Numbers 9:15

The Leading of the Lord

9:15 ¹ On ²  the day that the tabernacle was set up, ³  the cloud ⁴  covered the tabernacle – the tent of the testimony ⁵  – and from evening until morning there was ⁶  a fiery appearance ⁷  over the tabernacle.

Numbers 15:14

15:14 If a resident foreigner is living ⁸  with you – or whoever is among you ⁹  in future generations ¹⁰  – and prepares an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he must do it the same way you are to do it. ¹¹ 

Numbers 16:7

16:7 put fire in them, and set incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses will be holy. You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi!”

Numbers 28:2

28:2 “Command the Israelites: ¹²  ‘With regard to my offering, ¹³  be sure to offer ¹⁴  my food for my offering made by fire, as a pleasing aroma to me at its appointed time.’ ¹⁵ 

Numbers 28:8

28:8 And the second lamb you must offer in the late afternoon; just as you offered the grain offering and drink offering in the morning, ¹⁶  you must offer it as an offering made by fire, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

Numbers 28:13

28:13 and one-tenth of an ephah of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil as a grain offering for each lamb, as a burnt offering for a pleasing aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

Numbers 28:24

28:24 In this manner you must offer daily throughout the seven days the food of the sacrifice made by fire as a sweet aroma to the Lord. It is to be offered in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.

Numbers 29:13

29:13 You must offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the Lord: thirteen young bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs each one year old, all of them without blemish.

[9:15]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “and/now on the day.”

[9:15]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “like the appearance of fire.”

[15:14]  ⁸ tn The word גּוּר (gur) was traditionally translated “to sojourn,” i.e., to live temporarily in a land. Here the two words are from the root: “if a sojourner sojourns.”

[15:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “in your midst.”

[15:14]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text just has “to your generations,” but it means in the future.

[15:14]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect tenses must reflect the responsibility to comply with the law, and so the classifications of instruction or obligation may be applied.

[28:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and say to them.” These words have not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[28:2]  ¹⁶ tn Th sentence begins with the accusative “my offering.” It is suspended at the beginning as an independent accusative to itemize the subject matter. The second accusative is the formal object of the verb. It could also be taken in apposition to the first accusative.

[28:2]  ¹⁷ tn The construction uses the imperfect tense expressing instruction, followed by the infinitive construct used to express the complement of direct object.

[28:2]  ¹⁸ sn See L. R. Fisher, “New Ritual Calendar from Ugarit,” HTR 63 (1970): 485-501.

[28:8]  ²² tn Heb “as the grain offering of the morning and as its drink offering.”