Bilangan 5:8

5:8 But if the individual has no close relative ¹  to whom reparation can be made for the wrong, the reparation for the wrong must be paid to the Lord ²  for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for him.

Bilangan 12:3

12:3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, ³  more so than any man on the face of the earth.)

Bilangan 16:30

16:30 But if the Lord does something entirely new, ⁴  and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up ⁵  along with all that they have, and they ⁶  go down alive to the grave, ⁷  then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

Bilangan 16:33

16:33 They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community.

Bilangan 20:24

20:24 “Aaron will be gathered to his ancestors, ⁸  for he will not enter into the land I have given to the Israelites because both of you ⁹  rebelled against my word ¹⁰  at the waters of Meribah.

Bilangan 24:20

Balaam’s Final Prophecies

24:20 Then Balaam ¹¹  looked on Amalek and delivered this oracle: ¹² 

“Amalek was the first ¹³  of the nations,

but his end will be that he will perish.”

Bilangan 31:1

The Midianite War

31:1 ¹⁴ The Lord spoke to Moses:

Bilangan 33:38

33:38 Aaron the priest ascended Mount Hor at the command ¹⁵  of the Lord, and he died there in the fortieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt on the first day of the fifth month.

Bilangan 35:25

35:25 The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there ¹⁶  until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil.

[5:8]  ¹ sn For more information on the word, see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of גאל,” VTSup 1 (1953): 67-77.

[5:8]  ² tc The editors of BHS prefer to follow the Greek, Syriac, and Latin and not read “for the Lord” here, but read a form of the verb “to be” instead. But the text makes more sense as it stands: The payment is to be made to the Lord for the benefit of the priests.

[12:3]  ³ tc The spelling of the word is a Kethib-Qere reading with only a slight difference between the two.

[12:3]  tn The word עָנָו (’anav) means “humble.” The word may reflect a trustful attitude (as in Pss 25:9, 37:11), but perhaps here the idea of “more tolerant” or “long-suffering.” The point is that Moses is not self-assertive. God singled out Moses and used him in such a way as to show that he was a unique leader. For a suggestion that the word means “miserable,” see C. Rogers, “Moses: Meek or Miserable?” JETS 29 (1986): 257-63.

[12:3]  sn Humility is a quality missing today in many leaders. Far too many are self-promoting, or competitive, or even pompous. The statement in this passage would have been difficult for Moses to write – and indeed, it is not impossible that an editor might have added it. One might think that for someone to claim to be humble is an arrogant act. But the statement is one of fact – he was not self-assertive (until Num 20 when he strikes the rock).

[16:30]  ⁴ tn The verb בָּרָא (bara’) is normally translated “create” in the Bible. More specifically it means to fashion or make or do something new and fresh. Here the verb is joined with its cognate accusative to underscore that this will be so different everyone will know it is of God.

[16:30]  ⁵ tn The figures are personifications. But they vividly describe the catastrophe to follow – which was very much like a mouth swallowing them.

[16:30]  ⁶ tn The word is “life” or “lifetime”; it certainly means their lives – they themselves. But the presence of this word suggest more. It is an accusative specifying the state of the subject – they will go down alive to Sheol.

[16:30]  ⁷ tn The word “Sheol” in the Bible can be used four different ways: the grave, the realm of the departed [wicked] spirits or Hell, death in general, or a place of extreme danger (one that will lead to the grave if God does not intervene). The usage here is certainly the first, and very likely the second as well. A translation of “pit” would not be inappropriate. Since they will go down there alive, it is likely that they will sense the deprivation and the separation from the land above. See H. W. Robinson, Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament; N. J. Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Netherworld in the Old Testament (BibOr 21), 21-23; and A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic, especially ch. 3.

[20:24]  ⁸ sn This is the standard poetic expression for death. The bones would be buried, often with the bones of relatives in the same tomb, giving rise to the expression.

[20:24]  ⁹ tn The verb is in the second person plural form, and so it is Moses and Aaron who rebelled, and so now because of that Aaron first and then Moses would die without going into the land.

[20:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “mouth.”

[24:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:20]  ¹² tn Heb “and he lifted up his oracle and said.” So also in vv. 21, 23.

[24:20]  ¹³ sn This probably means that it held first place, or it thought that it was “the first of the nations.” It was not the first, either in order or greatness.

[31:1]  ¹⁴ sn This lengthy chapter records the mobilization of the troops (vv. 1-5), the war itself (vv. 6-13), the death of the captive women (vv. 14-18), the purification of the nations (vv. 19-24), and the distribution of the spoils (vv. 25-54). For more detail, see G. W. Coats, “Moses in Midian,” JBL 92 (1973): 3-10; and W. J. Dumbrell, “Midian – a Land or a League?” VT 25 (1975): 323-37.

[33:38]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “mouth.”

[35:25]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in it.”