Bilangan 1:3

1:3 You and Aaron are to number ¹  all in Israel who can serve in the army, ²  those who are ³  twenty years old or older, ⁴  by their divisions. ⁵ 

Bilangan 18:2

18:2 “Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join ⁶  with you and minister to you while ⁷  you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

Bilangan 18:6

18:6 I myself have chosen ⁸  your brothers the Levites from among the Israelites. They are given to you as a gift from the Lord, to perform the duties ⁹  of the tent of meeting.

Bilangan 21:33

21:33 Then they turned and went up by the road to Bashan. And King Og of Bashan and all his forces ¹⁰  marched out against them to do battle at Edrei.

Bilangan 25:5

25:5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you must execute those of his men ¹¹  who were joined to Baal-peor.”

Bilangan 31:26

31:26 “You and Eleazar the priest, and all the family leaders of the community, take the sum ¹²  of the plunder that was captured, both people and animals.

Bilangan 32:27

32:27 but your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, to do battle in the Lord’s presence, just as my lord says.”

Bilangan 35:34

35:34 Therefore do not defile the land that you will inhabit, in which I live, for I the Lord live among the Israelites.”

[1:3]  ¹ tn The verb (פָּקַד, paqad) means “to visit, appoint, muster, number.” The word is a common one in scripture. It has as its basic meaning the idea of “determining the destiny” of someone, by appointing, mustering, or visiting. When God “visits,” it is a divine intervention for either blessing or cursing. Here it is the taking of a census for war (see G. André, Determining the Destiny [ConBOT], 16).

[1:3]  ² tn The construction uses the participle “going out” followed by the noun “army.” It describes everyone “going out in a military group,” meaning serving in the army. It was the duty of every able-bodied Israelite to serve in this “peoples” army. There were probably exemptions for the infirm or the crippled, but every male over twenty was chosen. For a discussion of warfare, see P. C. Craigie, The Problem of War in the Old Testament, and P. D. Miller, “The Divine Council and the Prophetic Call to War,” VT 18 (1968): 100-107.

[1:3]  ³ tn The text simply has “from twenty years old and higher.”

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and up.”

[1:3]  ⁵ tn The noun (צָבָא, tsava’) means “army” or “military group.” But the word can also be used for nonmilitary divisions of labor (Num 4:3).

[18:2]  ⁶ sn The verb forms a wordplay on the name Levi, and makes an allusion to the naming of the tribe Levi by Leah in the book of Genesis. There Leah hoped that with the birth of Levi her husband would be attached to her. Here, with the selection of the tribe to serve in the sanctuary, there is the wordplay again showing that the Levites will be attached to Aaron and the priests. The verb is יִלָּווּ (yillavu), which forms a nice wordplay with Levi (לֵוִי). The tribe will now be attached to the sanctuary. The verb is the imperfect with a vav (ו) that shows volitive sequence after the imperative, here indicating a purpose clause.

[18:2]  ⁷ tn The clause is a circumstantial clause because the disjunctive vav (ו) is on a nonverb to start the clause.

[18:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “taken.”

[18:6]  ⁹ tn The infinitive construct in this sentence is from עָבַד (’avad), and so is the noun that serves as its object: to serve the service.

[21:33]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “people.”

[25:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “slay – a man his men.” The imperative is plural, and so “man” is to be taken collectively as “each of you men.”

[31:26]  ¹² tn The idiom here is “take up the head,” meaning take a census, or count the totals.