Bilangan 1:2

1:2 “Take a census ¹  of the entire ²  Israelite community ³  by their clans and families, ⁴  counting the name of every individual male. ⁵ 

Bilangan 5:15

5:15 then ⁶  the man must bring his wife to the priest, and he must bring the offering required for her, one tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he must not pour olive oil on it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of suspicion, ⁷  a grain offering for remembering, ⁸  for bringing ⁹  iniquity to remembrance.

Bilangan 6:21

6:21 “This is the law ¹⁰  of the Nazirite who vows to the Lord his offering according to his separation, as well as whatever else he can provide. ¹¹  Thus he must fulfill ¹²  his vow that he makes, according to the law of his separation.”

Bilangan 7:12

The Tribal Offerings

7:12 The one who presented his offering on the first day was Nahshon son of Amminadab, from the tribe of Judah. ¹³ 

Bilangan 9:6

9:6 It happened that some men ¹⁴  who were ceremonially defiled ¹⁵  by the dead body of a man ¹⁶  could not keep ¹⁷  the Passover on that day, so they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day.

Bilangan 11:12

11:12 Did I conceive this entire people? ¹⁸  Did I give birth to ¹⁹  them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a foster father ²⁰  bears a nursing child,’ to the land which you swore to their fathers?

Bilangan 14:9

14:9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. ²¹  Their protection ²²  has turned aside from them, but the Lord is with us. Do not fear them!”

Bilangan 18:17

18:17 But you must not redeem the firstborn of a cow or a sheep or a goat; they are holy. You must splash ²³  their blood on the altar and burn their fat for an offering made by fire for a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

Bilangan 20:19

20:19 Then the Israelites said to him, “We will go along the highway, and if we ²⁴  or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else.”

Bilangan 22:18

22:18 Balaam replied ²⁵  to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment ²⁶  of the Lord my God ²⁷  to do less or more.

Bilangan 24:13

24:13 ‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ²⁸  the commandment ²⁹  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ³⁰  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

Bilangan 24:17

24:17 ‘I see him, but not now;

I behold him, but not close at hand. ³¹ 

A star ³²  will march forth ³³  out of Jacob,

and a scepter ³⁴  will rise out of Israel.

He will crush the skulls ³⁵  of Moab,

and the heads ³⁶  of all the sons of Sheth. ³⁷ 

Bilangan 26:5

Reuben

26:5 Reuben was the firstborn of Israel. The Reubenites: from ³⁸  Hanoch, the family of the Hanochites; from Pallu, the family of the Palluites;

Bilangan 27:1

Special Inheritance Laws

27:1 ³⁹ Then the daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh of the families of Manasseh, ⁴⁰  the son Joseph came forward. Now these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

Bilangan 29:12

The Feast of Temporary Shelters

29:12 “‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you are to have a holy assembly; you must do no ordinary work, and you must keep a festival to the Lord for seven days.

Bilangan 31:47

31:47 From the Israelites’ share Moses took one of every fifty people and animals and gave them to the Levites who were responsible for the care of the Lord’s tabernacle, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

Bilangan 33:54

33:54 You must divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families. To a larger group you must give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group you must give a smaller inheritance. Everyone’s inheritance must be in the place where his lot falls. You must inherit according to your ancestral ⁴¹  tribes.

Bilangan 35:21

35:21 or with enmity he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him.

Bilangan 35:33

35:33 “You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it.

[1:2]  ¹ tn The construction is literally “lift up the head[s],” (שְׂאוּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ, sÿ’u ’et-ro’sh). This idiom for taking a census occurs elsewhere (Exod 30:12; Lev 5:24; Num 1:24; etc.). The idea is simply that of counting heads to arrive at the base for the standing army. This is a different event than the one recorded in Exod 30:11-16, which was taken for a different purpose altogether. The verb is plural, indicating that Moses had help in taking the census.

[1:2]  ² tc Smr lacks the Hebrew word “all” here.

[1:2]  ³ tn Heb “the congregation of Israel.”

[1:2]  ⁴ tn The tribe (מַטֶּה, matteh or שֵׁבֶט, shevet) is the main category. The family groups or clans (מִשְׁפְּחֹת, mishpÿkhot) and the households or families (בֵּית אֲבֹת, bet ’avot) were sub-divisions of the tribe.

[1:2]  ⁵ tn This clause simply has “in/with the number of the names of every male with respect to their skulls [individually].” Counting heads, or every skull, simply meant that each person was to be numbered in the census. Except for the Levites, no male was exempt from the count.

[5:15]  ⁶ tn All the conditions have been laid down now for the instruction to begin – if all this happened, then this is the procedure to follow.

[5:15]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word is “jealousy,” which also would be an acceptable translation here. But since the connotation is that suspicion has been raised about the other person, “suspicion” seems to be a better rendering in this context.

[5:15]  ⁸ tn The word “remembering” is זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron); the meaning of the word here is not so much “memorial,” which would not communicate much, but the idea of bearing witness before God concerning the charges. The truth would come to light through this ritual, and so the attestation would stand. This memorial would bring the truth to light. It was a somber occasion, and so no sweet smelling additives were placed on the altar.

[5:15]  ⁹ tn The final verbal form, מַזְכֶּרֶת (mazkeret), explains what the memorial was all about – it was causing iniquity to be remembered.

[6:21]  ¹⁰ tn Actually, “law” here means a whole set of laws, the basic rulings on this topic.

[6:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “whatever else his hand is able to provide.” The imperfect tense has the nuance of potential imperfect – “whatever he can provide.”

[6:21]  ¹² tn Heb “according to the vow that he vows, so he must do.”

[7:12]  ¹³ sn The tribe of Judah is listed first. It seems that it had already achieved a place of prominence based on the patriarchal promise of the Messiahship in Judah (Gen 49:10).

[9:6]  ¹⁴ tn In the Hebrew text the noun has no definite article, and so it signifies “some” or “certain” men.

[9:6]  ¹⁵ tn The meaning, of course, is to be ceremonially unclean, and therefore disqualified from entering the sanctuary.

[9:6]  ¹⁶ tn Or “a human corpse” (so NAB, NKJV). So also in v.7; cf. v. 10.

[9:6]  ¹⁷ tn This clause begins with the vav (ו) conjunction and negative before the perfect tense. Here is the main verb of the sentence: They were not able to observe the Passover. The first part of the verse provides the explanation for their problem.

[11:12]  ¹⁸ sn The questions Moses asks are rhetorical. He is actually affirming that they are not his people, that he did not produce them, but now is to support them. His point is that God produced this nation, but has put the burden of caring for their needs on him.

[11:12]  ¹⁹ tn The verb means “to beget, give birth to.” The figurative image from procreation completes the parallel question, first the conceiving and second the giving birth to the nation.

[11:12]  ²⁰ tn The word אֹמֵן (’omen) is often translated “nurse,” but the form is a masculine form and would better be rendered as a “foster parent.” This does not work as well, though, with the יֹנֵק (yoneq), the “sucking child.” The two metaphors are simply designed to portray the duty of a parent to a child as a picture of Moses’ duty for the nation. The idea that it portrays God as a mother pushes it too far (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 86-87).

[14:9]  ²¹ sn The expression must indicate that they could destroy the enemies as easily as they could eat bread.

[14:9]  ²² tn Heb “their shade.” The figure compares the shade from the sun with the protection from the enemy. It is also possible that the text is alluding to their deities here.

[18:17]  ²³ tn Or “throw, toss.”

[20:19]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses singular pronouns, “I” and “my,” but it is the people of Israel that are intended, and so it may be rendered in the plural. Similarly, Edom speaks in the first person, probably from the king. But it too could be rendered “we.”

[22:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[22:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “mouth.”

[22:18]  ²⁷ sn In the light of subsequent events one should not take too seriously that Balaam referred to Yahweh as his God. He is referring properly to the deity for which he is acting as the agent.

[24:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”

[24:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “mouth.”

[24:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “from my heart.”

[24:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “near.”

[24:17]  ³² sn This is a figure for a king (see also Isa 14:12) not only in the Bible but in the ancient Near Eastern literature as a whole. The immediate reference of the prophecy seems to be to David, but the eschatological theme goes beyond him. There is to be a connection made between this passage and the sighting of a star in its ascendancy by the magi, who then traveled to Bethlehem to see the one born King of the Jews (Matt 2:2). The expression “son of a star” (Aram Bar Kochba) became a title for a later claimant to kingship, but he was doomed by the Romans in a.d. 135.

[24:17]  ³³ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it is equal to the imperfect expressing the future. The verb דָּרַךְ (darakh), related to the noun “way, road,” seems to mean something like tread on, walk, march.”

[24:17]  ³⁴ sn The “scepter” is metonymical for a king who will rise to power. NEB strangely rendered this as “comet” to make a parallel with “star.”

[24:17]  ³⁵ tn The word is literally “corners,” but may refer to the corners of the head, and so “skull.”

[24:17]  ³⁶ tc The MT reads “shatter, devastate.” Smr reads קֹדְקֹד (qodqod, “head; crown; pate”). Smr follows Jer 48:45 which appears to reflect Num 24:17.

[24:17]  ³⁷ sn The prophecy begins to be fulfilled when David defeated Moab and Edom and established an empire including them. But the Messianic promise extends far beyond that to the end of the age and the inclusion of these defeated people in the program of the coming King.

[26:5]  ³⁸ tc The Hebrew text has no preposition here, but one has been supplied in the translation for clarity. Cf. vv. 23, 30, 31, 32.

[27:1]  ³⁹ sn For additional information on this section, see N. H. Snaith, “The Daughters of Zelophehad,” VT 16 (1966): 124-27; and J. Weingreen, “The Case of the Daughters of Zelophehad,” VT 16 (1966): 518-22.

[27:1]  ⁴⁰ tc The phrase “of the families of Manasseh” is absent from the Latin Vulgate.

[33:54]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “of your fathers.”