Numbers 8:16

8:16 For they are entirely given ¹  to me from among the Israelites. I have taken them for myself instead of ²  all who open the womb, the firstborn sons of all the Israelites.

Numbers 9:7

9:7 And those men said to him, “We are ceremonially defiled by the dead body of a man; why are we kept back from offering the Lord’s offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?”

Numbers 11:16

The Response of God

11:16 ³ The Lord said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials ⁴  over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you.

Numbers 11:26

Eldad and Medad

11:26 But two men remained in the camp; one’s name was Eldad, and the other’s name was Medad. And the spirit rested on them. (Now they were among those in the registration, ⁵  but had not gone to the tabernacle.) So they prophesied in the camp.

Numbers 14:9

14:9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. ⁶  Their protection ⁷  has turned aside from them, but the Lord is with us. Do not fear them!”

Numbers 15:25

15:25 And the priest is to make atonement ⁸  for the whole community of the Israelites, and they will be forgiven, ⁹  because it was unintentional and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their purification offering before the Lord, for their unintentional offense.

Numbers 16:14

16:14 Moreover, ¹⁰  you have not brought us into a land that flows with milk and honey, nor given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you think you can blind ¹¹  these men? We will not come up.”

Numbers 18:3

18:3 They must be responsible to care for you and to care for the entire tabernacle. However, they must not come near the furnishings of the sanctuary and the altar, or both they and you will die.

Numbers 18:17

18:17 But you must not redeem the firstborn of a cow or a sheep or a goat; they are holy. You must splash ¹²  their blood on the altar and burn their fat for an offering made by fire for a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

Numbers 18:23-24

18:23 But the Levites must perform the service ¹³  of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. ¹⁴  It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites ¹⁵  have no inheritance. ¹⁶  18:24 But I have given ¹⁷  to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered ¹⁸  to the Lord as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance.”

Numbers 25:6

25:6 Just then ¹⁹  one of the Israelites came and brought to his brothers ²⁰  a Midianite woman in the plain view of Moses and of ²¹  the whole community of the Israelites, while they ²²  were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Numbers 25:18

25:18 because they bring trouble to you by their treachery with which they have deceived ²³  you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, ²⁴  their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague that happened as a result of Peor.”

Numbers 26:62

26:62 Those of them who were numbered were 23,000, all males from a month old and upward, for they were not numbered among the Israelites; no inheritance was given to them among the Israelites.

Numbers 26:65

26:65 For the Lord had said of them, “They will surely die in the wilderness.” And there was not left a single man of them, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

Numbers 33:55

33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those whom you allow to remain will be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your side, and will cause you trouble in the land where you will be living.

[8:16]  ¹ tn As before, the emphasis is obtained by repeating the passive participle: “given, given to me.”

[8:16]  ² tn Or “as substitutes” for all the firstborn of the Israelites.

[11:16]  ³ sn The Lord provides Spirit-empowered assistance for Moses. Here is another variation on the theme of Moses’ faith. Just as he refused to lead alone and was given Aaron to share the work, so here he protests the burden and will share it with seventy elders. If God’s servant will not trust wholeheartedly, that individual will not be used by God as he or she might have been. Others will share in the power and the work. Probably one could say that it was God’s will for others to share this leadership – but not to receive it through these circumstances.

[11:16]  ⁴ tn The “officials” (שֹׁטְּרִים, shottÿrim) were a group of the elders who seem to have had some administrative capacities. The LXX used the word “scribes.” For further discussion, see R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 69-70.

[11:26]  ⁵ tn The form of the word is the passive participle כְּתֻבִים (kÿtuvim, “written”). It is normally taken to mean “among those registered,” but it is not clear if that means they were to be among the seventy or not. That seems unlikely since there is no mention of the seventy being registered, and vv. 24-25 says all seventy went out and prophesied. The registration may be to eldership, or the role of the officer.

[14:9]  ⁷ sn The expression must indicate that they could destroy the enemies as easily as they could eat bread.

[14:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “their shade.” The figure compares the shade from the sun with the protection from the enemy. It is also possible that the text is alluding to their deities here.

[15:25]  ⁹ tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive (וְכִפֶּר, vÿkhipper) to continue the instruction of the passage: “the priest shall make atonement,” meaning the priest is to make atonement for the sin (thus the present translation). This verb means “to expiate,” “to atone for,” “to pacify.” It describes the ritual events by which someone who was separated from the holy Lord God could find acceptance into his presence through the sacrificial blood of the substitutionary animal. See Lev 1 and Num 17:6-15.

[15:25]  ¹⁰ tn Or “they will be forgiven.”

[16:14]  ¹¹ tn Here אַף (’af) has the sense of “in addition.” It is not a common use.

[16:14]  ¹² tn Heb “will you bore out the eyes of these men?” The question is “Will you continue to mislead them?” (or “hoodwink” them). In Deut 16:19 it is used for taking a bribe; something like that kind of deception is intended here. They are simply stating that Moses is a deceiver who is misleading the people with false promises.

[18:17]  ¹³ tn Or “throw, toss.”

[18:23]  ¹⁵ tn The verse begins with the perfect tense of עָבַד (’avad) with vav (ו) consecutive, making the form equal to the instructions preceding it. As its object the verb has the cognate accusative “service.”

[18:23]  ¹⁶ sn The Levites have the care of the tent of meeting, and so they are responsible for any transgressions against it.

[18:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Levites) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[18:23]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text uses both the verb and the object from the same root to stress the point: They will not inherit an inheritance. The inheritance refers to land.

[18:24]  ¹⁷ tn The classification of the perfect tense here too could be the perfect of resolve, since this law is declaring what will be their portion – “I have decided to give.”

[18:24]  ¹⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject (although the “Israelites” is certainly intended), and so it can be rendered as a passive.

[25:6]  ¹⁹ tn The verse begins with the deictic particle וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh), pointing out the action that was taking place. It stresses the immediacy of the action to the reader.

[25:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “to his family”; or “to his clan.”

[25:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of.”

[25:6]  ²² tn The vav (ו) at the beginning of the clause is a disjunctive because it is prefixed to the nonverbal form. In this context it is best interpreted as a circumstantial clause, stressing that this happened “while” people were weeping over the sin.

[25:18]  ²¹ tn This is the same word as that translated “treachery.”

[25:18]  ²² 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.