Bilangan 1:47

The Exemption of the Levites

1:47 But ¹  the Levites, according to the tribe of their fathers, ²  were not numbered ³  among them.

Bilangan 2:2

2:2 “Every one ⁴  of the Israelites must camp ⁵  under his standard with the emblems of his family; ⁶  they must camp at some distance ⁷  around the tent of meeting. ⁸ 

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 ⁹  in the tabernacle.

Bilangan 4:10

4:10 Then they must put it with all its utensils in a covering of fine leather, and put it on a carrying beam. ¹⁰ 

Bilangan 4:31

4:31 This is what they are responsible to carry as their entire service in the tent of meeting: the frames ¹¹  of the tabernacle, its crossbars, its posts, its sockets,

Bilangan 4:33

4:33 This is the service of the families of the Merarites, their entire service concerning the tent of meeting, under the authority of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.”

Bilangan 4:46

4:46 All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel numbered by their families and by their clans,

Bilangan 8:9

8:9 You are to bring the Levites before the tent of meeting and assemble the entire community of the Israelites.

Bilangan 14:7

14:7 They said to the whole community of the Israelites, “The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly ¹²  good land.

Bilangan 14:15

14:15 If you kill ¹³  this entire people at once, ¹⁴  then the nations that have heard of your fame will say,

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!” ¹⁵ 

Bilangan 17:9

17:9 So Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites. They looked at them, ¹⁶  and each man took his staff.

Bilangan 18:29

18:29 From all your gifts you must offer up every raised offering due ¹⁷  the Lord, from all the best of it, and the holiest part of it.’ ¹⁸ 

Bilangan 19:5

19:5 Then the heifer must be burned ¹⁹  in his sight – its skin, its flesh, its blood, and its offal is to be burned. ²⁰ 

Bilangan 20:27

20:27 So Moses did as the Lord commanded; and they went up Mount Hor in the sight ²¹  of the whole community.

Bilangan 22:2

22:2 Balak son of Zippor saw all that the Israelites had done to the Amorites.

Bilangan 24:18

24:18 Edom will be a possession,

Seir, ²²  his enemies, will also be a possession;

but Israel will act valiantly.

Bilangan 27:19

27:19 set him ²³  before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community, and commission ²⁴  him publicly. ²⁵ 

Bilangan 31:5

31:5 So a thousand from every tribe, twelve thousand armed for battle in all, were provided out of the thousands of Israel.

Bilangan 31:41

31:41 So Moses gave the tribute, which was the Lord’s raised offering, to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Bilangan 32:3

32:3 “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, ²⁶  Nebo, and Beon, ²⁷ 

Bilangan 35:7

35:7 “So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands.

[1:47]  ¹ tn The vav (ו) on this word indicates a disjunction with the previous sequence of reports. It may be taken as a contrastive clause, translated “but” or “however.”

[1:47]  ² tn The construction is unexpected, for Levites would be from the tribe of Levi. The note seems more likely to express that all these people were organized by tribal lineage, and so too the Levites, according to the tribe of their fathers – individual families of Levites.

[1:47]  ³ tc The form in the text is הָתְפָּקְדוּ (hotpaqÿdu); if this is correct, then it is an isolated instance of the reflexive of the Qal of פָּקַד (paqad). Some, however, explain the form as the Hitpael without the doubling of the middle letter and with a compensatory lengthening of the vowel before it (G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 10).

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “a man by his own standard.”

[2:2]  ⁵ tn The imperfect tense is to be taken in the nuance of instruction.

[2:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “of/for the house of their fathers.”

[2:2]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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.

[4:10]  ¹⁰ tn The “pole” or “bar” (מוֹט, mot) is of a different style than the poles used for transporting the ark. It seems to be a flexible bar carried by two men with the implements being transported tied to the bar. The NEB suggests the items were put in a bag and slung over the bar, but there is no indication of the manner.

[4:31]  ¹¹ sn More recent studies have concluded that these “boards” were made of two long uprights joined by cross-bars (like a ladder). They were frames rather than boards, meaning that the structure under the tent was not a solid building. It also meant that the “boards” would have been lighter to carry.

[14:7]  ¹² tn The repetition of the adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od) is used to express this: “very, very [good].”

[14:15]  ¹³ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of מוּת (mut), וְהֵמַתָּה (vÿhemattah). The vav (ו) consecutive makes this also a future time sequence verb, but again in a conditional clause.

[14:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “as one man.”

[16:41]  ¹⁵ 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.

[17:9]  ¹⁶ tn The words “at them” are not in the Hebrew text, but they have been added in the translation for clarity.

[18:29]  ¹⁷ tn The construction is “every raised offering of the Lord”; the genitive here is probably to be taken as a genitive of worth – the offering that is due the Lord.

[18:29]  ¹⁸ tn Or “its hallowed thing.”

[19:5]  ¹⁹ tn Again, the verb has no expressed subject, and so is given a passive translation.

[19:5]  ²⁰ tn The imperfect tense is third masculine singular, and so again the verb is to be made passive.

[20:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “eyes.”

[24:18]  ²² sn Seir is the chief mountain range of Edom (Deut 33:2), and so the reference here is to the general area of Edom.

[27:19]  ²³ tn This could be translated “position him,” or “have him stand,” since it is the causative stem of the verb “to stand.”

[27:19]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in their eyes.”

[32:3]  ²⁶ tc Smr and the LXX have Sibmah. Cf. v. 38.

[32:3]  ²⁷ tn Cf. Baal-meon in v. 38.