Bilangan 2:2

2:2 “Every one ¹  of the Israelites must camp ²  under his standard with the emblems of his family; ³  they must camp at some distance ⁴  around the tent of meeting. ⁵ 

Bilangan 2:16

2:16 All those numbered of the camp of Reuben, according to their divisions, are 151,450. They will travel second.

Bilangan 3:8

3:8 And they are responsible for all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, and for the needs of the Israelites, as they serve ⁶  in the tabernacle.

Bilangan 3:17

The Summary of Families

3:17 These were the sons ⁷  of Levi by their names: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Bilangan 5:4

5:4 So the Israelites did so, and expelled them outside the camp. As the Lord had spoken ⁸  to Moses, so the Israelites did.

Bilangan 7:9

7:9 But to the Kohathites he gave none, because the service of the holy things, which they carried ⁹  on their shoulders, was their responsibility. ¹⁰ 

Bilangan 7:85

7:85 Each silver platter weighed 130 shekels, and each silver sprinkling bowl weighed 70 shekels. All the silver of the vessels weighed 2,400 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.

Bilangan 10:36

10:36 And when it came to rest he would say, “Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel!” ¹¹ 

Bilangan 12:4

The Response of the Lord

12:4 The Lord spoke immediately to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: “The three of you come to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went.

Bilangan 12:7

12:7 My servant ¹²  Moses is not like this; he is faithful ¹³  in all my house.

Bilangan 13:17

The Spies’ Instructions

13:17 When Moses sent ¹⁴  them to investigate the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev, ¹⁵  and then go up into the hill country

Bilangan 14:17

14:17 So now, let the power of my Lord ¹⁶  be great, just as you have said,

Bilangan 14:44

14:44 But they dared ¹⁷  to go up to the crest of the hill, although ¹⁸  neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.

Bilangan 16:2

16:2 and rebelled against Moses, along with some of the Israelites, 250 leaders ¹⁹  of the community, chosen from the assembly, ²⁰  famous men. ²¹ 

Bilangan 16:6

16:6 Do this, Korah, you and all your company: ²²  Take censers,

Bilangan 16:41

16:41 But on the next day the whole community of Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord’s people!” ²³ 

Bilangan 20:4

20:4 Why ²⁴  have you brought up the Lord’s community into this wilderness? So that ²⁵  we and our cattle should die here?

Bilangan 21:28

21:28 For fire went out from Heshbon,

a flame from the city of Sihon.

It has consumed Ar of Moab

and the lords ²⁶  of the high places of Arnon.

Bilangan 22:17

22:17 For I will honor you greatly, ²⁷  and whatever you tell me I will do. So come, put a curse on this nation for me.’”

Bilangan 22:19

22:19 Now therefore, please stay ²⁸  the night here also, that I may know what more the Lord might say to me.” ²⁹ 

Bilangan 22:25

22:25 And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed herself into the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he beat her again. ³⁰ 

Bilangan 26:55

26:55 The land must be divided by lot; and they will inherit in accordance with the names of their ancestral tribes.

Bilangan 27:2

27:2 And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the leaders of the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said,

Bilangan 27:19

27:19 set him ³¹  before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission ³²  him publicly. ³³ 

[2:2]  ¹ tn Heb “a man by his own standard.”

[2:2]  ² tn The imperfect tense is to be taken in the nuance of instruction.

[2:2]  ³ tn Heb “of/for the house of their fathers.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew expression מִנֶּגֶד (minneged) means “from before” or “opposite; facing” and “at some distance” or “away from the front of” (see BDB 617 s.v. נֶגֶד 2.c.a; DCH 5:603-4 s.v. 3.b).

[2:2]  ⁵ sn The Israelites were camping as a military camp, each tribe with the standards and emblems of the family. The standard was the symbol fastened to the end of a pole and carried to battle. It served to rally the tribe to the battle. The Bible nowhere describes these, although the serpent emblem of Numbers 21:8-9 may give a clue. But they probably did not have shapes of animals in view of the prohibition in the Decalogue. The standards may have been smaller for the families than the ones for the tribes. See further K. A. Kitchen, “Some Egyptian Background to the Old Testament,” TynBul 5 (1960): 11; and T. W. Mann, Divine Presence and Guidance in Israelite Tradition, 169-73.

[3:8]  ⁶ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct (epexegetically) followed by its cognate accusative. It would convey “to serve the service of the tabernacle,” but more simply it may be rendered as “serving.” Their spiritual and practical service is to serve.

[3:8]  sn The Levites had the duty of taking care of all the tabernacle and its furnishings, especially in times when it was to be moved. But they were also appointed to be gate-keepers (2 Kgs 22:4; 1 Chr 9:19) in order to safeguard the purity of the place and the activities that went on there. Their offices seem to have then become hereditary in time (1 Sam 1:3); they even took on more priestly functions, such as pronouncing the benediction (Deut 10:8). See further R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 348-49.

[3:17]  ⁷ tn The word “sons of” does at the outset refer to the sons of Levi. But as the listing continues the expression refers more to the family groups of the various descendants.

[5:4]  ⁸ tn The perfect tense is here given a past perfect nuance to stress that the word of the Lord preceded the obedience.

[7:9]  ⁹ tn The verb is the imperfect tense, but it describes their customary activity – they had to carry, they used to carry.

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “upon them,” meaning “their duty.”

[10:36]  ¹¹ sn These two formulaic prayers were offered by Moses at the beginning and at the end of the journeys. They prayed for the Lord to fight ahead of the nation when it was on the move, and to protect them when they camped. The theme of the first is found in Ps 68:1. The prayers reflect the true mentality of holy war, that it was the Lord who fought for Israel and defended her. The prayers have been included in the prayer book for synagogue services.

[12:7]  ¹² sn The title “my servant” or “servant of the Lord” is reserved in the Bible for distinguished personages, people who are truly spiritual leaders, like Moses, David, Hezekiah, and also the Messiah. Here it underscores Moses’ obedience.

[12:7]  ¹³ tn The word “faithful” is נֶאֱמָן (ne’eman), the Niphal participle of the verb אָמַן (’aman). This basic word has the sense of “support, be firm.” In the Niphal it describes something that is firm, reliable, dependable – what can be counted on. It could actually be translated “trustworthy.”

[13:17]  ¹⁴ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next verb of the same formation to express a temporal clause.

[13:17]  ¹⁵ tn The instructions had them first go up into the southern desert of the land, and after passing through that, into the hill country of the Canaanites. The text could be rendered “into the Negev” as well as “through the Negev.”

[14:17]  ¹⁶ tc The form in the text is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay), the word that is usually used in place of the tetragrammaton. It is the plural form with the pronominal suffix, and so must refer to God.

[14:44]  ¹⁷ tn N. H. Snaith compares Arabic ’afala (“to swell”) and gafala (“reckless, headstrong”; Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 248). The wordעֹפֶל (’ofel) means a “rounded hill” or a “tumor.” The idea behind the verb may be that of “swelling,” and so “act presumptuously.”

[14:44]  ¹⁸ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) here introduces a circumstantial clause; the most appropriate one here would be the concessive “although.”

[16:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “princes” (so KJV, ASV).

[16:2]  ²⁰ tn These men must have been counselors or judges of some kind.

[16:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “men of name,” or “men of renown.”

[16:6]  ²² tn Heb “his congregation” or “his community.” The expression is unusual, but what it signifies is that Korah had set up a rival “Israel” with himself as leader.

[16:41]  ²³ sn The whole congregation here is trying to project its guilt on Moses and Aaron. It was they and their rebellion that brought about the deaths, not Moses and Aaron. The Lord had punished the sinners. The fact that the leaders had organized a rebellion against the Lord was forgotten by these people. The point here is that the Israelites had learned nothing of spiritual value from the event.

[20:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and why….” The conjunction seems to be recording another thing that the people said in their complaint against Moses.

[20:4]  ²⁵ tn The clause uses the infinitive construct with the lamed (ל) preposition. The clause would be a result clause in this sentence: “Why have you brought us here…with the result that we will all die?”

[21:28]  ²⁶ tc Some scholars emend to בָּלְעָה (bal’ah), reading “and devoured,” instead of בַּעֲלֵי (ba’aley, “its lords”); cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV. This emendation is closer to the Greek and makes a better parallelism, but the MT makes good sense as it stands.

[22:17]  ²⁷ tn The construction uses the Piel infinitive כַּבֵּד (kabbed) to intensify the verb, which is the Piel imperfect/cohortative אֲכַבֶּדְךָ (’akhabbedkha). The great honor could have been wealth, prestige, or position.

[22:19]  ²⁸ tn In this case “lodge” is not used, but “remain, reside” (שְׁבוּ, shÿvu).

[22:19]  ²⁹ tn This clause is also a verbal hendiadys: “what the Lord might add to speak,” meaning, “what more the Lord might say.”

[22:25]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he added to beat her,” another verbal hendiadys.

[27:19]  ³¹ tn This could be translated “position him,” or “have him stand,” since it is the causative stem of the verb “to stand.”

[27:19]  ³² tn The verb is the Piel perfect of צִוָּה (tsivvah, literally “to command”). The verb has a wide range of meanings, and so here in this context the idea of instructing gives way to a more general sense of commissioning for duty. The verb in sequence is equal to the imperfect of instruction.

[27:19]  ³³ tn Heb “in their eyes.”