

[2:14]  ³⁴ tc The Leningrad codex, upon which BHS is based, has “Reuel” here. In reading “Deuel” the translation presented above follows many medieval Hebrew manuscripts, Smr, and the Latin Vulgate. Cf. Num 1:14.