Numbers 4:16

4:16 “The appointed responsibility of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest is for the oil for the light, and the spiced incense, and the daily grain offering, and the anointing oil; he also has ¹  the appointed responsibility over all the tabernacle with ²  all that is in it, over the sanctuary and over all its furnishings.” ³ 

Numbers 4:27

4:27 “All the service of the Gershonites, whether ⁴  carrying loads ⁵  or for any of their work, will be at the direction of ⁶  Aaron and his sons. You will assign them all their tasks ⁷  as their responsibility.

Numbers 20:25-28

20:25 Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up on Mount Hor. 20:26 Remove Aaron’s priestly garments ⁸  and put them on Eleazar his son, and Aaron will be gathered to his ancestors ⁹  and will die there.”

20:27 So Moses did as the Lord commanded; and they went up Mount Hor in the sight ¹⁰  of the whole community. 20:28 And Moses removed Aaron’s garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. And Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

Numbers 20:2

20:2 And there was no water for the community, and so they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron.

Numbers 25:18

25:18 because they bring trouble to you by their treachery with which they have deceived ¹¹  you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, ¹²  their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague that happened as a result of Peor.”

Numbers 25:1

Israel’s Sin with the Moabite Women

25:1 ¹³ When ¹⁴  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ¹⁵  with the daughters of Moab.

Numbers 9:14-20

9:14 If a resident foreigner lives ¹⁶  among you and wants to keep ¹⁷  the Passover to the Lord, he must do so according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its custom. You must have ¹⁸  the same ¹⁹  statute for the resident foreigner ²⁰  and for the one who was born in the land.’”

The Leading of the Lord

9:15 ²¹ On ²²  the day that the tabernacle was set up, ²³  the cloud ²⁴  covered the tabernacle – the tent of the testimony ²⁵  – and from evening until morning there was ²⁶  a fiery appearance ²⁷  over the tabernacle. 9:16 This is the way it used to be continually: The cloud would cover it by day, ²⁸  and there was a fiery appearance by night. 9:17 Whenever the cloud was taken up ²⁹  from the tabernacle, then after that the Israelites would begin their journey; and in whatever place ³⁰  the cloud settled, there the Israelites would make camp. 9:18 At the commandment ³¹  of the Lord the Israelites would begin their journey, and at the commandment of the Lord they would make camp; as long as ³²  the cloud remained settled over the tabernacle they would camp. 9:19 When the cloud remained over the tabernacle many days, then the Israelites obeyed the instructions ³³  of the Lord and did not journey.

9:20 When ³⁴  the cloud remained over the tabernacle a number of days, ³⁵  they remained camped according to the Lord’s commandment, ³⁶  and according to the Lord’s commandment they would journey.

Numbers 26:20-24

26:20 And the Judahites by their families were: from Shelah, the family of the Shelahites; from Perez, the family of the Perezites; and from Zerah, the family of the Zerahites. 26:21 And the Perezites were: from Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; from Hamul, ³⁷  the family of the Hamulites. 26:22 These were the families of Judah according to those numbered of them, 76,500. ³⁸ 

Issachar

26:23 The Issacharites by their families: from Tola, the family of the Tolaites; from Puah, the family of the Puites; 26:24 from Jashub, the family of the Jashubites; and from Shimron, the family of the Shimronites.

[4:16]  ¹ tn This is supplied to the line to clarify “appointed.”

[4:16]  ² tn Heb “and.”

[4:16]  ³ sn One would assume that he would prepare and wrap these items, but that the Kohathites would carry them to the next place.

[4:27]  ⁴ tn The term “whether” is supplied to introduce the enumerated parts of the explanatory phrase.

[4:27]  ⁵ tn Here again is the use of the noun “burden” in the sense of the loads they were to carry (see the use of carts in Num 7:7).

[4:27]  ⁶ tn The expression is literally “upon/at the mouth of” (עַל־פִּי, ’al-pi); it means that the work of these men would be under the direct orders of Aaron and his sons.

[4:27]  ⁷ tn Or “burden.”

[20:26]  ⁸ tn The word “priestly” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[20:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “will be gathered”; this is a truncated form of the usual expression “gathered to his ancestors,” found in v. 24. The phrase “to his ancestors” is supplied in the translation here.

[20:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “eyes.”

[25:18]  ¹¹ tn This is the same word as that translated “treachery.”

[25:18]  ¹² sn Cozbi’s father, Zur, was one of five Midianite kings who eventually succumbed to Israel (Num 31:8). When the text gives the name and family of a woman, it is asserting that she is important, at least for social reasons, among her people.

[25:1]  ¹³ sn Chapter 25 tells of Israel’s sins on the steppes of Moab, and God’s punishment. In the overall plan of the book, here we have another possible threat to God’s program, although here it comes from within the camp (Balaam was the threat from without). If the Moabites could not defeat them one way, they would try another. The chapter has three parts: fornication (vv. 1-3), God’s punishment (vv. 4-9), and aftermath (vv. 10-18). See further G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 105-21; and S. C. Reif, “What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 (1971): 200-206.

[25:1]  ¹⁴ tn This first preterite is subordinated to the next as a temporal clause; it is not giving a parallel action, but the setting for the event.

[25:1]  ¹⁵ sn The account apparently means that the men were having sex with the Moabite women. Why the men submitted to such a temptation at this point is hard to say. It may be that as military heroes the men took liberties with the women of occupied territories.

[9:14]  ¹⁶ tn The words translated “resident foreigner” and “live” are from the same Hebrew root, גּוּר (gur), traditionally translated “to sojourn.” The “sojourner” who “sojourns” is a foreigner, a resident alien, who lives in the land as a temporary resident with rights of land ownership.

[9:14]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is the simple perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. It is therefore the equivalent to the imperfect that comes before it. The desiderative imperfect fits this usage well, since the alien is not required to keep the feast, but may indeed desire to do so.

[9:14]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text has “there will be to you,” which is the way of expressing possession in Hebrew. Since this is legal instruction, the imperfect tense must be instruction or legislation.

[9:14]  ¹⁹ tn Or “you must have one statute.”

[9:14]  ²⁰ tn The conjunction is used here to specify the application of the law: “and for the resident foreigner, and for the one…” indicates “both for the resident foreigner and the one who….”

[9:15]  ²¹ sn This section (Num 9:15-23) recapitulates the account in Exod 40:34 but also contains some additional detail about the cloud that signaled Israel’s journeys. Here again material from the book of Exodus is used to explain more of the laws for the camp in motion.

[9:15]  ²² tn Heb “and/now on the day.”

[9:15]  ²³ tn The construction uses the temporal expression with the Hiphil infinitive construct followed by the object, the tabernacle. “On the day of the setting up of the tabernacle” leaves the subject unstated, and so the entire clause may be expressed in the passive voice.

[9:15]  ²⁴ sn The explanation and identification of this cloud has been a subject of much debate. Some commentators have concluded that it was identical with the cloud that led the Israelites away from Egypt and through the sea, but others have made a more compelling case that this is a different phenomenon (see ZPEB 4:796). A number of modern scholars see the description as a retrojection from later, perhaps Solomonic times (see G. H. Davies, IDB 3:817). Others have tried to connect it with Ugaritic terminology, but unconvincingly (see T. W. Mann, “The Pillar of Cloud in the Reed Sea Narrative,” JBL 90 [1971]: 15-30; G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 32-66, 209-13; and R. Good, “Cloud Messengers?” UF 10 [1978]: 436-37).

[9:15]  ²⁵ sn The cloud apparently was centered over the tent, over the spot of the ark of the covenant in the most holy place. It thereafter spread over the whole tabernacle.

[9:15]  ²⁶ tn The imperfect tense in this and the next line should be classified as a customary imperfect, stressing incomplete action but in the past time – something that used to happen, or would happen.

[9:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “like the appearance of fire.”

[9:16]  ²⁸ tc The MT lacks the words “by day,” but a number of ancient versions have this reading (e.g., Greek, Syriac, Tg. Ps.-J., Latin Vulgate).

[9:17]  ²⁹ tn The verb in this initial temporal clause is the Niphal infinitive construct.

[9:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in the place where it settled there”; the relative clause modifies the noun “place,” and the resumptive adverb completes the related idea – “which it settled there” means “where it settled.”

[9:18]  ³¹ tn Heb “at the mouth of” (so also in vv. 20, 23).

[9:18]  ³² tn Heb “all the days of – that the cloud settled over the tabernacle.” “All” is the adverbial accusative of time telling how long they camped in one spot – all. The word is then qualified by the genitive of the thing measured – “all of the days” – and this in turn is qualified by a noun clause functioning as a genitive after “days of.”

[9:19]  ³³ tn This is the same Hebrew expression that was used earlier for the Levites “keeping their charge” or more clearly, “fulfilling their obligations” to take care of the needs of the people and the sanctuary. It is a general expression using שָׁמַר (shamar) followed by its cognate noun מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret).

[9:20]  ³⁴ tn The sentence uses וְיֵשׁ (vÿyesh) followed by a noun clause introduced with אֲשֶׁר (’asher) to express an existing situation; it is best translated as an adverbial clause of time: “and it was when the cloud was….”

[9:20]  ³⁵ tn The word “number” is in apposition to the word “days” to indicate that their stay was prolonged for quite a few days.

[9:20]  ³⁶ tn Heb “mouth of the Lord.”

[26:21]  ³⁷ tc Smr and the Greek version have “Hamuel.”

[26:22]  ³⁸ sn The Judahites increased from 74,600 to 76,500.