Numbers 21:6

21:6 So the Lord sent poisonous ¹  snakes ²  among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died.

Numbers 19:13

19:13 Anyone who touches the corpse of any dead person and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. And that person must be cut off from Israel, ³  because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

Numbers 24:17

24:17 ‘I see him, but not now;

I behold him, but not close at hand. ⁴ 

A star ⁵  will march forth ⁶  out of Jacob,

and a scepter ⁷  will rise out of Israel.

He will crush the skulls ⁸  of Moab,

and the heads ⁹  of all the sons of Sheth. ¹⁰ 

Numbers 25:4

God’s Punishment

25:4 The Lord said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders ¹¹  of the people, and hang them up ¹²  before the Lord in broad daylight, ¹³  so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.”

[21:6]  ¹ tn Heb “fiery.”

[21:6]  ² tn The designation of the serpents/ snakes is נְחָשִׁים (nÿkhashim), which is similar to the word for “bronze” (נְחֹשֶׁת, nÿkhoshet). This has led some scholars to describe the serpents as bronze in color. The description of them as fiery indicates they were poisonous. Perhaps the snake in question is a species of adder.

[19:13]  ³ sn It is in passages like this that the view that being “cut off” meant the death penalty is the hardest to support. Would the Law prescribe death for someone who touches a corpse and fails to follow the ritual? Besides, the statement in this section that his uncleanness remains with him suggests that he still lives on.

[24:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “near.”

[24:17]  ⁶ sn This is a figure for a king (see also Isa 14:12) not only in the Bible but in the ancient Near Eastern literature as a whole. The immediate reference of the prophecy seems to be to David, but the eschatological theme goes beyond him. There is to be a connection made between this passage and the sighting of a star in its ascendancy by the magi, who then traveled to Bethlehem to see the one born King of the Jews (Matt 2:2). The expression “son of a star” (Aram Bar Kochba) became a title for a later claimant to kingship, but he was doomed by the Romans in a.d. 135.

[24:17]  ⁷ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it is equal to the imperfect expressing the future. The verb דָּרַךְ (darakh), related to the noun “way, road,” seems to mean something like tread on, walk, march.”

[24:17]  ⁸ sn The “scepter” is metonymical for a king who will rise to power. NEB strangely rendered this as “comet” to make a parallel with “star.”

[24:17]  ⁹ tn The word is literally “corners,” but may refer to the corners of the head, and so “skull.”

[24:17]  ¹⁰ tc The MT reads “shatter, devastate.” Smr reads קֹדְקֹד (qodqod, “head; crown; pate”). Smr follows Jer 48:45 which appears to reflect Num 24:17.

[24:17]  ¹¹ sn The prophecy begins to be fulfilled when David defeated Moab and Edom and established an empire including them. But the Messianic promise extends far beyond that to the end of the age and the inclusion of these defeated people in the program of the coming King.

[25:4]  ⁷ sn The meaning must be the leaders behind the apostasy, for they would now be arrested. They were responsible for the tribes’ conformity to the Law, but here they had not only failed in their duty, but had participated. The leaders were executed; the rest of the guilty died by the plague.

[25:4]  ⁸ sn The leaders who were guilty were commanded by God to be publicly exposed by hanging, probably a reference to impaling, but possibly some other form of harsh punishment. The point was that the swaying of their executed bodies would be a startling warning for any who so blatantly set the Law aside and indulged in apostasy through pagan sexual orgies.

[25:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “in the sun.” This means in broad daylight.