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 2:17

The Tribe in the Center

2:17 “Then the tent of meeting with the camp of the Levites will travel in the middle of the camps. They will travel in the same order as they camped, each in his own place ³  under his standard.

Bilangan 3:10

3:10 So you are to appoint Aaron and his sons, and they will be responsible for their priesthood; ⁴  but the unauthorized person ⁵  who comes near must be put to death.”

Bilangan 4:27

4:27 “All the service of the Gershonites, whether ⁶  carrying loads ⁷  or for any of their work, will be at the direction of ⁸  Aaron and his sons. You will assign them all their tasks ⁹  as their responsibility.

Bilangan 4:34

Summary

4:34 So Moses and Aaron and the leaders of the community numbered the Kohathites by their families and by clans,

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 7:88

7:88 All the animals for the sacrifice for the peace offering were 24 young bulls, 60 rams, 60 male goats, and 60 lambs in their first year. These were the dedication offerings for the altar after it was anointed. ¹⁰ 

Bilangan 8:20

8:20 So Moses and Aaron and the entire community of the Israelites did this with the Levites. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, this is what the Israelites did with them.

Bilangan 8:22

8:22 After this, the Levites went in to do their work in the tent of meeting before Aaron and before his sons. As the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did.

Bilangan 11:4

Complaints about Food

11:4 ¹¹ Now the mixed multitude ¹²  who were among them craved more desirable foods, ¹³  and so the Israelites wept again ¹⁴  and said, “If only we had meat to eat! ¹⁵ 

Bilangan 11:10-11

Moses’ Complaint to the Lord

11:10 ¹⁶ Moses heard the people weeping ¹⁷  throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and when the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly, Moses was also displeased. ¹⁸  11:11 And Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you afflicted ¹⁹  your servant? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that ²⁰  you lay the burden of this entire people on me?

Bilangan 11:19

11:19 You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,

Bilangan 11:22

11:22 Would they have enough if the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?”

Bilangan 11:33

11:33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before they chewed it, ²¹  the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.

Bilangan 12:6

12:6 The Lord ²²  said, “Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, ²³  I the Lord ²⁴  will make myself known to him in a vision; I will speak with him in a dream.

Bilangan 13:27

13:27 They told Moses, ²⁵  “We went to the land where you sent us. ²⁶  It is indeed flowing with milk and honey, ²⁷  and this is its fruit.

Bilangan 14:29

14:29 Your dead bodies ²⁸  will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.

Bilangan 15:24

15:24 then if anything is done unintentionally ²⁹  without the knowledge of ³⁰  the community, the whole community must prepare one young bull for a burnt offering – for a pleasing aroma to the Lord – along with its grain offering and its customary drink offering, and one male goat for a purification offering.

Bilangan 15:36

15:36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, ³¹  just as the Lord commanded Moses.

Bilangan 16:22

16:22 Then they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground ³²  and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all people, ³³  will you be angry with the whole community when only one man sins?” ³⁴ 

Bilangan 17:6

17:6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, ³⁵  according to their tribes ³⁶  – twelve staffs; the staff of Aaron was among their staffs.

Bilangan 18:20

Duties of the Levites

18:20 The Lord spoke to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion of property ³⁷  among them – I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.

Bilangan 20:11

20:11 Then Moses raised his hand, and struck the rock twice with his staff. And water came out abundantly. So the community drank, and their beasts drank too.

Bilangan 21:35

21:35 So they defeated Og, ³⁸  his sons, and all his people, until there were no survivors, ³⁹  and they possessed his land.

Bilangan 22:30

22:30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am not I your donkey that you have ridden ever since I was yours until this day? Have I ever attempted ⁴⁰  to treat you this way?” ⁴¹  And he said, “No.”

Bilangan 22:32

22:32 The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Look, I came out to oppose you because what you are doing ⁴²  is perverse before me. ⁴³ 

Bilangan 26:3

26:3 So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan River ⁴⁴  across from Jericho. ⁴⁵  They said,

Bilangan 30:3

Vows Made by Single Women

30:3 “If a young ⁴⁶  woman who is still living ⁴⁷  in her father’s house makes a vow to the Lord or places herself under an obligation,

Bilangan 30:11

30:11 and her husband heard about it, but remained silent about her, and did not overrule her, then all her vows will stand, and every obligation which she pledged for herself will stand.

Bilangan 31:8

31:8 They killed the kings of Midian in addition to those slain – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – five Midianite kings. ⁴⁸  They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. ⁴⁹ 

Bilangan 31:16

31:16 Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord!

Bilangan 32:19

32:19 For we will not accept any inheritance on the other side of the Jordan River ⁵⁰  and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this eastern side of the Jordan.”

Bilangan 35:16

35:16 “But if he hits someone with an iron tool so that he dies, ⁵¹  he is a murderer. The murderer must surely be put to death.

Bilangan 35:30

35:30 “Whoever kills any person, the murderer must be put to death by the testimony ⁵²  of witnesses; but one witness cannot ⁵³  testify against any person to cause him to be put to death.

[1:53]  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.

[1:53]  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.

[1:53]  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.

[2:17]  ³ tn The Hebrew expression is עַל־יָדוֹ (’al-yado, “upon his hand”). This clearly refers to a specifically designated place for each man.

[3:10]  ⁴ tc The LXX includes the following words here: “and all things pertaining to the altar and within the veil.” Cf. Num 18:7.

[3:10]  ⁵ tn The word is זָר (zar), usually rendered “stranger, foreigner, pagan.” But in this context it simply refers to anyone who is not a Levite or a priest, an unauthorized person or intruder in the tabernacle. That person would be put to death.

[4:27]  ⁶ tn The term “whether” is supplied to introduce the enumerated parts of the explanatory phrase.

[4:27]  ⁷ tn Here again is the use of the noun “burden” in the sense of the loads they were to carry (see the use of carts in Num 7:7).

[4:27]  ⁸ tn The expression is literally “upon/at the mouth of” (עַל־פִּי, ’al-pi); it means that the work of these men would be under the direct orders of Aaron and his sons.

[4:27]  ⁹ tn Or “burden.”

[7:88]  ¹⁰ sn Even though the chapter seems wearisome and repetitious to the modern reader, it is a significant document. A. Rainey shows how it matches the exact ledgers of ancient sanctuaries (see ZPEB 5:202). The recording would have been done by the priestly scribes. Of the many points that can be observed here, it should not be missed that each tribe, regardless of its size or relative importance, was on equal footing before the Lord. Each tribe shared in the work of the Lord equally. Each tribe approached the sanctuary in precisely the same way on this memorable occasion. All such devotion to the work of the Lord was to receive the blessing of God.

[11:4]  ¹¹ sn The story of the sending of the quail is a good example of poetic justice, or talionic justice. God had provided for the people, but even in that provision they were not satisfied, for they remembered other foods they had in Egypt. No doubt there was not the variety of foods in the Sinai that might have been available in Egypt, but their life had been bitter bondage there as well. They had cried to the Lord for salvation, but now they forget, as they remember things they used to have. God will give them what they crave, but it will not do for them what they desire. For more information on this story, see B. J. Malina, The Palestinian Manna Tradition. For the attempt to explain manna and the other foods by natural phenomena, see F. W. Bodenheimer, “The Manna of Sinai,” BA 10 (1947): 1-6.

[11:4]  ¹² tn The mixed multitude (or “rabble,” so NASB, NIV, NRSV; NLT “foreign rabble”) is the translation of an unusual word, הֲָאסַפְסֻף (ha’safsuf). It occurs in the Hebrew Bible only here. It may mean “a gathering of people” from the verb אָסַף (’asaf), yielding the idea of a mixed multitude (in line with Exod 12:38). But the root is different, and so no clear connection can be established. Many commentators therefore think the word is stronger, showing contempt through a word that would be equivalent to “riff-raff.”

[11:4]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew simply uses the cognate accusative, saying “they craved a craving” (הִתְאַוּוּ תַּאֲוָה, hit’avvu ta’vah), but the context shows that they had this strong craving for food. The verb describes a strong desire, which is not always negative (Ps 132:13-14). But the word is a significant one in the Torah; it was used in the garden story for Eve’s desire for the tree, and it is used in the Decalogue in the warning against coveting (Deut 5:21).

[11:4]  ¹⁴ tc The Greek and the Latin versions read “and they sat down” for “and they returned,” involving just a change in vocalization (which they did not have). This may reflect the same expression in Judg 20:26. But the change does not improve this verse.

[11:4]  tn The Hebrew text uses a verbal hendiadys here, one word serving as an adverb for the other. It literally reads “and they returned and they wept,” which means they wept again. Here the weeping is put for the complaint, showing how emotionally stirred up the people had become by the craving. The words throughout here are metonymies. The craving is a metonymy of cause, for it would have then led to expressions (otherwise the desires would not have been known). And the weeping is either a metonymy of effect, or of adjunct, for the actual complaints follow.

[11:4]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew expresses the strong wish or longing idiomatically: “Who will give us flesh to eat?” It is a rhetorical expression not intended to be taken literally, but merely to give expression to the longing they had. See GKC 476 §151.a.1.

[11:10]  ¹⁶ sn Moses begins to feel the burden of caring for this people, a stubborn and rebellious people. His complaint shows how contagious their complaining has been. It is one thing to cry out to God about the load of ministry, but it is quite another to do it in such a way as to reflect a lack of faith in God’s provision. God has to remind the leader Moses that he, the Lord, can do anything. This is a variation on the theme from Exodus – “who am I that I should lead….”

[11:10]  ¹⁷ tn The participle “weeping” is functioning here as the noun in the accusative case, an adverbial accusative of state. It is explicative of the object.

[11:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “it was evil in the eyes of Moses.”

[11:11]  ¹⁹ tn The verb is the Hiphil of רָעַע (ra’a’, “to be evil”). Moses laments (with the rhetorical question) that God seems to have caused him evil.

[11:11]  ²⁰ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition is expressing the result of not finding favor with God (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 12-13, §57). What Moses is claiming is that because he has been given this burden God did not show him favor.

[11:33]  ²¹ tn The verb is a prefixed conjugation, normally an imperfect tense. But coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem) it is treated as a preterite.

[12:6]  ²² tn Heb “he.”

[12:6]  ²³ tn The form of this construction is rare: נְבִיאֲכֶם (nÿvi’akhem) would normally be rendered “your prophet.” The singular noun is suffixed with a plural pronominal suffix. Some commentators think the MT has condensed “a prophet” with “to you.”

[12:6]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew syntax is difficult here. “The Lord” is separated from the verb by two intervening prepositional phrases. Some scholars conclude that this word belongs with the verb at the beginning of v. 6 (“And the Lord spoke”).

[13:27]  ²⁵ tn Heb “told him and said.” The referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:27]  ²⁶ tn The relative clause modifies “the land.” It is constructed with the relative and the verb: “where you sent us.”

[13:27]  ²⁷ sn This is the common expression for the material abundance of the land (see further, F. C. Fensham, “An Ancient Tradition of the Fertility of Palestine,” PEQ 98 [1966]: 166-67).

[14:29]  ²⁸ tn Or “your corpses” (also in vv. 32, 33).

[15:24]  ²⁹ tn The idea of לִשְׁגָגָה (lishgagah) seems to be that of “inadvertence” or “without intent.” The text gives no indication of how this offense might be committed, or what it might include. It probably describes any transgressions done in ignorance of the Law that involved a violation of tabernacle procedure or priestly protocol or social misdemeanor. Even though it was done unintentionally, it was still a violation and called for ritual purification.

[15:24]  ³⁰ tn Heb “[away] from the eyes of the community.”

[15:36]  ³¹ tn Heb “stoned him with stones, and he died.”

[16:22]  ³² sn It is Moses and Aaron who prostrate themselves; they have the good of the people at heart.

[16:22]  ³³ tn The expression “the God of the spirits of all humanity [flesh]” is somewhat difficult. The Hebrew text says אֱלֹהֵי הָרוּחֹת לְכָל־בָּשָׂר (’elohey harukhot lÿkhol-basar). This expression occurs in Num 27:16 again. It also occurs in some postbiblical texts, a fact which has prompted some scholars to conclude that it is a late addition. The words clearly show that Moses is interceding for the congregation. The appeal in the verse is that it is better for one man to die for the whole nation than the whole nation for one man (see also John 11:50).

[16:22]  ³⁴ tn The verb is the Qal imperfect יֶחֱטָא (yekheta’); it refers to the sinful rebellion of Korah, but Moses is stating something of a principle: “One man sins, and will you be angry….” A past tense translation would assume that this is a preterite use of the imperfect (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[17:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “a rod for one leader, a rod for one leader.”

[17:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

[18:20]  ³⁷ tn The phrase “of property” is supplied as a clarification.

[21:35]  ³⁸ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Og) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:35]  ³⁹ tn Heb “no remnant.”

[22:30]  ⁴⁰ tn Here the Hiphil perfect is preceded by the Hiphil infinitive absolute for emphasis in the sentence.

[22:30]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “to do thus to you.”

[22:32]  ⁴² tn Heb “your way.”

[22:32]  ⁴³ tn The verb יָרַט (yarat) occurs only here and in Job 16:11. Balaam is embarking on a foolish mission with base motives. The old rendering “perverse” is still acceptable.

[26:3]  ⁴⁴ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity (also in v. 62).

[26:3]  ⁴⁵ map For the location of Jericho see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[30:3]  ⁴⁶ tn The qualification comes at the end of the verse, and simply says “in her youth.”

[30:3]  ⁴⁷ tn The Hebrew text just has “in her father’s house” and not “who is still living,” but that is the meaning of the line.

[31:8]  ⁴⁸ sn Here again we see that there was no unified empire, but Midianite tribal groups.

[31:8]  ⁴⁹ sn And what was Balaam doing among the Midianites? The implication is strong. This pagan diviner had to submit to the revealed will of God in the oracles, but he nonetheless could be hired. He had been a part of the attempt to destroy Israel that failed; he then apparently became part of the plan, if not the adviser, to destroy them with sexual immorality and pagan ritual.

[32:19]  ⁵⁰ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[35:16]  ⁵¹ tn the verb is the preterite of “die.” The sentence has :“if…he strikes him and he dies.” The vav (ו) consecutive is showing the natural result of the blow.

[35:30]  ⁵² tn Heb “ at the mouth of”; the metonymy stresses it is at their report.

[35:30]  ⁵³ tn The verb should be given the nuance of imperfect of potentiality.