Numbers 10:9

10:9 If you go to war in your land against an adversary who opposes ¹  you, then you must sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved ²  from your enemies.

Numbers 21:5

21:5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread or water, and we ³  detest this worthless ⁴  food.”

Numbers 22:18

22:18 Balaam replied ⁵  to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment ⁶  of the Lord my God ⁷  to do less or more.

Numbers 22:20

22:20 God came to Balaam that night, and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, get up and go with them; but the word that I will say to you, that you must do.”

Numbers 23:19

23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie,

nor a human being, ⁸  that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? ⁹ 

Numbers 24:8

24:8 God brought them out of Egypt.

They have, as it were, the strength of a young bull;

they will devour hostile people ¹⁰ 

and will break their bones

and will pierce them through with arrows.

Numbers 24:16

24:16 the oracle of the one who hears the words of God,

and who knows the knowledge of the Most High,

who sees a vision from the Almighty,

although falling flat on the ground with eyes open:

Numbers 25:13

25:13 So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God, ¹¹  and has made atonement ¹²  for the Israelites.’”

[10:9]  ¹ tn Both the “adversary” and “opposes” come from the same root: צָרַר (tsarar), “to hem in, oppress, harass,” or basically, “be an adversary.”

[10:9]  ² tn The Niphal perfect in this passage has the passive nuance and not a reflexive idea – the Israelites would be spared because God remembered them.

[21:5]  ³ tn Heb “our souls.”

[21:5]  ⁴ tn The Israelites’ opinion about the manna was clear enough – “worthless.” The word used is קְלֹקֵל (qÿloqel, “good for nothing, worthless, miserable”).

[22:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[22:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “mouth.”

[22:18]  ⁷ sn In the light of subsequent events one should not take too seriously that Balaam referred to Yahweh as his God. He is referring properly to the deity for which he is acting as the agent.

[23:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “son of man.”

[23:19]  ⁸ tn The verb is the Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “to cause to rise; to make stand”). The meaning here is more of the sense of fulfilling the promises made.

[24:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “they will devour nations,” their adversaries.

[25:13]  ¹¹ tn The motif is reiterated here. Phinehas was passionately determined to maintain the rights of his God by stopping the gross sinful perversions.

[25:13]  ¹² sn The atonement that he made in this passage refers to the killing of the two obviously blatant sinners. By doing this he dispensed with any animal sacrifice, for the sinners themselves died. In Leviticus it was the life of the substitutionary animal that was taken in place of the sinners that made atonement. The point is that sin was punished by death, and so God was free to end the plague and pardon the people. God’s holiness and righteousness have always been every bit as important as God’s mercy and compassion, for without righteousness and holiness mercy and compassion mean nothing.