Bilangan 10:2

10:2 “Make ¹  two trumpets of silver; you are to make ²  them from a single hammered piece. ³  You will use them ⁴  for assembling the community and for directing the traveling of the camps.

Bilangan 14:7

14:7 They said to the whole community of the Israelites, “The land we passed through to investigate is an exceedingly ⁵  good land.

Bilangan 31:21

31:21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone into the battle, “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded Moses:

Bilangan 31:49

31:49 and said to him, ⁶  “Your servants have taken a count ⁷  of the men who were in the battle, who were under our authority, ⁸  and not one is missing.

Bilangan 33:41

33:41 They traveled from Mount Hor and camped in Zalmonah.

[10:2]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text uses what is called the “ethical dative” – “make [for] you two trumpets.” It need not be translated, but can simply be taken to underscore the direct imperative.

[10:2]  ² tn The imperfect tense is again instruction or legislation.

[10:2]  ³ sn The instructions are not clearly spelled out here. But the trumpets were to be made of silver ingots beaten out into a sheet of silver and then bent to form a trumpet. There is archaeological evidence of silver smelting as early as 3000 b.c. Making silver trumpets would have been a fairly easy thing for the Israelites to do. The trumpet would have been straight, with a tapered form, very unlike the “ram’s horn” (שׁוֹפָר, shofar). The trumpets were used by the priests in Israel from the outset, but later were used more widely. The sound would be sharp and piercing, but limited in scope to a few notes. See further C. Sachs, The History of Musical Instruments.

[10:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they shall be for you for assembling,” which is the way of expressing possession. Here the intent concerns how Moses was to use them.

[14:7]  ⁵ tn The repetition of the adverb מְאֹד (mÿ’od) is used to express this: “very, very [good].”

[31:49]  ⁶ tn Heb “to Moses”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:49]  ⁷ tn Heb “lifted up the head.”

[31:49]  ⁸ tn Heb “in our hand.”