Bilangan 4:19

4:19 but in order that they will live ¹  and not die when they approach the most holy things, do this for them: Aaron and his sons will go in and appoint ²  each man ³  to his service and his responsibility.

Bilangan 4:49

4:49 According to the word of the Lord they were numbered, ⁴  by the authority of Moses, each according to his service and according to what he was to carry. ⁵  Thus were they numbered by him, ⁶  as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Bilangan 9:10

9:10 “Tell the Israelites, ‘If any ⁷  of you or of your posterity become ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body, or are on a journey far away, then he may ⁸  observe the Passover to the Lord.

Bilangan 13:2

13:2 “Send out men to investigate ⁹  the land of Canaan, which I am giving ¹⁰  to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, ¹¹  each one a leader among them.”

Bilangan 25:8

25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent ¹²  and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. ¹³  So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. ¹⁴ 

¹ tn The word order is different in the Hebrew text: Do this…and they will live. Consequently, the verb “and they will live” is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive to express the future consequence of “doing this” for them.

² tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive continues the instruction for Aaron.

³ tn The distributive sense is obtained by the repetition, “a man” and “a man.”

⁴ tn The verb is the simple perfect tense – “he numbered them.” There is no expressed subject; therefore, the verb can be rendered as a passive.

⁵ tn Or “his burden.”

⁶ tn The passive form simply reads “those numbered by him.” Because of the cryptic nature of the word, some suggest reading a preterite, “and they were numbered.” This is supported by the Greek, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate. It would follow in the emendation that the relative pronoun be changed to “just as” (כַּאֲשֶׁר, ka’asher). The MT is impossible the way it stands; it can only be rendered into smooth English by adding something that is missing.

⁷ tn This sense is conveyed by the repetition of “man” – “if a man, a man becomes unclean.”

⁸ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive functions as the equivalent of an imperfect tense. In the apodosis of this conditional sentence, the permission nuance fits well.

⁹ tn The imperfect tense with the conjunction is here subordinated to the preceding imperative to form the purpose clause. It can thus be translated “send…to investigate.”

¹⁰ tn The participle here should be given a future interpretation, meaning “which I am about to give” or “which I am going to give.”

¹¹ tn Heb “one man one man of the tribe of his fathers.”

¹² tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).

¹³ tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.

¹⁴ sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the Lord himself had had the guilty put to death. And there was already some plague breaking out in the camp that had to be stopped. And so in his zeal he dramatically put an end to this incident, that served to stop the rest and end the plague.