Numbers 1:16

The Census of the Tribes

1:16 These were the ones chosen ¹  from the community, leaders ²  of their ancestral tribes. ³  They were the heads of the thousands ⁴  of Israel.

Numbers 3:3

3:3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed ⁵  priests, whom he consecrated ⁶  to minister as priests. ⁷ 

Numbers 3:7

3:7 They are responsible for his needs ⁸  and the needs of the whole community before the tent of meeting, by attending ⁹  to the service of the tabernacle.

Numbers 5:4

5:4 So the Israelites did so, and expelled them outside the camp. As the Lord had spoken ¹⁰  to Moses, so the Israelites did.

Numbers 9:8

9:8 So Moses said to them, “Remain ¹¹  here and I will hear ¹²  what the Lord will command concerning you.”

Numbers 13:18

13:18 and see ¹³  what the land is like, ¹⁴  and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, few or many,

Numbers 14:37

14:37 those men who produced the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

Numbers 15:19

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

Numbers 15:21-22

15:21 You must give to the Lord some of the first of your finely ground flour as a raised offering in your future generations.

Rules for Unintentional Offenses

15:22 ¹⁷ “‘If you ¹⁸  sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses –

Numbers 16:11

16:11 Therefore you and all your company have assembled together against the Lord! And Aaron – what is he that you murmur against him?” ¹⁹ 

Numbers 16:45

16:45 “Get away from this community, so that I can consume them in an instant!” But they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground. ²⁰ 

Numbers 21:35

21:35 So they defeated Og, ²¹  his sons, and all his people, until there were no survivors, ²²  and they possessed his land.

Numbers 24:2

24:2 When Balaam lifted up his eyes, he saw Israel camped tribe by tribe; ²³  and the Spirit of God came upon him.

Numbers 30:6

Vows Made by Married Women

30:6 “And if she marries a husband while under a vow, ²⁴  or she uttered ²⁵  anything impulsively by which she has pledged herself,

Numbers 34:5

34:5 There the border will turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and then its direction is to the sea. ²⁶ 

Numbers 34:9

34:9 The border will continue to Ziphron, and its direction will be to Hazar Enan. This will be your northern border.

Numbers 35:11

35:11 you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee.

[1:16]  ¹ tc The form has a Kethib-Qere problem, but the sentence calls for the Qere, the passive participle in the construct – “the called of….” These men were God’s choice, and not Moses’, or their own choice. He announced who they would be, and then named them. So they were truly “called” (קָרָא, qara’). The other reading is probably due to a copyist’s error.

[1:16]  ² tn The word is נָשִׂיא (nasi’, “exalted one, prince, leader”). Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB “princes.” These were men apparently revered or respected in their tribes, and so the clear choice to assist Moses with the leadership. See further, E. A. Speiser, “Background and Function of the Biblical na„sÃþá,” CBQ 25 (1963): 111-17.

[1:16]  ³ tn Heb “exalted ones of the tribes of their fathers.” The earlier group of elders was chosen by Moses at the advice of his father-in-law. This group represents the few leaders of the tribes that were chosen by God, a more literate group apparently, who were the forerunners of the שֹׁטְּרִים (shottÿrim).

[1:16]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text has אַלְפֵי (’alfey, “thousands of”). There is some question over this reading in the MT, however. The community groups that have these leaders were larger tribes, but there is little certainty about the size of the divisions.

[3:3]  ⁵ tn The verb מָשַׁח (mashakh) means “to anoint”; here the form modifies the “priests.” The service of consecration was carried out with anointing oil (Exod 30:30). The verb is used for the anointing of kings as well as priests in the OT, and so out of that derived the technical title “Messiah” for the coming ideal king – the “Anointed One.”

[3:3]  ⁶ tn In this verse the expression is in a relative clause: “who he filled their hand” means “whose hands he filled,” or “whom he consecrated.” The idiomatic expression used here is from Lev 8; it literally is “he filled their hand” (מִלֵּא יָדָם, mille’ yadam). In the ordination service Moses placed some of the meat from the sacrifice in the hand of the ordinand, and this signified what he was going to be about – having his hand full, or being consecrated to the priesthood. There is some evidence that this practice or expression was also known in Mesopotamia. In modern ordination services a NT or a Bible may be placed in the ordinand’s hand – it is what the ministry will be about.

[3:3]  ⁷ tn The form is an infinitival construction for the word for the priest, showing the purpose for the filling of the hands.

[3:7]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew text uses the perfect tense of שָׁמַר(shamar) with a vav (ו) consecutive to continue the instruction of the preceding verse. It may be translated “and they shall keep” or “they must/are to keep,” but in this context it refers to their appointed duties. The verb is followed by its cognate accusative – “they are to keep his keeping,” or as it is often translated, “his charge.” This would mean whatever Aaron needed them to do. But the noun is also used for the people in the next phrase, and so “charge” cannot be the meaning here. The verse is explaining that the Levites will have duties to perform to meet the needs of Aaron and the congregation.

[3:7]  ¹⁰ tn The form is the Qal infinitive construct from עָבַד (’avad, “to serve, to work”); it is taken here as a verbal noun and means “by (or in) serving” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 36, §195). This explains the verb “keep [his charge].” Here too the form is followed by a cognate accusative; they will be there to “serve the service” or “work the work.”

[5:4]  ¹³ tn The perfect tense is here given a past perfect nuance to stress that the word of the Lord preceded the obedience.

[9:8]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is simply “stand,” but in the more general sense of waiting to hear the answer.

[9:8]  ¹⁸ tn The cohortative may be subordinated to the imperative: “stand…[that I] may hear.”

[13:18]  ²¹ tn The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; the word therefore carries the volitional mood of the preceding imperatives. It may be either another imperative, or it may be subordinated as a purpose clause.

[13:18]  ²² tn Heb “see the land, what it is.”

[15:19]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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.

[16:11]  ³³ sn The question indicates that they had been murmuring against Aaron, that is, expressing disloyalty and challenging his leadership. But it is actually against the Lord that they had been murmuring because the Lord had put Aaron in that position.

[16:45]  ³⁷ tn Heb “they fell on their faces.”

[21:35]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Og) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:35]  ⁴² tn Heb “no remnant.”

[24:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “living according to their tribes.”

[30:6]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and her vows are upon her.” It may be that the woman gets married while her vows are still unfulfilled.

[30:6]  ⁵⁰ tn The Hebrew text indicates that this would be some impetuous vow that she uttered with her lips, a vow that her husband, whether new or existing, would not approve of. Several translate it “a binding obligation rashly uttered.”

[34:5]  ⁵³ sn That is, the Mediterranean.