Numbers 1:4-5

1:4 And to help you ¹  there is to be a man from each ²  tribe, each man ³  the head ⁴  of his family. ⁵  1:5 Now these are the names of the men who are to help ⁶  you:

from ⁷  Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur;

Numbers 3:1

The Sons of Aaron

3:1 ⁸ Now these are the records ⁹  of Aaron and Moses when ¹⁰  the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.

Numbers 3:9

3:9 You are to assign ¹¹  the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they will be assigned exclusively ¹²  to him out of all ¹³  the Israelites.

Numbers 15:16

15:16 One law and one custom must apply to you and to the resident foreigner who lives alongside you.’”

Numbers 16:10

16:10 He has brought you near and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you. Do you now seek ¹⁴  the priesthood also?

Numbers 20:13

20:13 These are the waters of Meribah, because the Israelites contended with the Lord, and his holiness was maintained ¹⁵  among them.

Numbers 22:40

22:40 And Balak sacrificed bulls and sheep, and sent some ¹⁶  to Balaam, and to the princes who were with him.

Numbers 26:3

26:3 So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan River ¹⁷  across from Jericho. ¹⁸  They said,

Numbers 32:30

32:30 But if they do not cross over with you armed, they must receive possessions among you in Canaan.”

Numbers 32:32

32:32 We will cross armed in the Lord’s presence into the land of Canaan, and then the possession of our inheritance that we inherit will be ours on this side of the Jordan River.” ¹⁹ 

[1:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and with you.”

[1:4]  ² tn The construction uses the noun in a distributive sense: “a man, a man for a tribe,” meaning a man for each tribe.

[1:4]  ³ tn The clause expresses a distributive function, “a man” means “each man.”

[1:4]  ⁴ sn See J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word ראשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.

[1:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “the house of his fathers.”

[1:5]  ⁶ tn The verb is עָמַד (’amad, “to stand”). It literally then is, “who will stand with you.” They will help in the count, but they will also serve as leaders as the camp moves from place to place.

[1:5]  ⁷ tn The preposition lamed (ל) prefixed to the name could be taken in the sense of “from,” but could also be “with regard to” (specification).

[3:1]  ¹¹ sn For significant literature for this chapter, see M. Aberbach and L. Smolar, “Aaron, Jeroboam, and their Golden Calves,” JBL 86 (1967): 129-40; G. Brin, “The First-born in Israel in the Biblical Period” (Ph.D. diss., University of Tel Aviv, 1971); S. H. Hooke, “Theory and Practice of Substitution,” VT 2 (1952): 2-17; and J. Morgenstern, “A Chapter in the History of the High Priesthood,” AJSL 55 (1938): 1-24.

[3:1]  ¹² tn The construction is וְאֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת (vÿ’elleh tolÿdot), which was traditionally translated “now these are the generations,” much as it was translated throughout the book of Genesis. The noun can refer to records, stories, genealogies, names, and accounts of people. Here it is the recorded genealogical list with assigned posts included. Like Genesis, it is a heading of a section, and not a colophon as some have suggested. It is here similar to Exodus: “these are the names of.” R. K. Harrison, Numbers (WEC), 62, insists that it is a colophon and should end chapter 2, but if that is followed in the Pentateuch, it creates difficulty throughout the narratives. See the discussion by A. P. Ross, Creation and Blessing, 69-74.

[3:1]  ¹³ tn The expression in the Hebrew text (“in the day of”) is idiomatic for “when.”

[3:9]  ¹⁶ tn The verb וְנָתַתָּה (vÿnatattah) is normally “give.” Here, though, the context refers to the assignment of the Levites to the priests for their duties. The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, continuing the sequence for the imperfect of instruction.

[3:9]  ¹⁷ tn This emphasis is derived from the simple repetition of the passive participle, נְתוּנִם נְתוּנִם (nÿtunim nÿtunim). See GKC 396 §123.e. The forms serve as the predicate with the subject pronoun.

[3:9]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text simply has the preposition, “from the Israelites.”

[16:10]  ²¹ tn The verb is the Piel perfect. There is no imperfect tense before this, which makes the construction a little difficult. If the vav (ו) is classified as a consecutive, then the form would stand alone as an equivalent to the imperfect, and rendered as a modal nuance such as “would you [now] seek,” or as a progressive imperfect, “are you seeking.” This latter nuance can be obtained by treating it as a regular perfect tense, with an instantaneous nuance: “do you [now] seek.”

[20:13]  ²⁶ tn The form is unusual – it is the Niphal preterite, and not the normal use of the Piel/Pual stem for “sanctify/sanctified.” The basic idea of “he was holy” has to be the main idea, but in this context it refers to the fact that through judging Moses God was making sure people ensured his holiness among them. The word also forms a wordplay on the name Kadesh.

[22:40]  ³¹ sn The understanding is that Balak was making a sacrifice for a covenant relationship, and so he gave some of the meat to the men and to the seer.

[26:3]  ³⁶ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity (also in v. 62).

[26:3]  ³⁷ map For the location of Jericho see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[32:32]  ⁴¹ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.