Numbers 1:3

1:3 You and Aaron are to number ¹  all in Israel who can serve in the army, ²  those who are ³  twenty years old or older, ⁴  by their divisions. ⁵ 

Numbers 5:13

5:13 and a man has sexual relations ⁶  with her ⁷  without her husband knowing it, ⁸  and it is hidden that she has defiled herself, since ⁹  there was no witness against her, nor was she caught –

Numbers 5:25

5:25 The priest will take the grain offering of suspicion from the woman’s hand, wave the grain offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar.

Numbers 11:29

11:29 Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? ¹⁰  I wish that ¹¹  all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

Numbers 13:30

13:30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go up ¹²  and occupy it, ¹³  for we are well able to conquer it.” ¹⁴ 

Numbers 14:7

14:7 They said to the whole community of the Israelites, “The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly ¹⁵  good land.

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?” ¹⁶ 

Numbers 20:14

Rejection by the Edomites

20:14 ¹⁷ Moses ¹⁸  sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: ¹⁹  “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardships we have experienced, ²⁰ 

Numbers 30:11

30:11 and her husband heard about it, but remained silent about her, and did not overrule her, then all her vows will stand, and every obligation which she pledged for herself will stand.

Numbers 31:26

31:26 “You and Eleazar the priest, and all the family leaders of the community, take the sum ²¹  of the plunder that was captured, both people and animals.

[1:3]  ¹ tn The verb (פָּקַד, paqad) means “to visit, appoint, muster, number.” The word is a common one in scripture. It has as its basic meaning the idea of “determining the destiny” of someone, by appointing, mustering, or visiting. When God “visits,” it is a divine intervention for either blessing or cursing. Here it is the taking of a census for war (see G. André, Determining the Destiny [ConBOT], 16).

[1:3]  ² tn The construction uses the participle “going out” followed by the noun “army.” It describes everyone “going out in a military group,” meaning serving in the army. It was the duty of every able-bodied Israelite to serve in this “peoples” army. There were probably exemptions for the infirm or the crippled, but every male over twenty was chosen. For a discussion of warfare, see P. C. Craigie, The Problem of War in the Old Testament, and P. D. Miller, “The Divine Council and the Prophetic Call to War,” VT 18 (1968): 100-107.

[1:3]  ³ tn The text simply has “from twenty years old and higher.”

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and up.”

[1:3]  ⁵ tn The noun (צָבָא, tsava’) means “army” or “military group.” But the word can also be used for nonmilitary divisions of labor (Num 4:3).

[5:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “and a man lies with her with the emission of semen.” This makes it clear that there was adultery involved, so that the going astray is going astray morally. The indication in the text is that if she had never behaved suspiciously the sin might not have been detected.

[5:13]  ⁷ tc The sign of the accusative אֹתָהּ (’otah) is probably to be repointed to the preposition with the suffix, אִתָּהּ (’ittah).

[5:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and it is concealed from the eyes of her husband.”

[5:13]  ⁹ tn The noun clause beginning with the simple conjunction is here a circumstantial clause, explaining that there was no witness to the sin.

[11:29]  ¹¹ tn The Piel participle מְקַנֵּא (mÿqanne’) serves as a verb here in this interrogative sentence. The word means “to be jealous; to be envious.” That can be in a good sense, such as with the translation “zeal,” or it can be in a negative sense as here. Joshua’s apparent “zeal” is questioned by Moses – was he zealous/envious for Moses sake, or for some other reason?

[11:29]  ¹² tn The optative is expressed by the interrogative clause in Hebrew, “who will give….” Moses expresses here the wish that the whole nation would have that portion of the Spirit. The new covenant, of course, would turn Moses’ wish into a certainty.

[13:30]  ¹⁶ tn The construction is emphatic, using the cohortative with the infinitive absolute to strengthen it: עָלֹה נַעֲלֶה (’aloh na’aleh, “let us go up”) with the sense of certainty and immediacy.

[13:30]  ¹⁷ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive brings the cohortative idea forward: “and let us possess it”; it may also be subordinated to form a purpose or result idea.

[13:30]  ¹⁸ tn Here again the confidence of Caleb is expressed with the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense: יָכוֹל נוּכַל (yakhol nukhal), “we are fully able” to do this. The verb יָכַל (yakhal) followed by the preposition lamed means “to prevail over, to conquer.”

[14:7]  ²¹ tn The repetition of the adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od) is used to express this: “very, very [good].”

[16:11]  ²⁶ 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.

[20:14]  ³¹ sn For this particular section, see W. F. Albright, “From the Patriarchs to Moses: 2. Moses out of Egypt,” BA 36 (1973): 57-58; J. R. Bartlett, “The Land of Seir and the Brotherhood of Edom,” JTS 20 (1969): 1-20, and “The Rise and Fall of the Kingdom of Edom,” PEQ 104 (1972): 22-37, and “The Brotherhood of Edom,” JSOT 4 (1977): 2-7.

[20:14]  ³² tn Heb “And Moses sent.”

[20:14]  ³³ sn Some modern biblical scholars are convinced, largely through arguments from silence, that there were no unified kingdoms in Edom until the 9th century, and no settlements there before the 12th century, and so the story must be late and largely fabricated. The evidence is beginning to point to the contrary. But the cities and residents of the region would largely be Bedouin, and so leave no real remains.

[20:14]  ³⁴ tn Heb “found.”

[31:26]  ³⁶ tn The idiom here is “take up the head,” meaning take a census, or count the totals.