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 5:20

5:20 But if you ⁶  have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has had sexual relations with you….” ⁷ 

Numbers 11:15

11:15 But if you are going to deal ⁸  with me like this, then kill me immediately. ⁹  If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.” ¹⁰ 

Numbers 11:21

11:21 Moses said, “The people around me ¹¹  are 600,000 on foot; ¹²  but you say, ‘I will give them meat, ¹³  that they may eat ¹⁴  for a whole month.’

Numbers 11:29

11:29 Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for me? ¹⁵  I wish that ¹⁶  all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

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?” ¹⁷ 

Numbers 16:17

16:17 And each of you ¹⁸  take his censer, put ¹⁹  incense in it, and then each of you present his censer before the Lord: 250 censers, along with you, and Aaron – each of you with his censer.”

Numbers 16:41

16:41 But on the next day the whole community of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord’s people!” ²⁰ 

Numbers 18:2

18:2 “Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join ²¹  with you and minister to you while ²²  you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

Numbers 18:31

18:31 And you may ²³  eat it in any place, you and your household, because it is your wages for your service in the tent of meeting.

Numbers 20:14

Rejection by the Edomites

20:14 ²⁴ Moses ²⁵  sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: ²⁶  “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardships we have experienced, ²⁷ 

Numbers 22:19

22:19 Now therefore, please stay ²⁸  the night here also, that I may know what more the Lord might say to me.” ²⁹ 

Numbers 31:26

31:26 “You and Eleazar the priest, and all the family leaders of the community, take the sum ³⁰  of the plunder that was captured, both people and animals.

Numbers 33:51

33:51 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

Numbers 35:10

35:10 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you cross over the Jordan River ³¹  into the land of Canaan,

[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).

[5:20]  ⁶ tn The pronoun is emphatic – “but you, if you have gone astray.”

[5:20]  ⁷ tn This is an example of the rhetorical device known as aposiopesis, or “sudden silence.” The sentence is broken off due to the intensity or emphasis of the moment. The reader is left to conclude what the sentence would have said.

[11:15]  ¹¹ tn The participle expresses the future idea of what God is doing, or what he is going to be doing. Moses would rather be killed than be given a totally impossible duty over a people that were not his.

[11:15]  ¹² tn The imperative of הָרַג (harag) is followed by the infinitive absolute for emphasis. The point is more that the infinitive adds to the emphasis of the imperative mood, which would be immediate compliance.

[11:15]  ¹³ tn Or “my own ruin” (NIV). The word “trouble” here probably refers to the stress and difficulty of caring for a complaining group of people. The suffix on the noun would be objective, perhaps stressing the indirect object of the noun – trouble for me. The expression “on my trouble” (בְּרָעָתִי, bÿra’ati) is one of the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” According to this tradition the original reading in v. 15 was [to look] “on your evil” (בְּרָעָתֶךָ, bÿra’atekha), meaning “the calamity that you bring about” for Israel. However, since such an expression could be mistakenly thought to attribute evil to the Lord, the ancient scribes changed it to the reading found in the MT.

[11:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the people who I am in their midst,” i.e., among whom I am.

[11:21]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew sentence stresses the number. The sentence begins “600,000….”

[11:21]  ¹⁸ tn The word order places the object first here: “Meat I will give them.” This adds to the contrast between the number and the statement of the Lord.

[11:21]  ¹⁹ tn The verb is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the sequence from the preceding imperfect tense. However, this verb may be subordinated to the preceding to express a purpose clause.

[11:29]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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.

[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.

[16:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “and take, a man, his censer.”

[16:17]  ³² tn This verb and the following one are both perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutives. Following the imperative they carry the same force, but in sequence.

[16:41]  ³⁶ sn The whole congregation here is trying to project its guilt on Moses and Aaron. It was they and their rebellion that brought about the deaths, not Moses and Aaron. The Lord had punished the sinners. The fact that the leaders had organized a rebellion against the Lord was forgotten by these people. The point here is that the Israelites had learned nothing of spiritual value from the event.

[18:2]  ⁴¹ sn The verb forms a wordplay on the name Levi, and makes an allusion to the naming of the tribe Levi by Leah in the book of Genesis. There Leah hoped that with the birth of Levi her husband would be attached to her. Here, with the selection of the tribe to serve in the sanctuary, there is the wordplay again showing that the Levites will be attached to Aaron and the priests. The verb is יִלָּווּ (yillavu), which forms a nice wordplay with Levi (לֵוִי). The tribe will now be attached to the sanctuary. The verb is the imperfect with a vav (ו) that shows volitive sequence after the imperative, here indicating a purpose clause.

[18:2]  ⁴² tn The clause is a circumstantial clause because the disjunctive vav (ו) is on a nonverb to start the clause.

[18:31]  ⁴⁶ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it functions as the equivalent of the imperfect of permission.

[20:14]  ⁵¹ 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]  ⁵² tn Heb “And Moses sent.”

[20:14]  ⁵³ 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]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “found.”

[22:19]  ⁵⁶ tn In this case “lodge” is not used, but “remain, reside” (שְׁבוּ, shÿvu).

[22:19]  ⁵⁷ tn This clause is also a verbal hendiadys: “what the Lord might add to speak,” meaning, “what more the Lord might say.”

[31:26]  ⁶¹ tn The idiom here is “take up the head,” meaning take a census, or count the totals.

[35:10]  ⁶⁶ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.