Bilangan 1:53

1:53 But the Levites must camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that the Lord’s anger ¹  will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are responsible for the care ²  of the tabernacle of the testimony.”

Bilangan 5:12

5:12 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,

Bilangan 15:22-23

Rules for Unintentional Offenses

15:22 ³ “‘If you ⁴  sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses – 15:23 all that the Lord has commanded you by the authority ⁵  of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses and continuing through your future generations –

Bilangan 16:37

16:37 “Tell ⁶  Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick up ⁷  the censers out of the flame, for they are holy, and then scatter the coals of fire ⁸  at a distance.

Bilangan 23:21

23:21 He ⁹  has not looked on iniquity in Jacob, ¹⁰ 

nor has he seen trouble ¹¹  in Israel.

The Lord their God is with them;

his acclamation ¹²  as king is among them.

¹ tc Instead of “wrath” the Greek text has “sin,” focusing the emphasis on the human error and not on the wrath of God. This may have been a conscious change to explain the divine wrath.

tn Heb “so that there be no wrath on.” In context this is clearly the divine anger, so “the Lord’s” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn The main verb of the clause is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, וְשָׁמְרוּ (vÿshamÿru) meaning they “shall guard, protect, watch over, care for.” It may carry the same obligatory nuance as the preceding verbs because of the sequence. The object used with this is the cognate noun מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret): “The Levites must care for the care of the tabernacle.” The cognate intensifies the construction to stress that they are responsible for this care.

³ sn These regulations supplement what was already ruled on in the Levitical code for the purification and reparation offerings. See those rulings in Lev 4-7 for all the details. Some biblical scholars view the rules in Leviticus as more elaborate and therefore later. However, this probably represents a misunderstanding of the purpose of each collection.

⁴ tn The verb is the plural imperfect; the sin discussed here is a sin committed by the community, or the larger part of the community.

⁵ tn Heb “hand.”

⁶ tn Heb “say to.”

⁷ tn The verb is the jussive with a vav (ו) coming after the imperative; it may be subordinated to form a purpose clause (“that he may pick up”) or the object of the imperative.

⁸ tn The Hebrew text just has “fire,” but it would be hard to conceive of this action apart from the idea of coals of fire.

⁹ tn These could be understood as impersonal and so rendered “no one has discovered.”

¹⁰ sn The line could mean that God has regarded Israel as the ideal congregation without any blemish or flaw. But it could also mean that God has not looked on their iniquity, meaning, held it against them.

¹¹ tn The word means “wrong, misery, trouble.” It can mean the idea of “disaster” as well, for that too is trouble. Here it is parallel to “iniquity” and so has the connotation of something that would give God reason to curse them.

¹² tn The people are blessed because God is their king. In fact, the shout of acclamation is among them – they are proclaiming the Lord God as their king. The word is used normally for the sound of the trumpet, but also of battle shouts, and then here acclamation. This would represent their conviction that Yahweh is king. On the usage of this Hebrew word see further BDB 929-30 s.v. תְּרוּעָה; HALOT 1790-91 s.v.